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Welcome to The Rotary Club of Northbridge
Northbridge
We meet Tuesdays at 6:00 PM
Northbridge Golf Club
Sailors Bay Road,
Northbridge, NSW 2063
Australia
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Please send apologies to Helen Gulson before 10:30am each Monday at helen.gulson@ozemail.com.au
Club Service Duty Roster
Club Service Duty Roster
Speakers
Jan 26, 2021
Feb 02, 2021
Freeways
Feb 09, 2021
Development of Polio Vaccine
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Upcoming Events
Bunnings Chatswood - BBQ
Jan 24, 2021
 
Quiz Night
Feb 25, 2021
 
View entire list
 
The Rotary Club of Northbridge gratefully acknowledges the generous sponsorship of Northbridge Plaza
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
Michael Bartok
January 4
 
Brian Robson
January 8
 
Denise Woodward
January 13
 
Sally O'Neill
January 13
 
Chris Switzer
January 16
 
Anniversaries
John Turner
Penny
January 2
 
Peter Hodgson
Audrey Hodgson
January 11
 
Don Landers
Shush Landers
January 12
 
Join Date
Bob Edwards
January 22, 1985
36 years
 
John Turner
January 22, 2002
19 years
 
ClubRunner Mobile
President's Message
Kevin Tattrie
member photo
Club Meeting News
 
Welcome:
 
President Kevin welcomed all members to the meeting and our guest speaker Noel Phelan. There were no other guests attending the meeting
 
Toast:
 
Peter McNair gave a toast to the Rotary Club of Merimbula, South Coast NSW. The Club started in 1969 & currently has 40 members. Along with R.C. Bega, Pambula & with a donation from R.C. Northbridge they built a community pavillion in the bush fire ravaged area of Kia.
 
Announcements:
 
President Kevin reminded everyone the importance of complying with the golf club COVID19 rules - 2 to 3 metres spacing when at the bar & stay seated at the dining tables.
 
President Kevin
  • Make a note the Willoughby Girls High School mock interviews will be due soon. Likely these will be done virtually on line.
  • 15th October - Board meeting evening
  • 17th October - Kevin attending special Presidents meeting
  • 24th November - Club committee night
Barry Anderson - Announced he would be visiting Nambucca Heads soon & visiting the local Rotary Club. He is meeting with their Past President to follow up how the community was recovering, after the November 2019 bush fires, & to accept an award from the local council in recognition of our clubs financial help to their community. Barry reminded all that this financial assistance was made possible thanks to community support of the Northbridge Plaza bucket appeal, organised by John Garrett.
 
Sally O’Neill - thanked everyone who had volunteered for the Bunnings BBQ last Sunday. Very successful day raising $1,350.
 
Save the Date
 
StreetWork’s annual fundraising event, the Glam & Grunge Night, is being held on Friday, 25 October. If you would like to attend, or for more information, contact Eleanor Chevor.
 
Guest Speaker
 
Rob Coote introduced Noel Phelan to talk on the The Ted Sheean Story.
Noel gave an excellent presentation on Ted Sheean who was recently posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. No RAN person has received a VC. 50 VC’s were awarded to RN personnel in WW I and 23 in WW II.

Teddy Sheean on HMAS ARMIDALE was the youngest at 18 and the most junior rank – an ordinary seaman and a loader for the OERLIKON anti- aircraft gun. The ship was attacked by 13 Japanese planes attacking from different directions. Two torpedoes hit the ship and the order was given to abandon ship. Teddy helped launch the motorboat then decided to stop the Japanese who were strafing his mates in the water. 
 
The Navy recognized him by naming a COLLINS class submarine HMAS SHEEAN.
The chief of Navy Vice Admiral Michael Noonan AO (RAN) words best describe the actions of Teddy Sheean to support the awarding of the VC.

