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Introduction

The Rotary Club of Canterbury has been serving our local & international communities since 1987. We have an active social and project program. Our members love being part of our Club and enjoy participating in all our activities. You are invited to come along to:

join in with our many volunteering opportunities,
make new friends and
learn new things.

Once you get to know us, you might like to become a Rotary Friend or even to join the 1.2 million Rotarians as a club member. We will make you feel very welcome.

Your Garden - Our Future Webinar

The Your Garden - Our Future webinar was held on Thursday 26 November.

The event raised $1172 from donations. Thank you to those who contributed to assist the Rotarians for Bees sponsorship of the Nursery & Garden Industry of Victoria (NGIV) Schools Pollination Education Program.

Special shout out to the Speakers, sponsors Beechworth Honey and Seasol and also all the Supporters including the team Backyard Honey who help support existing and aspiring Beekeepers.

The edited Webinar Recording is now live on the Rotarians for Bees website:

https://rotariansforbees.org/your-garden-our-future/

or directly at https://vimeo.com/484621295

Let's Stay Connected Project

The "Let's Stay Connected" project came about as a need within the Aged Care sector was identified for some stimulating material to be made available to residents, while in isolation.

Several members and friends of the Rotary Club of Canterbury have written books, some of personal experiences, some researched, for this purpose.

The books are available in several formats and can be given to individuals to read or the Power Point version can be used in a group presentation.

Please follow this link to the page with the book titles page/let-s-stay-connected-project

New FORaMEAl Website

While the Club has not been able to hold FORaMEAL packaging events, lots still has been happening in the FORaMEAl space.

Pallets and smaller parcels of FORAMEAL packs are currently being distributed to those in the community impacted by the Covid restrictions.

There has been an amazing take-up with many partner organisations joining with the Club to facilitate the distribution process.

To enable the concepts about the FORaMEAL project to be easily understood, a team which has been led by Club member Kevin Xiao has very quickly established a new FORaMEAL website at www.FORaMEAL.org

There is a very clear objective stated on the website about the FORaMEAl project - "this year, the Rotary Club of Canterbury decided to redirect part of our FORaMEAL effect to help the most vulnerable in the Stage 4 COVID-19 restrictions in Melbourne. Our aim simple – to provide 100,000 nutritious meals to Melbournians who are at risk of hunger".

Please take a moment to visit the website and see the details about the great work being undertaken with the FORaMEAL project and how you (or organisations which you are affiliated with) may assist by becoming a partner and/or making a tax deductible donation.

2020 Club Change-over

The Club had a great changeover on Monday 29 June to thank President Lili-Ann Kriegler for her sterling effort over the past 12 months and then to welcome in our new President Tony Laycock and his partner Wendy.

Lili-Ann took the opportunity to thank many individuals:

Departing Board members Carmela Dimasi, Andrew Mastrowicz and Steve Wylie (although Tony later advised that Steve is actually staying on the Board with a couple of new roles)
Members who are resigning from the Club - Michael Chong, Gerry Cross, Chris James, Sarah Prossor, Amir Salehi, Mal Short and Kathleen Stapleton
All the members of the Club and their partners who have helped the Club run smoothly and achieve so many things during the year, and
Pierre Kriegler and all the Kriegler family members who have supported Lili-Ann in the past 12 months.

Lili-Ann showed a short presentation which highlighted the projects and fun that the Club has been involved with including in our lock-down months. Below is the link to the presentation. It takes a few minutes to download because it is 400MB. You will need a bit of patience but is is great to see the activities and events the Club has had over the past 12 months.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hy4Pgsfb9Yub5fSEH40gcbe6gr0teZD6/view?usp=sharing

Then it was awards time.

Paul Harris pins and certificates were awarded to Janet Hay, Andrew Mastrowicz, Graham Bishop and David Zrna who all in very individual and unique ways have made significant contributions to the Club this past year and in previous years. Congratulations and well done to each of you.

