Despite the inclement weather we had on Friday and Saturday, the District Conference at the Sharks Football Club went without a hitch. But how can I, in a few sentences, summarise an event that featured around a dozen speakers? Many were specifically on Rotary related projects, such as the Malaria Vaccine project of Griffith University, the Youth Services programs our district runs. Some subjects were covered by panel discussions, rather than the one speaker.
Perhaps, if I select just a few of the most impressive ones:
On Saturday morning, PDG Jennifer Scott AM, who represented the Rotary International President, opened with an energetic address. Energetic? “High Octane Pocket Rocket” would be an adequate description (and I’m sure she wouldn’t mind). “Peace is not the absence of war. Peace is the absence of need” she thundered.
“Plastic Soup” – the words don’t make you feel comfortable, and that is just what that young woman Melanie Lewis intended. The enormous accumulation of plastic waste in the oceans, some in microscopic form, causes ecological damage all the way to seabirds being diagnosed with a “Parkinson’s Disease” like illness. They lose their memory. Click on the link.
Before her, the Managing Director of Lady Elliott Eco Resort, Peter Gosh OAM outlined how, in the mid-2000’s, he and his family took on the lease of that island in the Great Barrier Reef and built it to a major international tourist resort. So what? You may ask. Well, they are almost self-sustaining. A massive array of solar panels and batteries produce the energy to even run their own water desalination plant. And, meter by meter, the imported pest plants are replaced by natives. Even Prince (now King) Charles was impressed.
OK, one more: a young Canadian bloke, Cole Suter, talked about his project to bring sports, specifically, sports equipment, to children in disadvantaged countries, Kicks for Kids. So far, they have despatched some 40,000 basketballs to 27 countries. Yes, even just a football or a basketball will make a difference.
But ‘La pièce de resistance’ would have been the final speaker, Nat Cook, the five-times Olympian who represented Australia in Beach Volleyball and won Gold in Sydney. I recall having read, some time ago, one of my favourite authors, Bryce Courtenay’s description of being in a cyclone. Well, my writing skills are inadequate to describe Nat’s session. But like being in a whirlwind, you couldn’t help being totally engaged. Except that this was all fun, real fun! Sorry peeps. You missed out on an event that, just by itself, was well worth the investment of the registration fee.
A big Thank You! must go to DG Lisa Hunt and her organising team. If you have ever even organised a chook raffle, you would have an inkling of the gigantic amount of work that goes into planning and executing an event of this magnitude. I’m in awe. Congratulations. Well done!
(Photo taken Saturday morning before it all started. From left: Angus Miller, Catherine Huber, PDG Darrell Brown, Geoff Croad, Franz Huber, President Andy Bell, Ross Augustine, President Elect Paul Seymour.)