President’s Annual Report.
As Malcolm said, “Life wasn’t meant to be easy”. Rotary has made a difference this year thanks to the efforts of the Rotary members and our wonderful friends of Rotary. We welcomed Kerry Burge, Chris Barry and Meg Dunn to our fellowship.
Bob Flowers with the support of our members provided a wide and varied range of guest speakers from local and beyond. The fires affected our social night but didn’t dampen our spirits. Thanks David and Gay Strongman for their wonderful effort. The football and golf challenges with Seymour Rotary were entertaining. COVID-19 put a stop to our regular meetings which was a pity but kept everyone safe.
Pam Thompson, Vera Bassett and Melinda Jackson did a wonderful job producing jam which was sold in the local cafes to raise funds for our youth projects.
Our efforts with fire relief made a contribution especially with the efforts of Anne Reid and our fire committee. We not only donated money but some of our members helped in other ways. David Dimech and Cinamon Cunningham worked as CFA volunteers during the fires. Cinamon also organised an outstanding show at the Fawcett Hall that a number of our members attended. John and Gaby Cannon went with Anne to the Corryong schools to provide support and distribute relief. Anne’s role in the North East included, meeting with local Rotary Clubs and cooking for farmers meetings. She travelled to Corryong, Cudgewa, Jingellic, Mt Alfred, Biggara and Wodonga, and has spent many days away from home. Ian Gibb as well as leading of fire relief committee did regular stints rebuilding fences in the fire ravished areas.
Community service led by David Dimech achieved a great deal with support of our members and Friends of Rotary. Some of the highlights were helping with the Beanie Festival, ELF day, Open Gardens, Hat Day, The Alex Show, the Rodeo, Carols, Australia Day and Music in Rotary Park. Disappointing that due to COVID-19 with its safety measures the Art Show, Cycle Dindi, the Mothers’ Day Classic, the mock job interviews and the Queen’s Birthday Truck and Ute Show were cancelled. Thanks to all those who devoted a great deal of time and effort to organising all these events, hopefully the next Rotary year will return to normal.
Wood supplies to Legacy widows and those in need were led by Ian Gibb with support John Turner, Chris Barry, Melinda Jackson, Helen Gibb and Chris Jackson to name a few. Over 50 trailers or 80 cubic metres were delivered to 15 households. Thanks to Sharon Fox for allowing us to collect to wood from her property.
Free Music in Rotary Park was an outstanding success due to the organisation by Noel McIlwraith with Joe and Pam Talia. To experience live music in the open air was wonderful. This event gave us all an opportunity to see the new gazebos. These having the Rotary logo highlighted our involvement in community events. Thanks to Rob Chaffe for organising the grant and their purchase and delivery.
Debbie Skinner organised a day to assemble the birthing kits at Alexandra Community Health. Birthing Kits are a simple and effective tool for basic infection prevention and first-line childbirth care. Birthing kits were a good idea although more difficult than imagined. Forcing a collection of plastic sheet, gloves, scalpel etc into a tiny bag and then fitting one hundred of these into a small box was quite a challenge! $100 per Rotarian is devoted to International projects such as polio and malaria eradication, clean water, disaster relief and peace initiatives.
Rotary School Awards Night was well attended. A large and happy gathering for Rotarians, students, teachers and parents alike. This is a wonderful event recognising the efforts and achievements on student for our primary school and Secondary College.
President Elect Emily Marr moved Castlemaine due to a job opportunity. Emily had been a valuable member of our Club and a wonderful part of the Art Show team. She was International and Foundation Director and also was involved with Venturers. Thanks to Helen Gibb for taking on the position of President in the Rotary Year 2020/2021.
I wish thank the board for their outstanding effort throughout the Rotary year and Helen Gibb all the best as President in the coming Rotary year.
Yours in Rotary
Tom Farrell
