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PRESIDENTS
MESSAGE
 A
big thank you to all the members and partners, children who
helped last Sunday building and laying pavers, weeding gardens at
Lake Placid for Kim, the lady in the wheelchair who has six daughters
to look after with her husband Terry. It was a very rewarding project
and one the family certainly did appreciate what our club had done
for them.
Tuesday evening March 16th Cairns
West Club are hosting a YEP evening 6.30pm for 7pm at the Holiday
Inn. They are asked to wear something green for St. Patrick’s Day.
The Red Shield Appeal is on
May 22-23. We will be looking for drivers in all area for that weekend.
Sunrise Club are organizing RYLA
28th July to 31st July. If any businesses have staff or know
of any people who may want to attend this weekend, please let me
know.
Anzac day 25th April will once
again see our club meeting with Cairns Club for the dawn service
on the Esplanade followed by a BBQ breakfast on the lagoon BBQ facilities.
Our Zone Assembly is on 21st March
2004 at Brothers Leagues Club. This is very informative for
all members and new members so make a note of this date. Registration
is 8.15am to 8.45am. It finishes at 3.30pm.
Friday 19th March Mr. Phil Dempster
is our guest speaker. District Governor Mr Mike Rennie will
also be our guest on that day.
I have details for accommodation for
any members wishing to book accommodation in Chicago for
the Centenary of Rotary 18 to 22 June 2005. 
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| Graham tells tales about our early bulletins |
Mayor Kevin Byrne recently addressed the
club |
President Robyn
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Rotary 4-Way Test
1.
Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
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Our
Paul Harris Fellows
Rotarians
Sandy Astill, Max Bryant, Graham Cossins,
David Court, Jeff Crofts, Rupert Crossland, Herman Ehrlich, Bob
Fowler, Col Koppen, Bernie Mullins, Jim Watson, Denise Mitchell,
David Kirchner,
Honorary
Members
Ted Elliot OAM, Brian Fowler, Beres
McKeown, Bernie Mullins, Les Trevenan
Past Club
Members
Geoff Canton
Non
Rotarians
Christine FairbrotherMargaret Jarvis
Geoff GuestLou Piccone Lionel Williamson
No
Nursing Home For Me
I am checking into the Holiday
Inn!
With the average cost for a nursing
home per day reaching $188.00 there is a better way when we get
old and feeble.
I have already checked on reservations
at the Holiday Inn. For a combined long term stay discount and senior
discount, it’s $49.23 per night.
That leaves $138.77 a day for:
1. Breakfast, lunch and dinner in
any restaurant I want, or room service.
2. Laundry, gratuities and special TV movies. Plus, they provide
a swimming pool, a workout room, a lounge, washer, dryer, etc
3. Most have free toothpaste and razors, and all have free shampoo
and soap
4. They treat you like a customer, not a patient.
5. $5.00 worth of tips a day will have the entire staff scrambling
to help you.
6. There is a city bus stop out front, and seniors ride free.
7. The handicap bus will also pick you up (if you fake a decent
limp).
To meet other nice people, call a church
bus on Sundays. For a change of scenery, take the airport shuttle
bus and eat at one of the nice restaurants there. While you’re at
the airport, fly somewhere. Otherwise, the cash keeps building up.
It takes moths to get into decent nursing
homes. Holiday Inn will take your reservation today. And you can
move from Inn to Inn, or even from city to city. Want to see Hawaii?
They have a Holiday Inn there too.
TV broken? Light bulbs need changing?
Need a mattress replaced? No problem. They fix everything, and apologize
for the inconvenience.
The Inn has a night security person
and daily room service. The maid checks to see if you are ok. If
not, they will call the undertaker or an ambulance. If you fall
and break a hip, Medicare will pay for the hip, and Holiday Inn
will upgrade you to a suite for the rest of your life.
And no worries about visits from family.
They will always be glad to find you, and probably check in for
a few days mini vacation. The grandkids can use the pool. What more
can you ask for?
So, when I reach the golden age I’ll
face it with a grin.
From Ted Elliott
Donydji
gets a schoolhouse and keeps its traditions
by Eric Drayton
Past President Rotary Club of Keilor East, Vic.
