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President's Message
Rob Webster
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Monday 14 January was our first formal meeting for the year. On the previous Monday we met and barbecued at Liz and Bob Doerksen's home and had a great evening. My thanks to Bob and Liz. They were pivotal in making the evening a success. 
 
It was a pleasure to welcome our guests who included our speaker. Dr Carina Hoang; artist Jana-Vodesil-Baruffi whose portrait of Carina was published in a series portraying prominent and successful WA women; prospective member Gordon McLean; and our newest exchange student, Caroline Mathew (pictured below) and her mother Jai. Caroline has a good grasp of the French language and that's just as well because she is going to Southern France to put her fluency to the test. Club Director of  International Service, Paul Daly, was a member of the panel which selected Caroline and expressed great confidence that she will be an excellent ambassador. We wish her well and look forward to hearing all about her experiences as her year progresses.  
 
 
Our returning exchange student, Ashka Bhavsar, has submitted her final report which has been circulated to all members. She will be coming to the Club in early February to report at first hand.
 
In the meantime Anna continues to enjoy her year on exchange. She's loving the sun, surf and sand (not so much) and over the holidays has travelled with other exchange students to Kalgoorlie and Esperance under the watchful eye of their chaperones one of whom was our own Anne Edgar. Both Anne and Anna survived the experience which proved very enjoyable if a little tiring. Anna has now moved to her new host parents. Jody and David Tovey, who live in Harrisdale. 
 
On the subject of Youth, I'm delighted to say that we have sponsored four students to attend the Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) camp at the Baptist Centre in Serpentine. They'll be dining with Rotarians from sponsoring Clubs on 16 January and Kieran English has kindly agreed to represent us while Club Director of Youth, Simon Cubitt, is away on compassionate leave following the death of his mother. I have conveyed to Club's condolences to Simon and a number of members attended the memorial service for his mother, held in Nedlands on 9 January, which I'm know Simon appreciated.
 
Club Director of Community Service, Ashley West, will be representing us at the HANDICAMP Mad Hatter dinner being held at Point Walter Recreation Centre on 22 January. and would some other Club members to also attend to support our Buddy and see what the Campers are up to.
 
Ashley also reported on the project to reticulate the Willetton Community Garden to which the Club has contributed $1,000.
 
We've also contributed $1,000 towards the purchase Mutuba trees which will be planted around the perimeter of a demonstration farm in Uganda. This is part of a project which was initiated by the Rotary Club of Tacoma North, Washington State USA. It's really worthwhile and I thank Paul Daly for coordinating our involvement. See report below.
 
The Board will be meeting in the evening on 23 February and prior to that during the day, our Fair Chair, Simon Cubitt and I will be meeting with the City of Canning to progress arrangements for the Community  Fair which this year, is on Sunday 7 April. That's not far off and we'll be picking up the pace of planning over the time remaining including rosters and Club stalls. In the meantime I'm very happy to report that we've succeeded in securing a significant sponsorship from Healthway and are hopeful of similar support from  Lotterywest with whom Simon has recently been negotiating. These two sponsors/supporters are crucial to the financial success of the Fair.
News
UGANDA WELLS, TREES AND FARMING FAMILIES

In support of the Rotary Club of Tacoma North, Washington State USA and along with the Rotary Clubs Tacoma and Clover Park, our Club has previously provided funds for wells needed by Ugandan women to establish farms to support their families. So what happens when you need to fence the fifteen (15) acres of land needed to establish a demonstration facility to train those women to farm effectively? You get creative and that's exactly what the Rotary Cub Of Tacoma North has done. 

Enter the Mutuba tree, the superhero of fencing!

Read more...
INTRODUCING DR CARINA HOANG

Dr Carina Hoang is a former Vietnamese refugee and award-winning author and publisher

In 2007 Carina moved to Perth, WA with her family.

In 2011 – Carina was honoured as one of Western Australia most courageous and inspiring women, being one of 100 women inducted into the Western Australia Women’s Hall of Fame.

In 2012 Carina was appointed as Special Representative for Australia for UNHCR.

