The Rotary Club of Northbridge gratefully acknowledges the generous sponsorship of Northbridge Plaza
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
David Hyde
February 17
Join Date
Joanne Coleman
February 1, 1984
37 years
Club Meeting News
Welcome
President Kevin welcomed all members and our guest speaker Dr Penny Bishop, as well as Momoe Ohtani, Penny Lye, Vicky Antaw, Pam Clifford, Jill Russell and Maree Rennie.
Toast
Malcolm Lye proposed a toast to the Rotary Club of Sydney. It is Australia’s oldest Rotary club and 2021 is its centenary year. It boasts a large membership with over 300 members, meets over lunch in hotels around the city and its membership has strong business connections with much sponsorship. In recent times it has sent hay to rural communities stricken by drought, offered indigenous scholarships and has a strong vaccination project.
Announcements
There is to be a Bunnings BBQ on 21 February. Please contact Sally O’Neill if you can assist.
Eleanor Chevor reported on the recent attendance by club members including herself, Susan Law, Helen Gulson & Peter McNair at a very informative session run by Dementia Australia in relation to the start up of the Dementia Café.
Eleanor also advised receipt of a thank you card from the Starlight Foundation in regards to the toys collected through the Tree of Joy.
President Kevin displayed to the members the Thank You signage which is to go up at the Plaza on the site of the recently closed CBA bank which thanks the community for their support over the past year.
Guest Speaker - Dr Penny Bishop - Development of the Polio Vaccine
John Bolton introduced our speaker, Dr Penny Bishop. Penny spoke to us last year about the history of the Nobel Prizes.
Penny studied science at Sydney University obtaining her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She co-authored the textbook “Microbiology and Infection Control for Health Professionals”. In her retirement she has developed her interest in the history and spread of infectious diseases.
Poliomyelitis – The search for the Vaccine
It took some 50 years to find a vaccine for polio. The three main requirements for its development, like most vaccines, were:
1. Money
2. Inspired scientists and
3. The right technology
Polio only affects humans and monkeys so testing could only be done on monkeys. It can be caused by one of three types of poliovirus. These viruses spread through contact between people by nasal and oral secretions, and by contact with contaminated feaces. Only 5% were serious cases, the rest had mild symptoms. Unfortunately, it did and does affect mainly children. Today there are only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where endemic polio still exists.
There were several key players in the search for a vaccine for polio.
1900: John Rockefeller put money into medical research.
1921: Franklin Roosevelt, who suffered from polio, and Basil O’Connor who was in law practice with him. Roosevelt changed the perception of a cripple hidden away.
1921: The iron lung invented by Phillip Drinker PhD as a respirator.
1924: Money was raised in the way of “Birthday Balls” which raised millions and Roosevelt set up the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis.
1938: Basil O’Connor was involved with a “cure for polio” and organised a fundraiser “March for dimes” and collected dimes each time went to the movies. Millions of dimes were sent to the President.
1949: John Enders was able to culture polio virus in the laboratory and therefore did not need monkeys to experiment on.
1951: $250 million raised for research and treatment.
1951: Outbreak in America of 57,628 cases in New York.
1953: Salk injected himself and his family with the vaccine.
1955: Results positive – Salk a national hero.
1955: Rollout of the vaccine.
Sabin worked on virus and developed “live vaccine” and carried out trials on a large number of people in Russia where results were good. This needed approval in America.
1960: Sabin polio vaccine licensed protection of type I polio and then after type II and III.
1963: Vaccine produced for the 3 types of polio viruses.
John Bolton thanked Dr Penny Bishop for her very knowledgeable and informative talk and the relevance it has in these times with COVID-19.
If anyone has any jokes or funny stories, feel free to send them to me for the humour section of the Bulletin!
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!”
