ROTARY OF PERTH PRESIDENT UPDATE - 03RD OCTOBER 2017
October is traditionally a busy month for our club and this year is no exception! There are a number of events happening where we need your attendance and support. In addition to our normal weekly meetings, here are a few other important events to support:
ROTARY OF PERTH PRESIDENT UPDATE - 03RD OCTOBER 2017
October is traditionally a busy month for our club and this year is no exception! There are a number of events happening where we need your attendance and support. In addition to our normal weekly meetings, here are a few other important events to support:
Tuesday, October 3 – Rotary Means Business. A free business networking event for all Rotarians! The guest speaker is Adam Manners, ANZ Cybercrime Specialist.
Tuesday, October 10 – Eye Contact Launch Event – This is RCP and RC of Heirisson jointly sponsored photographic exhibition shining a light on the face of homelessness in Perth. Our very own Dr. Ken Michael, Former Governor of WA, will open this travelling exhibition on at 6:00pm in the Old Cloisters Building St George’s Terrace, Perth. This is a great opportunity to not only support Dr. Ken, but also to share with the community what our Rotary Club is doing to actively make a difference. We need members to help us meet and greet interested parties on the night. Thanks Elizabeth Quinlivan for taking the challenge and volunteering to assist!
Thursday, October 12 – Joint breakfast with the Rotary Club of Crawley. For all those members who would rather meet at breakfast, this is your chance to do so! For all those members who would rather not meet on Friday, this is your chance to do so! In addition to the guest speaker being Professor Peter Klinken, Chief Scientist of WA, we have some very special recognitions to make on the day. In addition, we have a great opportunity to fellowship with another progressively minded Rotary Club.
Thursday, October 19 - Cambodia Family Support Helping Hand Auction Fundraiser. Please come and support Emma Cork’s efforts to raise funds for this incredibly important project. Given that Emma has secured the financial support of the Macquarie Foundation who will match all funds raised up to the value of $25,000, it is vitally important we maximise this!
Monday, October 30 – our annual Blessing of the Fleet. Can you actually think of a reason why you’d rather not be on a yacht on the Swan River watching the setting of the sun? Join in on the fellowship and fun for this great event.
While it may seem that all these events are set and ready to run, the reality is that there are a number of areas where further support is needed. Through ‘doing’ Rotary creates great opportunities to build relationships and friendships which can last a lifetime. Why not take any of these events / projects as an opportunity to build some new ones? Why not go out of your way to bring along someone not aware of what Rotary is? Why not ask a new member to get involved?
So while all this is happening locally, we also have two members of our club: Alta Terblanche and Adrian Tan travelling to Cambodia as part of our "Sleeping Bag" project with the Rotary Club of Swan Districts. This project is a joint project between Rotary Club of Perth (RCP) and Rotary Club of Swan Districts (RCSD) aims to:
- Provide materials to a sewing centre in Cambodia to sew 500 sleeping bags
- Ships the 500 sleeping bags to Perth, WA
- Fund raises $25,000 (500 x $50) to enable the gifting of the 500 sleeping bags for distribution to homeless persons through various channels in WA (metro and regional)
- Provides the seed funding for the next round of sleeping bags
Alta and Adrian along with 6 other Rotarians from RCSD will see firsthand the Sewing Centre in Phnom Penh along with a number of other Stiches of Hope projects which provide both cultural context as well as an opportunity to see how Rotary impacts the lives of others through the ‘growing of local economies’.
Within our club, Alta will be leading the fund-raising effort once the sleeping bags arrive in Perth. Adrian, a professional photographer, will capture the project from end-to-end in images and video to tell the "sleeping bag project" story. This project is a ‘boomerang’ project. It began with local funding and supports both an internationally located community as well as provides for locally disadvantaged members of our community.
Also travelling this month is our Path of Hope Chair, Rebecca Tolstoy, who will be headed off on behalf of Rotary to the United States and to Geneva, Switzerland, to attend to functions at the UN Headquarters as part of the United Nations Rotary Day for meetings with UN delegates from across the globe. Rebecca’s efforts to apply the ‘blue print’ of Path of Hope have skyrocketed since the presentation of the Path of Hope model at the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, in early July just three months ago! To date, Path of Hope as a model of collaboration between local Rotary Clubs and Salvation Army centres is being rolled out in five US states! Rebecca in her recent post said: "I am so proud and in awe of our President Stephen Inouye and our fellow Rotarians in my Perth Club who have FUNDED, helped, backed, planned, encouraged, championed and much, much more toward getting our amazing initiative 'Rotary-Path of Hope Breaking the cycle of Family Domestic Violence' to go GLOBAL. A HUGE thank you to District Governors 9455 both past and present for your enormous passion joining our clubs vision…"
And finally, Mike Gurry is hosting the final brief for our Cambodia House Building Project this Friday, 6 October. In November, we’ve got 2 house builders from our Rotaract Club of Perth, 5 from ScoutsWA, and Rotarian Jess Karlsson who will spend a week in Cambodia building a minimum of 8 houses. In preparation for this effort, the team must fund raise a minimum of $10,000 by 10 October to allow the local builders to begin purchasing the materials and to get the house footings started.
This project is as much about the working with our future community leaders (Rotaractors and Scouts) as it is about providing for the less fortunate. If you are able to support our team with an sized gift from say $10 to $100 or more, please consider contributing direct by giving online to: http://tabithaaustralia.org.au/edonates/form and selecting the "SCOUTS/ROTARY NOV 2017" house building team. All gifts are processed via RAWCS and are tax deductible.
I encourage you to become actively involved in the projects and events of our great club. Rotary is all about using your gifts and talents to serve our community both local and abroad. There is something for everyone!
Join Leaders. Exchange Ideas. Take Action.
Yours in Rotary, Stephen Inoyue - President - Rotary of Perth 2017/2018