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.