President Peter welcomed all club members and our two guest speakers, Dr Simon Eggleton and Glynn Ianno, as well as the 8 members of The Show Ponies. He also welcomed DG Ward Pollard, Penny Lye, Marillyn Stewart, Audrey Hodgson and Pam Clifford.
Toast
Luke Keighery gave a toast to the Rotary Club of Dili Lafaek in Timor Leste. The club was chartered in 2016 to provide a transition pathway from Rotaract to Rotary for young indigenous Timorese. The club focuses on health and hygiene and partners with us in the Ermera water project.
Announcements
Next Tuesday’s planned visioning meeting has been postponed to a later date which will enable Ranald Stewart, who is co-ordinating it, to travel to Wellington. Instead, Peter Fehon is going to speak on the topic of Mental Health in 2019, and with former Northbridge Rotarian and honorary member Ross Alexander, they will speak about their work together with the Prostate Cancer Rally and Beyond Blue.
The next group blood donation for the Grolman Challenge is scheduled for Saturday, 2 November at the Chatswood Blood Bank. Please contact David Hyde (david.hyde@mc2wealth.com.au) for further information or to have him book you in.
A reminder to bring to next week’s meeting any spare toiletry items you may have to donate which we are collecting for Taldumunde. Members have been generous so far, but if you have items which are surplus to requirements please bring them in as they can be given to young people coming into Taldumunde’s service. They will take toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, razors, etc.
President's Message
On Tuesday we had a mix up in bookings which resulted in a great night at Rotary.
The night will be reported elsewhere in the bulletin but I would like to comment from my perspective. We had a full room of 52 Rotarians and guests and were treated to an outstanding presentation by local cardiologist Dr Simon Eggleton and a wonderful performance by the Show Ponies.
Simon clearly showed how the heart operated and what could go wrong and the many available solutions. He reasonably claimed credit as a supporter of Rotary given that there were many former patients in the room still contributing to the good works of our Club.
Performing for us after Simon was Glynn and the Show Ponies. They gave a mimed musical dance performance with brilliant costumes and enthusiasm that was very uplifting. Glynn has a long and proud history in dance and was awarded a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Club of Roseville Chase having raised over a $1M for various charities. We also saw our own Show Pony, Peter Russell, perform brilliantly. Rotary brings together such a wonderful array of people and their passions.
October is Mental Health Month on the Rotary Calendar and worldwide Rotary has the theme to ‘Lift the Lid on Mental Illness’. Next week, fellow Rotarian Peter Fehon will present ‘Mental Health in 2019’. It will feature his involvement with Beyond Blue and the Beyond the Bitumen Car Rally.
The Visioning exercise, which was programmed for next week and is being championed by Ranald, will be put on another night. Conveniently, that will allow Ranald to join the Rotary group visiting Wellington.
On Thursday night your Board had its October meeting, my last Board meeting as President. The main item on the agenda was the bucket appeal over this weekend. It was affirmed that we want to alleviate the effects of the drought on both farmers as well as their communities. We have a wonderful relationship with Wellington Rotary but depending on the amount of money raised we will seek to apply funds to other communities impacted by the relentless drought covering such a wide area of our state. The meeting also highlighted that the appeal and our undertaking to donors is to direct funds to support drought affected communities and not to other issues afflicting country towns, such as poverty and drug addiction.
Peter Antaw
Guest Speakers - Dr Simon Eggleton
and Glynn Ianno
Dr Simon Eggleton
Ranald Stewart introduced guest speaker Dr Simon Eggleton. Dr Eggleton is a Northbridge local. He graduated from the University of New South Wales with Honours in 1999 and completed his postgraduate cardiology training in 2006. In 2007 he completed a Cardiac Imaging Fellowship at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney with a specific emphasis on transoesophageal echocardiography and also Cardiac CT at Cardiac Imaging Associates.
Dr Eggleton spoke about the various aspects of the heart and heart disease – atherosclerosis, angina, heart attacks - and the various advances in treatment of heart disease. Simon also spoke about the work he has been doing in East Timor. They take equipment to East Timor to treat patients with rheumatic heart disease, untreated congenital heart disease and other problems. Some patients are sent back to Australia for treatment and surgery but sadly some die young from easily treated diseases which have been left untreated for too long.
John Garrett thanked Simon for his inspiring and enlightening talk, and for telling us about the advances in the treatment of heart disease. He thanked him too for the work that he is doing in East Timor.
Glynn Ianno
Peter Russell introduced Glynn Ianno. Glynn is a former professional dancer who has directed amateur theatre and parent reviews at schools.
Glynn has performed in the West End and elsewhere and taught dance at Port Macquarie and in Sydney as well as having choreographed school and local dance performances. She has worked with the Rotary Club of Roseville Chase to raise money for many different charities and was awarded a Paul Harris Fellow for having raised over $1m through shows she has produced.
Glynn spoke about her life as a performer. She worked in the past as an Entertainment Officer on P & O ships. In 1994 she took a show to Merriwa to raise funds for drought relief.
Glynn and her troupe, The Show Ponies, of which our own Peter Russell is a part, travel to nursing homes and retirement villages on the North Shore to perform songs and dances from the 1940s, 1950s & 1960s in a cabaret style performance to entertain the residents.
Glynn and her troupe of Show Ponies – Margaret Sproule, Marilyn Johnston, Louise Smith, Loretta Davies, Rochelle Rayleigh, Rosemary Price, Neil Morrison & Peter Russell – then gave us a very entertaining performance of their song and dance routines.
Fay Petrou thanked Glynn for her informative talk and for The Show Ponies’ most entertaining performance. She also congratulated Glynn on her outstanding years of fundraising.
DID YOU KNOW
The Pride of Workmanship Award Program was first introduced by the Club under the presidency of Ross Alexander in the year 1987-1988. Awards have been presented every year since then with only two exceptions. Since the awards were introduced a total of 116 individuals and joint awardees have been so honoured, including our own Sally O’Neill. In 1989-1990 the program was extended to include the presentation of Community Service Awards. Since that introduction a total of 30 awards have been presented to worthy recipients, including our own Doug Herridge, Malcolm Lye, Syd Grolman, Peter McNair and Rob Coote.
A fleeing Taliban terrorist, desperate for water, was plodding through the Afghan desert when he saw something far off in the distance. Hoping to find water, he hurried toward the mirage, only to find a very frail little old man, standing at a small makeshift display rack, selling ties.
The Taliban terrorist asked, "Do you have water?"
The man replied, "I have no water. Would you like to buy a tie? They are only $5."
The Taliban shouted hysterically, "Idiot Infidel! I do not need such an overpriced western adornment. I spit on your ties. I need water!"
"Sorry, I have none, just ties - pure silk, and only $5."
"Pahh! A curse on your ties! I should wrap one around your scrawny little neck and choke the life out of you but . . . I must conserve my energy and find water!"
"Okay," said the little old man. "It does not matter that you do not want to buy a tie from me or that you hate me, threaten my life and call me infidel. I will show you that I am bigger than any of that. If you continue over that hill to the east for about two miles, you will find a restaurant. It has the finest food and all the ice-cold water you need. Go In Peace."
Cursing him again, the desperate Taliban staggered away, over the hill. Several hours later, he crawled back, almost dead, and said "They won't let me in without a tie".
If anyone has any jokes or funny stories, feel free to send them to me for the humour section of the Bulletin! Email them to helen.gulson@ozemail.com.au