“Sheean independently decided to forgo his opportunity at survival by not abandoning ship but rather returning to the gun. Despite being wounded enroute, he strapped himself in to shoulder mounts and harness, potentially giving up any chance of survival, and commenced firing the gun at the enemy, shooting down one aircraft and possibly damaging others whilst also attempting to disrupt and distract the enemy aircraft from strafing and killing his defenceless shipmates in the water. He sacrificed his life trying to save his shipmates and despite his severe and possibly fatal wounds he continued firing the gun as the ship slipped under the waves dragging him with it to his grave. Sheean’s actions on that day, 1 December 1942, were absolutely amongst the most conspicuous and most gallant we’ve seen in our Navy.”
Rob thanked Noel for his presentation and presented him with a certificate stating that on his behalf we have given 25 vaccines for polio.
 
Sergeant
 
Kim Wilkins conducted the Sargent sessions
 
 
And now for little bit of humour .....
 
You know you're not living in the 1950s because back then ...
 
Pasta was not eaten in Australia or N.Z.
Curry was a surname. 
A takeaway was a mathematical problem.  
A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower.   
All potato crisps were plain - the only choice we had was whether to put the salt on or not. 
Rice was only eaten as a milk pudding.
Calamari was called squid and we used it as fish bait.
A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining.
Brown bread was something only poor people ate.
Oil was for lubricating, fat was for cooking.    
Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves and never green.
Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sashimi.
None of us had ever heard of yoghurt.
Healthy food consisted of anything edible.
People who didn't peel potatoes were regarded as lazy.
Indian restaurants were only found in India.   
Cooking outside was called camping.
Seaweed was not a recognised food.
"Kebab" was not even a word, never mind a food.  
Prunes were medicinal. Also Castor Oil and Senna Tea.
Surprisingly, muesli was readily available, it was called cattle feed.
Water came out of the tap. If someone had suggested bottling it and charging more than petrol for it, they would have become a laughing stock!!
But the one thing that we never, ever had on our table - Elbows or Phones.
                                                             
If anyone has any jokes or funny stories, feel free to send them to me for the humour section of the Bulletin! 
 
Stories
Northbridge Rotary Community Food Drive 2020
 
 
 
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!”
 
 
Rotary and its GPEI Partners Celebrate Eradication of Wild Polio in Africa
 
 
The World Health Organization (WHO) on 25 August announced that transmission of the wild poliovirus has officially been stopped in all 47 countries of its African region. This is a historic and vital step toward global eradication of polio, which is Rotary’s top priority.
 
After decades of hard won gains in the region, Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) — WHO, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gavi, the vaccine alliance — are proclaiming the milestone an achievement in public health. They offer it as proof that strong commitment, coordination, and perseverance can rid the world of polio.
The certification that the African region is free of wild poliovirus comes after the independent Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) conducted thorough field verifications that confirmed no new cases and analyzed documentation of polio surveillance, immunization, and laboratory capacity by Cameroon, Central African Republic, Nigeria, and South Sudan. The commission had already accepted the documentation of the other 43 countries in the region.
The last cases of polio caused by the wild virus in the African region were recorded in Nigeria’s northern state of Borno in August 2016, after two years with no cases. Conflict, along with challenges in reaching mobile populations, had hampered efforts to immunize children there.
 
Now that the African region is free of wild poliovirus, five of WHO’s six regions, representing more than 90 percent of the world’s population, are now free of the disease. Polio caused by the wild virus is still endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region.
 
The African region’s wild polio-free certification was celebrated during a livestream event. Speakers included Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Bill Gates, Rotary International President Holger Knaack, Nigeria PolioPlus chair Dr. Tunji Funsho, and representatives of other GPEI partners. The celebration was followed by a press conference.
In the program, Knaack spoke about people needing good news during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “The challenges ahead are formidable,” Knaack said. “That’s why we must recognize this great achievement and commend all the people who played important roles in reaching this milestone. It took tremendous effort over many years.”
 
An achievement decades in the making
Not detecting any wild poliovirus in Africa is in stark contrast to the situation in 1996, when 75,000 children there were paralyzed by the disease. That year, at a meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Cameroon, African heads of state committed to eradicating the disease from the continent.
To bolster the effort, also in 1996, Rotary, its GPEI partners, and South African President Nelson Mandela launched the Kick Polio Out of Africa campaign. Using soccer matches and celebrity endorsements, the campaign raised awareness of polio and helped more than 30 African countries to hold their first National Immunization Days. Mandela’s call to action helped mobilize leaders across the continent to increase their efforts to reach every child with polio vaccine.
 
