The Rotary Club of Otumoetai in Tauranga has started the year with seventeen members but in the past two months has punched a powerful punch well above its weight.Over $2,000 has been collected for the erection of two new seats for the city’s Kopurererua valley known locally as the K-valley project which will mean that locals and visitors alike can sit and enjoy what is projected to become the largest area of native planting within the confines of a New Zealand city. On 15 July club members joined a raft of other city organisations to plant a further substantial number of native trees and plants.
A further $500 has been collected for RRR – a Rescue, Revive, Re-home center for animals at risk - and the club members have got actively involved in pest eradication. So far recorded is:
- 17 times baits laid out
- 638 baits put out
- 503 baits eaten
- The bait line has 21 bait stations and is 1.43 km long.
- Takes about 1.5 hours to walk from the poison cupboard out to the line and back to the cupboard.
- The bait line is on the Western/Otumoetai side of Kopurererua, K-Valley
Focused on improving the local community environment for some years the club is awaiting the delight of seeing its daffodil planting burst into a golden field. The club continues to plant more.Realizing the importance of electronic media the Club has an active Facebook page with 500+ followers and has now joined four local community chat groups where a good number have engaged with our club information.
The club has relocated to a new home, the Armitage Hotel, on the corner of Willow and Brown Streets where any visiting Rotarians are welcome to join us on the first and third Monday of each month at 5.30 pm. You can be assured of a substantial evening meal. It was here that the club hosted the District Governor who gave an engaging address with regard to changes in Rotary and ‘yes’ as indicated above a small club is making some needed and necessary changes!
Photographs:
Dennis McFetridge, Carmen Goodwin (Club President ‘22), and Paul Higson working hard on K valley project
Daffodils waiting to bloom in a local park surround the Rotary emblem.