The Rotary Club of Northbridge gratefully acknowledges the generous sponsorship of Northbridge Plaza
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
Peter Grinter
March 1
Eleanor Chevor
March 3
Peter McNair
March 13
John Turner
March 19
Spouse Birthdays
Fran Garrett
March 2
Anniversaries
Helen Gulson
March 8
Join Date
Malcolm Lye
March 6, 2001
20 years
Alan Hession
March 8, 2016
5 years
Helen Gulson
March 8, 2016
5 years
Andrew Rennie
March 20, 2018
3 years
David Robertson
March 23, 2010
11 years
Sally O'Neill
March 25, 2003
18 years
Denise Woodward
March 27, 2018
3 years
Luke Keighery
March 27, 2018
3 years
Ros Virtue
March 28, 2006
15 years
Garth Carter
March 29, 2016
5 years
Club Meeting News - 2 March, 2021
Welcome
President Kevin welcomed members, guest Maggi Shanahan and our guest speaker, Dr. Celene McNeill and her husband Peter.
Toast
Ranald Stewart proposed a toast to the Rotary Club of Darling Harbour, District 9675. Commonly known as "The Darlings", the club has 26 active members and meets every 2nd & 4th Wednesday at The Grace Hotel. Every alternate Wednesday their meeting is online. They recently celebrated their 20th anniversary. The past 12 months' activities included a Boxing Day lunch for Homelessness, Development of a sewing school for women in Nepal and Tree Planting with Sydney Rotoract.
Announcements
Luke Keighery spoke about the Footy tipping competition and the benefit to the club and to the participants and encouraged all members to join, and to get their friends and family to sign up as well.
PP Peter Grinter spoke about the upcoming Rostrum Voice of Youth for which 15 club members have volunteered. He gave a brief historty of the competition which was started in 1974, has 200 competitors from NSW, 2000 nationally and of which the Rotary Club of Northbridge is the principal sponsor.
President Kevin advised the RC of North Ryde is holding an online Trivia Night via Zoom on 6 March in support of Romac. He also asked for any members interested in attending the District Conference on 13 March.
Susan Law reminded those involved in the Dementia Cafe that volunteer forms and police checks need to be completed for those who haven't done so already.
Peter McNair introduced our guest speaker, Dr Celene McNeill. She qualified as a speech pathologist and audiologist in Brazil before immigrating to Australia where she obtained a Masters of Audiology and a PhD in Meniere's Disease at Macquarie Uni. She has broad professional experience as a clinician, researcher, public speaker and is an advisor and board member of several professional and charity associations related to hearing and balance disorders.
Dr McNeill spoke to us about the symptoms and method of diagnosis of Meniere's disease, first identified by Dr Prosper Meniere in the 1800s. She described the symptoms which include hearing loss, blockage in usually one ear, tinnitus and vertigo. It is often misdiagnosed, and diagnosis is usually made after taking a history, exclusion of other disorders and hearing loss. Whilst not life threatening, it is highly disruptive to those who experience episodes of Meniere's. Treatment includes anti nausea medication, lowering salt intake and exercises to improve the symptoms of vertigo.
Dr McNeill also spoke about the history and process of Cochlear hearing and the advances in Cochlear implants which can be life changing for people with severe hearing loss.
Peter thanked Dr McNeill for her interesting talk.
An now for a little bit of levity ...
1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
2. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
3. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
4. A day without sunshine is like, well, night.
5. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
6. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
7. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
8. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.
9. It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end-to-end, someone from Italy would still try to pass them.
10. If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.
11. The things that come to those who wait, may be the things left by those who got there first.
12. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer.
13. Flashlight: A case for holding dead batteries.
14. God gave you toes as a device for finding furniture in the dark.
15. When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.
If anyone has any jokes or funny stories, feel free to send them to me for the humour section of the Bulletin!
Our next Northbridge Rotary Bookstall will be at the Plaza on Sunday 21st March, from 9 am to 5pm, and thereafter (hopefully) normally on the 3rd Sunday of each month.
Every year Rotary District 9685 – which includes Sydney’s Lower North Shore region - offers a post-graduate Global Grant Scholarship for US$30,000 for overseas study at a recognised university or institution.
Applications for a scholarship grant for 2021-22 are now open and are being sought from candidates with the following attributes:
A proven record of success in academic results or vocation
Commitment to a career in one of Rotary’s seven areas of focus
Demonstrated personal commitment to community service
Personal qualities to be a good ambassador for Rotary and Australia
Excellent leadership skills and potential
Well defined and realistic goals
Commitment to participate in Rotary activities and maintaining a strong relationship after the scholarship period.
