Don’t forget:
Apologies/Guests to Rtn Joe by Midday Thursday. Joe’s email is: mary.flynn4@bigpond.com
Meeting Venue: Rochester Wine Bar
President Heather welcomed Rotarians Russell Anderson, Graeme Nelson, Bryan Griffiths, Noel Lucas, Ray Lewis, Joe Flynn and Stewart McDonald, guests, Robert Edgar Rotary Club of Frankston North, Pam McDonald, Robyn Lucas and Jeanette Nelson. We missed the company of Noel Schier Grace was said by Stewart McDonald and the Toast proposed by Russell Anderson.
Australia Day: Secretary Bryan was pleased to announce that the Club’s nomination of the Fine Art Exhibition was not only named as the Rochester Art Group of the Year but also took out the Campaspe Shire award in the same category.
Winery Tour:A tour of district vineyards is planned for Sunday 16th March. Gather up friends and colleagues for a great day.
Further information is available from Stewart.
Donations In Kind: Last Friday (24th.) PP. Noel and partner Robyn joined volunteers from the Rotary Clubs of Port Melbourne and Canterbury at Footscray DIK to prepare hospital beds and mattresses and then load the items in a container. We arrived at 8.15am and departed 2pm. By that stage there were 34 beds and 29 mattresses loaded to the container. We received an email in late evening to inform us that the loading was completed by 4.30 pm with 58 beds and mattresses loaded.
The container we assisted in loading is the first of 3 containers full of hospital beds that will be going to R.I. District 4355 in southern Chile. The beds will be used to set-up a ‘Rotary Hospital Bed Bank’ [‘Banco Rotario de Catres Clinicos’]
R.C. of Valdivia-Ainil will manage the hospital bed bank with the help of several other R.C. in District 4355. The work will be done in close collaboration with major Public Hospitals in an area that stretches from the city of Los Angeles [Chile] to the southern end of the ‘Isla Grande de Chiloe’, around 700Km. This is a large and important public health project and one that only a large organization such as Rotary, can undertake on a voluntary basis. Also delivered to DIK on that day were 7 boxes of materials gathered through our Schools Recycling Project plus 1 and 14 boxes respectively from two other organizations. Almost all boxes are destined for Timor Leste.
Community Recovery: PP Graeme Nelson informed members that the final amount of $1212.90 has been released and will further assist in retaining the services of Community Recovery & Governance Project Officer, Graeme Robertson. This amount is additional to the earlier $7000.00 from the successful submission.
Treasurer Russell reminder: Half Year membership subscriptions of $130.00 are due.
Information Signage: It has been noted by eagle eyed people that the new information sign has been fitted to the historic windmill in Rotary Park and the Rotary meeting sign is now on the front wall of our current meeting place, the Rochester Wine Bar Moore Street
Congratulations to Grant Hocking, Rotary Club of Woodend on being awarded the Ambulance Service Medal. Stewart is still awaiting names of those to be approached for the LEED (Local Economic & Employment Development) Programme.