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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.

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.

District 9800 Change-over 2019

Several Canterbury members attended the District Changeover Luncheon at the Taylors Lakes Convention Centre on Sunday 30 June.

Grant Hocking took over from Bronwyn Stephens as our esteemed District Governor for District 9800. It was a well-attended and festive event and showcased the work of our district in many different ways, as well as the excellent work of Bronwyn over the past year..

Canterbury Rotary had the honour of receiving one of 12 Recognition Awards. Our award was for ‘Addressing Health, Hunger and Clean Water in the Philippines in an Integrated Manner’.

It was fitting that Doug Hawley was present with his wife, Avril, to receive the award accompanied proudly by the immediate past president, Steve Wylie, and newly inaugurated president, Lili-Ann Kriegler. Doug’s immense efforts over the last 22 years in organising the annual Eye and Ear Medical Mission to the Philippines, and his work in initiating the FORaMEAL project received well-deserved recognition. The work of Val Cuniffe and her team in supporting and growing the impact of the FORaMEAL project are key to receiving this award and deserve mention.

Also shown at the event was the award-winning video made by Janet Hay about the FORaMEAL project. The video was recorded at the Multi -District Conference in Melbourne in February. Well done Janet!

In addition our Club, together with the Rotary Club of Mitchell River, received recognition for its work in drought relief to farmers with the award of $45,000 from the District fund of about $350,000. Ted Waghorne, Bill Granger and Past President Steve Wylie were responsible for obtaining the award and its disbursement to needy families.

Congratulations to Canterbury Rotary on the wonderful achievements.

Club Change-over Night June 2019

Last Monday the Club held its change-over event. The Canterbury Centre (after a recent name change from the BASScare Centre) was transformed into a venue that had the look and feel of Africia. We were joined by guests from our cluster Clubs, the incoming District Governor Grant Hocking and his wife Melissa, members, partners and friends of the Club.

We had the traditional handover from current President Steve Wylie to the incoming President Lili-Ann Kriegler, presentation of Paul Harris fellow awards to Val Cunniffe, Karin Simpson and John Braine and, in recognition of her tremendous works with the BusyFeet program, the award of Club Person of the year to Jenni Nankervis.

Rob Anderson and Anthony Balocca Join Our Club

On 13 May the club was delighted to welcome Rob Anderson as a member. Rob is pictured here with Bill Granger, his sponsor Doug Hawley and President Steve Wylie.

Rob had attended many functions and Club meetings over the past months and has been an enthusiastic contributor at these events.

Following on from Rob Anderson, we were very pleased to welcome Anthony Balocca as a member on 20 May. Rob is pictured here with his sponsor Tony Laycock and President Steve Wylie. Rob is a friend of Tony's and was persuaded to join the Club to be able to join in with the Club's projects and activities. A very warm welcome was expended to Anthony on his induction.

MUNA Celebration April 2019

Our Youth Services Director Anne Josefsberg provided the following report on the Model United Nations Assembly ( MUNA) which was held over the 27-28 April weekend.

There are so many ways to describe MUNA - exciting, action-packed, amazing and absorbing. Teamed up in pairs, students undertook research into a nominated country, selected a resolution ( a proposer, a seconder, speakers for, speakers against, final thoughts expressed by the proposer, final thoughts expressed by speaker against). Delegates from countries sought clarification, offered motions of dissent, and most often of all, points of order strategically applied to draw more information from the proposer.

Canterbury Rotary Club sponsored two MUNA delegates - Maria Gerges and Luca Petterlin who represented Indonesia - they are pictured with Club member Tash Facci.

The cut and thrust of the event was assessed by a panel of three Rotarians who awarded the following categories: best male, best female, best costume, first winning team ( to go forward the Canberra for the National MUNA Competition) and second winning team. The first winning team were from Swinburne Senior Secondary College, Laura and Archie, who represented Saudi Arabia. They performed extremely well. The second winning team came from MacRobertson Girls High School, Vy and Areeba, who were very close in their performance on the day (Sunday 28th April). The manner statistics, facts and figures were absorbed by student delegates and strategically used in response to clarification and points of order was very impressive. The quality and depth of language demonstrated conveyed eloquence and a deep understanding of the issues within the resolutions.

The day was so satisfying and I heard one of the delegates declare that she did not believe that there was other people who had the same level of interest in politics as she did. One of our delegates , Luc, told me in a conversation over the lunch break, that the best part of his day was when he read the news of the day.

In a world where it often appears that many citizens are ignorant of the world around them, I found myself in a room full of current affairs junkies. It was such a pleasure to be there, surrounded by them, soaking up their intense enthusiasm, passion and raw intelligence.

Polio Australia Stephanie Cantrill and Gary Newton

Stephanie Cantrill from Polio Australia and Gary Newton provided an inspiring presentation on 8 April in regard to polio and particularly the organisation's focus of providing support to polio survivors.

Cancer Council Hawthorn Relay for Life Walk 2019

The Mrs Canterbury team joined with members of the Canterbury Rotary Club at the annual Cancer Council Hawthorn Relay for Life Walk on the weekend of 23 and 24 March.

Once all donations are received, the team and supporters hope to achieve their target of $14000 - a fantastic effort.

Congratulations to members of the Club who provided the BBQ breakfast on Sunday morning to the weary walkers.

Review of the 2018 Philippines Eye and Ear Mission

Four special presenters along with Doug Hawley provided a fabulous summary of their experiences at the 2018 eye and ear mission to the Philippines during pour Club meeting on 18 March 2019.

Kalanie Gunatillake, Sophie Gutknecht, Kaitlin Rust and Rachel Stin were the four Latrobe University orthoptic students, now graduates, who joined 18 other team members on the trip to the northern part of the Palawan island.

