Welcome to our new Rotary year. A big thanks to Immediate Past President Bernie Mason for leading our club, as President, over the past year and for all the work that she has done with the Rotary Youth programs.
Thank you to the outgoing Board: Bernie and Peter Mason, Bob Selinger OAM, Binoe Verghese, Rob Wilkinson, Sandeep Rathi and Mandy Van for all their time and effort that they gave for the club over the past year. The only change to the incoming Board for 2024-25 is that Sandeep Rathi is stepping down from the Board and Pam Wood is joining the Board.
I would like to thank all those who were involved in organising the club’s Annual Celebration and Changeover dinner last Friday evening 28 June at the North Ryde RSL Club. Special thanks to, Bernie Mason, Peter Mason, Pam Wood, Mandy Van, Binoe Verghese and Sandeep Rathi. Thank you to Shannon Mason for taking photographs of the night and to our Master of Ceremonies, Stephen Sim. We had several special Rotary guests attend the evening, including District Governor Christine Owen, District Governor- Elect Niranjan Deodhar, Past District Governors Mina Howard, Kalma McLennan, Lindsay May OAM and John Dodd OAM. Ryde Council was represented by Mayor Trenton Brown and Councillors Bernard Purcell and Sophie Lara-Watson.
We presented three Paul Harris Fellow awards on the night to the following people:
Annette Lentini – for Annette’s contribution to the community over many years.
Bernadette Mason – for her leadership of the club over the last year and her involvement with Rotary Youth programs.
Binoe Verghese – for Binoe’s contribution to the club and the community over several years. Unfortunately, Binoe couldn’t attend the night, but we will be making a presentation to him at our Club Assembly on Friday 19 July.
We also presented the following awards:
Community Service Award – Presented to Rev. John Chappell, from St. John's Anglican Church North Ryde.
Pride of Workmanship Award – Presented to Anita Allen, from Bendigo Bank North Ryde.
Encouragement Award – Presented to Anahid Melikoff, from New Horizons North Ryde.
We presented the following organisations with significant donations on the night:
Australian Rotary Health - $8,000
Lifespan Health and Wellbeing Centre Macquarie University - $5,460
Riding for the Disabled Ryde - $2,000
Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) - $2,000
ShelterBox - $2,000
New Horizons - $1,000
St John’s Anglican Church North Ryde - $1,000
Dunmore Lang College - $1,000
President-elect Mandy Van, her husband, Ian and I attended our Rotary District Changeover on Saturday 29 June 2024 held at Wentworthville Leagues Club. All the people who had attended our club Changeover the previous night congratulated us on our event and commented on the wonderful results our club has achieved in the last year. It was also an opportunity to see our club’s Exchange Student, Currito, who I sat next to on the night, before he flew back home to Spain on Tuesday. Thank you to everyone who could be at the airport to say farewell to him.
I would like to congratulate Barbara Lee on being a member of the Rotary Club of North Ryde for 20 years on Thursday 4 July. Thank you, Barbara, for your valued contribution to our club over the years.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone who can attend our Zoom meeting on Friday 5 July at 7:30am to discuss plans for the upcoming year for our club.
Thank you,
Regards
Garry
Garry Maloney
President 2024-25
The Rotary Club of North Ryde
