Dear fellow members and friends of Surfers Sunrise,
If you don't chase after what you want, you'll never get it! If you don't ask, you'll never know! If you don't step forward, you'll always be in the same place!... well that's what I think anyway! So with that, let's do August! We got a school to build for Vanuatu, we got wheels to unload for the wheelchairs, we got Mat Rogers talking volunteering at the Com Games, Hope Island RC visiting AND we got a BBQ breakfast on the 'cards'... So chase, ask and step forward.... August is gonna be loaded!
At the recent District Conference, Surfers Sunrise won the 'Best Public Relations - Single Event' award, in recognition of our Wheelchairs Project featuring on the ABC 7:30 Report. This is just one of innumerable efforts of our Wheelchair Trust Chairman Daryl Sanderson. Last Saturday, the inventor of the concept, Des La Rance OAM and Wheelchair Trust Treasurer Bob Harrison presented the award to Daryl, who accepted the award on behalf of his team. [C'mon Daryl, no need to be meek: organizing the ABC was your effort! Ed.]
Following our Bar-be-que on Wednesday night at President Paul Seymour's place, the GSE Team from Pennsylvania visited 'The Shed' on Saturday morning to learn about our principal club project, manufacturing wheelchairs, housing and schools for underprivileged children in developing countries. The inventor and major mover and shaker of the concepts, Des La Rance, presented a brief history of the first delivery of 10 wheelchairs to Fiji, the schools built in Thailand and Samoa and the major project, the 'House of Hope' on Samoa. From left President Paul Seymour, DGN Darrell Brown, Geoff Croad, GSE Team Leader Hector Ortiz (in red shirt), Des La Rance and Angus Miller (at the rear), at the front Jaime Arroyo-Milanes, Natalee Colon, behind her Zachary Zimmerman, President Paul's guest and nephew Sean (not part of the GSE team), Christine Fultz, Pauline Murray, Wheelchair Trust Chairman Daryl Sanderson. Top left: the magic number 7147, the total number of wheelchair so far despatched.
Chris stood in at short notice for Tacha, the Polar Bear trainer at Seaworld. There was a requirement to do some urgent maintenance work at the bear pit. Tacha is not only the trainer, but also – on the very unlikely chance of the maintenance workers being attacked, the shooter…
So Chris, who has been with Village Road Show (the owners of Seaworld, Movie World and a swag of other Theme Parks) for decades, gave us a detailed presentation of what is really involved if you want to design a Theme Park. Chris, by training is an Architect. By long term experience, he is involved in the entire sequence from planning to design to conclusion of a project. And when it is completed, the cycle of coming up with new attractions begins. “In order to get the people to come back, one needs to have a new major attraction approximately every three years” Chris outlined.
By now, Theme Parks are firmly woven into the fabric of the Gold Coast. A long way back, Seaworld, being the first one on the Gold Coast, was not much more than a lake. Chris became involved when the concept of Movie World emerged. The Di Laurentis Studios were up for sale. A representative of Warner Bros by the name of CD Wood came over to have a look at it. It was by no means certain that the deal would proceed, but then they took him to the Oxenford Tavern for a bite to eat (and probably a couple of beers). CD Woods declared that he had just been served “the best Cheeseburger ever”… and bought it (the Studios, not the pub), together with the surrounding land. A master plan was created in partnership with Peter Lawrence (then owner of Seaworld). The first meeting occurred way back in 1988.
There is an awful lot of thinking to be done. Theme Parks were not in the Australian culture; it was all in the US. Why would you want to have one? “It has to be fun!” What theme do you want to use? Well, with Warner Bros behind it, Movies would come to mind.
Who would come? How much do we need to spend? In 1989, $AU 10 Million was committed. A concept plan was designed. It was a Joint Venture between Warner Bros and ??? Leisure. It is not just a question of building it, somebody needs to run it afterwards. How much will you want to charge the public?
Then we get to the design detail: How are people going to get there? There was no Public Transport worth mentioning on the Gold Coast [not much has changed since… Ed.] So people will come by car. How will overseas visitors get to the park? By bus. So, 40% of the parking area is for buses. How much power do we need, how much water? What are we going to do about sewerage, fire services, rubbish? How do we get people to come back again? What balance do we need for young and old, so grandparents, parents and children are equally catered for? How do we keep them occupied? (The park will be open for 7 ½ hours, of which at least 4 hours need to be “experience”. We’ll need souvenirs, T-Shirts… We’ll need food and drinks. (By the way: Chris iterated that food accounts for the biggest money maker in the group). How do we cater for foreign language guests? What will be our opening times (not too hard: planning laws prohibit opening at night).
What approvals are needed? Planning approval. Building and Height restrictions, Safety. (Queensland Fire Services were heavily involved in assisting in the design of the facilities to keep people safe, in relation to evacuation plans etc).
