May

Gayle Plunkett Birthday 4th May
David Kirchner Birthday 13th May
Bernie Mullins Birthday 15th May
Jim Watson Birthday 27th May
Ian Brauman Anniversary 1st May
Chris Winn Anniversary 26th
Jim Watson Anniversary 27th
Garry Shirvington Anniversary 31st

Recent Photographs

President's Message

Need help? Ask your Rotarian brother

Australian rotary health research fund

The Rotary Club of Tamworth West, N.S.W

PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

No message this week

Two Events Lifeline's Passion For Life Fashion Event Sunday June 6th at 3pm Brothers Leagues Club An amazing parade with comedian 'Effie' from Greeks on the Roof and Acropolis Now as MC. A great fun afternoon - with heaps of giveaways Tickets are $40 and all proceeds are donated to Lifeline for services in our local area. Passion For Life Gala Pink and Black Ball and Charity Auction Saturday June 26th Hilton Cairns Fabulous food, interstate band Abbey Road, Dance Agency floorshow and auction with Peter Roggenkamp. Tickets are $90 and all proceeds are also donated to Lifeline for servivce in our local area. Tables of 10 are available. Would like to get a Rotary table at each event - or maybe 2! Please let Sandy know ASAP as tickets are already selling.

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 Fairbrother
Harold Falge
Margaret Jarvis
Geoff Guest
Lou Piccone
Lionel Williamson

Need help? Ask your Rotarian brother
. . but wait there’s more
by Vallis Peet
Past President
Rotary Club of Terrace End, N.Z.

When Carol and Colin Markwell were teaching at the M.C. Campbell School on Kirakira in the Solomon Islands they soon found that dictionaries were needed.

Colin Markwell contacted his brother Bruce, of the Rotary Club of Terrace End in Palmerston North, N.Z., for help to supply 24 dictionaries for the school. The request went to the club’s youth and international committee, which decided to adopt the school as the major project for the 2002-03 Rotary year. Maurice Marshment, a committee member, had owned a bookshop and still had business connections. The club bought 24 Collins School Dictionaries, paying for them from proceeds of the sergeant-at-arms sessions.

The club also sought donations of stationery, sports equipment such as tennis balls and plastic playing balls to add to the consignment. The lot was shipped to Whenuapai Air Base, near Auckland, where the N.Z. Air Force bases the Hercules freighter squadron. The NZAF flies to the Solomons frequently and offers a free service to organisations, such as Rotary, sending materials there.

Later Colin and Carol Markwell holidayed in New Zealand and addressed Terrace End Rotarians, describing working conditions and how lack of basic materials hampered teaching. Next a supply of surplus school journals was donated by a local primary school and this was added to purchased materials to make a second consignment of 10 cartons. When this arrived safely in Kirakira the Markwells relayed an appeal from the Kirakira Kindergarten School for teaching materials suitable for pre-schoolers.

The kindergarten, attached to FM Campbell School, has more than 80 children enrolled. Initially a list of requisites comprised 10 sheets with at least 20 items on each. The kindergarten was asked to refine the list to top priorities and the club was given the challenge of supplying a selection of toys, books, fabric, colouring books and crayons. Alan Caddick, from the club’s youth and international committee, went shopping for the supplies.

By chance, he came across a fun auction, sold off the lot at double the cost price of each item and went back to the stores to purchase more items. This consignment arrived in Honiara and now Terrace End Rotarians are waiting to hear what further supplies are needed.

Australian rotary health research fund
The year in review

John Ranieri

Chairman,
Australian Rotary Health Research Fund
Rotary Club of Kalamunda, W.A.
District 9470 Past Governor
Chairman of the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund.

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.’’ Unfortunately I can’t claim this pearl of wisdom as my own, as it was stated by Ralph Waldo Emerson. But regardless of its author, this truism is certainly applicable to the work of the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund (ARHRF).

Rotarians have shown, and continue to show, enormous enthusiasm for the ARHRF. In 2002-03 contributions rose to $A1,123,736, up just over 10 per cent on the previous 12 months. The ARHRF has now distributed almost $9 million to medical researchers in Australia since 1985.

The ARHRF is recognised as one of the largest independent medical research funds in the country. This year, $791,629 has been shared by 14 research projects and recipients of six postgraduate scholarships (Ian Scott Fellowships) and one postdoctoral scholarship (the Royce Abbey Postdoctoral Fellowship).

In addition, thanks to a new funding initiative known as Funding Partners which involves partnerships with Rotary clubs, Districts or universities to fund research outside the ARHRF’s current research focus area of mental health, four PhD scholarships have been awarded, as well as a one-year research project grant. Further information about Funding Partners is on the following pages.

The Indigenous Health Scholarship scheme is now being supported in almost every state and territory, and the enthusiasm for the ARHRF’s community mental health forums continues unabated. More than 270 community and youth forums have been held, attracting an estimated audience of 33,000. The community forums organised by Probus which began last year, are also proving popular.

During the past 12 months, the ARHRF adopted the national Bowelscan program as an official ARHRF program, and introduced the inaugural ARHRF Medal. Four people have been recognised for extraordinary contributions to the ARHRF. They are mental health advocate Fay Jackson, Professor Michael Sawyer, District 9810 Past Governor Fred Hay, of the Rotary Club of Waverley, Vic., and Past President Loch Adams of the Rotary Club of Moorabbin, Vic.

In future there will be only one recipient of the ARHRF Medal each year. The past 12 months also saw a changing of the guard in terms of the ARHRF board. We said goodbye to immediate past chairman and retired director District 9690 Past Governor Denis Green, of the Rotary Club of Penrith Valley, N.S.W., and to retired director District 9630 Past Governor Tony Williams, of the Rotary Club of Ipswich North, Qld. District 9520 Past Governor Ian Oliver, of the Rotary Club of Waikerie, S.A., became vice-chairman, and I was appointed the chairman’s role for the next two years.

We also welcomed new directors in District 9630 Past Governor Mel Langley, of the Rotary Club of Cleveland, Qld., and District 9800 Past Governor Des Jones, of the Rotary Club of Prahran, Vic.

I believe, the major issue currently facing the ARHRF’s Board is how the ARHRF can preserve, and make grow, the enthusiasm and commitment from Rotarians that it currently enjoys. This challenge was partly addressed by members of the ARHRF Board and Research Committee, as well as sufferers of mental illness and their carers, at a workshop in April.

However, it is a continuing challenge for all. The survival of the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund, the jewel in Australian Rotary’s crown, is entirely dependent on financial contributions. Let me leave you with another pearl of wisdom. This time the author is unknown. “Enthusiasm is the kindling spark which marks the difference between the leader in every activity and the laggards who put in just enough to get by.’’

The Rotary Club of Tamworth West, N.S.W.,

has a feeling of well-being when members discuss the career paths taken by Rotary Youth Exchange students.

Pam McKnight was encouraged to apply to be a Rotary Exchange student, was sponsored by the club and hosted in Towada, northern Japan, during 1972. She now is the Australian Ambassador to Germany, Switzerland and Lichtenstein. She was born in Tamworth, went to primary school at Byamee and then attended Tamworth High.

Returning from Japan, Pam McKnight entered Australian National University in Canberra, A.C.T., and graduated in Economics and Asian Studies. She speaks fluent Japanese. She married David Fayle in Armidale, N.S.W., where District 9650 Past Governor Bill Forrest, of the Rotary Club of Tamworth, N.S.W., was chairman at their wedding. The Fayles have two adult sons.

Pam Fayle has spent much of her career working on economic and trade policy development. Pam Fayle This has included a posting to the Australian Embassy in Tokyo and terms as head of the East Asian Analytical Unit and as head of the Trade and Economic Analysis Branch of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

She was head of the Department’s Market Development Division and senior official for Asean Free Trade Area dialogue with Australia and New Zealand. She was appointed deputy secretary in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2000. Pam Fayle was appointed Australian Ambassador to Germany, Lichtenstein and Switzerland from March, 2003.

Pam Fayle spoke at the Rotary Youth Exchange segment of a District 9650 Conference some years ago. Pam Fayle recently was recognised as an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Berlin Spree, which prides itself on being the first Rotary club to induct anybody from East Germany.