Michael Bartok & Therese Stubbs (Reserves: Peter Antaw & Kim Wilkins)
Set up & pack up:
Not required
Speakers & topic:
Visit to Rural Fire Service - Warringah/Pittwater Headquarters, Kamber Road, (off Thompson Drive), Terry Hills @ 6.00 pm
The next meeting on Tuesday, 30 April 2019 will be a visit to the Rural Fire Service, Kamber Road (entry from Thompson Drive), Terry Hills. The RFS will provide us with a sausage sizzle, but please BYOG. Please refer to the email dated 23 April from Club Services for full details of the visit. Arrival time is as per usual - 6.00pm, for 7.00pm. Please bring the dinner fee of $30 in cash, to be collected by the attendance officers. This fee will be donated to the RFS at the end of the evening.
Rotary Club Meeting 23 April 2019
Welcome
In the absence of President Ranald, the meeting was called to order by our acting President for the night, P.P. Peter McNair who welcomed all those present including our guest speaker Lt. Colonel Matt Verzonis Ret and our ADG Ward Pollard.
Announcements
Alan Hesssion proposed a toast to the Rotary Club of Carlingford which was chartered in October 1972 and currently has 42 members. The Club meets weekly on a Tuesday night and overall seems very similar to our Club in its activities except that it runs a weekly event, the North Rocks Market. This is held in the grounds of the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children and involves each member about every 4 or 5 weeks. Money is raised by selling stall sites each week and the event contributes annually over $100,000 to the Club’s Charities Account. The toast was duly honoured by those present.
ADG Ward Pollard advised that P.P. Lindsay May of the Rotary Club of Lane Cove, who has addressed our Club on several occasions regarding various Sydney-Hobart Yacht Races, has recently been elected as District Governor for 2021-2022. He also advised that Rtn Malcolm Nicklin who had been a member of the Rotary Club of North Sydney for over 50 years had died.
Kim Wilkins confirmed that a book sale will be held next Sunday, 28 April 2019 at Northbridge Plaza and he was looking for 2 more volunteers. These slots were immediately filled.
Jon Gidney advised that he had sent an email to all club members with details of the visit by the Club to the RFS HQ at Terrey Hills on 30 April 2019. He also advised that those attending will be charged the normal dinner fee of $30.00 (cash please) which will be donated to the RFS.
Kevin Tattrie advised that the Club had received some good publicity in the latest Taldumande Newsletter in relation to the sponsorship by the Club of people associated with Taldumande to RYLA.
John Garrett confirmed that the visit to the RFS next week involved BYO drinks, both hard and soft. He also reported on his recent visit to Christchurch N.Z. and the praise that was still being directed to Rotary for all the assistance given to the city following the earthquakes of some years ago.
Rob Coote advised that a draft roster for the Fireworks would soon be sent to all members. He is looking for volunteers to sell raffle tickets at Northbridge Plaza on 4 & 11 May.
On behalf of David Hyde, he also advised that in relation to the Grolman Challenge, another block booking had been made for Friday 3 May 2019. He urged all potential blood donors to attend the Chatswood Branch of the Blood Bank on that day at 8.30am.
Guest Speaker - Lt Col Matt Vertzonis, Ret - ANZAC Exhibition and The Western Front
P.P. John Turner introduced our guest speaker, Lt. Col. Matt Vertzonis who as a young man was employed by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and attended University to study economics and finance. He also joined the CMF and over the years rose through the ranks, finally achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He was a member of the CMF for some 40 years and received several awards and commendations for his dedication to the service. At one time he spent some time with the Royal Hong Kong Regiment before Hong Kong was handed over to China. The topic of his address was the recent Anzac Exhibition and the Western Front.
Matt accompanied his address with a power point presentation entitled ‘Spirit of ANZAC – Centenary Experience’. He detailed the conception and production of a travelling exhibition highlighting the activities of the ANZAC soldiers during the First World War from Gallipoli to the Western Front. The exhibition was sponsored by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Telstra. It was assembled a bit like a giant Lego production so that it could be disassembled and moved from site to site in cities and towns throughout Australia and reassembled in a couple of days. The exhibit was in a number of sections, all of which, except one, remained the same throughout the life of the exhibition but one section always focused on the area in which it was then being shown. The exhibition made great use of very many valuable artefacts which were lent by the Australian War Memorial. The exhibition travelled around Australia for two years up to the 11 November 2018, being open to the public on 198 days and being viewed by in excess of 400,000 members of the public.
Matt travelled with the exhibition throughout the two years and now spends his time giving talks to various organisations like us. He concluded his address by showing a number of photographs of the various war cemeteries throughout the French and Belgian countryside in which the bodies of ANZACs are interred and which he visited in 2018 when attending the ANZAC Day service on the Western Front.
On behalf of the Club Matt was appropriately thanked by Mike Cocks.
Sergeant's Session
Sergeant Eleanor Chevor relieved us of all our change and Michael Bartok won the raffle. The meeting closed with a rendition of the National Anthem lead by Mike Cocks.
