Bulletin Dec 6 (Dec 06, 2023)

The Rotary Club of

Mount Eliza

Chartered 1971

Service Above Self

Tuesdays at 6:00 PM

Toorak College

Mt Eliza
Mount Eliza, VIC 3930
Australia

Phone:

0418 319 101

Send Email to Club

Dinner Meeting at Toorak College & Zoom Meeting Conference Number 82650442487

District Site

Venue Map

Interested in being a sponsor?

Download the website sponsorship guide

Rotary Club of Mount Eliza Christmas Party
Toorak College
Dec 12, 2023 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Bunnings BBQ, Saturday 16th December

Dec 16, 2023 7:30 am – 5:00 pm

View entire list

President Carolyn's Notes

1. The Santa Train was once again a roaring success and fortuitously the weather gods smiled upon us and the rain stopped while the kids got their lunch and presents and only started again when they were back on the train. Unfortunately the members and Friends that helped set up and pack up were not so lucky and proved that humans do not dissolve but do get thoroughly wet. It continues to be a great cooperative project between Morington and Mount Eliza Rotary Clubs. Thank you to all involved in most trying conditions and those who stepped in to fill the breach (particularly the Voss family) when the covid crew could not attend. (The photos did not arrive in time for publishing - look out for them next week)

2. The Satellite Club held a successful BBQ last Saturday and raised over $400. It doesn’t seem fair that they copped the worst of the weather and everybody was truly drenched! Thanks to Ritchies for the use of their site and well done to all who helped in such wet weather.

3. Jim Voss, Youth Director is presenting Environment and Community awards to students from Kunyung Primary, Mt Eliza Primary and St Thomas Moore Primary this week. Hopefully President Carolyn will be clear to attend the event.

4. Lastly, Trish has finalized the hampers this year. It was decided that it is better for the people receiving the hampers should choose what food they would like rather than us selecting the goods. The vouchers can only be used for food purchases at Ritchies.

Welfare

The COVID WAVE

We have been warned that a new wave of Covid will peak around Christmas, well it has peaked early for us and I hope it is the peak for us. Chris & Carolyn Such, Mike Weber, Tim Worral (and possibly another?) have fallen to the dreaded lurgi. We wish them well and at last account they are all recovering after a rough start to the illness.

This Week's Speaker

Getting to Know Our New Members - Carol Allen and Jamie Hunt

Carol Allen

Carol with Chair Pauline

Carol was born in South Africa and moved to Melbourne following her family’s desire to move away from the difficulties in South Africa and her father’s career move. Most of her adult life was here including marriage, 3 children and 7 grand children. Her first job was in Myers but she went on to train as a Nurse. This was not for her and she moved into Preschool admin and ran a network of preschools/kindergartens. In 2000 she changed to run the ABC Learning Centres. In 2006 she took another turn and went into Aged Care. She joined Blue Cross residential aged care which she ran for 12 years, expanding the company from 8 centres to 23. It was a great experience and she was a pioneer in changing these facilities into a more fun and entertaining environment to improve the quality of life of the Residential Aged Care residents. During this period she regularly travelled back to South Africa on holidays. At times she witnessed the poverty and the impact AIDS was having on children, in particular, orphans. Nothing was done for these children. She decided to do something about it. She initiated a project to train Carers in South Africa, bring Carers from South Africa to Australia to advance their training and send trained Carers to South Africa from Australia to help train the local Carers.

In 2014 Carol retired from Blue Cross. Being at a loose end(?), she was conviced by others to start an Aged Care facility in China where none existed. Over the 2014 -2019 period she successfully started one in Bejing. Unfortunately COVID put a stop to that. At this popint she joined the Rotary Club of Mt Martha. She was, of course, drawn to the International Committee and the RORPS project which demolished old municipal playgrounds, refurbished them and the sent them overseas to Asia and South Africa. (Many other Clubs joined in with this including some of our members). There is another 13 to be sent next year. Carol hopes our club can get involved in raising funds to cover their installation. There are two Clubs in South Africa that supervise the import and installation, the RC of Newlands and the RC of Cape Town. For many of the communities they go to, it is the first playground the children have seen. They instinctively know how to use them. Fortunately for us, Carol has moved to Mount Eliza and transferred to our Club. She hopes to contiue with her work with RORPS.