Other recognitions, including:

  • 2011: City of Belmont’s 2011 Volunteer of the Year Award
  • 2012: Karl Farrell Inspiration Award
  • 2013: nominated for Human Rights Award
  • 2018: nominated for Australian of the Year Award
  • 2018: 2018 Soulful Award – World Server

Since 2009 Carina volunteers to assist families from different parts of the world to search for graves of their loved ones in former Indonesian refugee camps. And from these harrowing searches she has been able to assist people find graves of family members and be able to fully grieve the loss of their loved ones.

Read more...
CARINA HOANG-HER STORY

Before the end of Vietnam War, we were among the so-called high-society. We lived a comfortable life. By the end of April 1975, in a matter of weeks, we went from having houses, cars, money, servants, and chauffers to homeless. We didn’t know where our father was, or if he is alive; He was a Lieutenant Colonel, chief of police department in a province near Saigon. 

Read more...
Upcoming Events
Club Meeting 21/1
MGGC
Jan 21, 2019
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
 
Board meeting
Presidents Home
Jan 23, 2019
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
 
Club Meeting 4/2
MGGC
Feb 04, 2019
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
 
Club Meeting 11/2
MGGC
Feb 11, 2019
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
 
Barefoot Bowling Partners night 18/2
TBA
Feb 18, 2019
6:30 PM – 9:20 PM
 
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
Kevin Baruffi
January 1
 
Parry Kahlon
January 1
 
Rob Webster
January 9
 
Ian Ross
January 30
 
Spouse Birthdays
Sue Camp
January 1
 
Sharyn Ibbitson
January 6
 
Jill Cubitt
January 21
 
Anniversaries
Mary Henderson
David Henderson
January 14
 
Glenn Trim
Darlene Trim
January 21
 
Join Date
John Erkins
January 1, 1981
38 years
 
Erwin Biemel
January 12, 1998
21 years
 
Leigh Thorp
January 12, 2000
19 years
 
Bob Doerksen
January 23, 2006
13 years
 
Paul Todd
January 23, 2012
7 years
 
Stories
TOASTING THE WORLD'S NEWEST ROTARY CLUB
 
The Rotary Club of Ucluelet in Rotary District 5020 is latest Rotary Club to be Chartered and the first ever Rotary Club on the Pacific Rim. It's  located on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia Canada.

The club was Chartered on Friday 11 January 2019. It's led by Charter President is Debbie Vance and has forty-one (41) charter members. The club meets on Monday evenings at 6pm at the Floathouse Patio and Grill in UCLUELET. Their inaugural projects include: 

  • Revitalization of the local cemetery, 
  • The forming of an Interact Club in our community High School and 
  • The opening of the Write to Read Program learning centres in our First Nations Community.
 
AN EMAIL TO RIC DAVIES  FROM PRESIDENT DEBBIE VANCE, RC OF UCLUELET
"Hi Ric
What an absolute honour for us to have you to reach out to our Club. 
Thank you! We are the first ever Rotary Club in our community, in fact the closest Rotary Club to our community is an 1 1/2 drive away. We are Chartering tomorrow with 41 members. Our current projects are the revitaliztion of the local cemetary, the forming of an Interact Club in our community High School and the opening of the Write to Read Program learning centers in our First Nations Community. 
I love your idea of toasting another Club... I may copy this act with your permission. If posible I would love to Zoom, Skype, Video Messenger into your meeting... 
Gratitude and thank you so much for connecting! 
 
Debbie Vance
Charter President 
Rotary Club of Ucluelet 
\
Read more...
DR BOB ON BEING NOSEY
 
A young lad was sitting on a bus and was eating a box of chocolates one by one.
An older gent got on the bus and sat beside the lad.  He watched for awhile and then 
leaned in and said ”eating all those chocolates can't be good for you”.
The lad said “my grandfather lived to be 112”.
Are you trying to tell me that he got to that age by eating chocolate? The man asked.
 “No he got to that age by minding his own business “ the lad replied.
ClubRunner
Service Above Self
     PO Box 103
Willetton WA 6955