Hi everyone, this will be my last report prior to our Christmas and New Year break, and it will be a short one. This has been a busy time of year for our Club with our recent events like the Christmas Carols evening and the Tree of Joy. These have been keeping us all well occupied.

 

I would like to take this opportunity to hope you, your family and friends get the opportunity to enjoy a merry ‘face to face’ Christmas and New Year and enjoy our wonderful Club sponsored Christmas puddings and cakes. Please all have a fun time over the upcoming break and put your feet up for a well-earned break. Keep well and safe and I look forward to seeing everyone next January for our breakfast at Sabu Café on 21 January.

 

The Rotary Christmas Carols evening of last Sunday (19 December 2021) was a fun and successful night plus a very good fund raiser for our Rotary Clubs involved. There were a couple of things that tried to put a dampener on the event like the weather! It started out warm and humid then later in the afternoon we had the odd little shower or two. The number of families attending were down on previous years, possibly due to the weather and the latest COVID scare, however the people and families I spoke with as I mingled amongst them all said they were having a good fun time. From last reports it appears there were about $8,000.00 worth of tickets sold on-line with more people paying at the gate on the night. We will keep you all informed of the final tallies when they are available. I would love to say a very big thank you to all our lovely volunteers who put in the big efforts to make the night enjoyable.

 

The Christmas time Tree of Joy has now been running for some weeks (and is due to be removed at the end of this week, 24 December 2021) for any last-minute gifts that may be dropped in the cage. The response from the community has been very good. Garry, Rob and I dropped 8 very large bags and a few smaller bags of toys to St. Vincent’s on Monday morning. We also filled a utility truck load of goodies to Macquarie Hospital on Tuesday morning. On behalf of our Club, I say thank you to Pam and Garry for your work in preparing, sorting and delivering the presents to our local charities.

 

Please all be reminded of the BBQ at Gladesville Bunnings arranged for 15 January 2022. We need a good roll-up of volunteers to share the workload on this day and make it enjoyable for everyone involved. Put this in your diary and let Garry know of your availability for the day.

 

A reminder of some dates to note in your diaries:

Train Ride for Polio on 23 February 2022.

District Conference, 18/19 March 2022 (Early bird discount cost is $210 if paid by 31 December 2021 or $298 after this).

I am very grateful for all the hard work and commitment by everyone in our Club during these difficult times this year. Now have that well-earned break, thank you.