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Edwin Gill is a volunteer with The Smith Family which is a children's charity helping disadvantaged Australian children to get the most out of their education, so they can create better futures for themselves.
Lisa Field is the Fundraising Manager for the Werribee Hospital Foundation and she is very dedicated to her role. The foundation was formed during the transition from the old Werribee District Hospital to the new Werribee Mercy Hospital.
The Mercy is regarded as a generalist hospital that supports many services including surgical, medical, maternity, renal dialysis, emergency, mental health, rehabilitation and palliative care. The population growth of Wyndham is expected to double over the next 20 years - from 250,000 now to 500,000 in 2040. Therefore, the services and facilities within the hospital must keep pace with this growth. The hospital has a master plan to manage this but much of it is dependent on government funding. Therefore, it is imperative to have alternative sources of revenue such as the foundation.
The foundation has been instrumental in providing funds for many services. For example, it has donated $300,000 to the maternity ward, $100,000 to the emergency department and $400,000 to the critical care unit.
Lisa has been instrumental in developing various ways to raise awareness and funds. Some are traditional, others are new. Tin rattling is the very common method. She and her merry band of volunteers have spent many long hours visiting football games and other sporting events to rattle their tins. Other methods include giving a donation in memory of a lost loved one or making a bequest. Another concept is for people to volunteer as hospital hosts who invite their friends to a fund-raising function. Other people make home and hand-made items to sell and, recently, the foundation conducted a successful used book sale.
Lisa said she would love our club to get involved with the foundation by engaging in an existing fund-raising campaign or to come up with our own ideas.
Our Royce and Jean Abbey Scholarship awardee, Chris Ochaya, is due to fly back to his home country, Uganda, in the next few days to continue his good work in developing the Tamarind community farm. Before his return, he made another visit to our club. But, to his surprise, he was the guest of honour and was duly inducted into the club by President Graham as an honorary member.
His proposer, Brian Ahmed, was glowing in his praise of Chris and the wonderful humanitarian work he is doing for his fellow countrymen. Because of this, Brian said, it was only fitting that Chris be recognised as a Rotarian.
On Tuesday 28th May, we will be visiting the University of Melbourne's new U-Vet Hospital at 250 Princes Hwy, Werribee. This promises to be an interesting visit because the facility has been recently upgraded.
We will be touring the new facilities in three groups. The first tour will commence at 6pm followed by a second tour at 6:15pm and a third tour at 6:30pm. When your tour is completed, you can proceed to the Racecourse Hotel where we will have dinner at 7pm.
If you haven't already registered for the visit, please contact Michael Redding or Ian Hovey by May 14.
Click here to read about the development of the new building.
Seven-year old Andi Treloar was a guest speaker at our club last year. She spoke about her plans to help feed homeless people after seeing them begging on the streets of Adelaide.
Adrian Burt has kept in touch with Andi's mother Rebekah to see how Andi's goals were progressing. Rebekah sent the following email to Adrian...
"We are now officially an entity called Food For Free Foundation and in the final stages of getting approval as an actual charity with the ACNC (Australian Charities and Not for profits Commission). Andi is hoping to get a food truck/mobile restaurant going before she does an actual restaurant. Lots of planning and logistics in both of those as you might imagine! She’s designed them as well as shirts for those who would be volunteering. She has big plans and it’s crystal clear in her mind!
She keeps busy at the moment helping an organisation called Awhi Melbourne that does a huge street BBQ for our “street friends” (the new polite way to address homeless people!) and genuinely loves it. There’s about 70-100 each fortnight and not only does she help prep food, cook and serve, she creates 70 snack packs for them to take away after. She really enjoys chatting to people and you can see her happiness spreading. It’s truly infectious.
Her spark is still as bright as ever! Watch this space ."
In conjunction with Wyndham City Council, we will be conducting a Community Tree Planting day on Sunday 19th May. A total of 1454 trees will be planted. So it is a bigger exercise than our previous project where we planted 700 trees. That's why we are advertising it as a community event where we are asking for support from the people of Wyndham.
Click here to see the poster which will be displayed on various street notice boards.
Footy Tipping - Kathryn Williams was the winner of the weekly prize and she earns $10. Top tipsters for the week were Graham Roper and Ian Hovey with 8 winners. Mary Maguire still leads the overall comp with 41 points closely followed by Graham Roper on 40. Then there's a big gap to Ann Smith on 38.
Christine Conley has been in Werribee Mercy hospital for a few days after being diagnosed with what the doctors think is a viral infection. She is being discharged soon but further tests are pending to determine the root cause. We wish you well Christine.
Upcoming events/functions/meetings:
Sunday 19th May - Tree Planting at Rossclare Court Reserve, Hoppers Crossing starting at 9am. We only have a handful of volunteers at the moment. Chief organiser Phil Purdy has cracked the whip and has insisted that we all get behind this project.
Thursday 23rd May - Bunnings BBQ
Sunday 26th May - District Assembly at Melton Tabcorp Park. All 2019-20 directors are requested to attend.
Tuesday 28th May - Vocational Visit to the Werribee Veterinary Hospital, 250 Princes Highway, Werribee. The first tour will commence at 6pm and the second will start at 6:30pm. Partners and guests are welcome. Dinner will be at the Racecourse Hotel at 7:30pm.
Tuesday 11th June - Club Changeover at Wyndham Cache. Click here to see the invitation from Brian and Nuge. Please RSVP as soon as possible.
Special thanks to Adrian Burt for donating $100 to the club which was the net proceeds from the Hot Cross Bun drive.
A small but dedicated group of members and their partners spent an enjoyable time at the Yarra Valley Lodge last weekend. And, despite the presence of Phil Purdy, Ross Smith and Peter Ross, it seems that everyone behaved themselves.
A few members and friends of Rotary spent last Sunday morning cooking sausages for the hungry horde at the Mansion Fun Run in support of the Leukaemia Foundation. They worked hard for most of the morning and raised the sum of $720 for their efforts. Thanks go to members Geoff Smith, Robert Fava, Mary Macaulay and MIchael Redding as well as former member, Darrell Robinson, for their cooking and serving skills. In addition, we thank Adrian Burt for supplying the bread, Jim Randall for supplying his gas for the gas bottles and, as always, Roly Wade for transporting the van. Here is a snapshot of a few members after completing their work.
Some wag, who shall remain nameless (but his initials are EM), decided at our last meeting that it would be more appropriate to pin a badge on the coat tail of an unsuspecting Phil Purdy. It provided much laughter until he finally found out. I think we've just invented a new game called "Pin the Badge on the Donkey".
A woman brought a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon. As she laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird’s chest.  After a moment or two, the vet shook his head and sadly said, “I’m sorry, your duck has passed away.”
The distressed woman wailed, “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am sure. Your duck is dead,” replied the vet.
“How can you be so sure?” she protested. “I mean you haven’t done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something.”
The vet turned around and left the room.
He returned a few minutes later with a Labrador Retriever.  As the duck’s owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom. He then looked up at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head.
The vet patted the dog on the head and took it out of the room.
A few minutes later he returned with a cat.  The cat jumped on the table and also delicately sniffed the bird from head to foot. The cat sat back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly and strolled out of the room.
The vet looked at the woman and said, “I’m sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead duck.”
The vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to the woman.
The duck’s owner, still in shock, took the bill. "What!” she cried, "$150 just to tell me my duck is dead!”
The vet shrugged, “I’m sorry. If you had just taken my word for it, the bill would have been $20, but with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it’s now $150.”
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