Welcome to this fortnight’s newsletter.

 

The dinner held at RDA on Thursday 18 May was a great conclusion to the DIGIT week - IT Tour for Country Students. Seven young men from the towns of Forbes, Inverell, Ashford and Warialda did themselves proud as they spoke about their experience through the week, what they had learned and how it was going to help them. The significance of such a visit for some of them was expressed in one of the student’s remark – “It was the best week of my life!”. At the dinner, it was wonderful to hear from Revathi Venkatraman, Regional Vice President for Slack (A Salesforce Company) who spoke about her experience in the Information and Communications Technology industry.

 

A big thank you to Past Presidents David Martin, Peter Mason and Mandy Van who took them around to various information technology organisations. We are very grateful that Rotary Club of Epping decided to join our project and special thanks to the host families from the club - Monica and Geoff Saville, Narelle Barker and Susie and Stephen Llewelyn.

 

It was a fun and experiential week for the students and going by their comments and feedback, everyone really enjoyed their time in the Big Smoke! Thank you to all the organisations that were involved this time and who went out of their way to make the visit useful, meaningful, and fun. And finally, words are not enough to express our appreciation for David who put in so much effort and energy in the organization of this very worthwhile project and has been doing so for a number of years.

Last week we had a brief introduction to the two students from Marsden High School who are attending the RYPEN Winter program through our club’s sponsorship. The Rotary Youth Program for Enrichment is an intensive residential weekend program where young people aged approximately 14 to 16 years (Years 9/10) will develop increased motivation, improved life skills, better self-image, pride in themselves and an understanding of setting and achieving goals. At the same time, participants interact with peers from different backgrounds, and different parts of our district, improving their teamwork skills and having fun! All this is done in an informal atmosphere, where
questions and debates are encouraged.

On Saturday 3 June, we have the Bunnings Gladesville BBQ. These BBQs have been an important fundraiser for our club. We hope to see several of you on the day.

 

This month we are going to have only two meetings – Friday 2 June and Friday 9 June. It is hard to believe that the Rotary year is coming to an end and it is time to hand over the reins to a new board.

All of you would have received an invite to the Changeover Dinner on Friday 30 June 2023.  President-Elect Bernie and I are looking forward to enjoying the night with you where we celebrate our club’s achievements and recognize individuals within the club as well as in the community.

 

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