Home Page | Rotary Club of Werribee

FAREWELL TO ANDREA

At the club's meeting on 3rd July, we bid a sad farewell to our exchange student Andrea Fredskild.

Andrea arrived in Australia 12 months ago as a shy and wide-eyed girl and is now returning to her home in Denmark as a confident young lady. She was a student at Westbourne Grammar where she developed long-lasting friendships with her fellow students. She thanked everyone for their support of her, particularly her Rotary hosts. With their love and caring, she always felt at home and was very grateful to those who took her on trips to many parts of Victoria and Australia. One of her greatest highlights was the trip to Central Australia with her fellow exchange students.

Andrea said that, while she is excited to be returning home to see her family and friends, it is sad to leave. The whole exchange program has been an amazing experience to her. She has great memories of our country which will remain with her for a long time and promised that she would return one day. She thanked our club for being so supportive.

On behalf of the club, President Graham thanked Andrea for being a part of our club for the past 12 months and wished her every happiness and success in the future.

Click here to see some photos of Andrea during her time in Australia.

OUR CLUB IS TURNING 50

On Saturday 18th August, Werribee Rotary will be celebrating its 50th birthday with a special function at the Werribee Racecourse Function Centre.

The guest speaker will be RI President for 2017-18, Ian Riseley. Many current and past members and their partners will be in attendance to ensure that we celebrate our proud history of providing humanitarian support for our local and international communities.

If you are a past member and have not received an invitation, click here to view the flyer.

If you would like to attend, click here to make a booking.

LORRY RECEIVES HIGH CLUB AWARD

The Rotary Club of Flemington has presented our member Lorry Rowe with the club's Vance Hilton Community Leadership Award for 2018. The award is named in honour of Past District Governor Vance Hilton who was a dedicated member of the club.

The award recognises a person who has, through their unwavering dedication to their community, enhanced the lives of people through a project or program which makes a difference.

In presenting the award, President Lesley McCarthy said "Lorry has dedicated her life to helping those in need. Through her daily endeavours at the Fit4Use store, she leads a team of volunteers who collect, sort, display and sell countless items which are donated daily. She also financially supports an orphanage and school in the Philippines which cares for disabled students, and a school in Thailand for girls".

Congratulations Lorry. Well deserved.

ROSS HANDS REINS TO GRAHAM

On Tuesday 26th June, members and guests attended a formal function to see Graham Roper become the 50th President of the club, taking over the reins from Ross Conley.

In his farewell speech, Ross highlighted some of the key successes during his year as President which supported the 2017-18 Rotary theme of Making a Difference. Some of these achievements included:

Additional support for the Tamarind farm project in Uganda with a donation of a further $5,000 to build a chicken shed.
The High Tea at Wyndham Central College raised $5,000.
Providing scholarships to three Wyndham Central College students and apprenticeship awards for three Gordon TAFE students.
The annual charity golf day raised a record sum of $30,000. This resulted in a donation of $20,000 to the Werribee Mercy Hospital as part of their Critical Care Unit appeal.
Planting over 700 trees as part of RI President Ian Riseley's challenge for all Rotarians worldwide to make our world more sustainable.
The breakfast program continued to support young school children.
The mid-week Bunnings BBQ has been a great success. In total we have raised $12,000 for the year.
Donation of $74,000 to various projects and community groups.

Ross expressed his gratitude to all for their support of him and the club's projects.

Graham thanked Ross for guiding the club for the past 12 months. He said it will be a challenging year ahead. Not only do we need to celebrate our 50th year in style, in order to acknowledge all past and present members of the club and the fine humanitarian work they have performed over the years, but we also have to build on the momentum of some of our current projects as well as introduce a few new concepts. Some of these include:

Running a mental health forum.
Placing strong emphasis on increasing our membership through a positive marketing campaign.
Refocus on helping the homeless in our community.

In keeping with the new Rotary theme "Be An Inspiration", Graham believes we can all be inspirational to ourselves and to the wider community.

Click here to see some happy snaps of the evening.

BIG CHEQUE FOR CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

Congratulations to the dedicated members of the club and friends of Rotary who, over a 9-year period, participated in five 200km charity walks around Victoria with the aim of raising $200,000 for the Royal Children's Hospital Palliative Care Unit.

