NOW LESS THAN 2 MONTHS TO GO! SUNDAY 24th NOVEMBER.
Pic below is JacFest Chris Whelan recharging his batteries in Singapore, returning this week for the final sprint home to our flagship event the 24th APPLECROSS ROTARY JACARANDA FESTIVAL.
Co - President's Notes Tom Atkinson & Murray McKay
Dear Rotarians and Friends,
Last week we heard from Helen Creed about the importance of early childhood learning but more about her talk below. I would just like to emphasise how important this stage is in the development of every child because a good start to learning will keep the child engaged through school and beyond. I hope that our leaders can find a way to treat early childhood care a learning experience as well as a caring experience.
I, Murray, will be away for a few weeks as my oldest cousin is celebrating her marriage to her long-term partner. It will be a terrific opportunity to catch up with family and friends that I haven’t seen for several years. I’ll also be visiting my daughter and grandchild who is just starting her early education at the age of 9 months – there is no reason for Australia not to invest in the future in a similar way to Europe. The trip will be a great opportunity to celebrate the fact that ‘normal’ life continues despite the wars and divisions that are happening around the world.
President Tom, Caroline Robinson, Graeme Fardon and Ray Philp
Rotarian Graeme Fardon enjoyed the opportunity of hosting Caroline Robinson when she recently visited Applecross Rotary. Graeme knew and admired the work that Caroline was doing in the eastern Wheatbelt when he was CEO of the Shire of Quairading and Caroline had established the Wheatbelt Business Network. Past President Ray was excited to see her too because they used to meet when both were members of the Regional Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Caroline’s parents migrated to Kalamunda from Kenya and Caroline Bush went to school at Perth College. In 1990 she received the first John Curtin Undergraduate Scholarship awarded by Curtin University, which enabled her to undertake a Commerce degree and Graduate Diploma of Education at no cost, and paid the expenses associated with a semester of Study Abroad. While undertaking the Diploma she was required to spend two periods of teaching practice and undertook the first at Wesley College. The second period was a longer one and for some reason she chose to spend it at Southern Cross District High School. So off she went in her little car, and when she got to Merredin she called her father and asked if Southern Cross might be a bigger place than Merredin. Ah, no it isn’t! What had she been thinking when she decided to go there for 6 weeks! Oh well, it’s only for 6 weeks, she thought.
Think again Caroline. On her first night in the small town of Southern Cross there was a social evening at the local pub, and it was there she met her future husband, Ian Robinson. After graduating and getting married she moved onto the family farm he managed, 80 km towards Hyden from Southern Cross.
However major changes were continuing throughout the Eastern Wheatbelt. Populations were shrinking as neighbours bought out neighbours, farm size expanded, increased mechanisation was underway, and new cropping techniques were adopted. Permanent farm labour became a thing of the past with seasonal labour used to work on the expanded farms during seeding and harvest.
Fewer people meant school populations were shrinking too, small businesses closed and the main streets started to look very sad - no cafe, no IGA, no hairdresser. Pubs stopped offering accommodations, and reduced bar hours meant the only staff were the owner/managers.
However Caroline could see huge opportunities everywhere, even as all this doom and gloom thinking was prevalent.
Caroline set up a business, 150 Square (https://150square.com.au/), so named because the wheatbelt covers an area for 150 square kilometres. Its eastern border stretches from Mingenew to Esperance, so it’s not surprising she drives 90,000km a year undertaking various consulting projects.
The philosophy underpinning the business? "People drive the growth and inspire the innovation that helps our communities thrive. That’s why, across our services, our focus is leveraging our experience, knowledge and networks to develop your organisation through people-centred strategic solutions."
A lot of what happens is sometimes so annoyingly obvious:
Example 1: get the main sporting groups together, say football, netball and hockey. Schedule the fixtures so they play all sports on one day in one town this weekend, and another town next weekend.
Example 2: the cafe is closing. Find a small group of volunteers who agree to keep it open and use the funds generated to employ some women who can’t find a local job One case Caroline cited had employed 20 women in this way over the past few years.
