Contributions to our bulletin are welcome and if you have anything please send to Sue at sue.colville@gmail.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.
Members, don't forget to check the Duties Roster (Meeting Responsibilities) below for your nominated duty for our next meeting on 6th May.
Meeting Responsibilities
Greeter
Soper, Andy
Payment Taker
Hughes, Gaylene
Reception Desk
Ngan Kee, Mark
Opening thought
Wilmshurst, Wayne
5 min What is my Business?
Ross, Brian
Intro to Speaker
Geremia-Young, Anna
Thanks to Speaker
Cherian, Ganesh
Quizlett (6 questions about your industry)
Cranna, Rob
Closing thought
Walker, Chrissi
President's Report
Bonjour from France!
I hear all things Rotary are ticking along without me. Richard Gibbens attended the Lower Hutt ANZAC service on the club’s behalf and presented a beautiful wreath, on what looked like a stunning day. Andy Soper has filled the 24 spots required for marshals at the Tough Guy & Girl challenge in Wainuiomata on 9th May. Thanks to those who’ve signed up for the day to assist. It’s always fun watching people get muddier and muddier as they complete the circuits. Word is that Andy’s a competitor this year, so do look out for him. This is a great fundraiser for the club – a few hours’ ‘work’ and we get $3000 to put towards projects. This year’s funds will go towards Life Flight Trust’s Bee in the City programme. More on that later.
With a Fifth Wednesday and a movie fundraiser, it’s been a busy April, but it’s May now and Cameron will be back to lead the Rotabiz meeting next week. I’ll be back for the second meeting in May and look forward to catching up with you then. In the meantime, I’ve finished my Greek cruise, had a couple of days in Nice (visited Monaco) and Avignon and am currently on a Rhone river cruise heading towards Lyon. From there, biking through the vineyards from Strasbourg, a couple of days in Amsterdam to see the tulips and will finish in London. Busy times!
Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to be a marshal. We have the requisite 24 people but it would be good to have a couple extra. Your commitment will help to ensure a safe event and raise $3,000 towards our community projects.We are hoping for another stunning sunny day!
The event is at Camp Wainui on Coast Road south of the Wainui Village. It will be well signposted on the left, but if you get to the golf course, you have gone too far.
Please arrive by 7.30am. We have to pack up afterwards too, which could take until 2.00pm.
For any more information, please contact Andy Soper on 021 125 6261
Fun in the water
Andy, is that you ?
Looking Back at our last meeting
Alan Brown gave the three minute "Who am I ?" with a very interesting talk about his time in the workforce, starting in 1963 and covering his roles in manufacturing, innovative design and asset management.
Our guest speakers were Rebecca Routhan, the Community and Events Programme Manager at Te Omanga Hospice and Ann Topp, the biography team leader.
Rebecca spoke about the role Te Omanga plays in our community, noting that in the last twelve months one in every three people who died in the Hutt Valley received support in some way from the hospice.
The direct work of Te Omanga also involves community care, education, primary medical treatment and physiotherapy. In addition there are five hundred volunteers maintaining and improving the gardens, running the shops, running street appeals and writing patient biographies, running fund raising activities and more. Ann spoke about the biography service and how that works, involving 5 sessions, once a week for an hour and completely led by the patient.
Looking Forward to our 6th May ROTABIZ meeting: Neil Thornton, from the NZ comedy school is our speaker at our next meeting. Neil is an award-winning comedian, MC, writer and life-long teacher.
As a comedian, he cut his chops in the tough New York City comedy scene before moving to New Zealand with his husband in 2014. Since then, he's performed up and down New Zealand and all over the word, with sold-out shows in New York City, the Edinburgh Fringe, and Provincetown, not to mention everywhere from Auckland to Queenstown to bowling clubs in the middle of nowhere for confused sheep farmers.
In 2017 Neil founded the NZ Comedy School, helping a wonderfully diverse array of people find their unique voices through the art and craft of stand-up comedy.
We are looking forward to hearing from him and it should be a fun meeting.
Sweet Louise fundraiser
Sweet Louise is the only charity in New Zealand dedicated to supporting Kiwis with incurable, terminal breast cancer and was set up by Scott Perkins in 2005, after his wife, Louise, passed away in 2004, after living with incurable breast cancer for 10 years.
Rotary Hutt City member, Anna Geremia-Young is participating in this this years walk and is raising this money to support this wonderful charity, most of us will know someone who has been impacted by breast cancer.
If you would like to support Anna please use the link below.
Do you know May is Rotary International's youth service month?
This month serves as a reminder of the importance of investing in youth for a better future and is an important month is the Rotary International Calendar.
May is designated as Rotary Youth Service Month, a time dedicated to recognising and celebrating the pivotal role young people play in creating positive change globally. Rotary clubs worldwide highlight their commitment to the next generation through programmes like Interact, Rotaract, RYLA, Youth Exchange, and in our area, IYM
Key aspects of Rotary Youth Service Month include:
Celebrating Youth Impact: Recognizing the service and leadership of young people in local and global communities.
Showcasing Programmes: Highlighting Rotary's youth initiatives such as Interact clubs, Rotaract clubs, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), and Rotary Youth Exchange.
Empowering Leaders: Focusing on developing leadership skills, building friendships, and fostering a global perspective in young adults and students.
Fifth Wednesday drinks at the Angus on April 29th:
A small group of us enjoyed drinks at the Angus, we loved the new decor and Andy and I stayed on for a meal afterwards. We can highly recommend the food and delicious Whittaker's chocolate mousse.
A Reminder of Club Meeting Duties: Closing Thought
Our closing thought is for you to round off a warm and interesting occasion where everybody has shared
the moment, enjoyed themselves, and head off with a memorable thought to lift their day.
• See if you can choose something linked to the speaker’s topic.
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!
Last Edition, I asked: Which countries make up the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council? They are China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and USA.