A cheque for $202,732 was presented recently at a function hosted by the RCH Foundation to recognise this great achievement and the impact the project has had on the unit and the families they support. Rotarians Lyn, Lou and Mary attended and were, in turn, presented with a torch for our club symbolising the light and support this effort has given to the families caring for children with life-limiting conditions.

Pictured above is a group consisting of some of the walkers and support crew and senior staff of the RCH Palliative Care Unit at the cheque presentation.

Congratulations to all who participated in the walks. Your efforts were greatly appreciated.

The picture below shows club members Mary Macaulay, Ross Conley and Lyn Fava proudly displaying the cheque and the torch.

MANY HANDS MAKE TREE PLANTING EASY

On Sunday 29th April, a large contingent of Werribee Rotarians and family members rolled up to a location in Heaths Road, Werribee with shovels and hammers to plant 750 trees. This was part of Rotary International's challenge to plant 1.2 million trees by Earth Day.

The challenge was for all Rotary clubs around the world to plant one tree for every member. Werribee Rotary decided to do better than that and plant a tree for every year of service of all members in the club. The club has 36 members with a total of 750 years of service. Therefore, the aim was to plant 750 trees and, after much back-breaking work, the goal was achieved in 3 hours. A fantastic team effort by everyone.

Chief organisers Jason Daddy and Kathryn Williams deserve credit for planning such a great day. But every participant should be very proud of their contribution to greening the world.

Click here to see photos of the day.

CHEQUE PRESENTED TO MERCY HOSPITAL

Peter Copp is the Executive Director of the Werribee Mercy Health Foundation and he was at our meeting to receive a cheque for $20,000 from President Ross.

Peter thanked us for the very generous donation which was made possible through funds raised at our Golf Day. The foundation target was $2 million and, with only several months to go, approximately $1.5 million has been raised. Peter is confident that, with a bit more publicity and promotion, they will reach their goal.

He said the funds will now make critical care in Wyndham possible. He cited a recent incident where, after giving birth in the birthing ward at the hospital, a woman fell gravely ill. The only available hospital with a vacant critical care bed was in Frankston where she stayed for 5 days before returning home to be with her new-born child and her family. In the future, this situation will not happen.

Peter explained that the new building is nearly finished. Here is an image of what it will look like.

HOW GOOD IS GOLF?

Pictured above are a happy team of golfers who played in the Werribee Rotary annual golf day on Friday March 2.

The event was held in fantastic weather and a near-full field, consisting of golfers of varying capabilities, competed for bragging rights or were just in it for a casual walk around the course. Regardless of their motives, they came with great spirit knowing that their funds were contributing to a wonderful cause - the critical care unit at the Werribee Mercy Hospital. It is estimated that the club will raise in excess of $25,000 which is a record amount.

Congratulations must go to the hard-working committee, ably led by President Ross Conley, and a group of committed volunteers who made sure that this day was the best ever.

For those interested in the outcome of the game, the winners were the Awesome Foursome consisting of Graham Roper, James Dunne, James Anderson and Ian Hovey. Graham and Ian had to bear the brunt of the scoring but they were grateful that the other two were able to contribute from time to time.

Click here to view some great photos of the successful day.

GOAT SHED ERECTED AT TAMARIND

Pictured above is the latest construction built by Chris Ochaya and his friends at the Tamarind Farm in Uganda. You will recall that Chris was in Australia last year as a Royce and Jean Abbey Scholarship recipient to learn farming techniques.

His previous project was the erection of a water tank stand and a pump house which is now functioning well and supplying fresh water for the local communities and for the farm.

The new building is a goat shed. When Chris was in Australia he learnt some valuable lessons about how goats should be protected and housed. Part of the erection includes a raised section where the animals can rest without wallowing in their own waste. The goats will be a very useful food source and will provide both milk and meat for the community. The milk will be an on-going donation. The meat will be a once-off sacrifice.

The poles pictured in the foreground of the photo will be used for the erection of the poultry shed which is the next big project on Chris's list.

Click here to see a few more photos of the goat shed.