Coolamon Rotary Bulletin for February 24th. 2025

FEBRUARY 23rd 2025: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROTARY

The name Rotary came from the initial meetings being held in rotation at each member’s place of business. The first four Rotarians were: (from left) Gustavus Loehr a mining engineer; Silvester Schiele a coal merchant; Hiram Shorey a tailor; and attorney Paul Harris.

The world’s first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to capture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. Rotary’s popularity spread with clubs chartered from San Francisco to New York to Winnipeg, Canada within a decade.

By 1921 Rotary clubs were established on six continents and the organisation adopted the Rotary International name a year later. As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving club members’ professional and social interests. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to serve communities in need.

The organisation’s dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its motto: Service Above Self. Rotarians in Australia continue to recognise this motto through the awarding of a Paul Harris Fellowship recognition.

Today Rotary International is a worldwide organisation of service clubs with a membership of 1.305 million Rotarians in around 35,400 clubs in 215 countries. Rotary encourages diversity in membership that includes a mix of vocations, ethnic backgrounds, age and genders within Club members.

Join the Rotary History Global Fellowship and for further information on our history go to:

ROTARY HISTORY

Left to Right: Gustavus Loehr a mining engineer; Silvester Schiele a coal merchant; Hiram Shorey a tailor; and attorney Paul Harris.

COOLAMON ROTARY CLUB MEETING FEBRUARY 24th

President Adrian welcomed 19 members and 3 guests Marilyn Jennings, Buster and Jo Langtry. We sang happy birthday to Paul Weston. Tonight was a social night with getting to know your member and tonight it was Vicki Langtry’s turn.

Before Vicki we had another excellent dinner courtesy of Di and Gilbert. Tonight we had plenty of time to have some good fellowship before and after Vicki’s hot seat Q&A with our president Adrian.

Some of the questions that Adrian asked of Vicki were:

Vicki was born in Sydney but moved to Coolamon when her mother remarried Jim Lewis. She was her mother’s Flower Girl, something that not many people can claim. She has 3 brothers, I step brother, 1 half brother, and 2 step sisters.
The favourite TV show was the Monkees.
Career Highlights were working at Pattersons Accountants, Coolamon Pre School and 4 Wagga Catholic Primary Schools. Vicki worked with Rotary 26 years ago with the Grace Willis Appeal. She was one of the main organisers.
Vicki received a Citizen of Distinction from South Wagga Rotary as well.
Also, she was the Project Manager for “The Hanger” The new $325,000 Football Shed with home and away netball change rooms, Bar, Female and Male Toilets, Disable Toilets, Canteen and Clubroom. I took 2 years in the Making.
Most off her working life has been farming with her husband Barry Langtry our second wife and husband Rotarian team in our club.
Vicki supports the Richmond Tigers, the Sydney Swans and the Marrar Bombers. Vicky was very proud that her son played 1st grade at the age of 15.
One dream holiday would be to go to Switzerland.
Not once but three times Vicki mentioned that her favourite actor was Patrick Swayze.
One area that Vicki would like to see in Rotary is for us to attract younger members as one of our greatest needs. This is one of the hardest issues for Rotary to address in our country and beyond. Vicki concluded by saying that we live in a wonderful town and lack absolutely nothing.

We also met Lucas Vicky and Barry’s 2y.o. grandson:

We then conducted some business which included:

Paul Weston said that our printer was for sale to us for $250 there was some discussion and a good idea would be to offer it to the RSL for their generous use of the printer room for several years.
Paul advised the members that the Chronicle will be ready for distribution by Thursday and that Mary will be picking the edition up from Active Print.
Garth, Albert, Myffy and Vicki will help distribute the CCC.
Vicki, Paul, and Henk will be clearing out the printing room at the RSL and storing paper in our shed.

The night concluded with a spirited fines session by S@A Albert and Cpl Dick. Not many were spared.

The raffle prizes were won by:

John Bond
Daryl Breust
Henk Hulsman

Another great night at Coolamon Rotary!

STOP THE PRESS

Coolamon Lions Club

LOST & FOUND

Found on a table in the Coolamon Chinese 5pm Tuesday 25th February. Looking for owner. Contact Coolamon Lions Club for further details.

Evan Burrell

Maybe those Coolamon Rotarians were enjoying that succulent Chinese meal too much that they forgot their charter certificate.

Looks like a heavy fine coming up for those responsible for not putting the charter away! I wonder who they maybe!!!

DIARY

N.B. You are always welcome to bring guests to most of our meetings, just advise Ian Jennings if you want to bring a guest along when you respond to the weekly dinner roll call!

You can download the full programme here and note that it will change and that will be reflected in the weekly bulletin and in The Diary on our website or the link below in pdf:

CRC Program 24-25 UPDATE

*Monday 3rd March Guest Speaker: Jericho Nyatoro, Chaplain, Junee Correctional Centre on reforming Jail Inmates.

Monday March 10th CRC Board Meeting: Coolamon Sport & Recreation Club, 5.00 pm.

Monday March 10th: General Meeting: Coolamon Sport & Recreation Club, 6.30 for 7.00 pm.

Tuesday March 11^th Anti-Slavery Commissioner* in Wagga Wagga. Logistics for this meeting – time, venue, and format are still to be confirmed by the Commissioner’s Office. This may need to be ticketed for catering purposes.

*Monday 17th March Guest Speaker: Sally Bryant, ABC Radio Announcer on Country Larrikins and Characters. Coolamon Sport & Recreation Club, 6.30 for 7.00 pm.

Monday 24th March Social Meeting and get to know your member. Alex Thompson in the HOT chair. Coolamon Sport & Recreation Club, 6.30 for 7.00 pm.

Saturday, 29 March PETS and Club Development Seminars – Young Services Club, Young, NSW

*Monday 31st March Fifth Monday Social Meeting at the Marrar Hotel TBC.

*Monday 7th April Guest Speaker: Steph Cooke MP, Member for Cootamundra on State Issues for the Coolamon Shire. Coolamon Sport & Recreation Club, 6.30 for 7.00 pm.

*Guests welcome to bring their partners and friends.

JUST FOR LAUGHS

All of the above images were obtained from Facebook.

ROTARY PRESIDENTIAL PEACE CONFERENCE

From RI President Stephanie Urchick.

Rotary Club of McMurray

Pennsylvania, USA

Rotary partners with Bahçeşehir University to establish Peace Centre in Türkiye.

Rotary Peace Centre in Türkiye

What an incredible first day at the Rotary Presidential Peace Conference!

We started the day by discussing how understanding, dialogue, and connection can help us bridge divides. The ended our day by exploring how technology and media can either bring us together or push us apart.

And the best part? Rotary’s newest Peace Centre is now open in Istanbul, ready to train the next generation of peacebuilders! I’m curious, how do you use technology to bring people together?