As I look back over my year I realise that there have been a lot of highlights, from the 40th Anniversary Dinner to the reflection area at Brown’s Lagoon. From the Paying it Forward project to standing with Barry at the River of Stories presentation. The absolute thrill I got when I hit the button that donated $50 from each of you to Foundation. But none of those compare the thrill of giving out Paul Harris Fellow awards – and I’ve been lucky enough to have done that three times in my year. The first was to Ron Haberfield at the 40th Anniversary dinner. The second and third I had the privilege of presenting at this week’s meeting. Both the recipients are people that I hold in the highest regards and that I consider mentors, both to me and to the Club in general. But Julie, myself and the Board wanted our new Paul Harris Fellows to be surprised, so we have been sneaking around to arrange everything, co-ordinating them attending a meeting together, arranging for their partners to be there without them knowing – we got there!!! The First award went to Vicki Gray, whilst Vicki is not currently a member the work that she did when she was a member has changed the way we see ourselves as a club and our ability to earn big dollars. Outside of the Club Vicki is extremely committed to our local community and the work she has done for suicide prevention is exemplary. It even got her a nomination for Albury Citizen of the year last year. The second award went to Past President Dennis recognising the high level of commitment to the Club for a very long time including supporting two new youth projects during his presidency, Paying in Forward and Justa and Gunk. He also started the whole process for the reflection area at Brown’s Lagoon. His work in the local community includes with the Uniting Church’s food bank and a lifetime commitment to the promotion of Hockey in this community. A commitment that will soon see him in Barcelona representing Australia. I think we can all agree that our club is a better club because of the efforts of both Vicki & Dennis and I’m proud to have them both as my friends
President’s Message
What an interesting guest speaker Peter Merk organised for last week’s meeting. Zac’s talk on the Hyper Loop was fascinating – the future is here! His talk reminded me of the famous line from Charles Duell, during his tenure as United States Commissioner of Patents (1902), purportedly saying “Everything that can be invented has been invented”. Just imagine being able to get to Melbourne in 20 mins and Sydney in 40 mins. The level of interest in Zac’s talk was evident in the fact that the Q & A after his talk went longer than his talk.
May is Bowel Scan month and no doubt you would have seen the ads appearing on the telly promoting this worthy cause. It is the most common cause of cancer affecting both sexes in Australia. Currently 80 Australians a week die from this disease and there is absolutely no need as 90% of bowel cancers can be cured if detected early. I have no doubt that Julie will have some bowel scan kits available at our meeting so I encourage all members to spend $15 and do a poo for your own wellbeing!!
Rotary Bowel Scan
The Rotary Bowel Scan has commenced for 2018
This is the commonest internal cancer affecting both sexes in Australia. On an average 1 in 19 men and 1 in 27 women will develop colorectal cancer by the age of 75. CRC is mostly seen in people over the age of 40 years. It is predicted that there will be 11,00 cases of bowel cancers, diagnosed in Australia annually. 90% of bowel cancers can be cured if detected early.
We have 9 Pharmacies involved and 3 retirement homes … they are …
Lavington Pharmacy, Fifields in Townsend and Kiewa Street, Terry White in Albury and Lavington, Albury Central, Thurgoona Pharmacy and Ramsey Pharmacy in East Albury, Mate Street Pharmacy. Also we have kits at Westmont, Kensington Gardens and Murray Gardens. We are very grateful to all of these businesses for selling these kits especially as they have no gain except the urge to help people becoming aware of bowel scan.
Club Meeting 02 May 2018
Guest Speaker Zac McClelland grew up on a farm near Walbundrie in NSW. He had to return to high school at the age of 21 to redo year 12 which got him on track to complete a degree in Aerospace Engineering at RMIT University. While completing his degree he created a team to compete in a global competition to develop a whole new form of high-speed transport. This new transport is called Hyperloop which was conceptualised by Elon Musk and Zac led the team of 30 to be the only finalist from the southern hemisphere to make the final 30 out of an original 1700 entries. Zac presented his journey with Hyperloop and what he and the team are up to now.
Club Meeting 18 April 2018
Guest Speaker, Edwina Hayes is the Regional Landcare Facilitator, Murray and a Social Worker with expertise in community development, project management and group work. A bit of an environmentalist, tragic feminist, mindful mother and all-round farming fan. Edwina wants to bring people together to create something better than before. Edwina is a devotee of social media and collective action. Edwina discussed the world of addressing environmental, sustainable agriculture and rural social issues with opportunities to be involved. Edwina has been the Regional Landcare Facilitator in the Murray Region for 7 years. In that time community based, not-for-profit agricultural and natural resource management groups have enjoyed exponential growth. Key issues have included farming efficiencies; soil, nutrients, water, agribusiness skill development, pest and weed management and environmental practices; water flows, waterways and wetlands, southern pygmy perch, bush stone curlews, phantom wattle and revegetation for habitat and connectivity. Edwina recently worked with Bradley Hayden to run the NSW Landcare and Local Land Services Conference in Albury attracting a record crowd and having some great fun along the way. You can follow Edwina and connect with Landcare by clicking on your favourite social media buttons.