Coolamon RC Bulletin Monday September 14th 2026

Monday September 14th. 2026 

President Leslie Weston welcomed 21 of our members to the meeting and  guests including: Marilyn Jennings, Susan Glassford and Helen Moriarty.

Tonight was a dinner to thank the hosts of the upcoming garden viewing day in Coolamon and tonight the following gardeners attended:  Barb and Kevin Maddox and Alison and Brett Robinson.

After dinner we had a lot of general business including:

• Short report on the preceding board meeting.  The minutes will be sent by Henk via email.
• Leslie has been in touch with legal services about the Working With Children Check and their advice was to maintain our individual WWC#s and if we don’t have one to get one.  If out of  date then renew.  Help is available form several of our members with the application or renewals.
• Mary reported on the Wagga Wagga girls netball day held last Wednesday in Wagga.  There were 17 High Schools represented from the Riverina and competing on 12 courts.  Mary said that all the students were very polite.  Thanks go to the volunteers from our club: Bear, Mary, Gary, Barry, Alex, Vicki and Adrian.  We raised around $1440 over the two days with a net profit of around $700.
• Mary also reported on a very successful Bottom Pub raffle held last Thursday which raised $468.40.  Thanks to all the volunteers once again.
• Leslie spoke on the ShelterBox Australia appeal for Nepal.  The board had decided not to display a ShelterBox in Coolamon but to donate the proceeds from the Netball days and the pub raffle.  The amount that the CRC will donate will be $2,000 or two “ShelterBoxes”.  An excellent result.
• The board will be donating to the Anglican Church’s Christmas Box appeal.    The Coolamon Anglican and Uniting churches pack gift-filled shoeboxes with toys, hygiene items, and school supplies for children in need globally.  Operation Christmas Child.
• The board is working on the Christmas and NYE programmes.
• Paul Weston said that he has plenty of excellent horse manure that he can load into your trailers.
• Mary advised us all that we need to cook scones at home for the Open Garden day details TBA.
• Reminder that next Monday some of the Wollundry RC Gears & Beers committee members will be attending our meeting, to bring us all up to date on the event.

Garden Viewing Hosts were introduced by Albert and tonight we had the pleasure of hosting Barb and Kevin Maddox with Alison and Brett Robinson two of the six gardens that will be on view on the 18th October.  Albert thanked our garden hosts for the 100s of hours that they put in to make their gardens available for viewing by the public.

Albert said that registrations will take place at the Coolamon Community Hall in Dr Buchanan Drive where maps and arm bands will be issued.  The open gardens and the community hall will be on from 10.00am to 4.00pm.

The following gardens will be available for viewing:

Barb and Kevin Maddox Coolamon

Michelle Bartholomew Coolamon

Terrie Chamberlain Drovers Run, Marrar

Annie Bush Annie’s Run, Marrar

Alison and Brett Robinson, Coolamon

Jessica Inch, Coolamon

Happy Birthdays to Henk Hulsman and Ted Hutcheon.

The raffles were won by Mark Dubois and second to Bear.

Mary bought the Nepalese flag auctioned by Dick.

The meeting closed at 8.00pm followed by plenty of fellowship.

UPCOMING VOLUNTEERING :

1  Cooking Anzac cookies at the Coolamon Central School at 9.00am on Saturday 26the September so far th following have volunteered, however we need more please: Albert, Lexis, Vicki, Alex, Bear, Daryl, Gary, Henk, with Myffy possibly cooking from home.

2  Gears and Beers Sunday 4th October.  We have 20 volunteers to date.  More details will follow after next Monday’s meeting.

OUT AND ABOUT GANMAIN.

Happy visited Ganmain this week and has started to explore the country outside of Coolamon.  It was wonderful to welcome Happy to Ganmain.

 

DIARY

N.B. You are always welcome to bring guests to most of our meetings, just advise Ian Jennings, 0428 492 157, 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:  CRC Diary On-Line

Saturday 19th September Ecumenical Men’s Breakfast 7.00am for 7.30am start.  St. Andrews Anglican Hall Coolamon.,  $10 per head call Peter Lucas 0429 960 395.

