Firstly I would like to apologize to my sponsor club as I have forgotten to tell them that I would be on Europatour for most of March and so I would be unable to do my monthly report for March. I went on Europatour 2015 for 22 days with 53 other exchanges from my district in Germany. The first night was hard as I didn’t know many people because I was unable to meet them all at the Rotex Wochenende in Paderborn but like always I was accepted into really good friends with some of the Brazilians and Argentinians. I had so much fun and I am sort of sad at the moment because it is over but I know that I will have more experiences like this in the near future :).
I have created a Powerpoint of my experiences on Eurotour. [See Download section on the right hand side]
Last week we met at the Wheelchair Trust Shed in Arundel for a special meeting.
Ian Mayberry was at the door, Doug Lipp was Chairman and Andy Bell was Sergeant.
We had apologies from Conrad Martens, Gerald East and Mario Fairlie (there may have been others - it was a bit noisy up my end of the table... Ed. )
Vice President Elect Ian Mayberry welcomed all members and our Guests, Councillor Margaret Grummitt (Rotary Club of Parkwood), Mike Bottomley (RC of Parkwood), Tania Laird and Sue Tucker (guests of Andy Bell), as well as various regular volunteer workers at The Shed, including Leo Uniarke, Jan Sinclair and Bill Fallon.
Doug Lipp presented further details on the planned Race Day in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Surfers Paradise: It is planned for Saturday, 10th October 2015. Tickets will sell for $70.00 per person - our cost is $44.00. We aim to fill several tables of 10.
President Elect Paul Seymour foreshadowed that nominations for new members will be advertised next week.
Adrian Crowe, in his travel with his better half, Innerwheel Australia President Beverley, brought greetings from the Rotary Club of Scarborough Club in Perth. Scarborough is also manufacturing wheelchairs in a big way (albeit with a different design). Originally, in the mid to late Nineties, Surfers Sunrise closely cooperated with Scarborough.
Another first for Surfers Sunrise: whilst we have in recent years again been very active on the International Youth Exchange Scene, thanks to the huge efforts of AG Darrell Brown and our current Youth Services Director Chris Thurtell, this year we are sending two! Felicity Cooper (right in above picture) leaves for Helsinki, Finland and Gabrielle Bury (separate picture) will shortly land in Minden, near Hannover in Germany. Thanks to modern communication technology, Gabrielle had a Skype link from her home in Moree in Northern NSW to Simon Brook's iPad and we had a brief farewell Video Phone chat. Isn't modern technoloy wonderful?
Hyvää matkaa ! Felicity, und Gute Reise! Gabrielle.
And don't forget: we are all looking forward to receiving your monthly reports!
Meanwhile, Isabelle Franich (left on above picture) has last week returned from France, and of course we have our inbound student from Austria, Laura Burtscher (centre).
And, to top it up, last Wednesday Elliott Cox, whom we sponsored to attend a Rotary Youth Transition Seminar (RYTS) gave a presentation of his experiences - see separate report.
There is no doubt, Elliott means business. Tall, slim, business like - dressed accordingly in a long sleeved white shirt, suit and tie. Hang on... suit and tie? The guy has just left High School! Yep. As I said: Elliott means business. He advised that he is about to embark on a double degree in law and business at Griffith. So, after a brief introduction, he stated "Now it’s perfectly fine for Rotary to promote RYTS as a life changing, all inspiring camp, but is it actually true? Ladies and gentlemen, I am here today to tell you: yes it does."
Elliott attended the 2014 Rotary Youth Transition Seminar (RYTS) camp last November. RYTS is designed to prepare school leavers for their upcoming exposure to "adult" life. It is not necessarily straight forward - expect to be dragged out of bed at 4 am for a boot camp session. But the attendees are taught team work, goal setting, perseverance, striving to succeed. They make them think about what they expect from life and how to get it. "After embracing all the information RTYS has taught me, I am now ready to take success as it comes, learn from my failure, laugh in the face of adversity and shatter through the glass ceiling of expectation" he declared.
Elliott, we couldn't agree more with your closing statement that "It is vital that Rotary continue to sponsor people to attend the RYTS camp so more people like me can gain the confidence and obtain the vital information every teenager needs so they are able to capture their dreams." Spread the word - as long as there are students who want to come, Rotary will run RYTS. Our best wishes for your future career! Looking forward to you coming back sometimes to give us an update.