Scholarship applications are sponsored by a Rotary Club in your district. For example, in District 9685, candidates can apply through the Rotary Club of Northbridge. This Club’s Rotary Foundation director, Valda Andrews, can be contacted via:
The Rotary Peace Fellowship is the premier educational program of The Rotary Foundation and supports Rotary’s mission to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace. It is intended for individuals who have chosen a career related to international relations, peace and conflict resolution; who have work experience in these areas and who have a commitment to community or international humanitarian service and working for peace. The following link contains additional information in relation to Rotary’s Peace Fellowships:
He’s not renowned for his cricketing prowess, nor is he an Oxford or Cambridge academic, but Northbridge’s Donald Landers is, indisputably, ‘our Don’.
A retired solicitor, Don and his wife Shirley are long time Northbridge residents who have served our community selflessly for many years.
On 15 December this year, Don was honoured at the Northbridge Rotary Club’s Christmas dinner with a special award, presented – as the photograph below shows – by Willoughby Mayor, Gail Giles-Gidney, with Northbridge Rotary President, Kevin Tattrie, hosting the event.
Don was also presented, at this dinner, with a letter from the NSW Premier and Member for Willoughby, Gladys Berejiklian, honouring Don’s “dedicated Service” to our community, through Rotary. At the bottom of her typed letter, the Premier stated, in her own handwriting:
“Don, your contribution to our community is beyond outstanding – thank you.”
Don Landers was a founding member of Northbridge Rotary Club in 1983. In 1990 he became a Trustee of the Club’s Benevolent Fund, overseeing charitable donations in excess of $230,000, involving a range of humanitarian projects and disaster appeals for the Club. This year he has relinquished his Benevolent fund Trustee role after 30 years of dedicated service.
Don is the perfect example of a hard and committed worker who has given and continues to give his time, energy and experience in the service of others. All who know him, value his wisdom, civic-mindedness, corporate contribution and wonderful sense of humour.
Don, the Rotary Club of Northbridge salutes you.
[Don and Shirley Landers (centre) posing with Northbridge Rotary President Kevin Tattrie (left) and Willoughby Mayor, Gail Giles-Gidney (right)]
The Covid-19 pandemic made fundraising and giving extremely difficult this year, but in the end Christmas won through.
After much hard work, Northbridge Rotary Club’s Sally O’Neill, her fundraising team and her army of Club ticket-sellers, pulled off a fundraising coup with their Christmas Raffle conducted during the course of December at Northbridge Plaza.
Thanks to the generosity of the Northbridge Plaza management – including its security team, local Northbridge and other businesses and shoppers attending the Plaza, the Rotary Club raised over $8,000. That money will be used for local and regional projects, particularly focussing on those recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 22 raffle prizes were drawn at the Plaza by Northbridge Rotary Club President, Kevin Tattrie, on Sunday 20 December, as the photograph below shows.
Congratulations to the following list of lucky prize-winners:
The Rotary club is now motivated to make its Christmas Raffle an annual event, together with its Tree of Joy which, as can be seen from the photograph below, produced a windfall of toys and other gifts for children who would otherwise go without this Christmas. Now, thanks to the Club’s Eleanor Chevor and her team, they too will experience the true joy of what this Season of Giving is all about.
Saturday 26 September shone a bright light over Northbridge. From first light they came bearing gifts of love – by car and on foot, trailing children, dogs and each other. The blue uniformed brigade of Northbridge Rotary was there to meet them – about 40 in all, bright eyed and Covid safe. From early morning the first shift was beginning to receive and unload a continuous flow of non-perishable food supplies, making sure the donors went away with a smile. Northbridge Rotary’s Community Food Drive was in full swing.
By mid-morning, the alcoves and stairs of St. Marks Anglican Church Memorial Hall in Malacoota Road were bulging with rows of food boxes and packed shopping bags. The pace ebbed and flowed as people trailed in and out. When the two charity collection vans from Taldumande Youth Services and StreetWork had departed fully laden late that afternoon, there was still a supply of food remaining and Oz Harvest obliged with a collection of the remaining donations the following morning.
In all, it is estimated the Northbridge and North Shore community contributed to over a tonne of non-perishable food supplies that filled over 100 boxes and 50 shopping bags – enough for 2,400 meals or sufficient to feed a needy family of four for 18 months.
Liz de Rome, Taldumande’s Grants, Community and Volunteers Officer summed the impact of this event up perfectly:
“I wanted to share that as we dropped off bags and boxes of food to our young people, they were so grateful for their generous parcel. This morning, one young girl nearly cried (and me) as she couldn’t believe her luck. She wasn’t sure how she was going to make ends meet this week. The generosity of the community and Northbridge Rotarians has helped fill the pantries of our young people and they’re so grateful.”
The final comment belongs to the Northbridge Rotary event organiser, Eleanor Chevor: “What a day!”
