Rotary Club of Rochester
Incorporated No: A0021076T
Chartered 24th October 1964
Charter No. 18342
Thursday – 6.00pm for 6.30pm
Apologies & Guests to Russell Anderson by Mid-day Thursday
Russell’s email is: suttoncourt@bigpond.com.au
Meeting Venue: Rochester Wine Bar
Volume 50 Bulletin 24 11th December 2014
Next Meeting: 18th December Christmas Dinner. The bus will depart the Railway Station car park @ 6.00pm.
Pres. Noel welcomed Rotarians Graeme Nelson, Stewart McDonald, Noel Schier,Russell Anderson and Guest Speaker Darren Pain. Rotary Partners welcomed were Pam McDonald, Jeanette Nelson and Robyn Lucas.
Apologies: Ray Lewis, Bryan Griffiths and Heather Watson who continues her World Of Difference experience in Cambodia. As Russell was an unexpected apology last week it was interesting to hear of the successful outcome of his eye surgery.
Heather sends this 11th December update: Monday we travelled 4 hours from Siem Reap to Battambang. Before leaving, Meg, Belinda, Monique and I squashed into a tuk tuk with 4 huge bags of donations for the local hospital. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see anything of the hospital, so hope to visit the maternal health centre in Kampong Speu. The trip to Battambang took us past rice paddys, small and larger villages -same same but different. We had one toilet stop about half way. Rithy decided to hand out lunch on the bus about 10 minutes from the hotel. It would have been so much nicer to have lunch by the pool at the hotel.
After settling into our rooms we travelled by tuk tuk to ride the bamboo train. How exhilarating to be sitting on the bamboo flatbed, travelling at reasonable speed, with the wind rushing through your hair. At the end of the line is a small village. Here the children fashion grasshoppers from the leaves of the bamboo for the tourists. They also sell knotted friendship bracelets -from 1 for a $1 up to 6 for a $1. Bargaining is the norm. This is a source of income for the family. The women have stalls selling food and drinks, scarves, sarongs, t-shirts, other simple type clothing and other knick-knacks. Although it is a woman who runs the brickworks, it is the men and children who do most of the manual labour such as digging the clay, loading the kiln and stacking the bricks. This area is also noted for agriculture – rice and fruit crops.
Back In town we visited the Battambang Circus – Cirque Nouveau. disadvantaged and vulnerable children and young people are trained in the art of circus skills – acrobatics, clowning, unicycling and juggling. The musicians are also trained at the centre. You might like to see them perform on YouTube. They gave an amazing performance. Tuesday we spent 6 hours travelling to Phnom Penh.
Today we travelled by bus to the FLOW Orphanage (Future Light Orphanage of Worldmate) – a well run, well resourced orphanage for more than 200 children from the very young to university students. Nuon Phaly, a survivor of the Killing Fields founded this orphanage which is supported by several Japanese Rotary Clubs. The students attend government school during the day and in the evening English and computers. They are also taught life skills to help them become responsible citizens when they leave the orphanage. We spent time with some of the children conducting dental hygiene, art and English sessions. The students also learn traditional dance and music and gave us a small dance performance.
Tomorrow we will visit S21, Toul Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Field ( Choeung Ek). We will then visit CCASVA, a centre run by Peter Gray, for the people from the slums who have been displaced by the tourism development in Phnom Penh. Then it’s off to the Russian Market for the girls to continue their shopping!!!
International: Stewart brought to our attention some of the activities of the District International Service Committee which included support for ROMAC, Interplast and DIK. Donations In Kind goes back 50 years when Australian Rotarians began hands-on projects overseas and it became obvious that surplus material in Australia would be very valuable. It is part of Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS), a group that assists with practical projects in developing countries
PP Stewart provided interesting activity statistics of the West Footscray Stores. This year 30, 46 x 20ft containers were consigned, value $3.2+ million with freight costs of $166,548. Volunteers; Rotarians and members of the public contributed 10,898 hours.
Stewart also informed us that the International Fellowship of Motorbiking Rotarians is one of the 58 International Fellowships you can see at the website <rotary.org>. Meals on Wheels: A roster has been arranged for the commencement on the 29th December.
We are most fortunate that our club has strong community volunteer support particularly during long holiday periods as is the case with the Christmas New Year period.
My Opinion: It was fitting that in December, the Family of Rotary Month, Stewart’s topic was one that is very close to his heart, ‘My Family’. Stewart introduced his listeners to his 4 brothers, 5 sisters, their spouses, children and grandchildren.
Youth Service: As applications open early in the school year, information regarding the Adventures in Citizenship has been passed to Matthew Callaway, senior level coordinator at RSC.
Club Red: A group will be leaving for Bendigo at 9.00am on Tuesday, 16th December. Do you know of anyone who may be interested?
Court House: Pres. Noel has spent several hours over the past week filling wall cracks, sanding down walls and sanding off the skirting-board filling in preparation for painting. This work goes towards our contribution that made up the original submission for funding from Heritage Victoria.
Guest Speaker: Darren Pain, the proprietor of SportsPower, took us through his several career changes from apprentice panel beater, his 3 years at Humes, as tanker driver at Murray Goulburn to purchasing SportPower three & a half years ago. As a school boy growing up in Rochester, Darren had always been involved in various sporting teams, the highlight of which was playing in and winning the Grand Final of the HeraldSun Cup, played that year at AFL Headquarters at Waverley. Darren has always enjoyed meeting people and with management and business kills learnt through his previous employment, he was keen to take on a new challenge. With wife Amber, Darren has seen his business grow steadily.
They sponsor numerous sporting teams throughout the district from Rochester, Lockington, Elmore and Colbinabbin which in turn supports them when acquiring new equipment. The internet plays a big part in retail life in these times and Darren makes positive use of it to attract and assist customers. With three young children, Darren is actively involved in children’s sports, school activities and for several years has been Treasurer of the Primary School Council. He is a member of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce and recently has taken up tennis and cycling.