I hope everyone had an enjoyable Mothers' Day. I certainly did - my family went out to breakfast at Heidelberg Golf Club which put on a huge and delicious buffet breakfast.
What an inspiring young guest speaker we had last week in Monica Majok - an articulate young professional woman with South Sudanese heritage who is determined to make a difference for both her birth and adopted countries. As Monica outlined, the task of bridging the gap between cultures is not easy especially when Australian norms and practices differ from those accepted at home. And especially not easy when sections of the media focus on a relatively few miscreants. I wish Monica and her family all the best in their endeavours to make a difference. Thank you Nick Ikonomou for bringing Monica to our Club. And just a reminder - Alison would love to hear from you if you know of anyone you think would be a great speaker.
A number of us volunteered to help out at the Josh Davis Fundraiser on Saturday night. Resplendent and very visible in our yellow t-shirts and blue BBQ aprons on a freezing cold night, we assisted with a number of tasks including cleaning tables, assisting with the silent and live auctions, and selling (and folding) hundreds of raffle tickets. It was a highly successful night with 300 people registered to attend and over 100 donated items auctioned. Thanks to Paul and Jenny Kelly, Dale Atkins, Kevin Hadingham, Ann Lynch, Con Proussalis, Ron and Wendy Manison, Sally Squires and Steve, Irene Cant and Graham and Marianne Miles for all your work. Some of the crew are pictured below (with one of the event organisers). See you on Thursday.
President Judy
Lower Eltham Park BBQ 9:30 am - 2:30 pm
You are responsible for finding a replacement if you are unable to do your rostered duty and to notify Lyn Truran ljtruran@bigpond.com
After an amazing presentation by a very impressive young lady - Veronica Majok - on the work being done by her Foundation on helping the South Sudanese community, we have a local art group coming along to this week's meeting. Ellie Bricknell and her team - a group of young artists, musicians and writers from Eltham - will present on an upcoming exhibition, 'Squished' at the Eltham library and our recent local, youth event, 'Square Fest'. They write:
"We are a group of young artists, musicians and writers from Eltham and the surrounding suburbs. Our aim is to host events, exhibitions and create content that will help promote our individual work to a wider audience. We work with community groups, councils, friends and local businesses to create fun events and great exposure for each other".
Chairperson: Ross McDonald
Fine Master: Ian Kiddle
Biggest Brunch/Lunch Cancer fundraiser - Wednesday 30 May 2018
Members, partners and friends are invited to a fun ladies' Brunch/Lunch to raise money for the Cancer Council.
It will be held at 6 Thomson Drive Rosanna (cnr of Stanton Crescent) on Wednesday 30 May 2018.
Time: 11am - Brunch going into lunch. Cost: $20 entry donation (bring some change for raffles).
Alison Cooper: Next week’s presentation ‘Squish’ is on an Art Project on display in Eltham in June/July. Two ‘Biggest Morning Tea’ events coming up – Margot’s on Friday 25 May at 11.30am and Alison’s on Wed 30 May at 11.00am. Donation of $20 for each to raise funds for Cancer Council Victoria for cancer research.
Dale Atkins: Donation from RC Ivanhoe of $850 for Aquabox
John Roberts: John and Ernita just back from visit to Phillipines. Productive meetings with Red Cross in Manila and in Cebu. Great facilities for storage and monitoring of Aquaboxes.
Ann Lynch: Board meeting on Wednesday 16 May at Heidelberg Golf Club 6.30 - 9.30pm.
Ian Toohill: Shave for Cure raised $4,000 with funds still coming in.
Jules Aussems: Thanks from Judy for lovely flowers she received from RC Eltham while in hospital.
Rob Kilcullen: Roger Male (past member of RC Eltham) resting at home after recent illness.
In late 2014 Con Proussalis, the President of the day, asked if I would “help out “with Membership as Mike Wetzler was unwell. I had no idea then that this would lead to a further three years as Membership Chair! By the end of this Rotary year we will have inducted 13 new members - each of whom has found their “niche “and is making a significant contribution to the community through this wonderful club. This would not have happened without the amazing support of Kaye Smith. Thanks heaps Kaye for your support and for purchasing and managing all of our current and new member merchandise. Thank you to Irene Cant and Les Coath for the caring manner in which they conduct The Family of Rotary. Special thanks also to Hazel Wetzler for the beautiful calligraphy she provides for our New Member Certificates. Finally, a big thank you to everyone who has supported me in the challenge of attracting new members. Jules Aussems will be taking on the role for the upcoming Rotary year. Our best wishes Jules.
When Brian Bowen was DG from 1988 to 1989 he brought up the idea that Diamond Creek should have a Rotary Club. Again, in 1990 DG Maurice Denson mentioned to then Eltham President Bill Penna that he would like to see it proceed. Eltham set up an expansion committee with Bob Eycken as chairman and John McCrohan, Bruce Holland, Paul Gardner, Neil Marshall, Eric Johnson, Dave Sharman, Steve Barnwall, and Robin Chapple as members.
A list of potential members was drawn up and approaches made with an invitation to attend an interest meeting. The first was held on 1st September 1991 at the Royal Mail Hotel, Diamond Creek. Interest meetings continued into 1992 and a list of more than 30 possible members evolved.
The first meeting of the provisional club was held on 12th February 1992 at the Abbey Restaurant with the opening address by the DG’s special representative PP Bill Penna and guest speaker Mike Ramsay.
The Club was chartered on 3rd June 1992 with 27 members and the charter presented on 22nd August 1992 by Past Rotary International President Royce Abbey at an evening attended by 180 people. Four Eltham Rotary members transferred to Diamond Creek: John McCrohan (Charter President), Bob Eycken (Charter Director), Robin Chapple (Charter Secretary) and John Strauss.
I was able to extract the details given above from the Rotary Club of Diamond Creek Inc. publication Celebrating 20 years of Service.
Wine Dinner in Eltham on Saturday 2nd June, featuring the wines of eleven of our local Nillumbik winemakers.
The tickets are $148.50 per person.There will be 11 wines (brackets of 3 with each course) served with the dinner. There is also a wine showcase area for the all the local winemakers to offer you small tasting samples (this is in addition to the 11 wines being served with dinner). We have engaged a wine speaker who will tell us a bit about the wines selected to go with the dinner. He's a charming wine speaker who knows his stuff. Chris Barnes is the man. There's also some great music from local jazz vocalist Kimba Griffith.
Tickets $148.50 per person. Saturday 2nd June 2018. 7.00pm - 11.30pm
4 courses, 11 wines (one wine each from 11 different local Nillumbik winemakers)
Venue: Eltham Community & Reception Centre, Main Road Eltham (Tables of 8)
How to book the tickets? The tickets are sold through eventbrite, at the following URL:
