Coolamon Rotary News Bulletin #31
THIS WILL DEFINITELY BE MY LAST BULLETIN FOR SOME TIME AT LEAST UNTIL WE RETURN FROM KENYA AND SOUTH AFRICA. It will be another African themed bulletin this week, surprise surprise!
MARCH IS ROTARY LITERACY MONTH
80% of schools in Kenya do not have a library. Thanks to our education programme and the generosity of Rita and Charles Field-Marsham, the children of Lewa School now have access to this important learning resource.
INVESTING IN EDUCATION
Yesterday, Lewa and Lewa Downs Primary School held a ceremony to officially open the school’s new and beautiful library! The library was sponsored by the Rita and Charles Field-Marsham Foundation through the Lewa Education Programme.
While this may not be news in many parts of the world, in Kenya, 80% of schools have no library, making Lewa School one of the few to own this crucial learning resource. The impact of libraries on learning is invaluable and these students now have an exciting opportunity to discover the world, gain new knowledge and explore limitless opportunities.
Rita Field-Marsham says:
“Our vision is to provide every school aged child in Kenya with a quality library and we feel very fortunate that Lewa has helped us deliver this vision for the students of Lewa Downs Primary and the Lewa community.”
The children, teachers and parents of Lewa School were beyond jubilant, immensely grateful not only for this new library, but Lewa’s support over the years.
MEETING MONDAY MARCH 23rd. 2015
“Our guest speaker Monday night was Vanessa Warren, who gave a very interesting talk on her experience in North Dakota as an exchange employee in an ag services company. Vanessa, a local girl who obtained a BSc in agriculture from Charles Sturt Uni, works as an agronomist with Delta Ag in Coolamon. She took a leave of absence last year to work for nearly a year in North Dakota (near the border with Canada) and experienced a very different climate and way of farming.
The extremes of temperature (from -40C to +40C) and low rainfall, combined with boggy soils, makes for very different farming from the Riverina. Vanessa gained some very interesting work experience, and enjoyed the hospitality shown to her by the locals, who welcomed Vanessa into their community. Vanessa is now back in Coolamon, with her life enriched by this experience. Neil Munro formally thanked Vanessa and presented her with a gift of appreciation.”
By: PP Paul Weston
PP Neil Munro thanks Vanessa Warren
SHELTERBOX APPEAL
Last week the club collected a ShelterBox from Wagga Wagga Wollundry and set it up in Ganmain on the Saturday and followed that up with another display in Coolamon on Friday.
The whole exercise to raise funds for 2 ShelterBoxes for the Vanuatu cyclone appeal met our goals and we raised just over $2,000 which is enough for 2 ShelterBoxes for Vanuatu. Thank you to all who volunteered on the two days. Well done Ganmain raising over one third of the total $2,000.
Myffy and Bernadette in Ganmain.
The two Ians in Coolamon.
JUST FOR FUN!
Zebra Laundry
Diary Reminders
***Monday 30th March Farewell Dinner for the Mount Kenya Teams and the team of 2 going to Nepal.
We have 19 joining this meeting with 13 out of the 16 intrepid travelers to Kenya and South Africa attending please join us to wish the teams bon voyage “na Safari Jema”.
Saturday April 4th ROTARY EASTER MARKETS in COOLAMON.
BINGO Thursday 9th April, 2015 Ian Jennings (Captain), Ted Hutcheon, John Glassford, Mark Reardon
Saturday 11th April – Sunday May 10th Mount Kenya ANZAC Day 2015 Climb in Kenya.
April 13th-April 20th RYLA Camp
Sunday May 3rd D9700 Assembly at West Wyalong venue West Wyalong High School.
BINGO Thursday 14th May, Grahame Miles (Captain), Paul Weston, Wayne Lewis, Dick Jennings
Saturday 6th June – Tuesday 9th June 2015 RI Convention Sao Paulo BRAZIL.
*Monday June 29th. Annual Change Over Dinner
*Partners and Guests Night.
Apologies for Monday meetings call Christine Atkinson on 0427 880 158 or 6927 3521 BY FRIDAY 12.00 pm.
