Unfortunately, the Youth Sports Expo at the Mermaid Beach Bowls Club might have required more vigorous promotion, according to those who assisted. I was all ready to leave for the afternoon shift when I had a phone call, advising that the existing personnel comfortably could hold the fort. As I understand it, there were several display stalls (including our Rough Terrain Wheelchairs), a sausage sizzle and people playing bowls, and lots of prizes to be won. Thanks to Geoff Croad, Paul O'Neill, Darrell Brown and Franz Huber, who manned a shift.
The Changeover Luncheon is confirmed for 16th June 2024 at Braeside (same place as last year). I have spoken to Cr Darren Taylor and he has kindly assisted by not charging a room hire etc. We need to have Darren as a guest speaker sooner rather than later.
Thought for the Day: There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind. C.S. Lewis
An alternative title to this story might have been “Why you should attend a Rotary International Conference”. That is where Gillian, the current President of the Mermaid Beach Rotary Club and the Polio Plus Chair of our District, met fellow lady Rotarians from Sandringham, VIC. She was enthused to join a team to administer the Polio vaccine in Moradabad, an industrial town in Uttar Pradesh, some 170 Km east of New Delhi, India.
And the rest, as they say, is history? Far from it! The work Gillian and her co-travellers did, as with all the Polio Plus efforts, will have ongoing effect: the ultimate eradication of the Polio virus. But, how do you round up the children, 5 years old or younger, in an Indian city, including those living in a slum? By telling them to be at such-and-such place by XX:00 hours? No! Together with the local Rotary Club and the town’s government, you organise a march through the town to advertise the event. You put a booth in a very busy main street. Then you apply the vaccine (orally, 2 drops), and paint their “pinky” fingernail purple. Other than the obvious reason, this is to ensure they don’t come back a second time to collect the soft toy each child gets as a present… 😊 Helped by local health workers, they would even stop motorbikes with small kid passengers, they applied some 295 doses on just the first day. Then, onto the slum areas…
Gillian went there in 2015, 2016, 2018 and would have returned again in 2019, but “the Indian Government had run out of vaccine”.
Anti-vaxxers? “Of all people, only one refused” Gillian declared. Officially, India is Polio free since 2014, but as there are still cases in Afghanistan and Pakistan, eternal vigilance is the word. By the way: how do you determine whether a child is 5 years old or younger? “You ask them to reach with their left arm over their head to touch the right ear. If they are younger, they can't do it” she said. Come on! Next time you meet a toddler, find out yourself!
Gillian’s PowerPoint pictorial (in PDF format) is available for download - see Download section on the right. (Photo: Gillian with President Doug Lipp)
So u thnk 2ds youth has gone too far? Or is it bcs u dont want to undrstd it? SWYP? OMG not anotr boomer whng about 2ds youth? Got news: AFAIK txt is new nrml. In 2ds fast wrld, KISS!
OK, so we oldies have scratched our heads trying to decipher TXT abbreviations. (For those of you who are struggling with the above: IMHO = In My Humble Opinion, bcs = because, SWYP = So what’s your problem? OMG = Oh my god, AFAIK = As far as I know. KISS has been used for decades.
Of greater concern is the emerging bad habit of leaving out punctuation (and not just by young people!). The most popularly quoted case in point is ‘A woman without her man is nothing’. With punctuation: ‘A woman: without her, man is nothing.’ [Yes, Henrietta, you did tell me. Ad nauseam...] Or, as Shakespeare may have written:
‘Good Lementio, who calls at the gate?
‘My lord, a woman without; her man is nothing.
‘Bid her enter then, and show her man to the livery.
But I digress… May is Youth Service Month. Throughout the world, Rotary Clubs expend serious time, money and effort on Youth projects. Seeing that modern youth seems to mostly ignore convention on many fronts, are our hard raised funds really well spent?
