Last week our speaker was Gaynor Ayob of Edu-zone Education Centre. She made a specific appeal for computers and that is an area where we have considerable success in satisfying the needs of organisations similar to hers. We also had three visitors from Johannesburg North Club. Thank you for coming. Their President Elect, Gerhild Angermaier, asked for our help in the future and hoped that we would be able to work together from time to time. She was warmly applauded, not just out of politeness, but because we have always wanted to to work with other Clubs in our area as achieving things for Rotary and the local community in the best possible way should be our aim. There is no place for parochialism in Rotary.
A special welcome to Debbie & Greg Smith who were inducted as new members of our Club by President Graham Donet. Wonderful to have you both as members of the Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn!
Here is an interesting spin-off from our on-going Wheel Chair Project...let Steve Du Plessis explain:
Requests came thru the D9400 website from Kim Gibhard, looking for a wheelchair for a friend who is 78 years old and has problems with his legs; he is barely able to walk. The gentleman’s name is Gerald Rose and he lives in Primrose.
I contacted Amina last night about the chair she has and we arranged for the drop this morning.
I called Kim to let her know the good news and she was in tears.....
This morning Jankees, Amina and I went to deliver the chair and Gerald was very happy to be able to ride in the chair and get to places he could not owing to the leg problem.
Jankees took the photo.
This shows just how useful the District Website can be so just make sure that you are registered...and that also goes for non New Dawners who may read this blog.
Somehow we had all out dates mixed up over the AGM and the Induction Breakfast! The 8th for the AGM and the 15th for the Induction are correct...we've had to change our bookings accordingly!
Don't forget the Spinathon on Saturday...see the column to the left. I will not be there as I will be manning the Humanitarian Centre and Jean will be helping me. I will supply a stuffed creature to represent me.........
Congratulations Allan Beuthin on our Membership Evening last Friday. We were again 50% members and 50% potential members...I suppose about 24 people in all. These are such fun social occasions. Mike Vink produced some wonderful food and thanks to Graham Donet and the Chefs Association, some pleasant wine to go with it. We have never not acquired a member from these evenings yet. The late leavers really enjoyed themselves! I'll put the pictures on the blog later.
As promised here is Alex Gano bungie jumping at Victoria Falls. At least he says it is! Notice that the person vanishes into the abyss and is never seen again!
As promised here is Alex Gano bungie jumping at Victoria Falls. At least he says it is! Notice that the person vanishes into the abyss and is never seen again!
The Annual Rotary Convention has just taken place in New Orleans. This is what the incoming RI President, Kalyan Banerjee had to say:
Banerjee outlines emphases for the year
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Top: RI President-elect Kalyan Banerjee greets the fourth plenary session before outlining his emphases for the year. Bottom: John Hewko, incoming general secretary, addresses the plenary session. Rotary Images/Alyce Henson
RI President-elect Kalyan Banerjee asked Rotarians at the 2011 RI Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, on 25 May to go back to their communities and think of “new and different ways” to take on the challenges of today.
“We are the doers of our communities, the leaders, the ones who are most involved, who see the problems and have the means to find the solutions,” Banerjee said. “I am asking you to reach within and unleash your inner power and then use it to embrace everything and everyone around you.”
Banerjee, who will take office 1 July, said Rotarians should be guided by three emphases -- the family, continuity, and change -- as they work to support the 2011-12 RI theme,Reach Within to Embrace Humanity.
Family is the first emphasis, he said, because the family is the starting point for everything Rotary is trying to accomplish.
“The family is the building block of the community,” Banerjee said. “If we wish to see a world that is more joyous, we first have to make sure that the families of the world are more joyous, that they have the things they need to be happy, to thrive, and move forward. So we have to look at housing, at clean water and sanitation, at health care, at all the issues affecting mothers and children.”
Continuity involves continuing and strengthening those things Rotarians do well, said Banerjee.
“There are so many areas in which we have been successful -- working for clean, safe water; spreading literacy; working in so many ways with Generation Next, our youth. And of course, our greatest project, polio eradication,” he said. “If we want to really achieve the impossible, we have to have not only persistence, but vision -- we have to be looking past what we are doing now, at what we can and should be doing in the days and years to come.”
Change is the third emphasis, Banerjee said. If Rotarians wish to achieve peace, reduce child mortality, prevent hunger, and stop environmental degradation, they must be the instruments of that change, he explained.
“We will need to think in new and different ways, explore new ways of seeing,” Banerjee said. “If we do what we have always done, we will get what we have always got -- nothing better, nothing more. This would not satisfy us professionally, and it certainly should not satisfy us in our Rotary service, where the stakes are so much higher.”
Hewko addresses plenary session
John Hewko, incoming general secretary, said one of his top priorities will be “to better connect Rotarians with the Secretariat, to increase awareness as to what the Secretariat can offer, and to make sure the Secretariat is an effective, efficient, and useful resource for clubs, so that clubs are able to grow and carry out the mission of Rotary.”
Hewko, who will take office 1 July, said the future of Rotary is bright.
"We will rid the world of the terrible scourge of polio -- we will rid the world of this terrible disease -- and then we will be bold and aggressive and identify and conquer the next big global challenge," he said. "We will redouble our public relations efforts to enhance our brand and image so that the world better appreciates and understands the great works of Rotary and the value of connecting through fellowship."
Also during the fourth plenary session, attendees were treated to a preview of the 2012 RI Convention in Bangkok, Thailand. The Host Organization Committee shared a taste of Thai culture, including a performance by dancers representing four regions of the country. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Past RI President Bhichai Rattakul, of Thailand, greeted attendees through a prerecorded video. A Bangkok-themed luncheon followed the plenary session.
Clubs near New Orleans rebuild safety net
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Rotarians in Slidell, