Posted on Nov 19, 2019
PERTH ROTARY - PRESIDENTS UPDATE - 19th November 2019
 
Fellow Rotarians and friends of Perth Rotary,
 
What a special meeting was the one we had last Friday!
 
At the After-Business Drinks at the Hilton we had a long list of important guests:  Peter Aspinall AM, Chairman and State President of RSLWA who presented about RSLWA and the mission of “putting the veterans and the families first”.  John McCourt, CEO RSLWA, Bill Munro Chairman of the Prostate Cancer Foundation WA and Robert and Anne Couch from RC Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
The night started with the Ode and the Last Post performed by Sotiris Katsaitis from Churchlands Senior High School.
Peter Aspinall AM spoke about the new RSLWA premises in Perth where the size and the infrastructure will be one of a kind. He also referred to the importance of recognising the contribution of our service men and women and supporting them in their various problems, ranging from financial support to mental health and physical health issues.
In the same spirit we also had Bill Munro, Chairman of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia in Western Australia, a Vietnam veteran who maintains his ex-service links through the Returned and Services League and the Royal Australian Regiment Association. Bill in the past has been Chairman of the Royal West Australian Institute for the Blind, a Director of Homeswest, and a Board member of the WA Theatre Company.
 
Bill received on behalf of PCFA a cheque of $3,500 as a contribution from our Club.
Robert Couch, Past President of RC Birmingham, Alabama spoke about his Club which is the biggest Rotary Club in the world with more than 600 members! Similarly, in their biggest fundraiser, that Club had raised more than US$4 mil.! Rob told us that he loves WA and he looks forward to visiting us again.
 
Jan Roberts from RC Scarborough spoke about the special connection of her family with East Timor and how this is related to World War II. Jan has personally funded the establishment of a school in a small village of East Timor. She provides scholarships and financial aid to the poor children and every year she fills up a container with books, blackboards, desks and other school material in support of her school. She does all these in memory of her uncle who had served in the Australian Army in WWII and he was looked after by the people of that small village on top of having made a very good local friend while serving.
Past President Wesley Sim updated us on the extremely successful performance of the Golden Raffle Ticket. As a reminder, the Golden Raffle Ticket is a great initiative that is related to the Salvation Army, focusing in services to homeless in Western Australia. Perth Rotary facilitates this initiative and by buying a $10 ticket you may win a double 12 month pass to all the RAC Arena events for 12 months!
Please follow this link to purchase your raffle tickets: https://perthrotary.auraffles.com.au/purchase-tickets
Tonight, we will all be cruising at Swan river for the Blessing of The Fleet and on Friday we will have our Family Buffet with Laura, our exchange student from Brazil, who will travel us to her country and she will introduce us to her family and her days in Perth.
 
Our Club travels every week to a different destination. You are most welcome to join us in this experience and to enjoy the learning and the excitement of being a Rotarian at Perth Rotary.
 
Yours in Perth Rotary,
Vangelis Katsaitis
Perth Rotary President 2019-2020