Chris Switzer & Kevin Tattrie (Reserves: Bob Farrar & John Bolton)
Set up & pack up:
Tony Clifford & Angie Fernandes(Reserves: Mike Cocks & Therese Stubbs)
Speakers & topic:
Tom Sweeney, OAM - Willoughby Theatre Company
Rotary Club Meeting 7 August 2018
Welcome
President Ranald welcomed members and guests, Penny Lye, Phil Hall, Matthew Keighery, John Hooper, Barbara Reilly-Smith and guest speaker Dr Kelley Whitaker.
Toast
Mike Cocks gave a toast to the Rotary Club of Port Nicholson in Wellington, NZ, which is the first Rotary club that Mike joined in 1994. Port Nicholson was the original name of Wellington Harbour until 1984.The Club holds breakfast meetings each week and annually hold the Prime Minister’s breakfast at which awards are presented to young people. They raise funds for emergency relief kits.
Announcements
John Hooper, former Willoughby Councillor, spoke about Streetwork and his experiences of working with the homeless. He is looking for support for an event on 24 August – Chatswood Sleeps Rough – an initiative of the Chatswood Chamber of Commerce to raise much needed funds for Streetwork and the Salvation Army’s work with homeless youths on the North Shore. Streetwork provides one-on-one counselling for homeless youths by qualified, trained professionals. They identify and mentor these young people over many years. There are only five of these professionals on the North Shore and many homeless youths who need help, some as young as 10. Many of these homeless youths are unseen as they often couch surf at friends’ homes so are not obvious. A budget of $1mil is needed help to do this work so if you would like to support this event, you can do so at https://www.chatswoodsleepsrough.com.au/ .
Sally O’Neill advised of a very successful Bunnings BBQ last weekend with $1600 being raised on the BBQ and $800 in donations to go towards drought relief. Sally thanked all those who worked so tirelessly on the day. It was the most successful day we have had todate.
Rob Coote spoke about fundraising for drought relief for farmers. Rotary, the National Farmers’ Federation and Channel 9 have joined forces to raise money for the 2018 Drought Relief Fund. Donations can be made on our Rotary website - https://www.northbridgerotary.org/ . Please circulate this information to your friends and family. You can also share the link on our Facebook page. Rob has also been working with other Rotary clubs in our area including Roseville, Lane Cove and the Chatswood clubs to co-ordinate fundraising which has already raised $5,400. All these clubs will join forces for the Willoughby Fair at Chatswood on September 1.
A bucket appeal will be held at Northbridge Plaza on August 18 so please contribute some time to help man the stall.
It will be a busy weekend as the Book Stall will be held at the Plaza on August 19 so volunteers will be needed there too.
Luke Keighery advised he had reserved 2 tables for Chatswood Rotary Clubs’s Trivia night to be held on 25 August to raise funds for Mary’s House, which supports victims of domestic violence. He has 10+ people for the table so far but there is plenty more space so come along to what will be a fun night.
John Garrett endorsed what everyone has been saying about the drought as he saw firsthand its effects recently when he travelled out west around Capertee Valley.
David Hyde is looking for contacts in the wine industry so that he can organize a regular wine event for the club. Please let David know if you have any.
Also, he is looking to organize a bus to take a group of Rotarians to the Blood Bank at Chatswood to give donations on a regular basis. Please see David if you are interested.
Kevin Tattrie is looking for RYLA applications for 17-29 years olds to attend the next leadership camp. Our club is sponsoring four places so if you know of anyone who fits the criteria, please encourage them to apply.
Guest Speaker - Dr Kelley Whitaker
John Turner introduced the guest speaker, Dr Kelley Whitaker, an urban beekeeper. She has a background in evolution and conservation and has launched a “Host a Hive” program. She originally studied to be marine biologist.
Dr Whitaker spoke about the importance of honey bees to our existence. Honey bees: -
Are vegetarian;
Have been around for 120 mil years;
Are truly social;
Are never solitary;
Have colonies which are perennial;
Were introduced to Australia in 1822;
Are far more productive than native bees;
Have an elaborate social structure;
Are democratic and have an intricate lobbying and communication system for decision-making with regards to position of hives, food sites, etc.
An average hive has one queen, 200 drones and 60-80,000 female workers whose average life cycle is 6 weeks. They have an enormous knowledge of their local area to find the best nectar sources and convey the direction of these sources to the hive with a “waggle dance”.
One in three bites of what we eat are pollinated by honey bees and without them we would have very limited choices of vegetables, fruit, meat & dairy, because whilst, in general, crop yield is not necessarily dependent on pollination, we are choosing to grow and eat more of those crops which do depend on pollination.
Bees are not the only pollinators - there are many others such as bumble bees, moths, butterflies, moths, ants, etc.
Honey bees are declining in number worldwide due to foulbrood disease. They have declined by 60% in the US and 25% in Europe due to this disease. Whilst foulbrood disease is not yet in Australia, Dr Whitaker says it is a just matter of time before it makes its way here.
Kelley is an urban beekeeper in Castlecrag and provides honey in 14 locations in Sydney. “Host a Hive” offers a beehive management service and gives north shore residents the chance to “host” beehives on their property and in return receive raw honey from their own environment. Kelley will also collect and re-house bee swarms around Sydney. Anyone who has a garden can establish a bee “hotel” to attract native bees. She talked about the health benefits of honey. It is a strong anti-oxidant, anti-microbial and anti-viral to name but a few of its beneficial properties. A dessertspoon of honey before bed is an excellent therapy for insomnia and Manuka honey, whilst not good for eating, has amazing wound healing properties.
Malcolm Lye thanked Kelley for her presentation, and for her passion and expertise with bees.
Peter Fehon acted as Sergeant and extracted quite a few coins from those present.
I am honoured to advise you ShelterBox has been nominated for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, the winner to be announced in October. Whatever the result, this is an amazing nomination and we are truly honoured. The nomination reflects the incredible work done by the ShelterBox staff and volunteers around the world, and to those who have supported us, especially the many Rotary Clubs and Rotarians.
The nomination is also an implicit recognition of the partnership between ShelterBox and Rotary International. Two great organisations combining their efforts to provide disaster aid wherever it may be required across our world. I am reminded that last year we helped 32,000 households, or 160,000 people, who had lost everything through conflict or natural disaster. We responded to world events 24 times in the year and deployed aid to 20 different countries. Rotary groups around the world helped us provide vulnerable people with emergency shelter and aid in almost all of the countries we have worked in affected by natural disaster. In 2017, we also surpassed the highest number of days ever deployed in one year. This includes 84 ShelterBox Response Team volunteers who deployed for a total of 1,530 days. That’s an average volunteer deployment of 18 days each.
I never underestimate the impact of the support of Rotary International, Rotary Clubs and individual Rotarian has to ShelterBox in achieving our goal of no family without shelter.
As we continue to pursue our goal, we thank each and every one of you for the support given, and make an impassioned plea for that support to continue into the future. As individual organisations we can make a difference in the world; as a partnership we can do even more.
