Rob Hines (Chairman) presented certificates of appreciation from Ban Baum Aor school in Laos to both Rod Fraser and President Roy on behalf of RCCMS, following the success of our joint “Your Own Two Hands” project in Laos to renovate school facilities.
Rod spoke of the history of his and RCCM’s involvement over the past 5 years and detailed the support provided to several primary schools and high schools. Such support has come in the form of substantially rebuilding accommodation, classrooms and sanitary facilities to assist children in remote villages in Laos to attend school.
Announcements:
- Neil Salvano thanked members for their support of the Community Village
- Greg Cuthbert updated members on behalf of the Fundraising Committee of the success of the Garden DesignFest. Over $116k had been raised from more than 3,000 visitors, including $25k from Euroa gardens. Greg thanked all Garden Captains for making the initiative a success.
- Gerard Hogan sought a volunteer to be the support musician for our coming Xmas function
- Tony Thomas reminded members to provide spices for the green Xmas bags.
Directors Report:
George Mackay presented the Director’s Report for Youth Services, outlining the activities conducted in the past months and funding of $12,850 for current projects:
• Meeting (Tony Fritsche) held with James Reade, Chief of Staff for the former Minister for Youth Affairs. James is, among other things, a potential recruit
• Attended the National Youth Science Forum induction event at International House
• Two students sponsored, in conjunction with VicPolice Legacy, to the October RYPEN camp
• Application for a District Grant for 2015 Silk-Miller Scholar submitted (Mik/Kerstin)
• Our Silk-Miller scholar (Liz Toffoletti) is performing very well.
• Silk-Miller Scholarship selection process for 2015 is underway (Tom)
• Rotary Youth Leadership Award candidate selected (Juanita Fewkes) for the 30 November camp
• Engaged with Euan Miller and the G’daySA/Rotary Foundation initiative to mentor overseas university students:
• Snezhana Nikitina (Russia)
• Sabbir Mamud (Bangladesh).
Presidents Report:
President Roy spoke in relation to the Community Village project and thanked all participating members for their support. Feedback from young patrons was very supportive. Roy also spoke of the recent Police legacy function and the family spirit that exuded from Police members.
Guest Speaker – Kevin Love “Making a difference - Rotary's School Projects in Laos”
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Following the presentations received from Ban Baum Aor school, our member Kevin Love gave the club a colourful report and slide show of his and Veronica’s experiences having just returned from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos where they attended a ceremony at Ban Heuthao village to officially open the school.
Kevin and Veronica also inspected the school at Ban Baum Aor village, site of this year's project.
Kevin described the remote setting for each village, including the 4WD track they needed to travel to reach the villages. The villages are each located in forested locations where the main income was from river fishing, a developing tourism industry and forestry-related activity. Income and resources are very limited.
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Children often had to cross a large river in small paddle boats in order to reach the school.
Kevin advised that the entire village held extensive celebrations to thank all for the support provided to substantially improve the respective school facilities. In an official opening ceremony Kevin handed the key to each facility to the Deputy Governor of the Province who in turn handed the key to the school.
The renovation work at each school included construction of toilets, reconstruction of dilapidated classrooms and restocking the schools with teaching material.
In bringing the meeting to a close, Rob Hines also spoke of the fundraising activities of the CEO Circle in partnership with Rotary, including a golf day on 12th March at Riversdale Golf Club. Funds raised from the CEO Circle contributed significantly to the Laos school projects.
This is the second year of this project lead by our Community Services team, Whilst most of us take the joy of gift giving and receiving for Christmas for granted, these 120 special people may enjoy it for the first time. 
Bob Nield, past president of Canberra Sunrise Rotary Club, dropped in on our December 2 meeting.
As in past years we have a Christmas Hamper project, to provide useful food items to people in our community less fortunate than ourselves..jpg)
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