District Governor's Newsletter May 2017

Of course only 5 days later it was a different story when the Rangitaiki River burst its stopbanks at Edgecumbe.  A big thanks go to Rotarians who selflessly swung into action to provide much needed initial assistance.  This included catering for the volunteers and receiving immediate basics for the many displaced people, and of course basic manpower in the clean-up exercise.  It will take a long time for normality to return to Edgecumbe.  Our District is receiving cash donations to ease the burden for those suffering personal hardship.  The bank account number is 03-1552-0121120-000 – feel welcome to contribute and please show in the reference field your name/club name.

 

A District conference presentation from Robyn Skelton covered the introduction of the Kiwi Can programme into Rotorua.  Thanks to the generosity of Rotarians at conference and the recent approval of an external funding application, I’m pleased to say the funding target of $85,000 for establishment and year one has now been met enabling the next phase to take place which includes delivery of the programme to the identified low decile schools.  A great effort by Rotorua Rotarians!

 

Recent youth and young people programme activities have included the annual RYLA camp at Lake Karapiro.  There were 36 attendees and a real buzz at the camp site.  The programme included indoor and outdoor activities, contact with business leaders and concluded with a graduation Awards dinner held in Hamilton on Friday evening.  Participants were pumped and on a real high – great exposure for Rotary!

           

 

The selection at District level of Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) outbound students for 2018 has taken place.  These students will go through an orientation programme to prepare them for a year overseas commencing next January. 

 

While mentioning youth exchange, I recently had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Shane Reti.  Shane was a District 9930 (yes – this District!) RYE student way back in 1980.  He subsequently went on to be a medical practitioner for 20 years, then spent 10 years as a professor at Harvard and is now back in New Zealand completing his first term as Member of Parliament for Whangarei.

 

Interact in our District is on a good growth path, thanks to the dedication and enthusiasm of some of our Rotarians.  Latest update is a new club chartering at Napier Boys High on 20 May.  Formative arrangements are also taking place at Matamata College where it is hoped a club will be chartered before very long.

A ROMAC programme patient has just arrived in our District.  The ROMAC programme (yes – the R stands for Rotary, the C for Children!) enables children from developing countries to receive life-saving or dignity-restoring surgery which is not available to them in their own country.  The latest arrival is a 7 year old girl named Vinna (and her mother) from an island in Vanuatu.  Vinna is suffering from a potential fracture to her leg which is complicated by severe infection.  It is likely they will stay in Hamilton for up to 6 months.  ROMAC patients to Waikato Hospital can be infrequent with Vinna the second this Rotary year.  Special thanks to the ROMAC and Rotarian teams who make this all possible.

 

The number of clubs in our District fell by one during the month when Frankton and Te Rapa clubs merged.  This merger was ‘on the cards’ for some time and we hope it will open the way for a rejuvenation of Rotary in the catchment covered by the new combined club.  The new club is named the Rotary club of Frankton Te Rapa.

 

Attendees at a very recent meeting of Rotary Ahuriri Sunrise club were updated on developments of the Rotary Pathway project in Napier.  The meeting concluded with Rotarian Marc Nel being recognised with a PHF.  Marc has been auditor for the Pathway Trust for many years and is just completing his 3 year term as our District Treasurer.  The accompanying photo shows Marc with Pathway Trustees plus immediate past D.G Mike Smith and current D.G Keith Owens

 

This is a reminder that our District Membership Incentive scheme is running for 6 months and this finishes at the end of this month (31 May).  It is good to see the recent excellent achievements of some clubs in lifting membership numbers and we are aware of meetings where multiple inductions of up to 3 or 4 members are taking place.  Keep up the good work in making people want to join an organisation that is doing good in the world.  Also, send an email to me with the names of new members and their email address and I undertake to send a ‘welcome to Rotary’ email to them.

 

Thanks to everyone for your commitment to our theme of Rotary Serving Humanity.  Have a great month!

Regards