President Peter Grinter welcomed all club members to his first meeting as president, and introduced guest speaker Bijuli Timila and his wife Sunita.
Toast
John Bolton gave a toast to the Rotary Club of Taree, and to all the clubs in that area of NSW experiencing bushfires. The RC of Taree was chartered in May 1937 when the population of the town was 4,500. They have since gone on to sponsor other clubs including Port Macquarie, Wauhope, Foster-Tuncurry and Wingham and were involved in the building of the Hospital at Kokoda.
Announcements
A Bushfire Bucket Appeal will be held on 16/17 November at Northbridge Plaza.
Barry Anderson spoke about the possibility of coordinating with Nambucca & Macksville Rotary clubs with regards to helping bushfire victims as that area has been devastated by the fires. President Peter will speak with the president of the Nambucca club.
Ranald Stewart reminded members to book early for the District Conference to be held in Wollongong in March. A number of members have expressed interest in attending and it would be nice to have a good contingent going along.
Susan Law said that she had taken 8 large boxes of the collected toiletries to Taldumunde who were very appreciative of our collection. They will be given to young people coming into Taldumunde.
Susan also said Wellington RC was extremely pleased and thankful for our support both financially and physically with the Zoo project. Twenty-seven Northbridge RC members, partners and friends travelled to Wellington to help on the BBQs and meet their club members. It is encouraging to hear that other Rotary clubs are now undertaking similar projects. Susan also said that several Wellington club members were going to come to Sydney to help out with our Fireworks next year!
Luke Keighery spoke about his upcoming trip to East Timor with Barry Anderson from 19-23 November to help get the Ermera pipeline project underway. As well as installation of the pipeline, sanitation and hygiene training will be given to the locals to get the best results out of the project.
Amy Brittain spoke about the “Buy from the Bush” project which is aimed at encouraging city folk to buy their Christmas presents from rural towns and areas where the drought is devastating the communities. Every dollar injected into these communities helps keep them alive. Check out https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/buyfromthebush/ .
Rob Coote said that the Tree of Joy will be set up at the Plaza from 15 November for the community to leave Christmas gifts under the tree for less fortunate children.
President Peter said he had attended the 13th Annual Inoue Yasushi Awards Ceremony at USyd organized by Masanori Ohtani. He said it was a most interesting evening.
A reminder that our Rotary Christmas Party will be held on Saturday, 7 December 2019 so please make sure the date is in your diary.
Invitations will be despatched shortly!
