President Ranald welcomed all members and introduced guests Rae Assender, Coralie Littlewood and Peter Russell.
Toast
Angie Fernandes gave a toast to the RC of Austin, Texas, where she once lived for 8 years. Chartered in 1913, it is the oldest and largest club in Austin and counts over 200 business, civic and community members amongst its membership. Members volunteer their time to a number of local, national and global service projects throughout the year. Some of these commitments like the Helping Hand Home for Children extend back more than 90 years.
Announcements
Karin Eurell spoke about the Rotary bumper stickers which, as part of the Visioning project, was suggested should be promoted within the club. As a result Karin now has bumper stickers which she handed out to everyone to put on their cars. If you didn’t receive one, and would like to, please contact Karin.
John Turner advised volunteers are still needed for the Fireworks, both from within the club and the friends of Rotary.
Alan Hession asked for members to think of ideas for sponsors. If you have any thoughts about who could be approached for sponsorship, please let Alan know. Currently Gold sponsorship is $2500, Silver is $1500 and Bronze is $500. Sponsors are also required for raffle prizes so if you think you know someone who could sponsor a prize or two, please let Alan know.
Rob Coote spoke about Rural Aid’s “Buy a Cow” Appeal which has been posted on the Northbridge Rotary Club Facebook page. This project is aimed at raising funds to assist flood affected farmers to buy cows to re-stock after the devastating losses they suffered during the recent floods. Could all members who have a Facebook page please share the post on their page to get the message out to as many people as possible.
Sergeant's Session
Susan Law, the Sergeant for the month of March, conducted a session which managed to extract coins from just about everyone in the club.
Guest Speaker - Luke Keighery - Camino Walk
President Ranald introduced guest speaker, club member Luke Keighery who did the Camino de Santiago de Compostela walk in 2017.
In 2017 Luke decided to raise funds for the Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WaSH) project, to bring clean water to the village of Ossu, Timor L’Este, by undertaking to walk the 800 km camino track. He told us that in 2018, 327,000 people travelled along all or part of the camino. Of these, 93% travelled on foot, 49% were men and 17% were aged over 60. 44% of those people were Spanish, 9% Italian, 8% German and 6% made up the rest.
To prepare for his trek, Luke trained beforehand, and on the trek only carried a 9kg backpack and walking poles. Luke started out on his solo trek from St Jean Pied de Port in the south of France in September 2017. He said the route was quite mountainous and the scenery was tremendous which we were able to capture in the slides he presented. He stayed each night in an Albergue, or pilgrim hostel, which are a feature of the camino and cost around €10 a night in dormitory style accommodation. He started out each day around 6.30am whilst it was still dark and wore a head torch so he could see the path. Whilst he travelled alone, he also met and made friends with many people from all over the world with whom he walked and shared meals. He described some of the routes that he took and the places he travelled through. His two favourite places were Astorga and Leon.
Luke raised an amazing $90,000 from his trek, and showed us a short video of the WaSH project in the village of Ossu which benefitted from his walk.
Rob Coote thanked Luke for his brilliant and very entertaining account and congratulated him on raising such a large amount for the WaSH project.
