Kai Eardley was a 20-year-old young man with a loving family, girlfriend, good mates and a passion for football but took his own life in 2016. Out of tragedy came something beautiful and lasting when his mother Claire founded Kai-Fella Foundation. Kai-Fella was his nickname and honours his life. 

Guest speakers Tahlia and Matt explained that the organisation focuses on early intervention and emotional wellbeing, targeting mostly Year 9-Year 12 students but also taking workshops out to sporting groups. 

The workshops are run separately for boys and girls, across three progressive levels. For young women, they explore confidence, self-worth, coping with social pressure and body image. For the guys, the focus is daring to be different from stereotype pressure and peer expectations. 

Kai-Fella has already conducted 100 workshops to date across various schools such as Hale, CBC, All Saints and Rossmoyne High School; plus Movember and WA College of Agriculture.  They hope to run to 300 this year. 

Matt and Tahlia asked us to talk about what we were like as teenagers. For most of us things were very different then, with Kenn saying we were just too busy growing up to question ourselves or become depressed and Chris said that he lived for sport.

Members couldn’t wait for question time and Ian asked if Matt and Tahlia felt depression precedes suicide. Matt said he felt that was a complex question and there were a number of drivers, which can include depression. For him personally during his teenage years, the feeling was of being lost and hopeless and not being able to confide in friends for fear of being thought lame or weak.

Some alarming mental health statistics: Nine Australians die from suicide every day; 75 per cent of mental health issues occur before the age of 25; 90 per cent of young people are not satisfied with their body image and only 4 per cent of women call themselves beautiful. One in five men will experience anxiety in their life and 48 per cent of them would not reach out to their mates if they were struggling. That is one of the main aims of Kai-Fella, that young people, especially males, learn to confide in their friends without fear of derision or judgement.

Nine Australians die by suicide every day.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Matt and Tahlia had a queue of members wanting to speak to them and ask more questions. As Chris rightly pointed out, we are grandparents now and we need to be in touch with how the younger generation is coping with life at home, school and in general.

Guest speaker Jai Thwaites with City of Melville Mayor Katy Mair

Jai is a licensed financial planner with Provident Financial Services and gave us the rundown on how to be smart with our money when we reach that “certain age”.

The first key aspect for retirement is planning and deciding what we’d like to achieve in our twilight years and the savings required to finance those goals.

We may like to travel, or spend time with the grandkids, volunteer or even sleep late every morning after a lifetime of waking up early to a noisy alarm.

How do we estimate how much money we will need to fund our desired lifestyle? Do we know which income source will be relevant to us in our retirement? It could be the age pension, or an annuity, dividends from shares or investment in property. 

You must decide which will be the revenue stream to best take advantage of your personal financial situation, minimise tax outcomes and avoid unnecessary complexity.

Jai used the scenario of an investment of $100,000 over 30 years with a 6 per cent annual return which would yield $574,00 and at 8 per cent annual return a value of $1,006,000; a difference of $432,000 more with 2 per cent higher performance.

Your superannuation fund should be reviewed – have you been given the right advice and are you satisfied with your investment yields? The fees you pay can mean a substantial loss or gain over the years. 

He explained the rules around the taxable and tax-free components of the funds and ways to work around paying tax, which works out at 17 per cent when children inherit. Maximising superannuation is smart because no other form of investing your money can match it. 

Jai also outlined the age pension eligibility criteria and the gifting rules, which were fully detailed in the excellent information sheets he provided. 

As with all things, there are common mistakes you can make managing your money. One way to avoid these is by consulting the right financial planner, who should be transparent about their costs and focuses on your objective and needs.

ROTARY WA: COMING UP 100 YEARS OF COMMUNITY SERVICE.

It's a bit hard to even imagine the total contribution that Rotary has made across WA over the 100 years ... even just thinking about the 53 years of AxR and its volunteering and give back role both locally and overseas gets lost in our current priorities.

One thing is for sure: if we aim to be as active in 2126, then we are going to have to adapt to changing community demands that dominate today's world. 

You only have to look at the loss of Rotary in so many regional areas, of the decline in member numbers statewide, and the struggle to survive for many smaller clubs, to realise that community dynamics have certainly changed against the traditional Rotary model.

We in Applecross, with some key projects and a generally active membership, have resisted demise, but even we are over 1/3 down in numbers from our peak in early 2000. 

Mind you, I think we are better off for activity, but, as often heard, it does depend on a few of the 'oldies' to do much of the heavy lifting and retain our community relevance.

MY THOUGHT: perhaps, on our Centenary of RWA, we should spend some time and reflect on what we must do to stay well oiled for the next 100 years.

We are all responsible for Rotary both today and in the future, there really is no one else to leverage for us!

LAST WEEK'S KAI-FELLA FOUNDATION presentation.

Another great story told, this time in support of young people's mental health.

They have presented to 65 WA schools, and made 485 school visits .. an outstanding effort, and all as a result of one mother not wanting her son's loss of life to be in vain.

We should consider contributing a Kai-Fella school presentation, at $1200 per session, to 3 of our local schools, suggesting Melville and Applecross Senior High's, and to All Saints College, for their ongoing support of our o/s Exchangees.

This would be a very visible commitment to our local youth in this sadly overlooked world of youth mental health.

Let's not play lip service at Applecross Rotary!

Kenn.

Hamish has done a ring around with some success however you will see from the following link to the ROSTER there are still some gaps.  If you can assist please advise Hamish.

If you can assist please contact Hamish.  Setup and packup are important times.  Remember many hands make light work! 

Entries are now closed so now we need to promote the exhibition amongst our network of family, friends etc.

On 13 May I met with Megan and Trudy from Teach Speech Hear (TSH) to review current progress and discuss the next stages of the project.

The majority of equipment for the new speech and hearing booth has now been purchased using our grant funding. TSH were expecting delivery and installation on site this week, and we’re awaiting confirmation. This marks an encouraging milestone as the project moves from planning into practical implementation.

TSH also reported that their roaming audiologist has been active in the region for several months and is already gaining strong traction within the local community. This early engagement is expected to grow significantly once the new Moora base is fully operational.

We also explored opportunities for recognising Rotary’s contribution once the project is complete. TSH have some thoughtful ideas for a launch event and are hopeful of producing a short promotional video to highlight the partnership and community impact.

One point of concern is that TSH is currently the only health provider operating from the new Moora facility. While this is disappointing given the potential for collaboration, the hope is that additional services will join over time so the site can develop into the community hub it was designed to be.

Tom