President’s Report – 3 Dec 2009

Last meeting was our AGM and it looks as though all is well financially at the Rotary Club of Frankston Long Island.

PE Brad has picked his team for 2010 – 2011 with Tony Carter as President Elect Nominee and Treasurer David Osborne agreeing to be Treasurer for another year. The whole Board will be advised very soon but it looks good so far!  Editors Note: Tony Carter is not able to be President Elect.

2009 is the Year of the Blood Donor. Maria Semple, Community Relations Officer from the Australian Red Cross Blood Service spoke to us about the need for donors, especially at this time of year.  Maria is part of a program that aims to raise awareness of the ongoing need for blood and to encourage more Australians to find out their blood type and how they can help.  If you, or one of your loved ones, have ever needed blood, you already know how important it is.   Many people today would not be alive if it wasn’t for Australia’s generous and voluntary, unpaid blood donors who give blood each week to help those in need. It’s one of those things that we just expect to be there for us, but only a very small proportion of people (one in 30) actually give blood. Yet sooner or later, one in three of us will need it. If you are not already registered to donate, please give Maria a call and make an appointment for December or January. Who knows the life you save could be your own!

Unfortunately, no one from the club was able to attend the District AGM as we had a prior commitment with a bunch of camels.

The weather was atrocious – it bucketed down almost all the way from Federation Square to the Royal Children’s Hospital.  But, it was an interesting experience walking with kids from Moira Kelly’s Children First Foundation and their supporters. Ahmed, a young man with no arms and legs walked all the way with us. He is intending to compete in swimming at the London Para Olympics in 2012. We would like to instigate some fundraising throughout District 9820 to help this totally inspirational young man achieve his goal.

All in all it was an amazing day with Russell Osborne getting down on his knees after singing the most romantic song to Ros and then asking her to be his wife. There was not a dry eye on the helipad!  Yes, that’s right. The RCH helipad was home to 8 camels for the night before they head up to Kilmore to the Children First farm and then back to South Australia.

An inspirational day always gets the thought processes happening and the result of some of this brain storming is that next year we are going to be working towards helping next years school leavers do something a little more worthwhile than going to Lorne or the Gold Coast and getting wasted.  You will hear more about this idea in days to come!

On page 3 of this bulletin you will find the first of the brief stories on members. If you have not sent me your autobiography yet, please make sure you do so very soon. They don’t have to be as comprehensive as David’s excellent story but please do try to remember to send me something. Thank you to those who have already done so, but could you please send me a family photo (or just one of yourself if you prefer it).

Try to get hold of a copy of Frankston Council’s Newsletter, if you haven’t already seen one. David will be getting fined very heavily for the great article telling us what a great bloke he is – as if we didn’t already know it! Congratulations David!

The sausage sizzle on Sunday 29 was a rather wet but very profitable day with $1,584.00 profit made on the day!  Many thanks to all those who helped make it such a successful day.  See Diary notes for forthcoming dates for next year. Never let it be said that you didn’t get plenty of notice!

See you all on Thursday!

Cheers

President Judy