President’s Message

A big thank you goes out to Greg Aplin this week for arranging the grant from the State Government of $7,000 to help us pay for a new BBQ Trailer – which was presented at last week’s meeting. Also to Dennis Hickey and Roger Snell for writing the submission that secured us this grant. One of the first tasks of the new board will be to ensure that we have this new trailer up and running ASAP. It was a fun meeting last week. It was great to hear about Katrine’s year with us (hard to believe it is nearly over) and to present her with her Aussie Akubra hat. Katrine has been an excellent exchange student and we will miss her when she leaves. We also presented Damien Toohey (Principal at Albury High) with a certificate of appreciation for supporting our exchange student program. Our work with youth programs including River of Stories, Kitenden and Paying it Forward are a large part of who we are as a Club and as Rod and Kellie remind us regularly – the future of Rotary. Last for this week. I’ve been wearing my new Rotary jacket into work from time to time. Mandy asked me one day if it was appropriate. That got me thinking about showing pride in being a Rotarian and telling people who we are and what we do. I wore the jacket to a client meeting one day to discover that the client’s father had been a Rotarian for 35 years. As my year draws to a close I’m going to set a challenge that we all tell one new person each week that we are Rotarians and that we are proud of that work we do in the community. Hopefully you will all accept this challenge.