Last Saturday we helped with the annual Hospital Fete. Our club conducted the chocolate wheel and raised over $1,000. Here are some photos of the day:
Just click on the thumb nails below for a larger image.
World Polio Day is 24 October. Watch the video above for an update on Rotary’s progress in ridding the world of the disease.
Rotary International Marks World Polio Day from Rotary International on Vimeo.
It not often we receive visiting Rotarians, however recently John McKenny has made up at our club and John is from the Rotary Club of Glen Innes.
John is working in the Coolamon Shire at the moment and we have enjoyed John’s company.
“On a showery, freezing morning we all travelled to Canowindra where we wandered around the town inspecting various shops and attractions, stopping for morning tea at “The Taste”, before heading to “The Age of Fishes Museum”. This is a museum built especially to highlight the discovery near Canowindra, of fish fossils that existed before the age of the dinosaur. After that it was out to” Toms Waterhole Winery” for wine tasting and a lunch featuring homemade bread, cheese, pickles, olives etc. A Coolamon Rotary banner was presented to the winery proprietors to hang on their wall for future visitors to see. From there we headed on to “The Falls Retreat”, a winery with 500 acres of grapes and a very impressive resort featuring a heated indoor pool, full beauty salon, massage tables, spray tanning room, and many more features, too numerous to mention.
After breakfast the next morning we all travelled to The Japanese gardens to see a very beautiful and well presented garden that remembers the POW camp and the Japanese inmates that were interred there during the Second World War. From there it was a short trip to see the relics of the actual site of the POW camp that housed Japanese, Italian, Chinese, Korean and Indonesian Prisoners of War. This was also the site of the “breakout” by Japanese POW,s on the 5th August 1944 that resulted in the deaths of 231 Japanese POW’s and 4 Australian military guards.”
{As told by the escapees.}
Henk and Maureen Hulsman, Ray and Maria Foley, Max and Sue Chapman, Ian Durham and Christine Lorraine as well as Marg and Garth Perkin.
Neil Munro introduced our guest speaker Michael Gibbons. Michael goes to school at the Kildare Catholic School in Wagga Wagga and is currently in year 9. Michael is 15 years old and has dreams of playing AFL football one day. Michael supports Hawthorn and plays for Coolamon.
Michael spoke about his trip of his young life so far when he was selected to represent New South Wales in the under 15 team to travel to Perth to play and train in the carnival there for all teams in Australia.
The whole trip culminated in Michael being selected for the All Australian Under 15 side.
Before the trip Michael detailed his journey which included playing the Leeton Under 17s and winning by 100 points. Michael also went to Albury with the Catholic Schools team and was named player of that carnival. It was here that Michael was selected for NSW.
The journey to Perth included visiting Subiaco Oval to watch West Coast train and also a visit to the Freemantle Jail. The football was exiting and they had mixed results winning some and losing some. Michael was runner up for the best and fairest for NSW and was 3rd overall in the carnival.
Michael finished by thanking our club for the support. All present were very impressed with this young man and we wish him well with his dream to play AFL for Hawthorn one day and we are confident that he will.
And we’re back! The sun is shining, the birds singing and summer in Belgium is here! Monday the 14th June, a sad day. My oldie Julia (American) parted Belgium at 8am headed to the sunny state of California! The next day I attempted exams. Not my most favourite thing even when I can understand the question! But I manage to write a couple of pages of answers whether they are correct or not is another hurdle. As I am reading back through my diary I am realising that June has been an interesting month!
The next important thing that happened to me was that my tooth decided to die! After getting hit in the mouth with a hockey ball last year my tooth has been trying to decide whether or not to die. The major changing in temperature made up its mind and I had to visit the dentist. Not as scary as I thought it would be. At first we though I would just get antibiotics to stop an infection but instead I got root canal therapy! You should try speaking French that isn’t perfect, with a numb lip! Quite funny!
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And I’d like to take this chance to thank everyone in Rotary District 9700 for granting me this fantastic opportunity, and especially John Kirk who has helped me through some sticky situations, and Coolamon Rotary for sponsoring me.
Hope everyone is enjoying the rain that I sent over for you!
Yours from the land of chocolate. Millie Butt Belgium
Read Millie’s full story here:
Left Coolamon Rotary President Ian and Coolamon Lions President Neil cooking up a storm
Last week Narelle and Greg Guthrie from Coolamon lost all their possessions and their home in a house fire.
Rotary and Lions from Coolamon along with many other Coolamon groups organised a fund raising day to help the Guthries. There was a bowls tournament, golf match, BBQ, childrens’ slide, musicians from Coolamon and the famous Rotary Chocolate Wheel in action. On top of this the Coolamon Fire Brigade were there supporting the day along with many Coolamon folk and residents of the Coolamon Shire.
The day was a wonderful example of how a small town looks after it’s own in times of strife.
Melinda and Bill Gates on 60 Minutes in the USA.
The show to watch is the October 3rd show because of its interview with Melinda Gates, the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, discussing what their Foundation was going to do with their money. She said “25% of the funds are going to help the American kids get the best education possible;” and then she said that the Foundation was tackling the following three diseases in this order: 1) HIV/AIDS, 2) Malaria, and 3) Mother to Child deaths BECAUSE THEY ARE THE DISEASES OF THE POOR, THERE WAS NO MARKET FOR THEM…no one was doing anything about it. They mentioned their fight of Polio with Rotary International as well.
Go to the start on 28 minutes unless you want to watch the whole show.
Thanks to Marion Bunch CEO of Rotarians For Fighting AIDS RFFA
Our club with our Road MAPS to Africa projects including supporting RFFA is in good company.