Hello Rotarians and Friends of the Rotary Club of North Ryde, 

 

Welcome to this week’s Presidents message.In keeping with DG Christine Owens’ initiative for a walk against Domestic Violence, I invite those who can, to take part in this walk. Walk against Domestic Violence is on Thursday 23 November 2023. Please join in with this walk to draw attention to the need to stop domestic violence in the world and give a sense of Hope for the victims. The link is:
https://thenortherncentre.org.au/

 

I would like to thank those members who took part in our club survey recently. Thank you, Sandeep, for organising this and for giving me the results to interpret. It is important for our members to feel engaged and welcomed, at all our club functions.We need to keep evolving, to stay relevant, but also to attract new members, as some of our members retire from Rotary. I will present the findings at the Club Assembly on Friday morning 17 November.

 

Our breakfast meeting is an important part of our socialising and coming together. This has been proven to be of importance to our mental health and our feeling of belonging.  I look forward to seeing you all, this Friday on zoom, and the 17th at Dunmore Lang College.

Our Youth Exchange student, Currito, has been away with his exchange family this weekend in the Blue Mountains. The weather was not their friend, but I am sure they had a fantastic time together. I look forward to hearing from Currito about that and about his upcoming visit to Parliament House of NSW on 15 November. 

Our club had the honour of having Bob Kaye-Smith, as speaker to our club zoom meeting on Friday 3rd November. As usual it was great to hear from Bob about the District 9685 Conference next March at Terrigal, and about the wonderful things that Australian  Rotary Health is involved in. It warmed my heart, that Australian Rotary Health has now become involved with fundraising for the “Lift the Lid program for Youth Mental Health”. This has been a program that we have supported with our eFun Run/Walk for many years. Bob was also chuffed to receive his GroTree and showed us a certificate he had from many years ago, with a similar initiative.

Six of our members, and one Macquarie Park member had the fortune to attend the Mental Health First Aid training program on the weekend, convened by our fellow Rotarian, Michele Ellery. I know I gained a lot more knowledge about how to handle some mental health scenarios I may find myself facing. The Government is helping, but funding is always hard to get for services needed to help people with mental health issues. I now feel I have the information and contact numbers to help guide them to a better outcome. Thank you sincerely Michele.

Peter and I attended the Rotary Foundation dinner at the Epping Club on Monday evening. It was such a good evening hearing how the money we donate to our charity of choice is being used and catching up face to face with the many friends we have made in Rotary. Barry Rassin, from Rotary Bahamas gave the address. Wow! Mr. Rassin received Rotary's highest honour, the Service Above Self Award, as well as other humanitarian awards for his work leading Rotary’s relief efforts in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake there. He and his wife, Esther, are Major Donors and Benefactors of The Rotary Foundation. To know that our club gives every year to The Foundation, is such a good feeling. We can reach many who need help and give hope to many around the world. Congratulations to those who were recognised with awards for their giving.

Thank you for being involved with Rotary.
Have a great week!

Cheers
Bernie.