Grace Davidson: Inspiring a generation of social justice advocates

Grace Davidson joined Rotary Central Melbourne in February this year. She is the National Schools Engagement Manager at The Salvation Army (Australia) and currently serves on RCM’s Youth Service Committee.

Grace has been involved in several local and international roles that fuel her passion for education and development. For the last five years, she has led the Salvation Army’s social justice education programs. Her work involves facilitating opportunities for students of all ages to safely discuss social justice challenges in Australia. Students are encouraged to challenge stereotypes, given the tools to respond to hardship and empowered to advocate for social justice.

In her member talk, Grace will share more about her journey to Rotary and her work with the Salvation Army. She will give a brief insight into a popular ‘Salvos Schools’ workshop that explores homelessness in Melbourne and some experiences in response to the pandemic.

President Announcements

Rohan encouraged all members wanting to attend our Changeover on Friday 30th June and haven’t yet booked to register via Humanitix this week as we need to finalize numbers for Studley Grounds. 

Our outgoing and incoming District Governors will be attending as will the incoming Assistant Governor.

Our next Meeting will be an in-person meeting at the RACV City Club on Tuesday 20th June. 

The speaker will be Grace Davidson, who will share more about her journey to Rotary and her work with the Salvation Army. 

Please register for the meeting using the Humanitix link in the Calendar and the Bulletin.

President Rohan closed to meeting reminded those present “Let’s continue to do what we can to make our world a little kinder and happier.”

Contributor ; Frank O’Brien

Some 6 years ago, as our Club was desperately looking for ongoing fundraising avenues (the era of the Charity Auctions was passing), as Incoming President, I wanted an ongoing Income Stream....so with the support of Director Fundraising, Herb Greenwood, and ‘never say never’ Peter Duras, away we went.

Well, we started selling sausages at Bunnings Port Melbourne in July 2017 and at Bunnings Collingwood on Sunday 18 February 2018, both within the City of Melbourne confines.

Most Members have got on board and it’s been one hell of a ride!! We’ve never missed a rostered date and we’ve accepted extra dates via cancellations. We’ve worked in the heat (36'C once or twice) and the cold (with the Winter winds) and once our day was abruptly stopped by a deluge at Collingwood which caused the underground Car Park to flood and lead to many vehicles being written off.....and we’ve missed many opportunities because of Covid 19 imposed closures.

So now it’s time to record the fact that last month we passed the $100k in profit from Bunnings Sausage Sizzles since inception. We’ve grown annual profit from $10k in the first year to over $25k this year. And with the recent Bunnings determined price increase for a “Sausage & Onion”, it won’t take another 6 years to make the next $100k in profit.

Thanks everyone (and Bunnings) for supporting this venture which has turned out to be the “engine room” of our Fundraising efforts and one which provides fellowship opportunities at no cost but time to our Members.