Last week’s joint Zoom meeting with Washington RC, Pennsylvania was a huge success. 17 Rotarian’s from WRC joined our morning meeting in which members from both Clubs were introduced, Club Presidents provided overviews, and membership initiates were openly discussed. Erin Hegarty, Mama Respond then provided an update on the Noonkopir School Ablutions Block for Disabled Students. With Rotary’s support over USD85,000 has been raised for this special project. WRC and AxR agreed to work together with the aim of raising of a further USD10,000 for the fit out of the new facility.
Thank you to PP Chris Whelan and Dorothy Tecklenburg from WRC, who organised the meeting.
Art Show 13-19 June 2022.
The Art Show is up and running.
Following are some pictures from the set up on Sunday.
JacFest Meeting 14 June 2022
Don’t forget JacFest committee meeting tomorrow for 8.45am.
For several years now, we have partnered with WA charity Street Connect, to buy sleeping bags for homeless people in WA. Last year over 80 sleeping bags were donated, and many ended up in Mandurah and Bunbury where there was high demand.
“Stitches of Hope” is a registered charity that was established by Swan Rotarians Kay and John Eva. It is based in Cambodia and the sleeping bags are made in a local village, and pay a living wage to the workers. Kay and John get them delivered to WA where they can be purchased for $50, and donated to Street Connect. So your tax-deductible donation through RAWCS sends money to Cambodia for village development, and keeps homeless people warm in WA. Pretty good deal!
We launched the 2022 Appeal a few weeks, and sold 36 sleeping bags. Great start - well done!
Please chat to Ian Fairnie if you’d like to participate.
The President of Elizabeth, Nic Lim presented well on what their new, and younger Club is all about, and how they have adapted to the changing needs of todays ‘younger’ Rotarians.The Club has now grown from around 30 to almost 60 in the past 2 years, with an emphasis on creating a project style sense of belonging, working well for their age group. There is a certain message in this: our community is very willing to support that which interests it, even if it might mean a higher turnover of those aspirationals who genuinely want to make a difference for our their world. ( See Ray’s link to the preso)
Dorothy was the joint organiser with Chris Whelan for our recent meeting with the Washington Rotary Club. The following is the article she wrote for their bulletin about the meeting.
A joint special Zoom meeting with the Applecross Rotary Club of Perth, Australia took place at 7pm, on Monday. It was arranged by Chris Whelan in Perth and the Tecklenburgs in Washington. Seventeen members of the Washington club attended. The meeting was a chance to get to know each other and discuss general concerns about club growth, and to introduce the Washington Club members to an opportunity to work on a joint service project in Africa. The meeting began with a view of the winter landscape beside the Swan River before moving inside for the breakfast meeting of the Applecross club. About a half hour was spent in meeting members of the respective clubs. Tom Drewitz, Kathy Sabol, and Park Burroughs shared their Rotary journeys.
The formal meeting in Perth began with an acknowledgement of Country. The Australians acknowledged the native tribe Wadjuck Nynugar. (In comments, Mary Jo Podgurski told us that she acknowledges the native Shawnee of Western Pa in many of her presentations.) Then President Brandi Miller gave a brief history of our club, followed by a presentation from Perth on the history of their club. The Applecross club is 50 years old and has 30 active members, with another 17 members in different categories, including associate members. Their big event every year is the Jacaranda Festival. During the flowering of the Jacaranda the club holds an event with about 160 stalls which draws between 10 and 15 thousand people and raises between $20,000 and $50,000 Australian dollars. Covid has impacted this as it has everything else. Their next two presidents are both in their 30’s. They then had happy dollars. There was a discussion between Joe Piszczor and Tom Atkinson about the challenges of recruiting new members. Joe spoke of the demographic dip which Washington faces. We are working on membership options. Younger people are looking for a place which offers fellowship, and opportunities for family-friendly hands-on service to the community. The work of Rotary needs to appeal to younger potential members. Our club is experimenting with different meeting options and working on ways to address the cost of membership and time constraints. Joe congratulated the Applecross club on building young leaders. Tom Atkinson spoke about the need to review how the club operates. What works? What needs to change? What is important to keep? The Applecross Club is a social club, working to appeal to potential members. They rcently spoke to the Chamber of Commerce, seeking to change the old image of Rotary. They want to find out what younger potential members want to do to serve the community. https://www.mamarespond.org/about-us
Then we had a presentation from Erin from MAMA Respond, an Australian organization working to improve the environment for special needs children in Kenya. They have a several-pronged approach to the needs: Wheelchairs, Special Needs Unit to provide education, Women’s Training Center, Mothers’ Group, Medical Support, and Community Outreach. They had approached the Applecross Club for help in creating a facility for educating the children, only to discover that RI will not fund bricks and mortar. They settled on building a toilet facility to be used with the proposed building, and that met RI standards. The funds were raised, with the help of friends of members in other countries. This is how the Tecklenburgs became aware of the project, and Dorothy’s experience with the Bondo project offered valuable information. Through other sources of funds, the main building is done, but it is an empty shell. They need all the equipment which transform it into a learning place. That is what the Applecross Club is asking Washington Rotary to partner with them to raise the $10,000 to $20,000 needed. Because of the volatile economics, they are still trying to get a firmer figure on the costs. It was proposed that Chris Whalen and someone from our club should work together to flesh out what is needed. Dorothy Tecklenburg offered and was obviously the unanimous choice of all. The meeting closed with President Brandi Miller thanking the Applecross club for arranging this special joint club program. She is excited about the potential and urges the two clubs to stay connected. A member from Applecross spoke about the way technology has expanded our ability to do service.
Tickets are now available for the 2022 District Changeover Dinner being held on Friday 24th June at Clipper Inn, Rockingham. This is our final change over as D9465 before merging into one District, so let's celebrate and dance the night away.
The Apace Community Revegetation Nursery specialises in the supply of locally occurring Native Western Australian flora species of the Swan Coastal Plain and Darling Range. Established in 1989, Apace was the first nursery in WA dedicated to supplying exclusively local native species for revegetation and landscaping projects throughout the Perth metropolitan region.
For several years now, we have partnered with WA charity Street Connect, to buy sleeping bags for homeless people in WA. Last year over 80 sleeping bags were donated, and many ended up in Mandurah and Bunbury where there was high demand.
Dorothy was the joint organiser with Chris Whelan for our recent meeting with the Washington Rotary Club. The following is the article she wrote for their bulletin about the meeting.
