The Shed and the work that has been done is amazing. Thanks to everyone that has put themselves out to convert the working area into a much more useable space and I'm sure that it will be much more useable. More importantly, it will allow other projects to be developed.
As I reported last week, we have loaned the protype 'Sleeping Sanctuary' (POD) to Warren Smith, Senior Minister at Encounter Church. We are awaiting a report from him and subject to that we will be able to proceed with the manufacture of at least 10 more PODs. I hope I can confirm this on this at Wednesday’s meeting.
On Thursday Charles and I have a meeting to attend with:
Angie Bell, Federal MP for Moncrieff
Rob Molheok, State MP for Southport
John Paul Langbroek, State MP for Surfers Paradise.
Darren Taylor, Councillor for Surfers Paradise.
Brook Patterson, Councillor for Southport Parkwood/Southport
Andy Rajapakse, Rotary District Governor Elect 2020-21
We hope that Charles and I can focus the meeting on our club and the activities that we are presently involved with, mainly:
the Wheelchair Project
the 'Sleeping Sanctuary' (POD)
the X-Ray unit for the Hospital on Pentecost Island, Vanuatu
the Community Friendly Bench
Our club's involvement with the local community:
Surfers Paradise Surf Club
Pimpama High School
Numinbah Correctional Centre
Next Saturday we have a list of people coming to the Shed for morning including:
Stephen Robinson, Pimpama High School.
Warren Smith, Senior Minister, Encounter Church
Also we will be presenting Certificates of Appreciation to seven people who have assisted us in both the wheelchair project and the Vanuatu Hospital project. They include:
John Dodozy - Molectra Technologies Pty Ltd. John picked up the bike tyres. His company has a patented tyre recycling technology in a production plant at Loganholme. All this at no charge.
Neil Aitkenhead - Premier Timber & Trusses, who have supplied the timber, manufactured the trusses for the Vanuatu Hospital project and delivered them to the Project Shed, all at no charge.
Jan Sinclair - Sinclair Containers Sales & Hire,who have for many years provided the Project Shed with Containers as very, very reduced rates. Jan also went to Samoa and worked on the House of Hope.
Brian Ross - Diesel Services Queensland who provided the transport of the 40foot container at no charge.
Alex & Belinda Matthew - AB Crane Hire who provided the crane to lift the 40Foot container onto the truck and off the truck and place it in the correct spot at the shed at no charge
Jed Stanyer & Graeme Stanyer - In appreciation for the assistance in the recycling program “Containers for Change” at Seaquester Quays for the Surfers Sunrise Wheelchair Project.
I would very much appreciate if you could come even if it is only for morning tea and the presentations on Saturday morning. It will be a very busy morning.
Also, the painting of the trusses has been handed over to Broadbeach Club and they are sending a crew on Saturday morning. So, this has been an extremely busy week.
The regular Rotary ZOOM Meeting is on at 7:30am Wednesday morning. Look forward to seeing you all at the meeting
Great to have our local Member for Moncrieff, Angie Bell joining us on Wednesday morning for our regular On-Line club meeting.
Interestingly, Angie was a Rotary Exchange Student to Denmark in 1986. “This will tell you how old I am” she quipped [we know that anyway; your Bio is plastered all over the Federal Parliament’s website! ☺ Ed]. “Rotary Exchange changed my life” Angie enthused, “even though I haven’t been able to get a lot of use out of my Danish skills”. Angie outlined the importance of foreign aid. Bangladesh (where in the past we have sent some wheelchairs to) has some 900,000 Rohingya refugees who walked across the border from Myanmar. The Australian Government sponsored ‘Safe the Children’. “Amazing what can be done with quite a small amount of money” Angie said, “I think we are talking about approximately $160 Million for this humanitarian crisis. To put it into perspective: this is only about 1.7 Km of Light Rail… ” [☺ Ed.] She mentioned that another reason why we spend that money is that that region is quite important to Australia’s national security (Angie is on the Defence and Veteran Affairs Backbench Committee and also has defence history in her family).
