Attended
|
43
|
Apologies
|
10
|
LOA
|
4
|
Silent
|
8
|
TOTAL
|
65
|
Welcome from President Pat:
President Pat reminded us that last week, in partial commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the introduction of women into Rotary, there was a presentation to former lady Presidents of the Club. Mary O’Sullivan and Lynda Burch were missing last week so they received their commemoration brooches this week.
Anniversaries
Tauranga Sunrise Trust
Kevin Atkinson and Jane Nees have retired from the Trust, to be replaced by Lynda Burch and President Pat. Pat noted the long and stalwart service provided by Kevin and Jane as trustees and they were thanked with a round of applause.
Wayne noted that a couple of additional drivers are needed to help with House of Science deliveries on Monday and/or Friday mornings.
Kathy gave the first of what will be many mentions of Treasured Art for 2019. She confirmed that Duncan and Ebbett and Volvo NZ are locked in as sponsors and the event will be on 9 November. She is looking for someone to take responsibility for management of the catering – any interest, please contact Kathy.
Geoff (visitor from Papamoa Club) told us that about 10 years ago a project was set up in Tanzania to support local farmers. Since then, the project has raised about $1.1 million. The final phase of the project is to acquire a milk truck because the village has no spare vehicle to carry out milk collections. They are about $16,000 short. More information can be found at www.farmersinneedtanzania.org.
Dan introduced the speaker, Ayla Dellaway.
Ayla had a challenging start to life. She was expelled to (from?) Mount College in Year 9. She went to Hamilton, but that didn’t last and she came to Otumoetai. At that stage of her life, she was moving around and not living anywhere for very long. She was selected for Project K, although she acknowledged that she didn’t really want to do it and her mother had to pay her. She had been in foster care for most of her life and has not had the benefit of trusting reliable relationships.
Ayla said Project K has helped her overcome many of the challenges she had in her life. She said it was an opportunity to step back after always feeling she needed to move forward to fill voids in her life. She started with the three week wilderness challenge and came back feeling refreshed, but unsure about what would come next, although there was no-one to collect her from the bus. She got support from families of some of the others who had been on the challenge.
The next stage was the 12 month community challenge helping other people and she felt good doing something positive for others. It also gave her a chance to solidify some friendships with some of the others on the course.
Ayla said she found having a mentor very supportive and helpful. Dan also commented on the very positive effects of the mentoring programme in Project K. Ayla told us about how Project K had helped her set plans and goals. She got a job and her driver’s licence, although she was still having a rough home life, so she moved out of home when she was 16 and started work full-time. She now has a 4 year old daughter and a husband. She has bought a digger and contracts to HEB (which explained the hi vis gear she was wearing).
Ayla finished by repeating that Project K was all about setting goals and achieving them and choosing your own future rather than letting people around you choose it for you.
Dan spoke generally (and passionately) about the Graeme Dingle Foundation programmes. There are five of them. Two programmes, Career Navigator (which is about helping kids at school to decide what to do afterwards) and Mind (which is to support offenders to avoid reoffending) are not offered in Tauranga. He talked about the benefits of the programmes offered. There are 3,050 students in the Bay of Plenty participating in Kiwi Can each week. Dan also noted that not all kids should or need to stay at school – he says there are plenty of opportunities for learning to continue later in life and some kids are better off moving out of school and getting into work. Kiwi Can has five teams each day, so there are five schools getting Kiwi Can delivered every day of the school week. A total of about 18,000 children in New Zealand get Kiwi Can programmes delivered to them.
The cost to sponsor a child through Kiwi Can is about $8,000. Dan noted that Kiwi Can doesn’t just change the kid – it also has a beneficial effect on the family.
The raffle was won by Glenys (after a delay while she fossicked in her purse). Thank goodness she found it or Chris may have won again
Sergeant Session
There was some confusion here because there is more than one Ron in the Club. Ron Devlin prepared for a crash session as Sergeant, only to find out when he stood up that the real Sergeant was Ron Fyfe. For some reason, Ron Devlin carried the day anyway. Ron Fyfe introduced the Tauranga District Rotary Deputy Governor’s challenge, with a suitable trophy, to promote inter-Club relationships. The current “activity” is pétanque but the Club which wins the trophy can select the next activity.
From Brett Hobson:
Rotary Foundation
A very big thank you to members for your Foundation contributions this year which total $4960.
The Foundation has six areas of focus:
Your contributions do make a real difference to the lives of millions around the world. To learn more about the areas of focus
https://www.rotary.org/en/our-causes?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-vPawKWh4gIVFoWPCh2zzwoUEAAYASACEgKhrvD_BwE
Final smile:
Q: How do trees access the internet?
A: They log in.