They described the surgery process, the basic sanitary procedures and the beautiful moment when the bandages were removed after a successful operation and the patient could again see.

They also outlined some of the barriers to healthcare in a rural country which included financial, cultural and religious and the stigma related to wearing sunglasses.

Some impressive numbers were details from the trip:

1900 eye screening and 5000 ear screening
300 reading classes distributed
600 sunglasses distributed
170 surgeries performed
400 glasses distributed to primary school students
60 glasses distributed to high school students

Some of the highlight of the trip were:

The improvement to the health and quality of life of individual Philippine residents
Creating and maintaining the relationships between Australian and local rotarians
Personal and vocational growth through the learning and cultural experiences

The joy and the humbling nature of the experience was demonstrated when a story was told of a patient who wrote a song expressing thanks for the help provided by the eye and ear team.

There were many questions and it was great that several other members of the 2018 team also came along to catch up and have a chat about another very successful eye and ear mission by the Club to the Philippines – number 22 by the Club.

Drought Relief Project

Monday and Tuesday this week, Bill, Ted and Steve met with Alan Newstead and Bernie Farquhar, President and President Elect, of the Mitchell River Rotary Club. We have been working with Mitchell River Rotary to provide respite trips to Melbourne for drought affected families. The purpose of the visit was to explore further opportunities to assist people seriously affected by the drought.

Leanne Jennings of the Bairnsdale Neighbourhood House, pictured here with Bill Granger, gave us an overview of the very serious impact the drought was having on farmers and their families. With over 70 volunteers this House collects and distributes food to the needy and serves lunches on a daily basis. With her knowledge we will target the most needy with our support.

We visited three farms in their third year of drought. They are dust bowls, with the farmers forced to sell off most of their stock to survive, and desperately trying to keep some breeding stock for when they can rebuild.

We were really fortunate to be able to stay with Judy and Peter Robbins. Despite their farm suffering greatly in this drought, they continue to run Annie’s Cottage at Lindenow South as a respite location for “Very Special Kids” and their families. The cottage is used 50 weeks a year. They have been volunteering their time for nearly 30 years and deservedly have been awarded OAM’s for their work.

Our original intention was to see where we could help with our hands-on efforts and services but it quickly became apparent that their need was really urgent and priority projects such as fencing and dam cleaning needs to have skilled attention with specialist equipment. They also require cash for fodder, fuel and water. We thought it preferable to use Rotary skills to help fund and project manage activities.

We recognise we cannot set the local priorities, so Alan and Bernie with the help of Leanne, are developing a list of projects which will draw on the $10,000 we have allocated for drought relief. We have also decided to seek a further grant from District 9800.

Bill, Ted and Steve

FORaMEAL Project - New Website

Over the past 18 months momentum has been growing regarding the Club's FORaMEAL project. There have been a number of emergency meal packing events with the largest being at the recent Multi District Conference in February 2019 where more than 100 members, friends, rotarians and volunteers, some who registered through the Meetup app, came together to fill emergency meal packs that will provide approximately 35000 meals.

A new dedicated FORaMEAL website has now been developed to provide information and assist in the development of the project. Please have a look at the website at www.forameal.com.au

A short video from the recent food packing event at the Multi- District Conference has been prepared. Please click below to see the video.

The Club can now offer businesses the chance to book an event where they can promote teamwork and demonstrate their commitment to social responsibility in a way their staff will thoroughly enjoy. If they wish, we can arrange for small businesses to minimise expenses by sharing their event with another company.

If your Club or organisation would like to organise a FORaMEAL packaging event, please contact Val Cunniffe at val.cunniffe@canterburyrotary.org

Natashi Facci Joins Our Club

Natasha Facci, pictured with Rob Simpson and President Steve Wylie, was inducted by President Steve Wylie into the vocational classification of Human Resources Consulting.

Natasha has already been an active contributor to our Club. She has worked on FORaMEAL food packing events and arranging for students to take part in the Rotary District 9800 Model United Nations Assembly (MUNA). The assembly is about the students building bridges of goodwill for world peace and understanding.

Natasha was formally introduced to our Club by her sponsor, PP Rob Simpson. We all look forward to Natasha’s enthusiastic participation in Rotary’s friendship and volunteering activities.

Austin King Joins Our Club

Austin King, here with John McCaskill and Club President Steve Wylie was inducted into the vocational classification of Project Manager. Austin has already been a very active contributor to the Club as a Friend of Rotary. At the FORaMEAL food packing night, Austin brought along a whole group of friends that were sufficient to man one of the Teams on the food packing lines.

Tony Laycock Joins Our Club

Tony Laycock, pictured with Wendy Laycock, John McCaskill and President Steve Wylie, was inducted by Club President Steve Wylie into the vocational classification of Executive Search consultant. Tony is well known to many Club members through his friendship with Doug Hawley and his attendance at Club meetings

Three New Members Join Our Club

Ryan Bartlett, Janet Hay, George Dolezal and 2017-18 Club President Rob Simpson

In 2017-18 then Club President Rob Simpson had the pleasure of inducting three new members. George Dolezal in the vocational category of Pastoral Care Minister; Janet Hay in the vocational category of Social Business Coach; and Ryan Bartlett in the vocational category of Personal Trainer.

Gilly Swinnerton Joins Our Club

In 2017-18 Gilly Swinnerton was inducted by then Club President Rob Simpson, here with Rosemay Waghorne, into the vocational classification of Health Care. Gilly was a member of the Rotary Club of Prahran and Susie Cole, the immediate Past President of that Club, came with Gilly for her induction. Gilly has taken on the role of Program Director and is doing a fantastic job.