Monday 3 December 2018

A Fun Day of Golf Crowned by Good News

The Golf Day is a highlight of the New Dawn year every year and this year was no exception. It also proved to be a unifying force this year with no fewer than 24 of our 30 members attending at some or other stage during the day.
     There were also three Rotaracters helping out with various tasks during the day.
     It was hard work, but hard work pays off.
The team at registration were Frank Odenthal, myself, Amina Frense, Mike MacDonald, President Linda Vink, Graham and Joan Donet, Paul Kasango, Julian Nagy and Judy Symons
     The aim was to make at least R100000, which we have almost achieved and will definitely surpass once all the golfers have paid.
     This should give us in the order of R70000 in funds, a very helpful boost in these tough times. The final tally will be broadcast once all the bills have been settled.
PP David Marshall with his bucket of balls and hat
     Amongst the extras this year were the R1660 that David Marshall of the Rotary Club of Brits-Hartebeespoort, a recent regular visitor at New Dawn meetings, collected at the third tee by getting golfers to guess the number of golf balls in a bucket donated by Carl Chemaly. David sat out in the hot sun for the best part of the day, proving himself a worthy Rotarian.
     Another unexpected and very pleasant surprise was the R3000 that was paid by one of our guest golfers for the set of golf clubs donated by Frank Odenthal.
Greg Smith announcing Allan Henning, a former South African Open golf winner,
 with the Barrow of Booze that he won
     Frank also leant us his sons' Bollerwagen (wooden handcart) for the second barrow of booze for people at the Golf Day itself last Friday. This was one by Allan Henning, former professional golfer who has played with Greg Smith for almost all of our golf days for the past seven years. Like many other people, Allan was almost more interested in the wagon than the booze!
Peet and Rudi Kruger with the main Barrow of Booze that they won on the second drawing
     The main barrow, which included the wheelbarrow, was won by Ronel Wasserman from Middelburg, who promptly re-donated it when Linda phoned her with the happy news.
     This meant we could do another round of selling, which netted a further R2600. In the re-draw the barrow was won by our son-in-law, Peet Kruger!
President Linda Vink, who sold the most raffle tickets of all, at Golf Day 2018
Graham Donet with Carl Chemaly, who played
Rusty van der Walt brought two four-balls to the Golf Day
   The day was topped off by the incredibly good news that the Global Grant that Ian Widdop has been tirelessly working for over the last two years, has finally been granted.
     This is for the amount of $31250, which will go towards helping The Link Trust to expand their work far more rapidly than anticipated.
Ian Widdop was MC on the evening and was in high spirits even before the news of the Global
 Grant came
     The grant will be paid over four years from 2019 to 2022 and is the first that the Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn has been able to snag.
     The application was made by New Dawn and our partnering club in Toronto, Canada, following the rules of The Rotary Foundation.
Mike MacDonald and Greg Smith enjoying a well-deserved beer after all
their hard work organising the golf day
Jenine Coetzer and Linda Vink showing off some of the liquid contents of the Barrow of Booze
Paul Kasango and Amina Frense with the two barrows
Graham Donet, Frank Odenthal, Greg Smith and Ian Widdop enjoying the sunshine
Frayne Mathijs and Amina Frense at the reception
The three Rotaracters who helped out were Nadine Mitchley, Alfred Kalunga and Victoria Adekomaya
     Many thanks once again to everyone who helped to make it such a successful day.
     Also, congratulations to Amina Frense, who was named winner of the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Lifetime Achiever Award. Amina, previously managing editor of news and current affairs at the SABC, is a past president of New Dawn.
Amina Frense accepting her award last Thursday evening. She's done herself and New Dawn proud
Llewellyn Leonard, associate professor at Unisa
     The speaker at the meeting last week was Professor Llewellyn Leonard of the department of environmental sciences at Unisa, who specialises in environmental justice in Southern Africa. He is of course a new member of New Dawn and delivered an excellent talk on the impact of environmental issues on ordinary people.
     He is obviously very passionate about human rights as far as this is impacted by industrial, medical and municipal waste and told of a number of campaigns and issues he has an involvement with.
     We had three visitors at the meeting, the first the aforementioned David Marshall, the second a financial adviser, Dale Fortuin and the third Professor Koop Lammertsma, a previous visitor to the club and some of our functions.
     The meeting this week will take the form of an AGM with the election of club officers for next year, so please get nominations in for board positions, especially secretary and treasurer to stand by Paul Kasango during his presidency.

     This will also be the last meeting of the year barring the Christmas Dinner on Friday. If you've not responded to that invitation yet, please do so and share the invitation with friends and family.
     Apart from the usual high sports that go with the evening, we're planning a Pink Elephant raffle with scores of smaller prizes. You and your guests will be able to buy raffle tickets and the draw will continue until all the prizes have been handed out.
     There were a number of prizes left over from the Golf Day and there have already been some donations, but please bring along suitable prizes to the meeting on Wednesday if you have anything available. This could be a wrapped book, a bottle of wine or anything similar. Guests will choose at random and will be able to swop gifts/prizes if somebody else gets what you wanted.
     Also, if you have an idea for something to contribute to the meal on Friday, please speak to me at the meeting. So far we have pat'e and salads for starters, turkey and salmon for mains with a number of side dishes and a number of desserts for a buffet dessert table. More vegetable dishes and desserts would be welcome.
     There will also be an auction of, amongst other things, a gas stove donated by Debbie de Vries.
     A Thought for the Week: If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong. - Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1895)






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