ROTARY INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT GARY HUANG
Rotary International President Gary C.K. Huang and his wife, Corinna, visited Rotarians in Uruguay. President Huang also visited a statue of Chinese philosopher, Confucius.
DISTRICT GOVERNOR DAVID KENNEDY D 9700
D 9700 DISCON
It was an excellent conference with some 252 delegates including 7 from Coolamon. The talk by Dr Luc from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was a highlight among many highlights. Thanks go to DG David and the Conference Chair Harry Howard for making the two days affordable, efficient and most enjoyable. Here are some photos courtesy of PDG John Egan:
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
In Seven Days
In the beginning God created day and night. He created day for footy matches, going to the beach and barbies. He created night for going prawning, sleeping and barbies. God saw that it was good.
Evening came and morning came and it was the second Day.
On the Second Day God created water – for surfing, swimming and barbies on the beach. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came and it was the Third Day.
On the Third Day God created the Earth to bring forth plants – to provide tobacco, malt and yeast for beer and wood for barbies. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came and it was the Fourth Day.
On the Fourth Day God created animals and crustaceans for chops, sausages, steak and prawns for barbies. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came and it was the Fifth Day.
On the Fifth day God created a bloke – to go to the footy, enjoy the beach, drink the beer and eat the meat and prawns at barbies. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came and it was the Sixth Day
On the Sixth Day God saw that this bloke was lonely and needed someone to go to the footy, surf, drink beer, eat and stand around the barbie with. So God created Mates, and God saw that they were good blokes. God saw that it was good. Evening came and morning came and it was the Seventh Day.
On the Seventh Day God looked around at the twinkling barbie fires, heard the hiss of opening beer cans and the raucous laughter of all the Blokes, smelled the aroma of grilled chops and sizzling prawns and God saw that it was good. well almost good. God saw that the blokes were tired and needed a rest.
So God created Sheilas – to clean the house, bear children, wash, cook and clean the barbie. God saw that it was not just good, it was better than that, it was bloody great!
IT WAS AUSTRALIA !!
ROTARY INFORMATION
Seung Jin Kim shows off his sail emblazoned with the End Polio Now logo before setting off on his voyage around the globe.
Enjoying calm winds and peaceful Pacific waters, Seung Jin Kim dove off his 43-foot sailboat, the Arapani, to swim with some dolphins nearby. The serenity that day near the equator was a stark contrast to the 60 mph winds and 23-foot waves he had to fight around Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America. But Kim, a veteran sailor and member of the Rotary Club of Seokmun, in Chungcheongnam, Korea, expected such challenges when he set out in mid-October on a 25,600-mile journey around the world. In addition to fulfilling a lifelong dream, Kim is using the trip to raise awareness and funds — his goal is $200,000 or more — for Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign.
Seung Jin Kim, a member of the Rotary Club of Seokmum, in Chungcheongnam, Korea, receives encouragement before embarking in October on a 25,600-mile, around-the-world voyage to raise awareness and money for polio eradication.
ONLY IN AFRICA
Seen in Nairobi it is raining heavily in Kenya and snowing on Mount Kenya above 4,000 metres.
OUT OF AFRICA
We are staying at the Outspan Hotel in Nyeri on our way to the mountain and on the way back. The Outspan is famous for Lord Baden-Powell and his cottage is there which we will visit, now a museum:
How about taking a break from the hustle and bustle of town life and escape to Outspan and enjoy your breakfast or dinner as you enjoy the view of the sunrise or sunset over Mt. Kenya, indulge your friends & family with our diverse list of activities available from our Snooker room to taking a tour of our world renowned Lord Baden Powell Museum.
MOUNT KENYA 2015 ANZAC DAY CLIMB
This will be a permanent section for the next 12 months in our weekly bulletin and I will update stories to this article as and when we get them. The Australian Commonwealth Department of Veterans Affairs have approved our application to be part of the Centenary for ANZAC and we are allowed to use the logo below with some rules on it’s use:
The Mount Kenya 2015 web site can be found here on clicking the banner below:
One of the reasons I am climbing Mount Kenya is to look at the Lewis Glacier, walk on it as it will not be there much longer due to global warming this evidence is beyond discussion now and this evidence proves it once and for all and it is MAN MADE there is NO doubt; the jury is in and the verdict has been reached. WE ARE GUILTY!
