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Lucy Cole - The evolution of Surfers Paradise
Surfers Paradise SLSCApr 03, 2024
7:00 am – 8:30 am -
Dr Elizabeth Celi - Rotarian behind the Badge
Surfers Paradise SLSCApr 17, 2024
7:00 am – 8:30 am -
Gillian Reeve - Dispensing Polio Plus vaccine in India
Surfers Paradise SLSCMay 01, 2024
7:00 am – 8:30 am
A great way to start the day
Surfers Paradise, QLD 4217
Australia
“AW, GIVE ME A BREAK! It’s been going since time immemorial! Why can’t it simply be fixed?!?”
If it only was that simple. Next time you turn on the tap to fill your kettle, spare a thought for your great-grandmother: Like mine, quite likely she would have collected water from the outside pump, the water tank or the local fountain. Ultimately, running water was installed in houses. It was a major “modern convenience". Clean water and all that goes with it is a condition for a healthy society because sanitation and hygiene are neigh impossible without clean water. (PLEASE, Henrietta, don’t get me started on wet wipes!). A healthy population is a condition for a prosperous society.
I’m very much playing in my fourth quarter (but I’m still getting the occasional uncontested kick, or at least catch and pass the ball ☺) and have been a Rotarian for some 37 years. The theme of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (Rotary’s monthly theme for March) has had numerous other iterations. Australian Rotary projects go back to the early 1960s, undertaking clean water projects in PNG, India, Thailand and Borneo.
In our District 9640, many clubs are active in this area. Just a couple of examples: in PDG Darrell Brown's newsletter (2017-18) I recall reporting on projects of the Rotary Club of Burleigh Heads (at Kimbe, PNG), and the combined clubs of Lismore, Stanthorpe, Palm Beach and Glen Innes (at a school in Fiji). Did it make a difference? You bet!
On the international scene, Surfers Sunrise has always been more active in providing mobility for disabled people through our wheelchair project. Occasional 'major 5 year projects' were the buildings, such as the recently completed X-Ray Unit for Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, or the ‘House of Hope’ in Apia, Samoa, (see last week’s bulletin). At present, there are no such projects on our horizon. So, could we consider a ‘Water, Sanitation and Hygiene’ project?
BTW, there is a dedicated international Rotary Action Group on this. Click on the image above.
Hard work it might have been, but the team was unanimous in declaring the exercise as a “once in a lifetime experience”. Twelve days of basic accommodation in a guest house, no electrical power (except in the Medical Centre), locally cooked
At yesterday's Surfers Sunrise breakfast meeting, we presented the 'Lutzy Award' to Mia., in the form of a specially inscribed surf ski. The award is in honour of our former member Keith Lutz, who was a true leader in both our club as well as in the Surfers Paradise Surf Life Saving Club. A committee of the SLSC nominates the winner, selected not necessarily because of his/her surfing skills (but that is certainly no detriment!), but for their leadership qualities. This was the 8th year the award was presented. And just in case you are interested: of the eight winners, six were female!
Picture (from left): Jan Lutz, David Orchard, President Doug Lipp, the winner Mia Watson and her father Rob Watson. Second picture: Jan Lutz, Mia and last year's winner Pieta Jackson.