Peter Morgan was at the door (for Ashleigh Symes), Andy Bell was Chairman and Ian Mayberry was Sergeant. We had apologies from Richard Smith, Adrian Crowe, Al Sirovs, Fred Hamblen, Simon Brook and Ashleigh Symes.
President Charles Thomasson welcomed all members and guests Stephen Hamilton (guest of Doug Lipp), Malcolm Griffin (guest of Karen Holland) and Ramez Salib (guest of Paul Jaffar). Charles followed up with the induction into our club of Johnny Bueti, which was followed by Johnny’s and Paul’s ‘Men behind the Badge’ talks (see separate articles above). After their presentation, Charles elaborated on the weekend’s fundraiser, the Sausage Sizzle at Bunnings Southport, which raised a net of close to a grand! He foreshadowed upcoming events: The Project Shed’s 10,000th Wheelchair celebration, combined with a bike sale, the Golf Day, the Small Business Expo. Further, Charles outlined discussions he held via Zoom with four South African Rotary clubs in relation to shipping a container of some 280 wheelchairs into that region. The sticking point is the roughly $6,000 cost of shipping…
Andy Bell thanked Angus Miller and Geoff Croad for their hard work to organise the Bunnings Sizzle on Saturday and District Youth Service Chair, PDG Darrell Brown elaborated on various Youth projects, particularly in relation to Rotaract clubs. There are plans to start one with Gold Coast Rotary. And while Darrell was on his feet: he made the customary donation of $100 in celebration of another grandchild (his 7th)… which prompted Paul Smith to declare that he too had recently become a granddad! Congratulations to both!
Project Shed chief Larry Murray thanked all the workers who turned up on the previous Saturday to move timber out of the shed into the container. We need more volunteers at the shed to assist with the preparation of bikes to get them ready for the 10,000th Wheelchair celebration / Bike Sale, scheduled for 14th November. Further, we are planning to open the shed on Wednesdays as well – Bryan Tuesley will be on site on those days. We are also looking to manufacturing a product which can easily be sold online.
Ray Higgs confirmed that the Lutzy Award presentation will be made at our regular meeting of 30th September. See Events section for more details.