In relation to Covid-19: In the early stages, Angie put together a ‘Community Cabinet’, consisting of leaders of various community and multi-cultural groups on the central Gold Coast. Among others, District Governor Elect Andy Rajapakse is one of the members. Angie emphasised how very important it is that everyone is downloading the Covid Safe App to our smartphones. Angie outlined in detail why it is important. In essence: should somebody become infected, other people who might have been in contact with that person can be traced.
There is little doubt as to where Angie stands when it comes to getting the Gold Coast’s economy back on its feet: she forcefully called for the Queensland border to be re-opened. Alas, so far all the meetings she and her fellow “movers and shakers” on the Gold Coast have had with the representatives of the Queensland State Government seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
Naturally, there would be so much else to elaborate on and to discuss. It is quite uncommon in our club that a speaker is allowed to substantially go over the allotted time, but with Angie we simply lost track of time! You can find out lots more on her website https://AngieBell.com.au – simply click on the Help menu. Angie’s presentation has been recorded on Zoom. A link was sent out to all members – if you require a link, please email the Webmaster. To sum it up: I’m sure I speak for all members when I state that we all much enjoyed her refreshingly open and uncomplicated manner of keeping us up to date on what happens in Canberra and how she is fighting for the betterment of the Gold Coast. By the way: Did you know that for quite some time, she was a professional Musician? Next time, we much hope that circumstances will allow us to insist that she brings her Saxophone along!
Well, just have a look at this! If you knew what the shed looked like before, you'd hardly recognise it! Won't be long before we are ready for full production mode again.
Further to that, here is a brief outline from President Elect Charles Thomasson, referring to the recent meeting of the Wheelchair Trust's Board:
The Trustees of the Wheelchair Trust and President Mario met last Thursday. Did you know that the Surfers Sunrise Wheelchair Project is on target to ship our 10,000 Wheelchair in the 100th Year of Rotary in Australia? A wonderful achievement by all those involved. As such, the main focus of the meeting was to discuss the distribution of our current stock of over 400 manufactured wheelchairs and how to work with other Rotary Clubs to best get them to those most in need - we look forward to updating the Club soon. We also look forward to Wheelchairs being manufactured from ‘The Shed’ for many years to come.
Youth Services Director Darrell Brown advises that, with great regret, our club will not participate in the upcoming RYDA (Rotary Youth Driver Awareness) event, scheduled to be held at All Saints College on 18th June. Darrell asked for a formal check with our insurance agents and "the response came back that we were only covered for physical injury & there was concern for any over 70s at the event. Hence I made the captain’s call & cancelled." Thank you to all who offered to volunteer.
Last Wednesday's meeting was held On-Line via Zoom. President Mario Fairlie welcomed all members and in particular our Guest Speaker, Angie Bell, Federal Parliament MP for Moncrieff. On behalf of the club, Mario expressed his deep appreciation for Ben Illes' support and arrangement to have the roof trusses for the Vanuatu project provided by Premier Timber & Trusses, including free delivery. Equally, AB Crane Hire and Diesel Services Queensland deserve our thanks for providing their crane, respectively truck to deliver another 40' container to our Project Shed, and to Sinclair Containers who gave us a very special deal for the hire of the containers we have there. "We are certainly getting somewhere!" he said.
After Angie's presentation (see separate article), President Mario briefly elaborated on the 'Sleeping Sanctuary' (POD) project: we may have found a location where they can be hosted: the Encounter Church. The prototype model has been collected and we are awaiting further details. Mario expressed our sincere thanks to Angie for her support for this project. During Question Time some interesting (and perhaps not so interesting) stuff came up. One question suggested the potential of raising a 1 or 2% tax on imports to help Australian Manufacturing and to help restoring the balance. Angie deftly let that one go through to the keeper: "We are a liberal, low taxation government..." she replied. In closing, President Mario thanked Angie for her presentation and assured her that, as a Rotary club, we are about doing things for humanity and thus we would be happy to support her if there is anything she feels we can help her with.
