Welcome to our latest Newsletter and my last one for a while as Richard is back from his trip to the UK.
Contributions to our bulletin are welcome and if you have anything please send to Richard at
nabbo_123@hotmail.com
And if you have any comments on the layout, content and information provided, let us know, because the Newsletter is yours.
Rotary Hutt City breakfast meetings
Meetings are held 7am to 8.30 am on the first and third Wednesday of the month at Boulcott's Farm Heritage Golf Club, Military Road, Lower Hutt. Please RSVP to chrissi@roll.nz.
For those of you who have not pre-paid, breakfast continues to cost $25 per person, payable on arrival to Gaylene Hughes this coming week.
Members, don't forget to check the Duties Roster (Meeting Responsibilities) below for your nominated duty for our next meeting on the 15th of July.
Meeting Responsibilities
Greeter
Walker, Chrissi
Payment Taker
Hughes, Gaylene
Reception Desk
Thomas, Gregory
Opening thought
Geremia-Young, Anna
3 Minute Who Am I?
Brockelsby, Sandy
Intro to Speaker
Colville, Sue
Thanks to Speaker
Harding, Katrina
Quizlett (6 questions about your industry)
Rowell, Bob
Closing thought
Gough, Bruce
President's Report
A Message from President Craig
It is a real privilege to begin my year as President of Hutt City Rotary.
Before looking ahead, I want to thank Katrina Harding for her wonderful leadership over the past 12 months. Katrina has dedicated countless hours to our club, leading with enthusiasm, professionalism and genuine care for our members and our community. On behalf of us all, thank you, Katrina, for everything you’ve done.
I’d also like to acknowledge our Board members. So much of what makes Rotary successful happens behind the scenes, and I’m fortunate to have such a committed team alongside me as we begin another exciting year.
Now, I have a confession to make. As many of you know, I’m a football tragic, and with the 2026 FIFA World Cup currently in full swing, concentrating on anything else has been something of a challenge! Thankfully, Rotary meetings don’t clash with too many kick-off times… although if England make a late run, I may need to negotiate the agenda!
In all seriousness, I’m excited about the year ahead and my goal is straightforward: to ensure Hutt City Rotary continues to be a club that our current members enjoy being part of while attracting new members who want to make a difference in our community.
I want our meetings to be informative, engaging, and enjoyable. Rotary should challenge us, inspire us, connect us and, just as importantly, give us a chance to have some fun together. Fellowship has always been one of Rotary’s greatest strengths, but it is our shared commitment to Service Above Self that defines who we are. Everything we do should reflect that simple but powerful philosophy.
I’m delighted to begin my term with a significant new project—Bee in the City. This exciting initiative will raise much-needed funds for the Life Flight Trust while bringing colour, creativity, and community spirit to our region. It’s a wonderful opportunity for Rotary to work alongside local businesses, organisations, and the wider public in support of a fantastic cause. My hope is that Bee in the City becomes an enduring event that grows stronger each year and eventually develops a Hutt Valley connection.
Rotary has always been about ordinary people achieving extraordinary things when they work together. I believe we have a fantastic club, an amazing group of members, and every reason to be optimistic about the future.
I’m looking forward to sharing the journey with all of you over the next 12 months. Thank you for your support, your friendship, and your commitment to making our community a better place.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I just need to watch the latest World Cup highlights … purely for research purposes, of course!
Past President Katrina officially passed the chains of office to new President Craig Deadman.
Conal talked HR in his Who are we? segment on his company Boost HR and David offered the closing thought. In between, we welcomed Shirley-Anne Thornbury to as a new member - great to have her on board!
Seb Grodd from Life Flight Trust spoke of their upcoming Bee in the City project, in which Rotary Hutt City have sponsored a Bee. We had a sneak preview of our artist's beautiful bee and are looking forward to the official reveal.
Conal and David
New member Shirley-Anne Thornbury being welcomed to the club
Seb from LifeFlight
Rotary meeting: 15th July 2026
The speaker for next week is Kate Daellenbach from Aphasia - which is a partial or total loss of the ability to articulate ideas or comprehend spoken or written language, resulting from damage to the brain caused by injury or disease
As membership invoices won't be issued until later this month, for Wednesday’s meeting please pay for your breakfast on arrival, including those who normally prepay.
Your membership invoice will include your annual subscription plus five months of breakfast costs (10 meetings), covering meetings through to mid-December.
