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.