Rotary Club of North Ryde

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Our weekly bulletins will keep you informed about events, activities, speakers, and the lighter side of what we do...

These are in Adobe Acrobat pdf format. If you do not have the pdf reader please download it here.

Our exchange student Karl , who is approaching the end of his stay with us, seems to have been well fed:

District Governor Bruce Allen advises that Monica Saville of the Rotary Club of Epping has been nominated for District Governor 2007-2008.

Our outgoing exchange student in Thailand, Emma, travelled south and connected with our former member Bernard in Bangkok. Bernard writes:

"Emma arrived on Wednesday late pm and we immediately took off to Pataya where our rotary club had a special event called kids day out. This year we had 12 buses full of handicapped kids to take care off, that is over 300 and we took them for a whole day in a yacht club where we have swimming pools, play area, beach and we also hired clowns... Emma will send a full report, I think she was in shock when she saw them all but had a very busy and great day looking after them. It was a busy and tiring day... But so full of reward as it is a rare event in which we actually see the people we help."

The Club recently held a special breakfast at Simbiosi Restaurant to thank sponsors and supporters of the recent Community Christmas Carols. The event, on 12 December 2004, was the fifth occasion on which our Club had organised the Carols.

Back in mid-2000, following a meeting between Steve Perrin and Rob Wilkinson, Frank Hodgekiss (North Ryde RSL Youth Club) and John Booth (TWT), we agreed to take on responsibility for the organisation. Frank had been doing most of the work on his own, and wanted a break. North Ryde Rotary saw this as a great opportunity to extend its community involvement.

In that first year, a number of previous sponsors pulled out, so funding was a key issue, given that about $20,000 was required just to underwrite the direct costs. However, a number of local companies, and Club members, rose to the occasion and we managed to cover costs and also make a sizeable donation to ROMAC, our number one beneficiary. The (then) Mayor of Ryde, Ivan Petch (now an Honorary Member of the Club) was also a great help in spreading the word and gaining support.

Over the past five years, we have received very generous support from numerous local businesses and organisations, but primarily Ryde City Council, TWT, Cox’s Road Mall, Johnson & Johnson, North Ryde RSL, Hills Motorway, BRI, The Ranch, Eppendorf South Pacific, and Bendigo Bank.

This past year, Kamahl was the star of the show, along with the NSW Police Band, Rosanne Gallo and the choir from St Anthony’s Marsfield and other local performers. Steve Sim once again did a great job as MC, and assisted greatly with the planning and production on the night. Derek McCarthy, from Ryde Council, was a great help in sourcing the stage, sound, lighting and other necessities, and in directing operations throughout the day. We also had support from North Ryde Probus Club, Ryde Rotary Club and Macquarie and Middle Harbour Rotaract Clubs. It’s certainly a great opportunity for cooperation amongst the various Clubs in our district, and North Ryde Rotary could not put on the Carols without such a combined effort. Huge thanks also to our own members, and their spouses / family members for setting up, manning the stalls, cooking the sausages and cleaning up.

Planning is underway for the next Carols, on December 11, 2005. Unfortunately, the NSW Police Band is booked elsewhere, but we hope to lock in another band, of similar standing, in the near future. Again, we also plan to showcase the wealth of local talent in the Ryde area.

On 11 February 2005 our Club had the visit of Sgt Peter Gerrie of PCYC New South Wales.

Peter introduced us to the wonderful work of PCYC. PCYC is a "statewide partnership between young people, the community and NSW Police, working to assist young people develop the qualities of responsible citizens and leaders, and to avoid becoming offenders or victims of crime".

Here is an extract of a message received from Ms Chary Gambhir, a Rotarian in India involved in Rotary's fight agains Polio:

" Do you know what is involved in the Polio immunization campaign in India ?
Here are some facts...

1) 640,000 vaccination booths.
2) 2.3 million vaccinators.
3) 1.1 million vaccination teams.
4) 137,000 supervisors, with 137,000 vehicles (cars, motorcycles, mopeds,
bicycles, boats, elephants, camels or whatever it takes).
5) 200 million doses of Polio Vaccine, carried around the country in 2
million vaccine carrier bags.
6) 6.3 million Ice packs to keep all those doses of Polio Vaccine in the 2
million vaccine carrier bags cold.
7) 191 million homes visited.
8) 170 million children immunized in just one day.

And that's just for one single NID.
In 2004, India will conduct 5 such NID's and I Sub National Immunization day
(SNID) targeting 100 million children.

On Australia Day 2005, the Ryde City Council hosted a concert which proved very popular, with the band Mental as anything leading the bill. Donations were collected for Tsunami victims, and will be channeled through the Australian Red Cross.

From 4pm to 9pm, volunteers from our club manned the food, soft drinks and glow-stick sales booths.

Timor-Leste (East Timor) became independent in 2002 and has an active Rotary Club with 16 members. On 21 January 2005 our club enjoyed the visit of Stephen Dunn, Rotary Club of Dili. Stephen is a Livestock Advisor to the President, and reviewed with us the multiple activities aimed at improving the country's livestock management.

Stephen also updated us on the project sponsored by our club in Timor Leste: the provision of a washing facility in an orphanage in the Oecusse District (pictured below)

Our community donated generously to the two money collections our club conducted in Cox's Road Mall and Macquarie Shopping Centre. The bulk of the money collected will go to RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service). A separate direct donation will go to Rotary Clubs in Sri Lanka.

At the last of our December 2004 meeting, we had the pleasure of a very interesting talk by Chris Davis, CEO of the Australian Water Association. You can read a summary of Chris' talk here .

Thank you Kamahl for being the star entertainer at our Christmas Carols held at North Ryde Common, on 12 December 2004. A kind donation from one of our regular supporters made this possible.

ROMAC is actively supported by our Club. ROMAC is a Rotary program of the Districts of Australia and New Zealand. ROMAC's mission is "to provide medical treatment for children from developing countries in the form of life saving and/or dignity restoring surgery". Please find out more about this program here.

"Miracles" is the title of a music CD that Kamahl, our lead entertainer at the 2004 North Ryde Community Carols, had generously offered to record for us. "Miracles" is being sold across Australia and New Zealand, will all profits flowing to ROMAC through our club.

The "Miracles" CD is now available! (12 November 2004). Please click here to print your order form and read the endorsement from Governor-General Michael Jeffery.

Our Centenary project, the rehabilitation of Greenwood Park, was officially launched on Saturday 23 October at an event attended by over 40 people.

The objective is to apply professional environmental management techniques to rehabilitate the Park, while involving local schools and the community at large.

We have enlisted the assistance of professional organisations to help monitor this project to success:

Our club has been awarded a grant from the Australian Governement Envirofund for the "development of a community awareness program on natural resources management in North Ryde". The grant will be disbursed through the City of Ryde. Please read the award notification here.

Karl, our exchange student, from Flensburg in Germany, is attending Turramura High School, where is has been elected Prefect. Karl (left) is seen here with two fellow students. Karl Prefect

North Ryde Rotary Club each year makes a donation to School of St Jude’s in Tanzania in Africa, and some individual members make regular contributions. At the beginning of the new school year this month five new teachers and 90 new students started.

Students are taken in on probation because there are many more children in the area than can be catered for by the school. With 90 new students time tables had to be changed and at the end of the confusing first day teachers found two classrooms full of kids who had missed the school bus because they were keen to stay and learn.