In view of the Wheelchair Trust Deed's fairly strict limitations (money donated can only be spent on materials for wheelchairs and nothing else, not even for the shipment to their destination), we have registered an alternative account for Containers for Change. If you deposit your empties directly, and wish to donate the proceeds to the Surfers Sunrise Rotary Club - General Account, please use this account code:
C10262571
(The account for the Wheelchair Trust is also still active: use C10199443 instead).
So, keep your soft drink bottles, stubby bottles, aluminium cans, milk cartons etc. As a general rule, most drink containers between 150ml and 3L can be returned for a refund under Queensland's container deposit scheme. Containers should be empty, unbroken, lid-free and display a 10-cent refund marking on the label. Something like the image (right), but many others are simply marked as suitable for recycling. Note: they must NOT be crushed. See image above what is and what is not accepted. For details of what can / cannot be returned for cash, and where the locations are, click on this link.
Here is the golden rule for people who, like your Editor, are struggling with English language:'i before e'. Except when your neighbor Keith who forfeited his right to live the foreign state of Brunei after receiving eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters drinking protein shakes. Given another chance to guess the height of statue of deity or whistle the leitmotiv of a Wagner opera, he deigned to do neither, feigning injury. Weird, isn't it?
… the purpose of academia had ceased to be the exploration, discovery or dissemination of truth. The purpose had instead become the creation, nurture and propagation of a particular, and peculiar, brand of politics. The purpose was not academia, but activism. Douglas Murray, ‘The Madness of Crowds’, 2019.
Andy's post of the week: Good judgment comes from experience. And experience? Well, that comes from bad judgment.
Gerald's post of the week: Here is one of the best from my favorite Bush Poet, Bill Kearns: Stanley & Louise. Click here.
Neil's post of the week: I tried to donate blood this week. NEVER AGAIN! Too many stupid questions. "Whose blood is it? Where did you get it from? Why is it in a bucket? [It must be mentioned that Neil is an avid donor of blood. I think it's about 3 years ago when he received a special award from the Red Cross for having donated 225 times. So, by now, this probably makes it close to a quarter of a mille! Ed.]
Diesel Services Queensland and AB Crane Hire recently provided a truck and a huge mobile crane at no charge to lift a 40' container into our Project Shed area at Arundel. Thank you! Click on the links to go to their website.
Great to have our local Member for Moncrieff, Angie Bell joining us on Wednesday morning for our regular On-Line club meeting.
Further to that, here is a brief outline from President Elect Charles Thomasson, referring to the recent meeting of the Wheelchair Trust's Board:
Last Wednesday's meeting was held On-Line via Zoom. President Mario Fairlie welcomed all members and in particular our Guest Speaker, Angie Bell, Federal Parliament MP for Moncrieff. On behalf of the club, Mario expressed his deep appreciation for Ben Illes' support and arrangement to have the roof trusses for the Vanuatu project provided by Premier Timber & Trusses, including free delivery. Equally, AB Crane Hire and Diesel Services Queensland deserve our thanks for providing their crane, respectively truck to deliver another 40' container to our Project Shed, and to Sinclair Containers who gave us a very special deal for the hire of the containers we have there. "We are certainly getting somewhere!" he said.
So, keep your soft drink bottles, stubby bottles, aluminium cans, milk cartons etc. As a general rule, most drink containers between 150ml and 3L can be returned for a refund under Queensland's container deposit scheme. Containers should be empty, unbroken, lid-free and display a 10-cent refund marking on the label. Something like the image (right), but many others are simply marked as suitable for recycling. Note: they must NOT be crushed. See image above what is and what is not accepted. For details of what can / cannot be returned for cash, and where the locations are, 
