A Great Rotary District Changeover

By David Hulme, Media Support and Resources Officer D9930

 

Outgoing District Governor Grant Spackman says the past 12 months have been “a year like no other” for Rotary globally but despite the challenges, District 9930 has had some major successes.

 

Near the top of the list, he says, was the Faces Project, co-ordinated by Havelock North Rotary Club which received a Global Grant from Rotary International in near-record time, while real progress is also been made on an international project in Nepal and the District is supporting Interplast’s work in Bhutan.

Closer to home, Grant says he found plenty to show Rotary was strong in the grassroots clubs.

 

“As I have travelled around the clubs in our District, I have experienced the collaboration happening in our communities – Rotary clubs around 9930 are working to make their communities better places to live in,” Grant says.

 

Projects from Te Awamutu, Napier, Tauranga, Hamilton, Rotorua and Wairoa were all among key events highlighted by Grant in his presentation.

 

Youth programmes have been a real focus of Rotarians across the District and at the end of the Rotary year, Grant was delighted to announce the imminent charter of the Rotaract Club of Hawkes Bay which will be based at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Napier.

 

Grant touched on the Centenary of Rotary in Australia and New Zealand in 2021, saying he believed clubs in Australia had, on the whole, responded to the occasion with more enthusiasm than those in New Zealand.

 

Projects to mark the New Zealand celebrations included two dinner events in Auckland and Wellington, the Mana Tangata history book, and the Trees of Peace and Remembrance project. From our District, Rotary Matamata launched the successful number plates surrounds project as a way of marking the occasion.

 

But the flagship project to highlight Rotary’s impact is Give Every Child a Future and Grant, along with his wife Wendy, made this their project of choice for the District in the past 12 months.

 

“Wendy and I have been moved by the generous support given by individual Rotarians and Clubs in District 9930. This major health initiative has caught the imagination of so many, none the least Rotarian Alan White who cycled from Cape Reinga to Bluff raising funds ($20,000) for it,” Grant says.

 

Grant says it was important, going forward, to address the issue of declining membership. “I am convinced that the best way to increase membership is to form new clubs and I urge you all to look for opportunities to do so in your surrounding towns.

 

“Whether they be a traditional, satellite, passport of caused-based clubs, we have to find new ways to expand our reach.”