Coolamon Rotary Bulletin for March 24th 2024

Coolamon Rotary Bulletin for Week of 24/03/2024

Photo Credit  Ludmila Ivashchenko/Shutterstock

Meeting of Monday 18th March

President John Bond “Bondy” welcomed 23 members and four guests tonight.  DGN D9705 Robert Shore, Lorraine Hamilton, Jeanette Campbell and Jill Armstrong-Iverach, our guest speaker.  A great role up.

The evening began with the start of the weight watchers competition with some 10 entries.  This is a competition created by Albert Suidgeest.  The weigh in was done in secrecy and the ten competitors were then given a number each from 1-10.  The weigh in results were then used for a guessing competition as to who is the heaviest from 1-10 this for our members and guests to fill in.  The eventual winner of the guessing competition was Albert Suidgeest and suggestions of foul play will need to be addressed.  The competition will go for 6 months to see who can lose the most weight, a great health initiative in mind.

Photo by Mary Potts.

Some general business included Anne asking for volunteers for tee bike ride catering on the 14th April.  Details in the diary below.

Albert advised us that he now has enough entrants for the open garden days in October and that many more would like to enter their gardens which prompted Albert to ponder an annual event.

Guest Speaker Jill Armstrong/Iverach.

Jill is a relative of  Peter and Jane Iverach who were of Scottish descent and were Jill’s great grandparents. They had 11 children and settled in Coolamon.  One son William Iverach ended up being part owner of the Up-to-Date Store with Harold Charles Nadin and William Denoon.  See:  Up to Date Store

Jill visited Coolamon and was very impressed with the town and it’s friendly people.  Jill with the help of Jeanette Campbell then visited the graves of some of the Iverach family.  Jill said that tracing her family was most  rewarding and thanked our club for hosting her.

 

Surprise Visit of DGN Robert Shore

DGN Robert was the guest of AG Garth Perkin.  Robert spoke briefly on membership and gave some insights on how to get new members.  Robert was a member of the Parkes  RC and recruited 18 members in 12 months to join the Parkes Rotary Club.  Robert is teh D9705 Chair of the membership committee and his intention is to visit all of the 80+ clubs in D9705 as DGN and as DG in 2025-2026.  Robert brought along a lot of books for sale with the funds going towards our Foundation.

Induction of Vicki Langtry to the Coolamon RC.

The highlight of any meeting for any Rotary club is the induction of a new member.  Tonight Vicki Langtry was inducted into our club by AG Garth Perkin.  Anne Rzeszkowski is Vicki’s sponsor and mentor.  Already Vicki has been working very hard on the 2024 Coolamon Rotary Telephone book.  Welcome Vicki to our club!

 

As always our meeting concluded with a spirited and hilarious fines session by our S@A Dick Jennings and his Cpl. Garth.  The raffles were won by Paul Weston and Bruce Hamilton.

See you all next week.

N.B. The Ideal Table Configuration for our meetings!!!!

 

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!

PETS & Learning & Development for all incoming Presidents Elect, Board Members, New Members and Directors.

  • Fri Mar. 22, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. – Sun Mar. 24, 2024 at 12:00 p.m. Cootamundra Ex-Servicemen’s & Citizens Memorial Club, Cootamundra.

*Monday March 25th Guest Speaker Nicole Nixon Artist – Coolamon Sport  Rec Club, 6.30 for 7.00 pm.

Monday April 1st NO Meeting Easter Monday.

*Monday April 8th Guest Speaker PE Adrian Lindner on their trip to Nepal – Coolamon Sport  Rec Club, 6.30 for 7.00 pm.

Sunday April 14thWagga Cycle Club Event:  CRC catering lunch and dinner for cycling event at the  Pomingalarna Reserve Wagga Wagga. Volunteers needed.  Details to follow.

Saturday May 11th:  Health Van visits Coolamon.

*Monday May 20th Polio Plus Tandem Bike Riders visit Coolamon.

Saturday 25th – Wednesday 29th May 2024- Rotary 24 SINGAPORE Convention.