Annually a perpetual Member Recognition trophy is presented at changeover night and this year it was awarded jointly to Steve Wylie, Bill Granger and Ted Waghorne. These three members initiated and managed the projects and activities which the Club undertook firstly to assist members in the Gippsland area who were impacted by the ongoing drought and then to assist many of the same people who were ravaged by the bush fires. The three members and the Club are providing ongoing assistance to families in the Gippsland area. Congratulations on the award.

We were very fortunate to have District Governor Grant Hocking and his partner Melissa join our zoom meeting. Grant acknowledged and thanked many members of the Club who have taken on District roles. Also as a complete surprise Grant awarded Rosemary Waghorne a Paul Harris award from District 9800 for her tireless work as an Assistant District Governor over the past two years - a role that Rosemary is continuing again this year. Congratulations Rosemary.

Steve Wylie then presented Lili-Ann with a new trophy which has been "struck/forged" to commemorate the year that was as President of the Club. I am sure it will take pride of place in the Kriegler home for the next 12 months or then again as it is a feather duster mounted on a stand maybe it wont be on display! Obviously in complete shock, it was received with tremendous humility by Lili-Ann.

The ceremonial part of the night them transpired with Lili-Ann placing the Presidential chain of office around the neck of our new President Tony Laycock. Dressed in his best Hawaiian shirt (the theme for the night), Tony then introduced the members of the Board for the upcoming year and welcomed all members, partners and friends to be amazed at what the Club can do and to strive to achieve whatever needs to be done.

Thank you Lili-Ann and Tony for organising a great change-over night.

Waggle Dance Compilation Video

The first edition of the Waggle Dance video compilation was launched on Sunday 24 May 2020 on the World Bee Day website.

Thank you to all the participants who registered for the Waggle Dance Challenge. This video is the 1st Compilation made up of the videos that were received before 10pm on the 18 May 2020.

Don't worry if you missed out on submitting your video on time, as submissions will still be accepted, all year, as the Club and World Bee Day have had so many more people wanting to take part in the Waggle Dance Challenge.

Please enjoy the video and all the great waggles.

Waggle Dance on World Bee Day

In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, there is an opportunity to brighten the days of your family and friends by inspiring them to celebrate World Bee Day on 20 May.

As part of the celebration between now and then they can learn the ‘Waggle Dance’, video themselves doing it, and upload it to the World Bee Day website!

The main purpose of World Bee Day events is to spread awareness of the significance of bees and other pollinators for our survival. Simply proclaiming World Bee Day does not do much for bees and other pollinators; the main work of safeguarding their existence still needs to be undertaken. World Bee Day is an excellent opportunity to put bees at the centre of the national conversation for a day and encourage actions that create more bee-friendly landscapes.

Because of the lockdown, World Bee Day celebrations have been forced online. To find out more about World Bee Day click here.

The 2020 Global Online Waggle Dance Challenge is an attempt to achieve 20,000 waggle dance videos, from 20 countries, in 20 days, ending on the 20th May 2020. The figure 20,000 was chosen because that’s how many species of bees there are doing extraordinary work for the planet every day. The Waggle Dance music by Gus MacMillan and Jane McCracken, and which is owned by Rotary Club of Canterbury, can be downloaded from the iTunes store. You can watch the video online to learn the dance.

Please pass this information on and encourage all your contacts to embrace this unique event.

See Costa Georgiades, ABC celebrity, do the 'Waggle Dance' for World Bee Day in the video below

Philippines Mission 2019

The Club had a wonderful presentation by four former LaTrobe University orthoptic students at a recent Club meeting who spoke about their experiences as members of the Philippines eye and ear mission in October 2019. We were also joined on the night by several other volunteers who were part of the mission team.

Damon Goddard, Bradley Lai, Stinoj Shaju and Rachel Wishart spoke about their typical day, with very early mornings, up to two hours travel, then conducting the eye tests and also assisting/observing the cataract operations followed by some leisure time, bed and then up to do it all over again the next day. But while the days were long, the experiences were fantastic.

