We have had a busy week. At our meeting on 11 May we welcomed four principals from our Rotary catchment area to learn about their school activities and to convey our annual grants through the Sunshine Fund. All the principals have responded with emails expressing their thanks. In turn I pass this evidence of our close ties to the community to ypu our members who make this possible. On 25 May we will host 2 more principals of schools in our area, Mary-Angela Tombs from St Teresas School and Tania Savage from Cardinal McKeefry, both long serving principals of their respective schools.
On Wednesday 12 May, over 200 Rotarians gathered at the National Library in Wellington for the launch of the book Mana Tangata, People of Action, the centenary celebration for Rotary in New Zealand, and the Rotary centennial exhibition being staged at the Library. This was a great event which we all enjoyed and shared with our colleagues throughout our District and with many other special invited guests. More on this event later in this bulletin.
And on Thursday 13 May, another highlight for the week, we hosted Professor Michael Baker, who has been a key member of the technical advisory group on the Covid 19 response and vaccination programme in New Zealand. Michael spoke to a full house at our business breakfast meeting at the Karori Park Sports Café. He was very warmly received by the large attendance which included local GPs from the Karori Medical Centre.
Looking ahead in our programme we have a busy June, with a visit to the Mt Victoria Rotary Club on 8 June, our fundraising Quiz for the Wellington Children’s Hospital on 20 June and meeting up with our new business partners Forsyth Barr at our Club meeting on 22 June. Beyond that, in July, we have some top speakers in the capital coming to our meetings and it will soon be changeover time as we welcome in the new Rotary year on 3 July at a changeover dinner at Marsden School.
I look forward to seeing you all in good numbers for our forthcoming meetings and events.
It was a pleasure to welcome our catchment area school principals, Gail Dewar from Makara Model School, Sharon Gataulu from Karori West Normal School, Conrad Kelly from Karori Normal School and Andrea Peetz from Northland School to speak and receive grants from our Sunshine Fund.
Gail brought us up to date with renovations at Makara School and with the moving of the old school building. The original 130 year old school building has been moved to the back of the school site. The school is putting a lot of effort into their food gardens, seed planting, which the children enjoy and an invitation was extended for Club to visit and see the changes.
Sharon Gataulu, who is new at Karori West Normal School also spoke about their refurbishment programme, new classrooms and coloured turf, inviting the Club to come and further partake in their school events.
Conrad Kelly, spoke at some length on the Karori Normal School’s new charter through to 2023 with key goals on sharing achievement and progress, literacy and numeracy, people care and resilience and partnership, and is their communication effective?
Andrea Peetz, who is a new principal at Northland School succeeding long standing principal Jeremy Edwards, talked about their new buildings, while construction work is still proceeding on the playgrounds. Teaching other languages is a key focus and for more teachers to become fluent in other dialects is something important in their development.
All the principals acknowledged the grants made and undertook to publicise this in their school newsletters for good use at the schools.
We were privileged to have Professor Michael Baker join us for the business breakfast at the Karori Park Sports Café on 13 May. Michael has eared several awards for his services to public health in New Zealand, including receiving New Zealand Honours, the MNZM, and being made the Supreme Award winner as Wellingtonian of the Year for 2020, which received warm acclamation from the full house attending the breakfast meeting. Michael’s address was entitled “How Aotearoa New Zealand is beating Covid 19 and key lessons for the future”.
He addressed key aspects to the New Zealand response to Covid 19, how the pandemic threat was assessed, the range of response options, why New Zealand chose an elimination strategy, and the impact of that choice. He also discussed the importance of effective science communication, managing misinformation and disinformation, where we go from here with vaccines, our borders and medium to long term means of recovery.
The audience was very focused on key lessons for the future including the need for more flexible and vigorous approaches of managing other threats, improving decision-making globally in a crisis, ensuring science and evidence guide decision making, building effective public health infrastructures, and supporting improved global institutions. Michael produced interesting graphs of comparison between the flu pandemic of 1918 with Covid 19 and responses.
It was right up to the minute stuff with responses from Michael on latest news items on a world scale and and what world leaders need to do to get on top of this surging pandemic. This was a very special and informative meeting for all those who attended. Our new partners, Forsyth Barr conveyed the vote of thanks and made a presentation to Michael Baker.
Now is the time to start getting your team together. The venue is booked so we need to pull out all the stops. Everyone should have promotional material. Please use it.
The centennial history of Rotary in New Zealand and the Pacific, Mana Tangata People of Action, by Dr Stephen Clarke, was launched at a very enjoyable celebration event at the National Library in Wellington on 12 May. The event was attended by over 200 Rotarians from our District and other Districts of New Zealand. MC’d by co-centennial Patron, former Governor General and member of the Rotary Club of Wellington, Sir Anand Satyanand, other guest speakers were co-patron and Past Rotary International President, Bill Boyd, of Auckland, centennial committee member, Tony Caughey from the Rotary Club of Auckland, and 17 year old Steph Edlin, of Wellington. Steph, who is aspiring to be a Wellington City Councillor, spoke the language of youth and belief, looking forward to meeting Rotary needs in different ways from past generations.
Book launches are not always inspiring affairs, but this one had all the hallmarks of a special celebration of Rotary achievements and wanting to do more in a different world we live in from the early years of the 20th century.
The foreword to the book Ka mua, ka muri says it all- Walking backwards into the future. It was a special moment, the launch, for Craig Horrocks, current DG 9920 of Auckland, as it was his great grandfather, George Fowlds, a former minister of education and public health, and a self-made businessman from Auckland who became the special commissioner appointed by Rotary International to launch Rotary in New Zealand.
District 9940 DG Gillian Jones had the honour of opening the Rotary centennial exhibition following the book launch.
We are still looking for many more items to sell. The Wellington Childrens Hospital is a great cause and of course you benefit by reclaiming garage and cupboard space.
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).
