It's the end of June as I write this message. It's pretty much the end of our Rotary year.

 

Traditionally it's when we change over our Presidents and recognise that a Changeover function. For us we are doing it a little bit differently and we are having Joint Presidents. Sandra de Gruchy will join me for the next twelve months. We will sort out the role between us and hopefully it will all work smoothly. It gives me the opportunity to mentor Sandra in the first few months and she will gradually take on more. of the day to day running of the Club. I will have more time for other projects particularly our Homelessness project and other District duties. Sandra retains the Youth Director role.  See story and pics below.

 

Also June turned out to be a big month for me as I did The Pushup Challenge for mental health. We did all the 3,139 pushups and raised over $4,000 for Lifeline. See story.

 

In May we had our District Assembly where Rotary Clubs get together to update their plans for the year. We followed this with our Club's Strategy Workshop where we set the resource and operational plan for our key projects.

 

We are confident that our Club activities, and working together with other Rotary Clubs, will lead to significant benefit to our local community. We have ambitious and challenging goals for 2022-23, including the Cookbook, Homelessness, mental health and other projects.

 

It was in 1969 that John Lennon wrote the song, Give Peace a Chance.

That was six years before the Vietnam War ended; 31 years before 9/11;

and 53 years before The Russian Federation invaded Ukraine, an

independent Republic with a democratically elected government.

 

Rotary has always believed in Peace.  Rotarians from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, proposed before the 1914 Rotary Convention that The International Association of Rotary Clubs (now Rotary International) “lend its influence to the maintenance of peace among the nations of the world.” Delegates at the convention, which took place just weeks before Europe became engulfed in war, agreed.

 

Rotary eventually approved the creation of Rotary Peace Centers program in 1999, and the inaugural class of Rotary Peace Fellows began their studies in 2002. Rotary Peace Centers, located at universities around the world, develop leaders who become catalysts for peace in local communities and on the global stage. To that end, each year The Rotary Foundation awards up to 50 fellowships for master’s degrees and 80 for certificate studies at premier universities.

 

In light of the above, a local woman from Mt. Victoria, Belle Tukin approached our Club for support in her application. Professionally, she is not only a leader in Disability Rights and Policy, but is also an artist, a writer, an outdoor enthusiast, and activist for the care and protection of the planet. She currently is an Assistant Director of The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Against People with Disability. As a woman with a disability herself, she is passionate about seeing other young people with a disability thrive; thus, living lives free from violence, systemic neglect and inequality.

 

We spoke to Belle at length and if awarded a Fellowship, she sees herself, in five or ten years, as continuing to be deeply rooted in the community as a whole, and more specifically, in the disability community. She wants to have a leadership role in bridging disciplines to bring about change.  Change, she says, could be by continuing her work to reform policy or finding creative, ways to shine light on issues which often remain hidden.  Thus, she sees a key role for herself as contributing to the shift of attitudes that under girth harm.

 

 

We should give peace a chance.

 

Andy Warhol, was very prescient, when in 1968 he predicted that everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.  Warhol was spot on the money although a few years early in predicting how fast society would cycle through celebrities of momentary fame.

 

On the other hand, it is fantastic that a recent member of our Club had a number of opportunities in his life to not only meet with, but also interacting with individuals who were truly outstanding in their field.  David Wallace, as a staff photographer for a number of magazines in the Kerry Packer stable, was assigned to photo shoots to the stars: Prince Phillip and The Queen,

Paul McCartney, The Who, Cary Grant and dozens of others too numerous to list.

 

David has put together several “coffee table“ hard bound portfolios which he shared with us.  We are so fortunate to have him as a member of our Club as he has quickly rolled up his sleeves and contributed significantly to our Cookbook, to be published later this year. His food photography certainly is on the level with anything to be found in Vogue Travel or in Delicious. We have no doubt that the cookbook will be successful, at least in part to David’s eye catching photos.