They observed that they came across clinical issues they were very unlikely to encounter in Australia.

They also spoke about the happiness of the children and the culture which Doug Hawley also noted led to a reluctance by some Philippine residents, who were diagnosed with cataracts, but who were hesitant to undergo surgery.

The group then showed the terrific video below which highlighted the experiences from the trip.

In conclusion they thanked the Club for giving them the opportunity to be part of the eye and ear mission to the Philippines.

Club Holds Online Zoom Club Meeting

Well there was a lot of doubt about whether a Club meeting would be held for a long time due to the restrictions associated with social isolating.

However, to use a Trumpism, there was a very great and exciting event last Monday 6 April when the Club held its first online meeting using the Zoom app.

More than 40 members managed to set-up the Zoom app on their PC's, tablets and mobiles to join the meeting. Special thanks to Lili-Ann Kriegler and Rob Anderson who worked to set-up the meeting and provide a guide and hands-on assistance to get the members connected to the meeting.

While it was a bit different not seeing each other face to face, there was lots of fun, a couple of jokes, a game of two-up, some social conversation and most importantly, the Club had inductions for 11 new members.

Ten of these new members joined us from the former Yarra Bend Rotary Club and we were also, after a long but patient wait, finally able to induct Rose Stewart as a member.

Congratulations to all our new members and we look forward to your involvement in the Club's activities, projects and social events for many year s to come.

The Club is planning future online Club meetings.

Rotarians for Bees What the Buzz About Bees Event Video

The "What the Buzz About Bees" was first main Rotarians for Bees Event - it was held at Greenacres Golf Club on 12 November 2019 with three guest speakers and 200 attendees to learn more about protecting our Bees and other Pollinators.

Thanks to Andrew McCaskill for taking and editing the video of the night which captures the highlights of the evening. There is a terrific sound track accompanying the video so please ensure that the sound is switched on on the video.

Paul Harris Fellow Posthumously Awarded to Ralph Hartnett

Helen Hartnett, who was joined by family members and several former Club members, provided us with background history on her husband Ralph who was awarded a posthumous Paul Harris Fellow award at the Club Meeting on 28 October 2019.

Ralph was the second President of our club after its charter in 1987. At that time Rotary was a men's club and the members had young families which lead to family friendly activities with BBQs, picnics and cricket matches. Other activities included fund raising with cake stalls, fashion parades (using wives as models) and 2nd hand bookstall sales.

Community involvement included working bees to assist the elderly with gardening, maintenance and painting. Meetings at the time were a little more formal with an elevated head table and monthly ladies nights with "appropriate speakers".

International service saw the first of many exchange students, Bettina Laursen from Denmark, who were hosted by the Club.

Helen thanked the Club for giving them the opportunity to serve and also for the support they received in return.

Boroondara FORaMEAL 24 September 2019

On 24 September a Canterbury Rotary Club FORaMEAL event was organised for youth in Boroondara and it was a great success.

Nearly 100 young people volunteered to pack the emergency FORaMEAL sachets. Boroondara Council assisted with the venue at the Hawthorn Town Hall and also provided pizza for lunch for the volunteers.

It was great to see some many young people give up some of their holiday time to assist and pack the sachets which will provide around 33800 meals. Thanks you to everyone who made this such a terrific event .

Please have a look at the video below of the event.

Rotary for Bees

The Club over the past months has been working with other Rotary Clubs and a group called Rotary for Bees (R4B's) has been established. This new group is working with the Environmental Sustainability Rotarian Action Group (ESRAG), an international rotary body, to do all they can to ensure the sustainability of bees.

Please follow this link page/rotarians-for-bees on our website to see more details about the group and also links to many useful references and websites. Please find the Rotarian for Bees Website at https://rotariansforbees.org and you can also find more details on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/395777217740428