On June 30 Brian Ahmed inducted me as Club President, at a time when Melbourne and the rest of Australia were under substantial Covid-19 restrictions.
From the start of my Presidential year, we all were looking forward to Melbourne opening up by mid- October, as has been happening everywhere else in Australia. Instead it looks like being several more weeks before Melbourne can get to a stage where Sydney and the other Capital cities now are.
Werribee Rotary, during these past three months of lockdown, has maintained its momentum, with weekly meetings on Zoom and a diverse range of very interesting guest speakers. For this the Club is indebted to Ian Hovey, who has been our meeting host and who has arranged all the guest speakers.
I would like to congratulate our members for joining our weekly meetings and for staying informed through our Club Bulletin plus Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RotaryClubOfWerribee/
The Club has also notched up some worthy achievements during this time, which include:
New Member Vas Samaltanos inducted on Aug 20 – our first induction since Nov, 2017!
Facemasks project - almost 500 cloth masks have gone to the Salvos and Uniting Care – thanks Mary Macauley, Mikki Hovey and the Cut, Giggle & Sew team
WERN collections and deliveries – thanks Ross Smith and his assistants
Interact Club at Wyndham Central College – completed the Blankets Project. Thanks Kim Deneys and Graham Roper who have been attending the weekly Zoom meetings.
Imagination Library – each month the Club provides reading books to 21 pre-school children from ethnic groups in Wyndham. Thanks Brian Ahmed and Lyn Fava.
R100 Centenary Cluster Club Project –Kathryn Williams and her team have been working with the Cluster Clubs to develop an environmental project for 2021.
Footy Tipping, Alphabet Racing and Trivia Quiz Comps – Thanks to our media wiz Ian Hovey
Honorary Member Geoff Smith – in appreciation of Geoff’s great contributions to the Club over 20 years.
Several Visits from DG Philip Archer, AG Amrit Singh and Past DG Grant Hocking
This week on Zoom we had a great presentation by the Tammy Shepherd - a volunteer with the Mercy Ships organisation.
Tammy is a Physiotherapist who completed a three month stint on a Mercy Ship in Africa in 2019. She was planning to return in 2020, but Covid has intervened. The next mission is to Senegal in January 2021, subject to Covid allowing it to proceed.
Mercy Ships have been operating for 40 years. They use ships fully fitted out as working hospitals, with theatres, CT scanners, X-Ray, onboard pathology etc. Africa Mercy has been operating since 2007, and a new ship will join the organisation in November 2020. Africa Mercy will then be refurbished, and put back into service. The ships are staffed by volunteer surgeons doctors and nurses. Some work for weeks and others for months. Australians have volunteered 46,000 volunteer hours.
WERN has been operating at about 50% capacity due to Covid, but demand from the aid agencies has increased significantly in the last few weeks, causing shortages of products.
Ross & Graham picked up a truck load of furniture from Koala at Rowville last Thursday, and Ross & Peter did a pickup on Tues 6th.
We ask all club members to keep an eye and ear open for furniture & equipment that might be available. Remember that everything needs to be in reasonable condition - no stains, chips, smells etc. People wont accept items that are in poor condition, and we have to take it to the dip and dump it at our cost. If it is not in reasonable condition, we won't accept it. What we need is:
White goods - Fridges, Washing machines, dryers & micro waves
After the first race in the time-honoured Alphabet Cup, early-favourite Barbarella has sprinted out of the barrier like a startled rabbit and has left the others in her wake with 13 points . Either someone forgot to tell her that this is not a sprint or she just wants to get as far away from Filthy Phil as possible.
She performed so well that she leads by a whopping 8 lengths from Tosser Ross and Steady Redding on 5. She also scooped the $15 weekly prize.
The Egg Man and Anne of Green Grasses are a length behind followed by Jumbo Jim, Ballantino, Galloping Gail and first-timer Vas O'Leen who now has a 100% success rate - 1 runner, 1 winner - with the letter 'Z'. The future is looking good for this young colt.
Unfortunately, 10 horses refused to budge after the gates were open. But there's no hurry. Their jockeys know that there's still 25 races to go and they expect to catch up at some stage.
On Saturday 10th, your runners will commence with the next letter of the alphabet, to what you had last week.
In 1986, a group of people had a shared vision: to create a new kind of medical retrieval service in Australia. They believed that very sick patients who need to be moved between hospitals, and severely injured patients who need to be treated at the accident scene, should be attended by critical care specialists who can perform ‘physician only’ procedures. From this vision, CareFlight was born.
Initially a single helicopter daylight only operation with one doctor on duty, CareFlight flew to some four patients a month. Over the years, and with vital support from the community, the organisation has evolved and expanded. Now our doctors and nurses fly from six bases, on helicopters, turbo-prop air ambulances and medi-jets, to destinations throughout Australia and beyond.
More masks are being made for Uniting Care Werribee.
Interact Club
The Interact Club are back at school this week, and will be meeting on Friday.
Guest Speakers
Everyone knows someone with an interesting story to tell. Pass them onto Ian Hovey so we can follow them up to speak to us on Zoom at a later date.
Environmental Team
Kathryn & the environmental committee have had 2 zoom meetings, and are looking at a re-vegetation project in early 2021. Talk to Kathryn to get involved.
Skye is the Community Engagement and Events Coordinator with CareFlight . Her job involves telling the story of CareFlight. She will focus her talk on the services they currently offer within the community which includes the Air Ambulance service and MediSim, Community Education course. She will also provide an overview of the history of the organisation, as they are approach their 35th anniversary, and how they have navigated through COVID-19, continuing their mission to save lives, speed recovery and serve the community throughout.