Caroline’s presentation was very motivating, and as she reminded us at the end - 150 Square works for the greater good of the community, and so does Rotary!
For the five or so of us who volunteered yesterday at Ascot Rotary’s BRICKTOBER major community event, what a truly amazing Rotary effort! It was an outstanding exhibition of what can be built with Lego’s… some of the works were truly mind blowing! The crowds turned up in record numbers… they had sold 8,000 pre booked tickets … and people entered in hourly blocks to manage the capacity of the Curtin Uni stadium in which it is housed.
It is all very well managed with a big volunteer pool on the Sat/Sun to manage the ‘punters’ with only a few who are non Ascot/Ascot Satellite Rotary volunteers. They do get wonderful support from Curtin Uni Volunteers Group and others.
Ascot Rotary have increased food/coffee and commercial stalls support, and run their own very extensive array of Bricktober branded merchandise.. something we could consider for JacFest and PMM public facing activities.
Lots of special interest activities for kids both within the stadium and on the grounds outside. A major Lego Raffle attracts interest.
Another truly exceptional Rotary community event… well done Ascot!
And for us at AxR, our big ticket JacFest # 24 will be held on Sunday, 24th Nov!
Publicity and preparations are all well advanced and you will be hearing more over the next few weeks as we lead into the 24/11.
More stalls, a bigger site footprint, some new attractions and our ongoing strong event sponsors / club sponsors all make for another great day for our community.
Anyone for Drinks?
Our next Sundowner will be held on Friday 1st November, at Danni and Peter’s home in Applecross. It will be a BBQ social get-together.. more details to follow.
Tompkins Park this Thursday evening at 5pm for those looking forward to a social catch up will also be up in small lights.. will mention again tomorrow.
A video message to the club from Valentin Vorholtz as he settles back into life at home in Germany following 12 months in Australia on Rotary's Youth Exchange program.
The following was reported on the Applecross Rotary Members Group facebook page on the 6th October 2023. How time flies!
"Valentin has arrived! Our German exchange student flew in via Singapore this evening and was greeted on arrival by host mum Lorri and President Tom, along with Norm and Jill from the Rotary Western Australia RYE team.
To welcome Valentin to Australia, he was presented with a special local artefact- an East Fremantle Football Club jumper to celebrate their recent premiership!
We can't wait to get to know Valentin, who will hopefully be attending Tuesday's breakfast meeting ahead of starting his schooling at Scotch College Perth. It's wonderful to have the Rotary International Youth Exchange program back up and running, thank you to all who have supported our club in organising Valentin's arrival, a busy 12 months ahead!"
Fancy Plants Founder John Foss is on our menu for 2025
We are already booking speakers for 2025, and in the spirit of Caroline Robinson’s recent presentation, one is Muresk graduate and Wheatbelt grain grower John Foss, whose Nuffield Scholarship (https://www.nuffield.com.au/about) changed his life.
John will tell us more but (spoiler alert!) it led to him founding the Chia Company (https://thechiaco.com/au/) and more recently healthy snack food maker Fancy Plants (https://fancyplants.com/au). John made sure he managed the whole supply chain from growing the plants, to retailing products like Chia Pudding and Chocolate Silky Pot, at major supermarkets throughout Australia.
And coming up in the nearer future, Racecourse Vet Peter Symons will return for our annual Melbourne Cup breakfast on 5 November to explain why jockeys are “a necessary evil”, and immediately following Remembrance Day, former naval commander John Scott will tell us about Legacy in the 21st century, over breakfast on 12 November.
Our AxR International member Roger Painter is returning to Perth to help out at this year's Jacaranda Festival. I believe he will also be visiting his grand kids
Our RJF project leader Chris Whelan leaves no 'stone upturned' when looking for volunteers, reaching out to our international friends, resulting in the following email reply from Roger.
Greetings Chris: Good to hear from you. Yes, we will be there for the Jacaranda Festival and I’d be more than pleased to volunteer to help at the Festival. We leave for Perth on November 13th. Hopefully I will make the meeting before the Festival so I can catch up with folks. Pass my best on to all the members. I’m looking forward to seeing you all.
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