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Rotary Central Melbourne online morning meeting Tuesday, 11 June 2024 Reporter: Rohan Williams Photographer: Roger Thornton Chair: Sarah Overton President Michelle Crawford opened the meeting by welcoming all present including Francesco Fedele then acknowledged the traditional custodians of the lands of the attendees. President Michelle proposed a toast to Rotary International then invited the Service Directors to share the achievements and impacts of the service activities completed in 2023/24. Community Service – Rebecca John - Distributed clothing donated by Caprice to charities – thank you Peter Duras and Frank O’Brien
- Donated toiletries and a commercial washing machine to the Youth Projects Living Room in the CBD – thank you Peter and Sue Duras
- Donated 110 sleeping bags Youth Projects and the St Mary’s House of Welcome in Fitzroy – thank you Tom Callander, Peter Duras, Neville John and the members who contributed
- Donated 100 Christmas hampers to Concern Australia & Uniting Lentara – thank you to the members who contributed
- TAL Insurance employees donated 52 Christmas gifts via the “Tree of Joy” initiative to children supported by Concern Australia and Uniting Lentara
- Donated $700 to Australian Rotary Health via the “Lift the Lid” initiative – thank you to the members who contributed
- RIMERN working bees and goods donations – thank you to Rohan Williams for coordinating, Roger Thornton & Alan Seale for making cutting boards and tables, Paul Fowler for facilitating a very generous donation from the Gailey-Lazarus Foundation and the members who volunteered and donated goods
- Held an Iftar Dinner of Friendship with a $7,500 City of Melbourne grant – thank you to Michelle Crawford, Rana Ebrahimi, Alan Seale and Rhys Williams
- Joined Landcare Victoria for one of its Phillip Island tree planting days – thank you to Kevin Love and the members who volunteered
- Donated 9 second hand mobile phones to women supported the Domestic Violence Safe Phone program – thank you Tom Callander
- Met with Orygen Assist, St Mary’s House of Welcome and the Father Bob Foundation as part of our community needs assessment
Vocational Service – Ignacio Inchausti - VicPol Leadership Mentoring Program – thank you Kevin Love, John Ilott and Kerrie Hicks
- Belonging Matters – thanks for Warwick who has found paid positions for people with disabilities
- Hosted Mia Fornasaro (physiotherapist from Italy) as part of New Generations Service Exchange
- Ambulance Victoria Mentoring Program in hiatus – need to reach out to Ambulance Victoria if we want to revive
- International Student Mentoring Program in hiatus after we ended partnership with MentorMatch due to misaligned objectives
- A blue sky session will be arranged to review community needs and re-energize our Vocational Service activities
Youth Service – Rhys Williams - Sponsored 2 students from Casey Grammar on the Rotary Model United Nations Assembly – thank you to Neville John
- Sponsored 6 students from disadvantaged families supported by Concern Australia via the Bernie Gerlinger Concern Australia Hope for the Future Scholarships – thank you to Kevin Love
- Sponsored a VicPol officer in undertaking a university course about adolescent mental health via the Silk Miller Scholarship - thank you to Doug Robertson who arranged partial funding from the University of Melbourne and a District 9800 grant and will assess the impact of this activity
- Arranged for VicPol Legatees to tour Vietnam – thank you to Rob Hines and World of Difference
- Developing a partnership with St Aloysius College in North Melbourne to potentially sponsor students for Rotary Youth programs and the Wolfgang Jacob Science Scholarships
International Service – Cecily Neil - Opened Laos school library with the next phase to fit out the library with computers – thank you to Roy Garrett, Rob Hines and World of Difference
- Commenced construction of 130 toilets and wash rooms for a Cambodian village to provide every house with a toilet and washroom – thank you to Rob Hines who has coordinated funding from Rotary International and multiple clubs
- Evaluated the impact of the South Sudan Menstrual Health & Hygiene project – thank you Ariik Mawien
- Sponsoring and tutoring children from severely disadvantaged families via the Vietnam Foundation Build - thank you Roy Garrett and Fleur Maidment
- Delivered SkyHydrants to Philippines which unfortunately weren’t installed correctly as the local Rotary club wasn’t aware of what was required and currently waiting on Disaster Aid Australia to advise what is required to correctly install SkyHydrants
- Continued to support the work of the Donation In Kind warehouse at West Footscray
Chair Sarah Overton thanked the Service Directors then invited Member Announcements: - Neville John reminded members of the Bunnings Collingwood (Saturday) and Port Melbourne (Sunday) sausage sizzles this weekend
- Sarah Overton reminded members to book for Changeover and requested a member to volunteer as Greeter
President Michelle thanked Sarah for chairing the meeting whilst commuting around the northern suburbs and made the following President's Announcements: - SAG Meeting Tomorrow night
- Board meeting on Wednesday 19th June
- Thanked Service Directors for their leadership of their committees and sharing progress
President Michelle closed the meeting with a quote from Bradley Whitford: “Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope.” |