 

https://convention.rotary.org/en-us/

 

*Friday 25th- Sunday 27th October 2024. D9705 Conference.  Mittagong RSL.  Bookings open now for early bird registrations:  https://www.discon24.com/

 

 

JUST FOR LAUGHS

Father Murphy walks into a pub in Donegal, and says to the first man he meets, “Do you want to go to heaven?”
The man said, “I do Father.”

The priest said, “Then stand over there against the wall.” Then the priest asked the second man, “Do you want to got to heaven?”

“Certainly, Father,” was the man’s reply.

“Then stand over there against the wall,” said the priest.

Then Father Murphy walked up to O’Toole and said, “Do you want to go to heaven?”

O’Toole said, “No, I don’t Father.”

The priest said, “I don’t believe this. You mean to tell me that when you die, you don’t want to go to heaven?”

O’Toole said, “Oh, when I die, yes. I thought you were getting a group together to go right now.”

Credit to

 

March 14th was PI day in case you wanted to know.

 

N.B.  ALL of the above images were obtained from Facebook

ROTARY NEWS

1.  END POLIO: 70 Years in an Iron Lung

 

credit: Sky News UK

Photo by JJG at the 2010 Montreal RI Convention

“Paul Alexander, widely known as “Polio Paul”, contracted the viral disease in the summer of 1952 when he was six years old and was left paralysed from the neck down. He was rushed to hospital in Texas – and woke up inside the metal cylinder where he would spend the rest of his life.

An update on his GoFundMe page by its organiser Christopher Ulmer reads:  Paul Alexander,The Man in the Iron Lung’, passed away yesterday.

May he rest in peace. The fight goes on to eradicate polio with Paul as our inspiration.
After surviving polio as a child, he lived over 70 years inside of an iron lung.  In this time Paul went to college, became a lawyer, and a published author.  His story travelled wide and far, positively influencing people around the world. Paul was an incredible role model that will continue to be remembered.”

FULL STORY HERE

This is why we in Rotary together with our partners will eliminate poliomyelitis from this planet.  By donating to the Polio Plus campaign the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation matches our contribution with $2 of their to $1 of ours.

We are major partners in the GPEI The Global Polio Eradication Initiative.  Our partners include:

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is a public-private partnership led by national governments with six partners – the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, the vaccine alliance. Its goal is to eradicate polio worldwide.

GPEI Website

GPEI-Historical-Contributions-v18-20221231

NB: JJG contracted poliomyelitis in 1952, when he was 8 years old, at his boarding school in Nairobi before he went to school in England.  John’s mother a WW2 British Army Sister nursed John back to health over many painful months of exercise and learning how to walk again.

2. RYPEN

RYPEN the Rotary Youth Programme of Enrichment has just concluded at Borambola near Wagga Wagga.

RYPEN D9705 WEBSITE

The man who not only delivers the RYPEN LEADERSHIP Camps and RYPEN Camps… But also does all of the background work…

IS: Darren Wallace.

He books the camps, arranges all the transport, recruits all the Leaders, arranges all the participants, makes sure everyone is fed, briefed and has changed 1000’s of young people’s lives for the last 12+ years.  Thank you Darren for your years of dedication, commitment and service to the young people of the Riverina and beyond.

Darren is also the current president of Wagga Wollundry RC. AND lives in a straw bale house near Wagga!!!

 

 

MARCH IS WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE MONTH

Graphics by Debbie Vance from Canada

 

ROTARY CLUB OF COOLAMON Inc. 2023-24

Chartered March 3rd, 1971; Sponsoring Club Narrandera Rotary Club

  • President: John Bond
  • President-Elect 2024-2025: Adrian Lindner
  • Secretary: Paul Weston
  • Treasurer: Mary Potts
  • Membership Director: Leslie Weston
  • Service Projects Director:  Adrian Lindner
  • Youth Services Director: Scott Mudd
  • Club Admin Director:  Henk Hulsman
  • Public Image Director: Grahame Miles
  • Sergeant @ Arms: Dick Jennings
  • Immediate Past President and Vice-President: Paul Weston
  • Bulletin Editors: Paul Weston and John Glassford
  • Webmaster: John Glassford