We held our 2024 Carols debriefing meeting, with the Rotary Club of Macquarie Park, on Thursday 6 February. At the meeting we were given the financial result from the Carols, which was a surplus of $26,000. $6,000 of this came from the car park, raffle and bucket collection on the night. Our two clubs had previously made the decision that the money raised from these activities would be donated to support victims of domestic violence projects. We chose 3 programs to donate $2,000 each to. The programs are, The Northern Centre at West Ryde, the RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service) program ‘Strong Arms Scholarships’ which provides an education scholarship for adult domestic violence victim survivors in our Rotary District 9685, and we are enquiring about a Safe House program in our local area.
The remaining $20,000 will be split evenly between the two clubs to be used for projects the clubs are involved with. We are already planning for this year's Carols which will be on Sunday 14 December, so please mark that date in your diary.
We had the opportunity to meet in person, our Youth Exchange Student, Mei Yamamoto from Japan at our first Club Assembly, held at Dunmore Lang College, last Friday 14 February. Mei introduced us to her family and a bit about herself and it will be wonderful to know and learn more about Mei in the time that she is with us.
At the District Presidents Meeting held last Saturday 15 February we were introduced to our new ROMAC (Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children) District Chair, Chris Dunwell from the Rotary Club of Castle Hill. I have also heard from the Chair of ROMAC, Glenys Parton who is based in New Zealand, that she is coming to Sydney in May. Glenys has asked if we could organise for her to meet the members of our club so that she could thank us, in person, for the support that our club has given ROMAC over many years. We are trying to organise lunch at the North Ryde RSL club on Saturday 24 May, more information will follow. It would be wonderful to have as many members as possible and family there to meet Glenys.
Looking forward to seeing you all at our Trivia Night this Saturday 22 February at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church Hall. If you haven’t already booked, there is still time! Please see the details in this bulletin.
Our next club meeting will be this Friday 21 February via Zoom (see link below) commencing 7.15 for 7.30a.m. start. All are welcome
