|
Our meeting of 15 September (The Bulletin Editor thanks Graham Thomson for these notes) In order to celebrate Basic Education and Literacy month tonight we had a combined meeting with the Ocean Grove RC with the Guest Speaker being James Carter who talked about his life experiences while dealing with dyslexia. This meeting was attended by over 60 Rotarians, approximately 23 from the Geelong East Rotary Club (GERC) indicating the interest in the topic & publicity undertaken by Gary Newton. James explained about his country upbringing of riding a horse to school & the way he was ridiculed at school by both students and the lone teacher. Despite the many challenges presented to him during his early years he followed up a job advert for a porter role with the Victorian Railways (VR). Lucky for James he only had an interview and the only paperwork he was required to do was to sign the form. For this first position he had to strip down to be measured up & then fitted with his new shiny new uniform. Over the years with VR James was placed at various stations & undertook many various roles, including an unsuccessful attempt at parcel deliveries to the guard vans on the trains, not easy when you cannot read correctly. James eventually moved onto a nursing career which took him to all parts of Australia, including a stint on oil rigs. One of his nursing experiences James related too was the polio epidemic where the iron lungs we cobbled together by the VR engineering workshop and sent to hospital where James was working. James recognised the special marks that the engineering tradesman had place on the equipment as those of his former colleagues at VR. According to James these cobbled machines not only copped with the initial influx of polio patients but continued functioning for many years after. James also gained his qualification as a locksmith, qualified boiler operator, and worked at all manner of other tasks during his long working life. He has been a proud Rotarian for over 40 years at various Rotary Clubs. Despite his dyslexia disability throughout his talk James demonstrated his adaptability and willingness to tackle almost anything and his resilience to the issues presented is to be admired. Another highlight of the night was the presence of Andrew Thornton and the verbal acknowledgement that Tony provided to the audience of Andrew’s achievement and that GERC had presented a ruby PHF to Andrew in recognition of Andrew’s contribution to GERC. Our meeting of 22 September (The Bulletin Editor thanks Jenny Acopian for these notes) The meeting was chaired by Alison Marshall, a fitting choice as it was Alison who introduced our club to the Rotary Club of Makita Lumina, now our international partner. Guests were Brendan Holland from the Rotaract Club of Barwon and Honorary Member Val Loughnan. Our guest speaker was President Anne Acuna of the Rotary Club of Makita Lumina, Manila The Rotary Club of Makita Lumina was chartered in 2017 and is one of 109 clubs located in District 3830. From its inception the club has a strong focus on the environment – we all wore green in recognition of this. One of its major projects is Shore It Up which aims to plant 10,000 mangroves along the shoreline of the coastal community of Alaminos, Pangasinan, about a five hour drive from Manila. The club is in partnership with Metro Pacific Investments Foundation, a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) organization and major funder. Why plant mangroves? Because they: Provide habitat for marine life; Protect coastal communities from storms and tidal surges; and Provide material for construction, furniture, etc.
On 24-25 August 2019 the Rotary Club of Makita Lumina participated in Get Your ‘Grove On where 1,000 mangroves were planted over a weekend. Fifty Rotarians and friends, including our own Alison Marshall, along with the mayor and deputy mayor of the area participated in the event that involved standing up to the waist in sea water for hours in order to plant the seedlings. The deputy mayor is only 28 years old, the youngest in the Philippines. The Rotary Club of a Hundred Islands will also plant mangroves so it is a major Rotary project. So far over 5,000 mangroves have been planted. Another weekend is planned once the pandemic is over. The Rotary Club of Geelong East has contributed to this project by providing USD520, a huge boost to the project for which we were thanked most sincerely by President Anne. President Anne is so committed to the environment she recently completed underwater diver training and will soon undertake an exam to become a qualified volunteer to conduct cleanups underwater. Anne explained that large ships sailing through Philippine’s waters throw their rubbish overboard, creating huge environmental hazards. Another environmental project her club is interested in pursuing is food production for an orphanage in central Manila where the children will be encouraged to learn to grow their own food. This project is currently on hold as the club looks for a more sustainable model. Anne attended our International Service Committee meeting this month to explain her club’s projects. Health and wellness is another focus of the club. One of its first projects was lice prevention and treatment in children. During discussions, attention was drawn to an organization through which Alison became aware of the mangrove planting event last year. It’s called Internations, a worldwide organization located in 420 cities (including Melbourne), aimed at expats who find themselves working overseas and wanting to link up with like-minded people to have fun and do charitable works. Refer to website internations.org for further information. Through the convenience of Zoom, the Rotary Club of Geelong East and the Rotary Club of Makita Lumina will take the opportunity to attend each other’s meetings and learn more about the work we do. We look forward to seeing more of Anne and her enthusiastic band of green Rotarians. |
