This week Rotarian Rowan Miller shares his stories as we continue our series on the last 50 years since our Club was first chartered.
I joined the club, and was inducted in January 2006. Carolyn Such, my sponsor and mentor, introduced me to the club. At the time I felt very inadequate with the calibre of other members (along with the fact I am very shy which does not help) as most members "seemed" to be highly educated, and hold high status in companies & businesses. Thus I was not sure where my talents were going to fit in, as a practical ... or hands on individual. This of course would change over time as the Club found my niche.
There will be others who mention other memories of RCME .. over time .. so I will mention a few of mine.
I remember how passionate John Gordon was about the Young Carers, and the RCME sponsoring & running the Young Carers Race Days at the Mornington Racecourse... This provided 20 scholarships of $500 each.
It was decided that we become part of "The Mt Eliza Farmers Markets" every second month. Mel Wigg was the organiser along with the Chamber of Commerce. In the early days all items were stored at the "Wiggs Deli" out the back and we, the volunteers, would take out and set up the market, then return all items to the "back of the deli" after the market. There was an urn at the front door with free tea & coffee for the Volunteers during setup. I was starting to find my niche when the Club took on this activity. It has of course changed, a few market managers over time, after Mel retired, and the trailer to hold, store & transport the Market equipment ... which I manage, store and care for.
I also must mention the Gigantic Garage Sale (GGS) . This stemmed from an idea of Richard Robinson ... who approached me at the beginning of a meeting one night... as I was in transport & logistics... I was to be a vital part of his idea. Richard pursued this and the Club took it on board for a number of years. Items were collected and brought to our transport yard by members. I must mention the amount of work that Malcolm Hull did in this collection process. He would come and collect my van trailer and do collection rounds, along with others in later years ... in particular Carolyn & Chris Such. They would put them in containers I provided ... then come Saturday morning / afternoon, I would go down and re-stack the containers till they were full. This went on for many months beforehand. Come GGS weekend, we would transport the full containers to the Peninsula School, unload and spread all over the place for the sale. We generally had 6 or 7 containers.. so there was a lot of "stuff". Then on Sunday the Club would clean up unsold stuff. It was a huge amount of effort by all!
Richard Robinson also encouraged us to come to Benalla as a Club and he took us all gliding. It was a great fellowship event for those of us who could attend.
Margaret & I flew up to Benalla. This allowed me to fly Sander Vandeth up to Yarrawonga, and for him to catch up with a long time aviation friend. The Club has a number of members who have aviation backgrounds, John Horscroft, John Gilbert, Richard Robinson , Sander Vandeth ... and more recently myself to mention a few.
There are many things RCME has been involved in, another being the Kids Fun Run with the K163 - this was another great event. But also takes a lot of on the ground work to get it set up and taken down. Many hours I have spent out there beforehand with Guenter Steinbrecher and others to ensure that the day will be a success
There are many other memories I have not mentioned, but I am sure they will be covered by others of the Club when they share theirs.