OK, let me go back a little, say 20 years. Young people (and those young at heart) embraced email with gusto. But there were still an awful lot of people who refused to participate in this novel method of communication and continued… faxing. Yes, they did!
SWUP? Language and methods continually evolve, particularly as we move from the written to the spoken word - as in listening to podcasts or talking into our Smartphone “OK Google, what time is our Zoom meeting today?”.
But what has changed very little over the decades, indeed over centuries, millennia, is leadership. Leadership can be learned. Leadership can be coached. Rotary’s Youth programs are just as important today as they have always been. According to the ABS, our target demographic (aged 14 – 24), make up 14% of our population. That’s roughly 3 ½ Million people. Without resorting to platitudes, it is our responsibility to help the generations following us to maximize their leadership potential. Yeah – u rely dont get how awesome an opp u provide to young ppl and u shud all b very proud of ur work!
(Get full details of our District's Youth Programs from www.rotary9640.org - Top right side.)
OK, so I should say former Socceroo. Still, I'd say that still today, Craig Foster (they called him Fozzie) could dribble a ball around an opposing team. If you are lucky, he might talk a bit about his career with the round ball, but more likely he'll talk about another passion of his: Human Rights. (You might recall him playing a high-profile role in the campaign to free Bahraini footballer Hakeem al-Araibi from detention in Thailand in from late 2018 to early 2019,)
As Rotarians, Human Rights must play a major role in our lives and in our thinking and attitudes. Whatever your views are on refugees, here is a man that's worth listening to!
Last Saturday, Surfers Sunrise joined up with the Mermaid Beach Rotary Club to give them a hand at their Youth Expo, held at the Mermaid Beach Bowls Club. Our Wheelchair Trust was there too with a display, manned by Rock O'Keefe and Geoff Croad (picture), as well as Paul O'Neill, Darrell Brown and yours truly.
Mark it in your diary now:Sunday, 16th June 2024. As some "key members" expect to be absent during the usual period around the end of the Rotary year, this year's Changeover Luncheon will be held early. It will be held at the same venue s last year's (and wasn't that a hugely successful event!): the Braeside Estate on Gooding Drive. Watch this space for final details, including a booking site to be set up.
Duty Roster - note: subject to change - please check every week. Note: Fellowship duty also is expected to be at the Project Shed on the Saturday following the meeting
Typos can also undermine your goals by implicitly telling the reader “This note is not important enough to edit”. Busy readers will happily reciprocate by ignoring the real message you intended to send.
To have a right to do a thing is not the same as to be right in doing it.G K Chesterton, ‘The War of the Usurpers’
NASA is launching a satellite to say sorry to the aliens.
An alternative title to this story might have been “Why you should attend a Rotary International Conference”. That is where Gillian, the current President of the Mermaid Beach Rotary Club and the Polio Plus Chair of our District, met fellow lady Rotarians from Sandringham, VIC. She was enthused to join a team to administer the Polio vaccine in 
So u thnk 2ds youth has gone too far? Or is it bcs u dont want to undrstd it? SWYP? OMG not anotr boomer whng about 2ds youth? Got news: AFAIK txt is new nrml. In 2ds fast wrld, KISS!
OK, so I should say former Socceroo. Still, I'd say that still today, Craig Foster (they called him Fozzie) could dribble a ball around an opposing team. If you are lucky, he might talk a bit about his career with the round ball, but more likely he'll talk about another passion of his: Human Rights. (You might recall him playing a high-profile role in the campaign to free Bahraini footballer Hakeem al-Araibi from detention in Thailand in from late 2018 to early 2019,)
Last Saturday, Surfers Sunrise joined up with the Mermaid Beach Rotary Club to give them a hand at their Youth Expo, held at the Mermaid Beach Bowls Club. Our Wheelchair Trust was there too with a display, manned by Rock O'Keefe and Geoff Croad (picture), as well as Paul O'Neill, Darrell Brown and yours truly.