Saturday May 11 will celebrate the annual community fireworks event organised by the Rotary Club of Northbridge.
Over the past 32 years, community support and attendance at this event has grown to more than 4000 and funds raised will go toward helping local disadvantaged youth and people at risk.
Gates open at the Northbridge Oval, Sailors Bay Road, at 4pm with live music provided by Northbridge and Cammeray Public Schools and Willoughby Girls High School.
There will be rides and other entertainment for the children, including face-painting; hot food from the Rotary BBQ, ice creams, fairy floss, cold drinks and coffee will be available. The highlight of the evening will be a spectacular fireworks display at 7 pm.
MC for the occasion is voice over artiste Jake Downs whose father John Downs, a previous President of the Rotary Club, was the first MC 32 years ago!
We wish to extend an invitation to all families to come along; support a great cause, and enjoy a great night out! Bring a picnic basket and a rug and enjoy the fantastic community atmosphere.
Funds raised by Northbridge Rotary via a bucket appeal at Northbridge Plaza have been put to good use as reported below.
During Tropical Cyclone Debbie in 2017, the Sarina Range in Queensland experienced a massive landslide that effectively cut off 16 families (30 students) from the school campus. Education Queensland quickly established accommodation for the isolated students. However, suddenly and rather traumatically, the 30 students and their families had to adjust to changed life circumstances, grief and loss, separation from their previous school community and increased cost of living to travel extended distances to access shops, doctors, workplaces and other social supports such as scouts, sporting activities and dance.
This project, funded by the Northbridge Rotary Club totalling $3255, provided support for children’s skill development (swimming classes) and social interaction with peers at Inter school athletic activities. These monies paid for bus services to transport children between schools, then on to the swim classes and their athletics carnival. Without this grant the school, P&C and students would have been financially disadvantaged and unable to provide the access and learning opportunities that were offered to the students at the temporary accommodation.
Outcome measure evaluation: The project success was measured through the implementation of the project plan within the time frame below.
May 2018: 24 children and 8 parents affected attended that inter-school athletics event at Sarina State School. The children participated in all events and several children were successful in securing places in the district events.
December 2018: 30 students from the Range campus attended all school swim classes held at the Sarina Swimming Pool over a seven- week period. These children were transported by bus and participated in classes with other students as well as attending their swim classes through the day. All students passed the required water safety standard requirement for their age.
Full acquittal of funds occurred in January 2019 for the bus services that took students between their accommodation, school and swimming.
The Rotary Club of Sarina and the Swayneville State School students, parents, teachers and community are thankful to the Northbridge Rotary Club and Townsville District 9550 Disaster Management grants that facilitated the social, and emotional well-being of these school children, alleviated a potentially onerous financial burden on the P&C and parents who were already financially disadvantaged. Your financial and club support has provided joy, growth, opportunities, personal development, pride, skill and water safety in all the children of the Swayneville State School Campus. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
The Rotary Club of Northbridge is building on their long-standing support of youth with expanding support across 6 different youth specific, leadership and experience focus programs. The outcomes of these programs continue to motivate the club to build on these programs with increased support.
Among these programs are high school leadership, science, engineering and experience programs. One of these programs is RYPEN (Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment) aimed at year 9 & 10 who want to build their confidence and self-esteem. RYPEN provides young people the opportunity to build leadership potential, encourages them to explore their ideas in problem solving, team activities, and experiences that will assist them in forming their own values. RYPEN is about building confidence and developing skills to cope in a range of situations. The Rotary club of Northbridge has doubled it’s support of this amazing program from sponsoring 4 awardees each of the last 2 years to 8 awardees this 18/19 year. Follow this link https://rotarydistrict9685.org.au/page/rypen for more information about RYPEN.
Another program worthy of mention is the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA). RYLA is a transformational leadership program designed for young adults aged 18-27. This intensive program over 7 days, enabling leadership to grow and develop to its full potential. RYLA combines amazing Australian speakers with activities and challenges in a supportive environment. Unlike other programs, RYLA has a focus on practical hands-on opportunities testing leadership in a controlled environment. The RYLA program is unique in linking outcomes to self-improvement with considered reflection; building a better leader with the necessary skills for improving their leadership as they move forward in life. RYLA is run annually, with close to 90 candidates in Elanora Heights, on Sydney's Northern beaches; the Rotary Club of Northbridge has sponsored 9 RYLA awardees over the last 3 years. Follow this link http://d9685ryla.org.au/ for more information about RYPEN.
The Rotary Club of Northbridge is also supporting the initiation of the North Sydney Rotaract Club; a new Rotaract Club which is a driven community of young professionals aged 20-30 who are committed to creating social change in their community whilst developing as leaders. The inaugural meeting is scheduled for February 20th and the following links are available for further information.
The life changing effects of these sponsored Youth programs continues to motivate our club and members support; the Rotary Club of Northbridge will continue a focus on our local Youth and our leaders of tomorrow as one of the most rewarding areas where we support our community.
