Hello fellow Rotarians, family and friends, welcome to the first newsletter since our Club’s changeover.

 

I am honoured to be your President for the upcoming year and thank you all for accepting me into the role.

 

The changeover dinner was a lovely evening with a good attendance from our members and also members from nearby Clubs. Local MP Josh Teague, PDG Tim Klar, Shiralee Judge.  Partners and friends also attended.

 

During June and early July, Jane and I also attended changeovers for the Rotary Clubs of Blakiston, Mt Barker and Onkaparinga. We also attended the anniversary luncheon of the Probus Club of Stirling during the same week.

I have been trying to get up to speed with all things Stirling Rotary, including talking with you all, so that I will hopefully provide a good overall direction for the Club.

 

I hope everybody has enjoyed the last couple of meetings and with the committee reshuffle we will be able to inject some energy and new ideas into the Club.

 

In the coming months there are interesting speakers on our programme and we are gearing up rapidly for our major event of the Small Acreage Field Days in September.

 

Let’s all look at practical ways to continue our positive fellowship and community service. We can Imagine Rotary doing anything if we apply ourselves.

 

Thank you and I look forward to working with you all, sharing stories and friendship throughout the coming year.

 

Lynne Griffiths, Community and Cultural Affairs Officer with the Adelaide Hills Council, presented a case study of a highly successful intervention to turbocharge the healing process following the devastating Cudlee Creek bushfire of 2019 that ravaged much of the Hills.

 

Based upon similar programs developed for military personnel suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the FABRIK Arts and Heritage Centre in Lobethal, was ideally placed to use creative arts as a tool to respond to community recovery. Small groups engaged in the arts which prompted discussion and information sharing in an informal and safe environment, and accelerated the healing process.. 

 

FABRIK, located in the Old Onkaparinga Woollen Mill in Lobethal, became the centre  of creative recovery. Now undergoing refurbishment, the Mill is being set up to become a  major creative arts, social and cultural hub for the community.

 

   

Pauline Annear with Lynne Griffiths              Quilting as a healing tool

PP Susanne Marie (L) invited Jan Ball, Elizabeth Dobson and Barb Field to outline their plans to hold a Garden Affair event on the Mylor Oval on Sunday, 30 April, 2023. Each an accomplished gardener themselves, they are all members and/or Directors of number of local gardening clubs. Jan Ball is on the Board of the overarching Garden Clubs Australia as Director Zones South West., so they are assured of much support.

 

They had some ambitious, but achievable, plans they shared with members.  Greg Russell invited them to accept a site at the upcoming Field Days Event, which he Chairs, to promote the Affair and, if so inclined, to observe our own planning processes and conduct of the Field Days in September to support their own organisation efforts.

 

Once again, John Norris and his intrepid band of merry men and women, made a significant contribution to the coffers of the club.  Our thanks to John, David Hogan, Malcolm Horton, Andrew Cass, Pauline Annear, Colin Fraser and John Osborne!

 

 

The annual, peaceful transition from one administration to another took place at Rotary yea rend in the presence of Rotary Club members, partners, friends and dignitaries at the Mount Osmond Golf Club.

 

Good food and great fellowship accompanied the celebration of past successes and the excitement and optimism of being challenged by new endeavours.

 

Malcolm Horton was invested as President by the

Immediate Past President, Stephen Blacketer

 

The new Executive to take up the reins on 1 July, 2022 included 

(L-R) IPP Stephen Blacketer, Pauline Annear, Treasurer,

Michelle Lesiw, Secretary, President Malcolm Horton, 

AG Shiralee Judge, Chair RAWCS and

PDG Tim Klar representing DG Jeff Neale, 

and John Norris, Director Community Service.

 

Other Board members unable to attend the dinner included: Ken Patterson, International Service and Robert Hill, Youth Service.

 

Members of the club and guests, thanked the new members of the Board for volunteering for the posts, wished them much success in the coming year and assured them of all the support they needed from the club to action their ambitious plans for the year.

 

The outgoing Board at its last meeting, nominated a number of members (and to a good friend of Rotary) for Paul Harris Fellow Recognition for meritorious service to the Club. The recipients of this prestigious award this year were:

 

  

Michelle Lesiw, Don Reid and  John Norris.

 

      

 Robert Hill, Nic Kentish  and Simon Jones, Chair, Stirling Business Association

 

All members enthusiastically welcomed the newest Paul Harris Fellows.

 

The Scott Hosking Award is the highest accolade that the club can bestow, is awarded annually to the member who most contributed to the club and the community in the preceding 12 months. 

 

This year it went to a very well deserving, Colin Fraser.

 

President Malcolm, in one of his first meetings of the new Rotary Year, presided over the retirement of Rotarian Don Reid who was forced by ill health and relocation to leave the club after decades of dedicated service to the club.  He had served as the Club's designated Public Officer listed on the ASIC website as the contact for all official government and licence correspondence. 

 

Donna Reid, a very talented sculptor has also been a very valued member of the Rotary Community and hss played a big part in supporting the annual Sculpture Exhibition.

 

They departed with the very best wishes of the President, Board and all members.  They will be much missed.

 

For 14 consecutive years, the Rotary Foundation, has been awarded the highest possible rating — four stars — from Charity Navigator, an independent evaluator of charities. They have given TRF an overall score of 100% — that’s 100 / 100 for all four parameters: Financial, Accountability & Transparency, Leadership & Adaptability and Culture & Community  Impressive!

 

Marie-Louise Lees, Chair of the Rotary Foundation joined us to report on its activities and to encourage he club to take full advantage of  the Global Grants Scheme which effectively doubles the value of club contribution for funding major projects from supporting Indigenous kidney disease, training in literacy and numeracy in outback Australia and fire and flood assistance in NSW to eradicating Polio and clean water and sanitation projects in remote communities, club projects (and the communities in which they are engaged, benefit significantly more through support funding by the Rotary Foundation. 

 

Operating too often under the radar, there are a number of members who regularly give of their time and effort throughout the year on behalf of the club to support the community.

 

John Norris his small band of collaborators, David Hogan, Robert Koehne and Andrew Cass together with a former Rotarian Neil Wickens visit the Food Bank in Edwardstown on a rotational basis to pick up and deliver to the Hut its weekly order of groceries to restock its community food pantry.

 

..and here, we see Dr Dick and John Osborne helping Rotarian David Cockshell of of Rotary's Donation in Kind program, to transport unwanted, but still useful, hospital equipment from the Stirling Hospital to the DIK warehouse in Elizabeth.