Greetings, fellow members, associate members and friends of Surfers Sunrise Rotary,
A big shout out this week goes to Kane Chrisholm fromKieser Bundall: last Saturday, some of our members assisted at the Kieser Open Day, providing a sausage sizzle. Kieser supplied all the food and drinks, and donated all proceeds received to Surfers Sunrise for the day for our charities. Thank you!
Last Wednesday David Bageley from the Rotary Club of Gold Coast addressed our members, promoting this year’s Gold Coast Ramble at Hollindale Park, Main Beach, on the 19 April 2026. It will go over about 2 hours. Cost is $20 per team. I'm challenging our club to enter a team for the Day. Interested parties please contact me.
Confirmation that the next bicycle sale at the Wheelchair Shed is on 18 April 2026, more details will follow. There is a board meeting this Wednesday 18 March at 8:00am, directly after our social meeting at the Surf Club. If you are not able to attend, I request that you forward your reports to the secretary, Trent Belling, with apologies.
A reminder that everyone this Thursday at Benowa Tavern from 4.30pm there is a social get together and all are welcome. Remember, don’t put off till tomorrow what can be done today.
This coming Wednesday 18th March will be a social meeting at the Surfers Paradise Surf Life Saving Club. Come along for a cuppa and/or breakfast. If possible, the meeting will be in the upstairs venue, if the weather is nice, on the balcony (otherwise on the ground floor, at the northern end). Lots of good banter and laughter, and - believe it - sometimes there are more club related matters discussed and solutions determined than on a formal meeting!
Our member Elizabeth is a psychologist working with people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (cPTSD), otherwise known as relational trauma. These respective trauma disorders attend to symptoms colloquially referred to as “big T” (PTSD) or “little t” (cPTSD) traumas, which any one person can experience in a variety of ways over the course of their lifetime. Big T traumas generally refer to “single event” traumas, even though there may be multiple events (e.g. motor vehicle accident, natural disaster, physical or sexual assault) while “little t” traumas are repetitive, pervasive, chronic deficiencies of core developmental needs over long periods of time in our developmental/formative years (e.g. emotional neglect, punitive upbringing). “Little t” traumas are in no way any less difficult or disturbing, simply referring to a different type of trauma.
Her presentation describing trauma memories included her practical outlining of what effective trauma-oriented therapies like EMDR and DBR assist with. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) and DBR (Deep Brain Reorienting) are structured processes, within assessed safety and self-regulating parameters, known to be highly effective in reducing the disturbance or distress of trauma memories and working toward reducing overall trauma symptoms.
It is good to know that for PTSD sufferers, effective help and therapies are available. Equally impressive was the way she presented a brief insight into the immensely complex subject. “Never to be done without a competent therapist keeping it safe”, she emphatically stated. To get us a bit closer to the subject, Elizabeth prepared a brief exercise on how we can connect with our own regular memories to understand the foundation our memory and information processing systems work. Thank you, Elizabeth, for giving us a brief insight into your field of psychology.
As mentioned in the President's Message above, can we raise a team to compete in the Gold Coast Ramble, on 18th April, this year? Check out the poster in the Download files, and contact President Paul directly!
Some of our volunteers travel a fair distance to join the team at our Wheelchair Shed in Arundel: Terry comes all the way from Jacobs Well. “So how did you find out about us?” I asked him. Well, it’s a small world after all: his daughter is a close friend of Des La Rance’s daughter! (For those of you who came in late: Des La Rance OAM is the man who, back in the mid-nineties, invented the concept of making ‘Rough Terrain’ wheelchairs by using discarded bicycles as raw materials, and he is still coming to work today!).
Before retirement, Terry ran a Butcher Shop. But, quite unusual: "In 1997, my wife and I hitched up a caravan, intending to travel around Australia." So they did, but not just once: 5 times, for 11 years..! These days, he also works at one of the Men’s Sheds, “but this is a step above, making “real” things”, he said. Widowed some four years ago, he much enjoys spending time with his family of 5 children, 11 Grandkids and 5 Great-Grandkids. He enjoys reading (mostly non-fiction, such as Peter Fitzsimmons’ ‘Kokoda’, the story of the iconic battle of Word War II. And... he’s got a camper van, and he uses it!
Duty Roster - note: subject to change - please check every week. Note: Fellowship duty also is expected to be at the Project Shed on the Saturday following the meeting
<-- [Last Saturday, )14th March), was Pi - Day. I knew that, with all that serious stuff going on out there, you needed something irreverent... Ed.]
When a Vegan asks if I ever would give up bacon, I reply, quoting Hamlet, Act III, Scene III, Line 87.Then I sheathe my sword. [OK, I'm disappointed that you don't know Shakespeare. Go and look it up then!]
War: At first, the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn't any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone is being worse off".Karl Kraus, Austrian Journalist and Satirist (1874–1936)
I’ve been experimenting with how many apples I have to eat to keep everyone away, regardless of their profession.
Our member Elizabeth is a psychologist working with people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (cPTSD), otherwise known as relational trauma. These respective trauma disorders attend to symptoms colloquially referred to as “big T” (PTSD) or “little t” (cPTSD) traumas, which any one person can experience in a variety of ways over the course of their lifetime. Big T traumas generally refer to “single event” traumas, even though there may be multiple events (e.g. motor vehicle accident, natural disaster, physical or sexual assault) while “little t” traumas are repetitive, pervasive, chronic deficiencies of core developmental needs over long periods of time in our developmental/formative years (e.g. emotional neglect, punitive upbringing). “Little t” traumas are in no way any less difficult or disturbing, simply referring to a different type of trauma.
Some of our volunteers travel a fair distance to join the team at our Wheelchair Shed in Arundel: Terry comes all the way from Jacobs Well. “So how did you find out about us?” I asked him. Well, it’s a small world after all: his daughter is a close friend of Des La Rance’s daughter! (For those of you who came in late: Des La Rance OAM is the man who, back in the mid-nineties, invented the concept of making ‘Rough Terrain’ wheelchairs by using discarded bicycles as raw materials, and he is still coming to work today!).
<-- [Last Saturday, )14th March), was Pi - Day. I knew that, with all that serious stuff going on out there, you needed something irreverent... Ed.]
