Welcome to Summer☀️ As we near the first half of the rotary year i would ask you to reflect on your involvement as a Rotarian by celebrating your wins, reviewing your personal goals and readying yourselves for 2024.
I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a very merry and safe Christmas, from mine to yours.
Please remember:-|
Our online community Raffle is with YOU to sell tickets. I reckon they would make a great Christmas present. We have raised $230 thus far. I will send out reminders by text, on Facebook and email. Our Goal is $1000;
Your club assembly is this Sunday and I look forward to seeing and hearing from you.
A donation to OUR foundation is an investment in the future…please consider if you can
We have 2 RYPEN students from Lisarow high school on the central coast. They will be visiting us so you can meet them, watch this space
Please would all members make an effort to attend. Our club is only as good as those who attend meetings and contribute to our activities. It is important that you attend to have your say. It is no good whinging later about what we do or don't do if you don't make your opinions heard. Everyone has been sent the agenda so please read it.
This will be a closed meeting with no visitors thank you. We will return for visitors at our next meeting.
The following pictures from Melanie Lewis, show the Dirt Witches, a Collaborative artist group and environmental champions who created this micro-forest on the busy intersection of George and Barlow streets just south of Town Hall. It incorporates more than 30 species belonging to the critically endangered eastern suburbs banksia scrub.
This will be an on-going project which will spread to many suburbs throughout Sydney and may be another great way to enhance our environment and commemorate members of our club.
Bee Hotels on the Northern Beaches.
I have had a very positive response from Northern Beaches Council re the Bee Hotel! The "bee man” on council, Tim Seaton, was very impressed with the design - he reckons it is the best he has seen as the wood is right, the diameter of the holes is right and it is quite sturdy. Others he says are either too flimsy, not well made and the holes are often too big for our small native bees. He has used our model in several education lessons as he works with the Council Environment Centre which has many school groups coming through. I explained my idea of Eco Poles in schools and he was very supportive. I will organise a longer talk with him once school holidays start and discuss ideas. He obviously has contact with many, if not all, of our local schools.
Also spoke to the head of environment on the council and he has offered to supply the correct flowering plants.
Looks as though Eco Poles might be a goer next year on the Northern Beaches!
All I need now is a design for the pole and a Men’s shed to make the bee hotels!
If hopefully get small funding from the E-club or Rotarians for Bees or maybe even the council???
Last Tuesday evening Sandra, Simon and I, along with Emma and Zac Vincent attended a special release of Annabelle Chancy’s School for Life movie called “ Seeds”.
Over 300+ people attended the Ortheum theatre in Cremorne to watch the movie, which told the amazing story of how Annabelle started this school in 2011 when she was only 21 through to where it is today with two huge schools and 1700 students. It was a very touching movie, after which there was an interesting question-and-answer session conducted by Edwina Bartholomew from Chanel 7. It was a great night, and the following day (International Giving Day), they had a big fundraiser for the school, which raised $535,000.
The School for Life, for the benefit of our newer members and friends, is a project that in the past has been closely connected with our club. Annabelle was a charter member of our club for 10 years, moving on to the Sydney Cove Rotary Club in 2021. In 2012 SewAid established a sewing workshop at the school as well as installing solar power with the help of a Global Grant. The School for Life story is huge, and a visit to their website will tell you much more about this amazing charity. Perhaps we could get Annabelle back sometime to give us an update at one of our meetings.
Our club also sponsors John Kiwamuka, one of the students at the school, which cost our club $620 PA.
Doug Vincent
School For Life
Zac, our youngest son, visited the School For Life in July 2023 as a student, where he attended classes with Ugandan secondary school students, undertook a 1 x weeks SewAid training course and taught recorder music and chess to junior and secondary school students.
As parents, Paula and I really appreciate seeing the kids grow in their worldly understanding, knowledge and tolerance. We think it’s a win / win where our kids can learn to help others, whilst becoming more resilient and adaptable themselves. To attend the SFL movie launch in Sydney was a good eye opener for both Emma and Zac, as they learnt more about how a young 21 year old Rotarian set her mind to helping others in Uganda, and got on with it. It’s not every day that our kids can experience and see in person, such a dedicated, inspirational leader, such as Annabelle. I hope some of her energy and passion has rubbed off on our kids. As a side note, I noticed Emma proudly wearing her new black SFL tee shirt, out and about, the other day.
John Kiwamuka (the E-Club’s School for Life sponsored student) was sick when Zac and I visited him in July. He had a suspected hernia and was in a lot of pain. At 16yrs, John is the oldest male in the family, and at home, he is doing what he can to help his mother and younger brothers and sisters survive. He was doing a lot of heavy work at home (making mud bricks and clearing neighbours fields for maize planting).
Lucian Keegel He's at it again. The BBQ King of Rotary. This time at Woolworths at Katoomba.
You just can keep Lucian down, he can smell a Rotary BBQ from a million miles away and just has to be involved.
However, he can't do it all on his own. He needs helpers on Australia Day, 2024
Where: Glenbrook Swim Centre
When: January 26, 2024
Please let Lucian know if you are available to help.
You don't need to be a Rotarian, just available 'to do good in the world'.
With the conclusion of the 2023 Council on Resolutions (COR), I am pleased to provide you with the Report of Action. In this report, you will find: • A letter from Council Services • Resolutions that were adopted • Vote tallies for the adopted items
Voting results for all 2023 resolutions can be found on here.
From The RAWCS Team: Belinda Griffen, Pauline Lane & Mahir Momand
We wish to advise that the final date for all payments, domestic and overseas, will by COB on Wednesday 13 December 2023. All payments after this date will be processed on Tuesday 9 January 2024.
The RAWCS Office will be closed for the Christmas period from 11am on Thursday 21 December 2023 and will re-open on Monday 8 January 2024.
May I take this opportunity to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Stay safe and enjoy your time with family and friends.
ow members, 
sitive response from Northern Beaches Council re the Bee Hotel! The "bee man” on council, Tim Seaton, was very impressed with the design - he reckons it is the best he has seen as the wood is right, the diameter of the holes is right and it is quite sturdy. Others he says are either too flimsy, not well made and the holes are often too big for our small native bees. He has used our model in several education lessons as he works with the Council Environment Centre which has many school groups coming through. I explained my idea of Eco Poles in schools and he was very supportive. I will organise a longer talk with him once school holidays start and discuss ideas. He obviously has contact with many, if not all, of our local schools.