Jamie Hunt

Jamie with chair Pauline McFarland

Jamie grew up in the Northern suburbs of Melbourne in a typical Melbourne family. His parents valued education and sent him to Ivanhoe Grammar where he had a stellar career – prefect and sports captain. After school he entered Melbourne Uni to do engineering, however, like many before him he fell into the trap of a social life and dropped out. He discovered RMIT and found it much more to his liking and graduated with an engineering degree. He did discover the Army Reserve at Melbourne Uni beginning a life long association with that force. His first job was in the Latrobe Valley building power stations, starting with Loy Yang B where he work for 16 years. He ended up as the Project Manager at Loy Yang and was involved in its sale, though that ultimately cost him his job. He remained in the Latrobe Valley working on many Civil projects including the Desal Plant. All this time he maintained his membership of the Army reserve. He joined and progressed through the ranks of the Army Reserve Engineers until he retired. When he retired he did a number of “odd job” projects in engineering but more importantly joined Rotary for its fellowship and community projects. Luckily for us he has moved to Mount Eliza and has now joined our club.

3 Minute Speaker

Ray Manchester - Andrew Follows

Ray spoke about Andrew Follows, the son of past member Barry. Andrew is legal blind having only 2% vision in one eye. This did not deter Andrew who was driven to become a professional photographer. Ray first met Andrew after the devastating fires in 2009 that destroyed much of Kinglake through to Marysville including Narbethong. Ray visited Andrew’ public exhibition in Narbethong of the photos he took during that wild fire. He was incredibly impressed and began to follow his exhibitions in Melbourne (Urban Housing) and overseas. He recommends that if we get a chance to visit one of his exhibitions grab it with both hands. (Apologies to Ray as the editor left Ray's notes at home and had to write this from memory - a fuller version will be published next week)

Club Meetings

Club Meetings for November - December

RCME Meeting Roster -		December


Dec-05	Program	New Member Profile
	Chairman	Pauline McFarlane
	3 Minute Speaker	Kay McCauley
	Cashiers	Jenny Baker / Rhonda Vincent
	Fellowship	Carol Wallace
	Furniture	Furniture Group
	Heads & Tails	Trish Stamp

Dec-12	Program	RCME Christmas Party

Christmas Party

CHRISTMAS PARTY INFO

By the time you read this, the bookings will be closed. If you have an urgent matter, ring Jim Young.

President Carolyn Such & the Board of the Rotary Club of Mt Eliza

invite all Rotarians, Honorary Members, Friends & Family members

to our Annual Rotary Christmas Dinner.

This event will be held at Toorak College from 6.00 pm onwards for 7.00 pm dinner on Tuesday, 12 December.

Enjoy a glass (or two) of sparkling wine or mineral water with canapés on the terrace.

Following the canapés and sparkling drinks we will repair inside for traditional Christmas fare.

Doors to the Dining Room will open at 6.50 pm.

The cost of the evening is $50. This covers drinks on the terrace, canapés, main meal, dessert (individual Christmas puddings) and chocolates. (vegetarian and gluten free options available)

BYO drinks.

The following link will take you to the Humanitix booking site

https://events.humanitix.com/rcme-christmas-2023

Bookings close on Thursday 7 December

Brynton's Joke

A mexican was on television with British TV host Anne Diamond recently when he used the word "manana" (pronounced "manyana"). Diampnd asked him to explain what it meant.

He said that the term means " Maybe the job will be done tomorrow, maybe the next day, maybe the day after that. Or perhaps next week, next month, next year. Who really cares?"

The host then turns to a Rhodesian/Zimbabwean man who was also on the show and asked him if there was an equivalent term in his own home language.

He replied: "in Africa we do not have a term to describe that degree of urgency"

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P O Box 95 Mount Eliza 3930

We meet at 6:00 PM Every Tuesday at Toorak College