And then comes the ‘Budget Check’: It is always over [Governments don’t seem to have these… Ed.] Then you scour the world for specialist personnel and manufacturers. Who can build all the gear that go with Special Effects? There are constantly the two opposing forces of Conventional Construction and Special Effects. What happens if it burns? The materials may be very difficult to inflame, but if they do, they might become highly toxic. The manufacturers come from all over the world: Italy, China, the US. Then come the Safety Tests: for example, if just a single seat belt is not fastened, the Roller Coaster simply won’t even start. And to be approved, it needs to have a minimum of 800 trouble free runs in a row. Something goes wrong on the 799th, start counting from 1!
Then there is staff hiring, training, emergency procedures, Public Relations. What? No, there is much more to be done before we can open up…
Andy was well assisted by his counterpart from Hope Island, Neil: when Daryl Sanderson met with Neil, an old mate of his from way back when he was a big-wig in Apex, he couldn’t remember him… [don’t worry Daryl, it happens to all of us sooner or later…] Paul Seymour, as President you are supposed to be here before the guests arrive… We have two tables from Hope Island who are not mixing: fancy visiting another club and still only sitting together with your fellow members of the same club, and there was a whole group trying to push in ahead of everyone else at the breakfast line…
Surfers Sunrise Sergeant Andy first off hit Hope Island President Clinton Ford who, together with his charming wife Amy also brought along their recently born baby daughter Riley (see photo on right): Might be the youngest member ever, but no badge! [this was addressed very quickly, but too late - fines don't get withdrawn!]Mario Fairlie was introduced to the guests as “our resident hypochondriac”… Mario promptly retorted that there he was, having invited the entire club to join him at his birthday party, and nobody turned up! OK, the party was held in Las Vegas… Franz Huber was accused of inaccurate / too elaborate reporting of the Sergeant’s musings… Ian Mayberry, you are sporting the biggest Wavebreak on the Gold Coast (in your hair)… Peter Morgan, good to see you wearing long pants – you are a big boy again! Terry O’Shea was in Melbourne recently. Apparently, Richmond AFL club offered him the position of Ruckman in their team [the result of last weekend certainly couldn’t have been any worse if Terry had accepted! Ed.] And whilst we are with Richmond supporters, Gerald East and Angus Miller might as well cough up too! Julian Price, welcome back! And last but not least: President Paul Seymour: 3 words suffice for the South African Rugby Union team: Sixth in World.
Julian Price was at the door (that's him on the right, in case your memory is letting you down...), Daryl Sanderson was chairman and Andy Bell was Sergeant.
We had apologies from Jo Gorman, Mark Twyford, Graeme Isaacson, Ray Higgs and Al Sirovs.
It was a joint meeting with the Rotary Club of Hope Island. President Paul Seymour welcomed all members of Hope Island, and in particular also our visitor, Richard Smith (RC of Toowoomba Garden City). Paul pointed out that next week (that now means this week, 11th May) there won’t be a normal breakfast meeting, but instead we’ll have a Bar-be-que with the GSE Team from Pennsylvania at his place on Sovereign Island – see separate article further on. And the following week, we’ll have District Governor Anne Egan as our guest.
President Elect Simon Brook elaborated on the upcoming major event ‘Cocktails with the Dolphins’ (see PDF in the download section on the right) as well as a farewell luncheon for the GSE Team to be held on Saturday 14th May at the Southport Golf Club.
Wheelchair Trust Chairman Daryl Sanderson reported on the latest happenings at The Shed: A sponsor will organize a container of wheelchairs to be shipped to Jordan, with our long standing sponsor Sinclair Containers sponsoring the balance required to pay for the container. Thank you! And the Taree Mens Shed is fully re-organized and are coming back to assist us with the assembly of wheechairs.
At the recent District Conference in Murwillumbah, the theme at the dinner was 'Age of Aquarius'. Here is your Editor wrecking the reputation of an otherwise perfectly behaved Youth Exchange Student from Italy. Hope Martina's parents don't see this... ☺
Fellows, Girls! This is happening this coming Saturday!
Chris Thurtell who is the chief organizer of this event, urges you to be on time at 6:30 pm at the Seaworld Resort Hotel (formerly Seaworld Nara Resort). The first show will start shortly after, so if you are late, you'll miss it!
Please spread this out on your Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and whatever other Social Media you participate in! This is only possible if you have a "big wig" of Seaworld in our club! Chris Thurtell and President Elect Simon Brook have organized a cocktail party at Seaworld on the last Saturday in May. See the flyer in the download section on the right.
WHAT ARE THE SIX AREAS OF FOCUS?
1. Peace and conflict prevention/resolution
2. Disease prevention and treatment
3. Water and sanitation
4. Maternal and child health
5. Basic education and literacy
6. Economic and community development THE ROTARY FOUNDATION – CONTINUING TO EMPOWER ROTARIANS AT HOME AND ABROAD AS WE CONTINUE TO FOCUS THE “GOOD WE DO IN THE WORLD.”
Chris stood in at short notice for Tacha, the Polar Bear trainer at Seaworld. There was a requirement to do some urgent maintenance work at the bear pit. Tacha is not only the trainer, but also – on the very unlikely chance of the maintenance workers being attacked, the shooter…
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Andy was well assisted by his counterpart from Hope Island, Neil: when Daryl Sanderson met with Neil, an old mate of his from way back when he was a big-wig in Apex, he couldn’t remember him… 
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