The board met last Monday and I will report along with committee key items, which will be presented in the next newsletter. There is progress towards a few projects and improving our public image which we hope all members can be proud as well as be involved.
Next Monday, 27 March, we are welcoming Neil Wickens, and his wife Socorro, back into our club. So please come along, with your partners if they wish, to welcome Neil and Socorro.
We also have a visiting Rotarian from southern Portugal, Richard Thorpe from Estoi Palace International. We will exchange banners and Richard will give a brief summary of his club before hearing from our guest speaker.
Stay safe and well.
IMAGINE ROTARY
Trees for Life (by John Norris)
Not all seedlings are created equal, and it seems that Hills micro-climates may have a bearing on this.
A somewhat small study of our current five boxes, each nurturing sixty tubes, has indicated that the various locations of the boxes may have had an impact on the survival and growth of the seedlings.
As can be observed that, from the photos, the locations of Bridgewater and Heathfield with their sometimes stormy and turbulent weather, seemed to be the least conducive for survival.
In contrast, the areas of Uraidla and Hahndorf have a somewhat more sheltered and nurturing environment.
As a result, although as mentioned a small study analysis, the conclusion reached is that for future seedling production, Bridgewater and Heathfield are not suitable locations, whereas Uraidla and Hahndorf are inimitable hotbeds of breeding activity!
Footnote: In the application of the Four Way Test, no growers' names have been mentioned.
Help for Talitu Pre School, Timor-Leste
Talitu is one of the mountain communities the Club assisted with its last WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) project. The Talitu Primary School established a new Pre School last year with 23 students in the first intake. It asked if the Club could assist in providing books and educational materials, including skipping ropes, swings, see-saws, lego, wooden puzzles, building blocks and picture books.
With Bete Fatima, Rotary Club of Dili Lafaek, as the intermediary, Robert Koehne and Pauline Annear have begun the task of identifying what is available locally and how we would transport the materials to Timor-Leste. Robert visited DIK, Edinburgh which does have some new picture books and soft toys. We thought, however, that we should first see what we are able to provide from our local Hills community.
To that end, Margot Williams, a Pre School teacher well-known to many of us (husband Owen is a previous President of the Club) has offered to help. Margot, whose enthusiasm knows no bounds, spoke recently to a meeting of pre-school teachers and received enthusiastic support for the project. She has already visited a number of Hills’ pre-schools and obtained commitments from them to provide materials. We are therefore confident that we'll be able to source most of what is required locally. Pauline has already visited the bookshops of the Rotary Clubs of Mitcham and Edwardstown and has been able to gather a number of boxes of books which have kindly been donated by those clubs. A visit to Peter Kirk at South Pacific School Aid is planned to source more books and to investigate transportation of all the materials we gather.
We have undertaken to get the materials to Timor-Leste by the end of August, in time for the next school year.
Rofina dos Santos, Head Teacher, Talitu Pre-School
Rofina's daughter, a student at the Talitu Pre-School
Protecting the Environment - exploring Rotary's 7th Area of Focus (by Pauline Annear)
This forum was held on Saturday March 11 with the guest speaker being PRIP Ian Riseley. Some of you may remember when Ian was Rotary International President one of his goals was to encourage every Rotarian in the world to plant a tree.
Ian is now chair of the Environmental Issues Task Force which was instrumental in having the Environment selected as Rotary's seventh Area of Focus.
Ian outlined a few of the many environmental projects happening across the world and made particular mention of the Rotaractors of Germany's project called Bee Alive - the creation of bee hotels, planting wildflower meadows to attract bees and informing the whole of Germany about the importance of bees. (Rotaract in Germany is almost bigger than Rotary!)
A number of local clubs then outlined their ongoing environmental projects. These included:
The Mallee Emu Wren Project - RC Murray Bridge
Jack's Farm - RC St Peters
Trees for life - a partnership with Wilderness School and Environments by Design
Eradication of plastic straws - RC Glenelg
Bat Boxes as part of the Organic Vineyard program - RC Seaford
Greening Project for 10 acres of parklands - RC Goolwa
Members of the CATE (Calperum and the Environment) Committee then spoke about the many projects clubs can be involved in at Calperum Station (85 clubs are already involved). Projects range from building works, watering systems, planting, rabbit eradication, groundwater monitoring and of course the very successful Health of the River program.
SO ....... what will our environment project look like? It would be great to come up with a meaningful project.
Annual District Assembly, Sunday 2 April
District 9510 is hosting its annual District Assembly on Sunday, 2 April at St Michael's College, Henley Beach. Designed especially for Board members and new club members, all are cordially invited to meet the incoming District team and to help plan for the new Rotary year.
Registration is required (Click here to Register.) but there is no cost to attend. Lunch and tea/coffee breaks are provided. A complete program will be sent out to participants before the Assembly to help select an individual program.
