5 May 2023 (May 03, 2023)

Hello Fellow Rotarians and friends,

Welcome to this fortnight’s newsletter.

The North Ryde eFun Run week is upon us. Hope all of the fund raisers are busy walking or running to achieve the goals they have committed to. It has been a fantastic fund raising activity and I want to thank all the people who have so generously supported a great cause – Youth Mental Health. To kick start the event, we organized a walk at Kissing Point Park in Putney on Sunday 30 April. It was pleasing to have wonderful participation on the day and the weather turned it on for us.

A closing event has been planned for Sunday 7 May and all of you would have received an invite for it. To conclude the eFun Run week, we are planning a walk across 7 of our beautiful bridges in Sydney. Starting at Cunninghams Reach park, Linley point, (meeting at 8:30am, to set off at 9:00am) the walk includes Figtree Bridge, Tarban Creek Bridge, Gladesville Bridge, Iron Cove bridge, Anzac Bridge, Pyrmont Bridge, and the Harbour Bridge. We plan to finish at The Kirribilli Club for an afters get together.

The IT Tour for Country Students (DIGIT week) has kept Past President David Martin very busy as the final touches are applied to the arrangements. Organisations such as Cochlear, Oracle, Coles, UTS, Cisco, IBM, Google, Microsoft, Macquarie University and Konica Minolta will be opening their doors to the students coming from country NSW. The students will be in Sydney from 14 May to 19 May and it promises to be a fun and experiential week for them. This year Rotary Club of Epping has been a valuable partner in helping us host the students. The students and their host families will be attending Epping Rotary’s club meeting on Monday 15 May. All our club members are invited to attend. Later in the week, a dinner will be held for the students on Thursday 18 May at the Riding for Disabled facility in Marsfield.

Last week, on Friday 28 April we had our in-person meeting at Dunmore Lang College. Guest speakers on the day were Damien Demaret and Ezra Hill, both past Youth Exchange students. Ezra is a recent Youth Exchange student and Damien, from Belgium, was with our club in 2015. They both spoke about their Youth Exchange experience and how it has helped shape their thinking and provided them with necessary life skills. After completing the exchange year, Damien joined the Royal Military Academy in Brussels and is now serving as a second lieutenant in the Air Force, in the Imagery Analysis Squadron. Ezra likes to call herself a 2020 (year of COVID) exchange survivor, who spent the exchange year in Hokkaido, Japan. Fluent in Japanese, Ezra is working full time and hopes to make her way back to Japan.

It is with great pleasure that I would like to inform you that Garry Maloney has accepted the role of President for the Rotary Year 2024-25. Garry has been looking after Club duties for a number of years and continues to do such an amazing job. I am sure you will all agree that he will do a great job leading our Club in 2024-25. Congratulations Garry! We really appreciate you agreeing to take on this responsibility.

The Rotary year has gone past so quickly. It is already time to start planning our Changeover Dinner. The event will be held on Friday 30 June 2023. The invitations will be sent out once the arrangements have been finalized. In the meantime, please save the date in your diaries.

I thank everyone in the Club for their commitment, energy and contribution towards making a difference.

Sandeep Rathi

Rotary Club of North Ryde

President 2022-2023

Rotary District 9685

Email: sandeeprathi.au@gmail.com

Mobile: 0481 008 303

https://www.northryderotary.com/

https://www.facebook.com/northryderotary/

Upcoming events:

For our upcoming Zoom Club meetings and assembly, here is the connection details:

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87821656014?pwd=S1I0T1hBVDVXSVB4OFhTL2p1cFhhdz09

Meeting ID: 878 2165 6014

Passcode: 2113

The 2022-23 presidential theme logo was designed by renowned Australia-based Indigenous artist Riki Salam to represent RI President Jennifer Jones’ theme and initiatives. The logo represents key elements of Rotary while honouring the Indigenous culture:

The circle signifies connections to one another.
The dots around the circle represent people, one for each of our areas of focus.
The circle and the dots together become a navigation star, which signifies Rotary’s guiding light.
The solid line underneath signifies a digging stick used for hard work — a tool that Rotary’s people of action use to get things done.

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the country on which we meet, the Wallumattagal people of the Eora Nation. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

The North Ryde eFun Run - You can still register!

We are approaching the last weekend of the North Ryde eFun Run for Youth Mental Health. You can still register register, set a challenge for the weekend then ask friends and family to sponsor you.

This is one of the club's main fundraisers to support research into youth mental health through Australian Rotary Health. Funds raised also go to the Centre for Emotional Health's Cool Kids program which is an evidence based program for school aged children struggling with anxiety. The money we donate to this program enables families to access the program who cannot otherwise afford to do so.

Funds are also set aside for some of the Rotary Youth programs we support such as RYLA and RYPEN. So please join in and support the campaign to raise a significant amount for these worthy causes.

The eFun Run finishes on 7 May.

You can register for $25 by going to the website here: https://rotary-northryde-efunrun2023.raisely.com/

Simply click on the Sign up now or Take the Challenge buttons on the Home Page or Sign Up in menu bar and fill in the required details. Payment can be made by Credit or Debit card. You can set your own distance to walk, jog, run or ride your bike over the week doing a little each day.

If you are not a keen runner or walker, you can build up your kilometres by going for a regular walk around your home, walking the dog, the baby or the grandkids,. It totally up to you!

Ask your family to sign up and walk with you. If you are having trouble signing up or you would like help let us know and one of the committee can sign up for you.

Once you have registered we encourage you to seek sponsorship for your challenge from your family, friends, colleagues and other contacts. See here for instructions.

Can’t participate this year? You can spread the word and donate to the campaign or sponsor one of our members.

Simply go to the website https://rotary-northryde-efunrun2023.raisely.com/ and click on sponsor a friend or donate. For instructions see here.