For me the big Rotary event was the D9940 Conference in Carterton. This is a great opportunity to meet with people that want to take action in their communities. The first person I ran into was Coral Aitcheson, first woman president of our club. We had a good catch up and discussion about her time in the club.
Friday night was an open air meet and greet at the Cobblestones Museum. This was an opportunity to meet new people on a beautiful night under the trees in the court yard.
After a video welcome from Holger Knaack, the Rotary International President, we listened to some stand out speakers. Amongst them Paul Wood spoke about the 'Prison Of The Mind'. Eva Hart spoke about her time as a Rotary International Scholar. Mark Huddleston from Australia spoke about his analysis of Rotary in Australia. Martin Bosley spoke about his life in the food industry and the work he is doing in New Zealand prisons preparing inmates with skills for their release. Michelle Tanner and Professor Michael Baker spoke about their work with vaccines and Covid-19.
Of course there was plenty of discussion about district projects. Chief amongst these were the Wellington Childrens' Hospital and Rotary Gives Every Child A Future. We have a lot of work to do and I take up the Childrens Hospital project later in this bulletin.
Of course it wasn't all work. The dinner on Saturday night featured a singer counting down the decades. For each decade the clubs formed stood up. It was a great pleasure to represent Karori for the 1980s alongside Port Nicholson. Finally for the 10th decade it was the turn of our Centenary Club to take a bow.
Deputy Prime Minister, Grant Robertson, at our first business breakfast for the year on 18 March gave us some sobering messages around Covid 19 and the ability of our economy to withstand the pressures we have been through, to be tracking well through this first half of 2021. This was an outstanding event to be followed by Professor Michael Baker in May. We expect this to be another sellout.
We are always pleased to host our science students from Marsden who attend the Rotary National Science Forum each year in January. This is a flagship Rotary programme for us and we were delighted to meet Victoria Jackson, Isabel Possenniskie and Michelle Gu at our Club meeting at Marsden on 23 March.
On Tuesday 13 April, we will welcome Anna Roberts the Manager of Enliven, Huntleigh, who will talk about retirement independent and care living and how things have been going at their complex on the main road in Karori.
Krystle Crimmins, the key player in the club's Epilepsy Project, was invited to an afternoon tea at Government House hosted by Community Networks Wellington on 17 March 2021.
The member organisations encompass over 400 professionals and volunteers working in the Social and Community sector. The occasion celebrated their tireless work in the Wellington region over the Covid 19 period. Krystle, pictured with the Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy, was representing Epilepsy First Aid.
Well done Krystle, the Rotary Club Of Karori salutes your achievement.
You may remember my mentioning from the District Conference that Rotary D9940 still had a long way to go with its fund raising for the Wellington Childrens' Hospital. In rough terms we need to raise about $200 per Rotarian.
Acting on a suggestion from our treasurer, Doug Langford, your board has approved a donation of $4,000 to the Children's Hospital Trust fund.
This is a great effort but is it the end of the matter? No, we still need to 'back fill' the donation, please take a careful look at the following story. Also there will undoubtedly be further calls for funding as the project approaches its completion. It's a great start but watch this space.
While it's great that we can make a donation to the Wellington Childrens' Hospital (see story above) we need to 'back fill' the money we have donated. A good option for us is to take a stand at the St Ninians Garage Sale. However we are still looking for many more items to sell.
Do you have any unloved items that might fetch a few dollars? Please take a photo and forward it to Mark Wood (MarkWoodNZ@GMail.com) This is an opportunity to reclaim lost space in your garage or cupboards. Why not involve the neighbours?
All proceeds will go to the Wellington Childrens' Hospital.
A full house of over 70 people heard the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Grant Robertson, tell us that we have performed pretty well given the challenges of this past year. All indicators put us in fairly good shape going forward.
He clearly indicated to the assembled audience at our first business breakfast for the year on 18 March that the roll out of the Covid vaccine and addressing the housing crisis with an emphasis on new builds for first home buyers were the Government’s top priorities.
The Minister fielded some very spirited questions on economic performance and priority spending issues.
Our three selections at the National Science Forum in Auckland last January, Victoria, Isobel and Michelle entertained us with their experiences at the various University facilities in Auckland. They clearly showed their commitment to future science career options and fronting up to many challenges with others in teams and accounting for their own personal advancements in studies they undertook.
In addition to the science subjects, team sports provided plenty of thrills as well as opportunties to share skills to achieve their goals.
We are indebted to the Head of Science at Marsden, Gabrielle Gunn, for her support of the Rotary Science programme over many years and for the very high level of achievement and direction that students from Marsden have shown towards this annual forum. The thanks of the Club were also extended to PP Jim Johnston as District Coordinator for this programme.
New member Mark Wood will speak about his life and times.
Tuesday 11 May at Marsden
We will make donations to the pincipals of local schools from our Sunshine Fund.
Thursday 13 May, Business Breakfast At Karori Park Cafe, 7:00am
Professor Michael Baker, Epidemiologist at the Otago School of Medicine. His topic 'How Aotearoa New Zealand is beating Covid 19 and key lessons for the future'.
Tuesday 25 May at Marsden
Speaker to be confirmed.
Tuesday 8 June, The Arborist, Willis St
We will visit the Mt Victoria Club, please note the change of venue
Saturday 26 June, Changeover Dinner At Marsden
This occasion will mark the end of this Rotary year and the start of a new one.