Thanks to President Conrad's high level technical ability (and a good dose of persistence!), The Surfers Sunrise website has now been fully integrated into ClubRunner. This means that the address www.RotarySurfersSunrise.orgis now pointing to the new website. And importantly, if somebody googles 'Surfers Sunrise' we are popping up right at the top! However, please note that there will be some "dead" links which are still trying to link to the old website. Regrettably, not much one can do about it - eventually Google may catch up with it as well.
RAWCS is one of the BIG acronyms in the Australian Rotary scene: it stands for Rotary Australia World Community Service. Its primary purpose is to facilitate and pool resources to assist clubs to carry out international community service projects. Whatever the project, be it to
help rebuild in the aftermath of disaster,
help programs to bring education to countries where illiteracy stifles development or
bringing health care and medical aid to those who can least access it,
RAWCS so often has a hand in helping the world stand on its feet. RAWCS supports Rotary Clubs in sending teams of volunteers to developing countries to provide assistance upon the development of much needed facilities, especially within the health an
d education areas. Advice, assistance and training in building, construction and commercial operations (for example, assistance in obtaining microfinance) are are also provided by RAWCS to support developing communities in establishing themselves.
So, where is Surfers Sunrise coming into it? We have worked with RAWCS since our Charter in 1987. The original project, instigated by then International Service Director Dr Geoff Cornish (remember him? He was one of the 'real' escapees in the Great Escape), was to support two or three students at a school in Indonesia to the tune of the princely sum of about $150 per annum. Did it work? I have no doubt about it. They learned how to read and write and make intelligent choices. Then bigger projects followed, when Des La Rance designed a cyclone proof low-cost house for Vanuatu and a school in Dili, amongst others in (East Timor).
More recently, we built schools after the devastating tsunamis hit off Thailand and Samoa. The first school went into Phuket (Thailand) followed by a Primary School at Mataf'aa village on Samoa's south coast. That progressed to the House of Hope, built in Apia (Samoa) to accommodate orphans and victims of child abuse. Another major project on Samoa is in the making with the involvement of Helensvale High School. Again, RAWCS will be a major factor in the project. However, it is important that we also recognize the generous financial and physical assistance of many people, both members of Rotary as well as from the general public.
Yes, fellows! These are, without doubt, items of "a bigger picture"! And yes, you CAN become involved in it.
Des La Rance had a bit of a setback: as incoming Pope, one would expect him to do some magic weaving of his hand and simply open the cupboard door where our paraphernalia are stored. Instead he had to go back out to his ute to get a screwdriver... Doug Lipp: VERY obviously you are on leave! All who didn't come along to last week's boat trip: you missed a good one! Daryl Sanderson: in view of President Conrad's aim to lower the average age of our membership: how about inducting your newly born grandchild? Graeme Isaacson phoned - wrong... emailed: read? no... simply disregard it...? Larry Murray, was your sister adopted? (No, Julie is his niece!) John Ellemor: good to see you back at the club again! At 87, you are still packing a punch with your breakfast! Bob Harrison, I see your hair is growing back!
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There is no doubt, Elliott means business. Tall, slim, business like - dressed accordingly in a long sleeved white shirt, suit and tie. Hang on... suit and tie? The guy has just left High School! Yep. As I said: Elliott means business. He advised that he is about to embark on a double degree in law and business at Griffith. So, after a brief introduction, he stated "Now it’s perfectly fine for Rotary to promote RYTS as a life changing, all inspiring camp, but is it actually true? Ladies and gentlemen, I am here today to tell you: yes it does."
More recently, we built schools after the devastating tsunamis hit off Thailand and Samoa. The first school went into Phuket (Thailand) followed by a Primary School at Mataf'aa village on Samoa's south coast. That progressed to the House of Hope, built in Apia (Samoa) to accommodate orphans and victims of child abuse. Another major project on Samoa is in the making with the involvement of Helensvale High School. Again, RAWCS will be a major factor in the project. However, it is important that we also recognize the generous financial and physical assistance of many people, both members of Rotary as well as from the general public.
Des La Rance had a bit of a setback: as incoming Pope, one would expect him to do some magic weaving of his hand and simply open the cupboard door where our paraphernalia are stored. Instead he had to go back out to his ute to get a screwdriver... Doug Lipp: VERY obviously you are on leave! All who didn't come along to last week's boat trip: you missed a good one! Daryl Sanderson: in view of President Conrad's aim to lower the average age of our membership: how about inducting your newly born grandchild? Graeme Isaacson phoned - wrong... emailed: read? no... simply disregard it...? Larry Murray, was your sister adopted? (No, Julie is his niece!) John Ellemor: good to see you back at the club again! At 87, you are still packing a punch with your breakfast! Bob Harrison, I see your hair is growing back! 