*Monday 21st September Guest Visitors Wollundry RC Gears & Beers presentation, at the Coolamon Sports and Recreation Club, 6.30 for 7.00 pm.

Saturday  26th September Anzac cookie baking for Gears & Beers.  Details to follow.

Sunday 4th October Gears & Beers Volunteers will be needed.  Details to follow.

Sunday 18th October Open Garden Day.  Details to follow.

*Monday 19th October 

 

*Guests welcome to bring their partners and friends.

 

JUST FOR LAUGHS

All of the above photos were obtained from Facebook.  Credit to the owners.

 

ROTARY NEWS and ITEMS OF INTEREST

1. THE IRON LUNG

Vaccines made it possible for children to live long enough to grow up.

Children under 5 once accounted for nearly a third of recorded U.S. deaths.

In 1900, that share was 30.4%. Today, it’s less than 1%. The latest final CDC figures, for 2024, record 23,893 deaths among children under 5 out of roughly 3.07 million deaths overall.

That does not mean a third of children died before their fifth birthday. It means nearly one in three.

People whose deaths were recorded in 1900 was a young child. Historical records also covered only part of the country.

The improvement reflects generations of public health advances.

Clean drinking water and sewage systems reduced exposure to deadly infections. Safer milk and food, better nutrition, and improved hygiene helped protect children when diarrhea and other infectious diseases were major killers.

Vaccines prevented diseases such as measles, diphtheria and whooping cough. Antibiotics made many bacterial infections treatable. Better prenatal care, safer deliveries and advances in newborn intensive care helped more babies survive complications of birth and prematurity.

Vaccination was an important part of that progress, but it cannot explain the entire decline.

The comparison also reflects a changing population: Americans live longer, and older adults make up a larger share of the population and its deaths. The percentage alone cannot tell us how much each medical advance contributed.
And less than 1% still meant almost 24,000 young children died in a single year.

The progress is real. So is the need to preserve the clean water, vaccination programs and medical care that helped make childhood safer.

2.   THE ORPHAN RESCUE KIT: THE ORK

This is Rotary’s Basic Education & Literacy Month and I want to share our story with you all.

Above The ORK and what it contains for basic education in Africa.

I was invited to join Rotary in 2003 and my main aim was to help with the education of the orphans of HIV/AIDS pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa where a pandemic was raging.  Some 22 million orphans had been identified as needing education.  In most countries in Africa, education after primary school is not free, AND children have to have a uniform.

This idea began in our club in the 2005.  After I joined Rotarians For Fighting AIDS, RFFA, at the Rotary Centenary Chicago in 2005, I came up with the idea of the Orphan Rescue Kit.  RFFA adopted the concept and it is still promoted today on RFHA’s web site {RFFA is Now RFHA Rotarians for Family Health and AIDS}.

In 2008-2009.  DG Fred Loneragan supported RFFA and the ORK and raised over $65,000 in his year as DG for RFFA.

The ORK has now raised over $300,000 for our Road MAPS to Africa projects.  We have supported a Medical Care Centre in Cape Town and the School of St. Jude’s in Tanzania.

I would like to think that we have made a difference for the orphans of HIV/AIDS in Africa.  In a small way we have helped over 100 primary school students get a basic education in Sierra Leone, we have supported several children into high school and one into University.

PDG Fred and I between us took the ORK to every club in D9700 and promoted the ORK at several Rotary D9700 Conferences.  We have also climbed three of the highest mountains in Africa for the same causes.

3.  BARCELONA 2027 JUNE 26th.-30th.

At the 2027 Rotary International Convention in Barcelona, we will come together to learn from one another, strengthen friendships, and discover new ways to Create Lasting Impact in our communities.

I hope you will join thousands of Rotary members from around the world for this unforgettable experience.

This looks like an excellent RI Convention well worth going to if you want to learn more about Rotary and make new friends from around the world.

Early Bird Registration opens on the 17th September 2026.

Barcelona Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe 

Credit to the owner on Facebook for the above photo.

SEPTEMBER IS ROTARY’S  BASIC EDUCATION & LITERACY

MONTH

 

Graphics by Debbie Vance from Canada.

ROTARY CLUB OF COOLAMON Inc. 2026-2027