 
Children in Cote d’Ivoire receive oral polio vaccines during an immunization campaign.
 
Since 1996, countless Rotary members from across Africa and around the world have raised funds, immunized children, and promoted vaccinations, enabling the GPEI to respond to and stop polio outbreaks. More than 9 billion doses of oral polio vaccine have been provided throughout the region, preventing an estimated 1.8 million cases of paralysis. Each year, about 2 million volunteers help vaccinate 220 million children against polio multiple times in the African region.
Rotary members have contributed nearly $890 million toward polio eradication efforts in the African region. The funds have allowed Rotary to issue PolioPlus grants to fund polio surveillance, transportation, awareness campaigns, and National Immunization Days.
Dr. Tunji Funsho, chair of Rotary’s Nigeria PolioPlus committee, noted Rotarians’ tremendous contributions to polio eradication efforts in Africa: “From raising funds and immunizing children, to providing ‘polio plusses,’ such as soap and health kits, Rotary members have shown resilience and steadfast dedication to our top priority of ending polio.”
Rotary members have helped build extensive polio infrastructure that has been used to respond to COVID-19 and, in 2014, the Ebola crisis, as well as to protect communities from yellow fever and bird flu.
Challenges still ahead
The GPEI’s challenge now is to eradicate wild poliovirus in the two countries where the disease has never been stopped: Afghanistan and Pakistan. Additionally, routine immunization in Africa must also be strengthened to keep the wild poliovirus from returning and to protect children against circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus, which is rare but continues to infect people in parts of the African region.
To eradicate polio, multiple high-quality immunization campaigns must continue to be given priority. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s necessary to keep children vaccinated against polio while also protecting health workers from COVID-19 and making sure they don’t contribute to its transmission.
Global health officials and experts say that sustained fundraising and advocacy are still crucial, not only to protect gains in Africa, but to reach the ultimate goal of a world without polio. Rotary members still have a critical role to play in keeping the African region free of wild poliovirus and eliminating the virus in the two countries where polio remains endemic.
As Knaack said, “This is a big step in our journey to a polio-free world, but the fight is not over yet. We still need the support of our Rotary members, donors, and heroic effort of health care workers to finish the job.”
Visit endpolio.org to learn more and donate.
 
Published by Rotary International. 25-Aug-2020
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Northbridge Rotary Provides Local and Overseas Disaster Assistance
Local and international humanitarian disasters have become the new norm and the Rotary Club of Northbridge has been involved in assisting wherever possible. Recently COVID-19 has received the bulk of media attention. Before that it was the eastern seaboard drought and bushfires. Then, in April, Cyclone Harold devastated parts of Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga.
 
COVID-19 has considerably reduced Northbridge Rotary’s 2020 fundraising capability, including cancellation of its major fundraiser, the annual fireworks. Prior to this, the Club had raised $29,580 to aid those areas in NSW affected by the bushfires and drought.
 
With some of its remaining funds, the Club has committed $22,500 towards building a Community Pavilion at Kiah on the NSW south coast and repairing gardens around the Boomerang Centre in severely fire-damaged Mogo near Batemans Bay.
 
The Kiah Pavilion was completed 25th July and an official opening is planned for 8 August and we hope some members of Northbridge will be able to attend.
There is a story on the Rotary Club of Merimbula website if you would like to take a look please click on the link below.
 
 
 
Internationally, the Club has been asked to assist in the fight against COVID-19 by the Rotary Club of Kathmandu in Nepal.
Covid-19 cases have increased significantly in Nepal since late May with tens of thousands of migrant workers returning home from India and Nepal commencing a phased reopening in mid-June. 
 
With the assistance of other local Rotary Clubs, Northbridge Rotary has been able to donate $10,000 to help with the purchase of PPE equipment for medical staff, installing hand washing stations in strategic locations and supplying food for orphanages and others in need, as the photo(s)on this page illustrate.
 
Peter Russell
Publicity Director
    
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THE 4 - WAY TEST of the things we say or do

1). Is it the TRUTH?

2). Is it FAIR to all concerned?

3). Will it build GOODWILL & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

4). Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?