We'd greatly appreciate if you're able to prepay your breakfasts going forward. The club is invoiced for 30 breakfasts at every meeting, regardless of attendance, so prepayments help support our cash flow and allow us to continue focusing our funds on serving the community.
Thank you for your understanding and support.
IYM camp 5th- 10th of July
Below are some photos from the 10th annual IYM camp held in the first week of the school holidays. Forty young women arrived at Silverstream Retreat on Sunday 5th of July for five days of friendship, connection and shared experiences.
Their activities included competing in an innovation challenge about fire safety solutions, visits to Tiaki Wai and seeing first-hand how water is treated at the Wainuiomata water treatment plant, the Ferrier Institute laboratories, Openstar, (google this, it is amazing!), New Zealand Police and the Defence force, Eight360 and Wellington Electricity and the Otago school of Medicine at Wellington Hospital of course, the reception at Parliament.
Parliament
Labaratory Work
Wainuiomata Water Treatment plant
Diagnosing a sick "patient" at the Otago School of Medicine at Wellington Hospital
Boulcott Street school: Matariki celebrations:
Matariki celebrations at Boulcott School on Thursday 2nd of July, (held early, before the start of the school holidays).
Our Rotary members once again assisted with the braziers and marshmallow toasting. The students performed for the parents and school community and it was great to be involved again with this local school.
A big thanks to everyone who volunteered and turned up on a crisp early morning.
Rotabiz/Rotary Hutt City are Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce members - as such, we're invited to join this event at the Carnmore Hotel (Angus Inn), on Thursday 23 July from 5.30-7.30 pm. The event is hosted by Rotabiz member, Adam.
"Good things happen when the right people are in the same room"
The Connect Series is back for its 5th event - this time hosted by the freshly refurbished Carnmore Hotel in Lower Hutt. Come along, meet some faces, and see what conversations lead to.
Free to attend. No agenda. Just good people and good refreshments.
Thursday 23 July | 5.30pm – 7.30pm
Carnmore Hotel, 5 Cornwall Street, Lower Hutt
New to the series or a regular? Everyone's welcome.
Register through the Chamber of Commerce website, but be quick as spaces are limited.
This evening will feature Mayor Ken Laban in conversation with a panel of respected Hutt Valley business leaders, exploring what's really happening in today's business environment. Rather than focusing on theory, the discussion will share practical insights, real experiences, and strategies that are delivering results in the current climate.
Together, the panel will discuss:
What businesses are seeing on the ground right now
What's driving revenue and growth
How customer behaviour is changing
The challenges businesses are navigating
Emerging opportunities across the Hutt Valley over the next 12–24 months
Practical ideas business owners can apply immediately
Designed as an engaging conversation rather than a traditional panel, the session will encourage honest discussion, differing perspectives, and audience participation.
Following the discussion, stay and connect with fellow business owners and professionals over refreshments. This growing series has become a valuable platform for building relationships, sharing ideas, and strengthening our local business community.
ROTARY INTERNATIONAL:
Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 45 years. Our goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever.
Rotary's first polio project was to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979. Inspired by that successful vaccination campaign Rotary went on to become a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, which has reduced polio cases around the world by 99.9 percent.
Thanks to the generosity and commitment of our members, Rotary has contributed more than US$2.9 billion in PolioPlus grants and countless volunteer hours to protect more than 3 billion children in 122 countries from this disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $11 billion to the effort.
Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyse as many as 200,000 children each year.
A Reminder about upcoming events:
31st July: Circa Theatre: Local Library
An affectionate comedy about libraries, loneliness, local bodies, busy-bodies and the bloody city council.
This is a Rotary fundraiser and Katrina is organising this event. Please contact her for tickets.
16th August:
Big hats high tea, Hutt Valley Rotary Fundraiser supporting Life Flight
1st October:
Save the date and put a team together for our big quiz in support of IYM
Remember to bring some loose change along to the meeting so you can contribute if you answer a Quizlett question incorrectly :), or wish to "Buy The Box".
If you should have any interesting stories about fellow Rotarians then please pass them onto Craig so he can share them at the meeting. Email: craig@packprod.co.nz
Payment is also now available by Eftpos onsite - no excuses!
Thursday 23 July | 5.30pm – 7.30pm
Carnmore Hotel, 5 Cornwall Street, Lower Hutt
Register through the Chamber of Commerce website, but be quick as spaces are limited.
