Remember When (50 Years of RC Mt Eliza)

 

May I say that I am pleased to be the first member of the Club to contribute to the celebration of the 50th Year of the Rotary Club of Mt Eliza in this Bulletin.

 

I joined our Club in 1982, being nominated by Murray McNally and inducted by PDG john Dunn.

 

I was so proud to be asked to join Rotary, and considered it a great honour. At that stage I was 39 years old, had a young family with three children and ran a busy dental practice in Southland Shopping Centre, Cheltenham.

 

The benefits and fun that I had in those early years of my Rotary membership were immense.

 

One thing that has stuck in my mind was from a comment made to me by PP. Bill Parsons was “you never say no in Rotary”.

 

For a club to survive and be successful, how true his comment was.                               

 

You only get out of Rotary as much as you are prepared to put in. The values and aspirations of those Rotarians, who were members in those early years, have been the foundations of the success and enjoyment that I have experienced being a member of the Rotary Club of Mt. Eliza.

 

I was President of our Club in 1988-89, with Alan Gamble as my secretary. My presidential project for the year was the financing, and building of a kitchen in the Seaford respite house of the Association for the Disabled, run by PP. Stan Spencer.

 

I was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship in 1996 by PP. Brian Ingram.

 

The culmination of my years in Rotary was being Team Leader of the Rotary Foundation Group Study Exchange Team to Scotland North, Rotary District 1010 in 2004.

 

Besides all the social welfare activities of our Club in those years, there were many fun times we had together. Each Easter for a number of years, the Club holidayed together on the shores of Lake Eildon at Howqua Terraces Resort. We would water ski by day and sit around the camp fire by night at a BBQ and unfortunately drink too much port.                                                                                                                        

 

Harry Goodrich was a member in those days, and each year he would invite us all up to Eildon to stay on his houseboat, ski behind his jetboat and play cards. Who can forget the local doctors, Allen Eagle and Bill George, occasionally tipping water on us all from the top deck!                                                                                                                   

 

Christmas was also a great family time in our Club. We would have our usual tennis afternoon on the courts of Peninsula School followed by the arrival of Father Christmas (AKA Carl Seales) in his T-model Ford with a sack of presents for our children.  

                                                                                       

I could go on about the great times I have had, the many friendships I have made, as well as helping the community in Mt. Eliza and elsewhere. I have had a fantastic time being a member of the Rotary Club of Mt. Eliza.