The Rotary Club of Karori was pleased to welcome five principals in our catchment area to join the club on 23 July to receive annual Rotary grants to the schools. Janice Shramka, Karori West Normal School, Mary-Angela Tombs, St Teresa’s School, Conrad Kelly, Karori Normal School, Tania Savage, Cardinal McKeefry School and Jeremy Edwards, Northland School, joined members in fellowship and the dinner prior to receiving their grants. Gail Dewar, principal of Makara Normal School was unable to attend as she is recovering from recent surgery. The Club looks forward to having Gail at a future meeting to present our grant to her.
President Phil Oliver expressed the Club’s joy in being able to assist the schools in our area in a variety of ways and to contribute to key projects being undertaken in the school. A plea was made to ask the schools to publicise in their bulletins to parents and others the support that Karori Rotary is giving to their respective schools by way of grants and other activities.
Jeremy Edwards, who had to leave the meeting early pointed to the major redevelopments happening at the school which will transform their playground areas to provide more activity space. He welcomed Rotary’s support to their school programmes. Conrad Kelly said the grant money would greatly assist their out of school programmes such as camps for students. His school is likewise undergoing major refurbishment over the next few years. Janice Shramka who has had close ties with Rotary largely through the Karori Youth Awards programme is in her last year as principal. She thanked the Club for its long support of Karori West Normal through youth activities, being on the school council as trustees and the development of well- being programmes, strongly supported by Rotarians. Mary- Angela Tombs spoke about access to support services and developing opportunities for children to deal with changes in their lives and to question details in programmes that they are learning about. She said this was exciting for their learning skills. Tania Savage said Cardinal McKeefry was further developing its gardening and kitchen lunches programmes, work being undertaken by students at the school. She welcomed Rotary to come and enjoy the experience that the school is providing.
Rotarian David Bain followed with a view point summarising the recent World Cricket Cup matches and he outlined the journey the Black Caps had to get to the final and a breakdown of that match. David with his great attention to detail gave us a very good presentation of the events that unfolded around the Black Caps for that final encounter with England at Lords.