The main reason that I am climbing Mount Kenya is to honour my Father George James Glassford on ANZAC Day 100 years since he landed at Gallipoli. I will wear his medals for the first and last time before I hand them over to my eldest son Sean. These medals were the only ones awarded to the British Forces in World War 1 and are known as Pip, Squeak and Wilfred after a Daily Mirror cartoon published in 1920.
It concerned the adventures of an orphaned family of animals. Pip, who assumed the “father” role, was a dog, while the “mother”, Squeak, was a penguin. Wilfred was the “young child” and was a rabbit with very long ears.[
They are the 1914-1915 Star Medal, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
FOOTNOTE
DG David Kennedy launched the Mount Kenya Crowd Funding web site campaign at the D9700 conference and please send this email onto your friends and associates asking for their support, just copy and paste:
Our Rotary climbing team is off again, this time to climb Mount Kenya on ANZAC Day 2015 April 25th to raise funds for Legacy Australia and their support of Australia’s war widows and orphans. At the same time continue our education and health projects in Kenya and South Africa.
We are looking for your support, pure and simple.
Please join the Rotary Clubs of Coolamon and Wagga Wagga Sunrise in Australia’s greatest and unique fundraiser for Legacy Australia and Children’s Education in Africa. Visit our crowd funding site! See how it works; watch the two minute video; get involved and make a secure donation, “go the distance” and “pick a perk” and help us to help those less fortunate than ourselves.
Follow our party’s fundraising Climb up Mount Kenya on Anzac Day 2015.
Click on the link below to see our Crowd Funding site and please forward this invitation to all your friends and relatives, especially your children, nieces and nephews, asking them to forward this email onto their friends.
LATEST NEWS FROM RAGES.
Our latest signing is none other than Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick D.B.E. Dame Daphne started the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and rescues orphaned elephants due to the poaching crisis in Kenya. This lady is an angel:
There is much written about Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick DBE and for us the following statements attributed to her about elephants sum up the Lady, an angel in our midst, a Dame of the British Empire. “They share with us a strong sense of family and they also share with us a deep sense of death. I know that they grieve and they mourn, just as we do at the loss of a loved one and that they shed tears and suffer depression. They have a sense of compassion that projects beyond their own kind and can extend to other species in distress. They help one another in adversity, miss absent loved ones, and when you know them really well, you can see that they even smile when having fun and are happy.”
And we are smiling, thank you so much Dame Daphne Sheldrick.
We will be having a meeting with Dame Daphne on May 1st in Nairobi at her orphanage for baby elephants.
For Dame Daphne’s amazing work please visit: http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org
POST SCRIPT
That is all for the regular bulletin HOWEVER when time permits and with your blessing, over the next 2 months or so I will do my best to send you updates on the progress of the trip to Kenya and South Africa and RAGES.
RAGES WEB SITE
Bulletin Editor and Web Site: John Glassford
Yours in Rotary John Glassford Chair 2014 -2015
Rotary International President Gary Huang
Governor of District 9700 David Kennedy
Coolamon Club President Garth Perkin
Coolamon Club Secretary Paul Weston
Club Treasurer Henk Hulsman
Coolamon Rotary Club Inc. P.O. Box 23 COOLAMON N.S.W. 2701
Websites of Interest
Coolamon Rotary Club: http://coolamonrotary.com
Road MAPS to Africa a Coolamon Rotary Project: http://www.mountainsofthemoon.org/
Rotary Down Under on line: http://flipflashpages.uniflip.com/2/26587/49598/pub
Mount Kenya 2015 Web Site incorporating the ORK: http://theork.com/
Our Rotary Centennial Twin Club Hout Bay, Cape Town, South Africa: http://www.rotaryhoutbay.org
Rotarian Action Group for Endangered Species RAGES: http://www.endangeredrag.org/#