At last week’s meeting we welcomed District Governor,  John Gatt and his wife Eileen …John was born in Malta in 1949 and the family migrated to Australia in 1951. His family lived in the La Trobe valley until 1955 when they moved to the Western suburbs of Melbourne. He attended St Paul’s Primary School, West Sunshine and Sunshine Technical School. John’s working life started in 1967 as a Production Trainee at the sports goods manufacturer AG Spalding. John met Eileen when she answered a local newspaper ad for anyone interested in Rotary. As the Diamond Creek Club President at the time John inducted Eileen as a member in December 2005.In his address John encouraged us to follow this year’s theme, “Peace Through Service” …  reiterating the words of Sakuji Tanaka, RI President, 2012–13 … “Peace, in all of the ways that we can understand it, is a real goal and a realistic goal for Rotary.  Peace is not something that can only be achieved through agreements, by governments, or through heroic struggles. It is something that we can find and that we can achieve, every day and in many simple ways. Peace has different meanings for different people. No definition is right, and no definition is wrong, however we use the word, this is what peace means for us. No matter how we use, or understand the word, Rotary can help us to achieve it.”

Eileen introduced us to her project for the year …the ‘Learn Grow’ nutrition programme and urged our club to become involved in this worthwhile programme.

Learn Grow Program Launched in Solomon Islands. The Learn Grow Program, which promotes the growing of local food crops, took a major step forward with the launch of the program in Solomon Islands on 17th August 2010.  Forty people were expected to attend the launch, but one hundred turned up.  The event received wide media coverage in Honiara with reports and photos in the three Honiara newspapers and a report on the evening news. Centrepieces of the launch were the three high quality Learn Grow publications, the reference text “Food Plants of Solomon Islands”, and two field guides, “Good Gardening and Growing Root Crops in Solomon Islands” and “Leafy Greens and Vegetables in Solomon Islands”.  Such was the demand for publications that some rationing was necessary.  Reprinting of the publications is anticipated for future stages of the Learn Grow Program