Pic and story from Rotary Down Under February 2004
Three years ago, Past President Bruce
Cameron, of the Rotary Club of Keilor East, at a meeting with Doctor
Neville White and research scholar Heidi Lehmann, discussed the
raising of funds to assist Aboriginal communities in North- East
Arnhem Land.
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The Old Schoohouse
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Through Latrobe University in Melbourne,
Vic., Dr. White had established a program 30 years ago to help these
communities become sustainable and independent. Later discussions
between PP Bruce and Heidi Lehmann led to a project by the Rotary
Club of Keilor East to build a schoolhouse/community hall for an
isolated community at Donydji, which is 650km east of Katherine
in the Northern Territory.
Heidi Lehmann had worked for some time
with this community and had a fondness for the people. The elders
are determined to maintain traditional values, to promote education
and employment and to avoid large-town harmful effects on their
youth. The community’s schoolhouse was a tarpaulin over poles and
as such useless in wind and rain. A teacher travels by air from
Shepherdson College at Galwinku, Elcho Island, once a week.
Northern Territory Government MP Sid
Stirling indicated that the government did not have enough money
to fund all remote communities, but the government would pay the
cost of full-time education there if got a schoolhouse.
Past President Gerard Smith, of the
Rotary Club of Keilor East, is an architect. He prepared drawings
for a new cyclone-proof building, with input from Dr. White and
the local community. An ultimate quotation was for $A48,000. Bruce
developed a business and a timing plan to begin fund raising. Rotary
Club donations included Keilor East ($10,000), Melbourne ($5,000)
and Moonee Valley ($250). Companies in the Northern Territory and
Victoria made donations as did individual Rotarians from Keilor
East and friends.
Materials were sent by sea from Darwin
to Nhulunbuy and on to Dondyji by semi-trailer through dense bush.
A team of volunteers to erect the building, composed of Rotarians,
partners and friends, was assembled to travel the 4,300km to Dondyji.
Travel, accommodation, food supplies, tools, a generator and other
equipment were divided among the four-wheel drive vehicles.
Then disaster struck. Before the team
departed, a helicopter owned by Nabalco flying over Dondyji crashed,
killing four people. One was a Dondyji elder and traditional ceremonies
were organised by the community. The team was asked to delay departure
for some months. Many of the original volunteers could not re-arrange
leave to attend.
Nabalco had supported the project and
offered to organise tradespeople to erect the building at its cost.
The offer was gratefully accepted, and a re-constituted volunteer
team went in three months later to paint the erected building, to
install some teaching equipment and officially hand over the building.
The project had support from the N.T. Government, Gove Industrial
Supplies, Nabalco, Woodside Energy and N.T. community groups. The
Rotary Club of Katherine lent support with ladders and wheelbarrows.
The project attracted publicity in
the N.T. Many Aboriginal communities live in unsatisfactory conditions
lacking toilets, water and power. Fourth Avenue in Motion (FAIM)
cannot help because its concern is with countries outside Australia.
Perhaps we need an Australian Rotary body to give support to remote
Aboriginal communities who need help?
This project showed that the members
of the Rotary Club of Keilor East do care and they have Sown the
Seeds of Love', and know how to Lend a Hand. The club is now looking
to furnishings and further teaching aids for the school.
Victorian
club is soundly behind the summer game
Pic and story from Rotary Down Under
February 2004
The Victorian Blind Cricket Association's
2003/04 season is under way with a generous donation from the Rotary
Club of Moorleigh-Bentleigh East, Vic. The club donated $A540 to
buy audible balls.
Slightly larger than conventional cricket
balls, they are white and enclose a metal washer that emits sound
through holes. Cricket Association President Martin Stewart said
the donation assured the competition of a season’s supply of balls.
“It may not seem like a lot of money,
but in the context of what we were able to buy, if we don’t have
balls, we don’t have a game,’’ Mr. Stewart said. Rotary Club of
Moorleigh-Bentleigh East’s Past President Philip Hedley bowled the
first ball of the season’s opening match, St. Paul’s versus Braille
Melbourne.
A social cricket player, PP Philip
has a healthy respect for blind cricket. Orange metal wickets, an
under-arm bowling action and an audible ball are the few differences
between blind cricket and the mainstream game.
“The players have mastered a sport
which most sighted people find difficult,’’ Mr. Hedley said. The
Victorian Blind Cricket Association fields six teams of partially
and totally blind players as part of its domestic season from October
to March.
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