OUR SPEAKERS IN FEBRUARY
Feb 3:Leonie Bailey - Dress for Success
Leonie is a local soliciter who is instuemental in running a charitable organization calle Dressed For Success that assists women enter the workforce. The assit women who have never worked or rejoining the workforce who are disadvataged due to disability, migrants who have no support network, cultural differences, domestic violence, socio-ecconomic issues, prisners re-entering society etc. The organization prepares the women for interviews, supplies clothes and necessary gear/resources, helps with resumes and supports them in the workplace. They are based in Frankston but continually expanding. They recieve no government funding and rely on donations aand volunteers to achieve their goals The support roughly 60 women per month. They need donations of suitable clothing and products for women to prepare for the workplace, donations of money to cover costs and of course volunteers to join. Unfortunately due to the circumstances of their clients most volunteers need to be fellow women. A very inspiring presentation and the club through Carol Allen is collecting donations of clothing for Dress for Success. Simply bring it to Tuesday's meetings.
Leonie presenting to the club and with Chair Phil prenting her with the a Club glass
3 Minute Speaker: Yvonne Simpson:Dress to Dance
Yvonne gave us a a down to earth description of costumes used in competition and formal dance presentations. Her message was pretty logical: it must be comfortable, you must feel good in it and reflect your confidence and belief in yourself and your ability. Shoes are a different matter and must be specifically made: a suede sole so as to slide and glide!
Yvonne and Andy demostrating a dance pose. I hope they give us a demo one day
Feb 10:
INDUCTION
President Jim induted 2 new Members: Glenis Denier & Mark Bonnamy
President Jim and Maurie with Glenis & Mark
Guest Speaker Alana Street: Truwana (Cape Barren Island), Tasmania
Alana has been a regular guest speaker at the Club generally telling us about her work as a nurse overseas or with the aboriginal communities up north. Now Alana is settling down more locally with her work though still associated with indigenous communities. She is now working 7 days on and 7 days off on Truwana Island, also known as Cape Barren Island in the Furneaux Ilands near Flinders Island. The population of 81 has strong roots with the indegenous as it was one of the islands where aborigines rounded up on Tasmaia were relocated in colonial times. Alana is focussing on "closing the gap" in the health area for the indigenous. One area that she has foccussed on is the risk of drowning. Indigenous people are far more at risk of drowning not due to lack of swimming ability but of lack of education and resources, mainly life saving equipment in their communities. She has been instruemental in introducing first aid courses and getting equipment for life saving at local beaches and ports.
Chair Bernie presenting Alana with her Club glass
Alana presenting Truana and its amazing geography and seascapes to us.
3 Minute Speaker: Jo Baker of Total Event Solutions
Jo, along with partner Darren, are valuable Friends of the Club and Jo gave us a brief run down on her latest Business venture, to instruct others how to become your own boss.
Jo with Chair Bernie
Feb 17th Guest Speaker George Petrou OAM: Sacrifice Part 2
George has been a guest speaker previously where he introduced his theme of the Sacrifice of the Australian men & women during World War 1. He expanded on that theme during this presentation based on the two books he has produced on the topic. George focussed on individual stories of the war written by people who were related to the men or women or knew them well. He used his outstanding portraits of vetrans based on photos of them in the war archives to illustrate the books. Georges driving force is based on this: "Inspiration for any creative work arrives in a myriad of guises. Some immediate and clear, while some are the culmination of chance encounters, of experiences and reflection". George's premise is that we cannot comprehend what war is like, however, we must try to convey what sacrifices the men and women who served went through to all future generations, through their stories and experiences. His books focus on four groups of vetrans: Lost Diggers, VC winners, VIPS and Walks of life. The books have 60 authors, 70 protraits and the stories that match them. George elaborated on a number of amazing stories and coincidences that linked vetrans to the present day. George reiterated the importance that we Understand, Acknowledge, Respect and Remember those who serve/served. The profits from the books go to a range of returned soldiers charities. AS you would expect George's presentation was interesting and captivating.
George being thanked by Chair Mark The two impressive table top books A couple of his brilliant portraits
3 Minute Speaker: Mary Hunt
As a new member of the Club, we were all looking forward to Mary's story and she didn't disappoint with her cheerful accout of her early life, although she did take quite a while to get around to how she met her partner and past member, Jamie. Mary was a Gippsland girl, spending most time around Yallorn and Moe growing up on farms. She wasn't completely countrified as she spent most holidays in Kew with her grand parents. Her education was catholic and when she finished she went off to Mercy college Teachers College and graduated as a Primary Teacher. You probably guessed it, she went back to her initial Catholic Primary School to start her teaching career. While she was teaching at St Michaels in Traralgon she did a post grad course in "Special Ed" and started consulting in Government schools in "Special Ed" in Gippsland. Mary then became Principal at the Catholic Colege in Trafalgar(?) for 8 years. Oh, and as an aside, Mary met farmer Jamie at a pub when working at St Michaels. She finished by thanking the club for its welcome, its program, and its care for her after the passing of Jamie. She declared "we are the best club of all". We cant wait for the next instalment of her story.
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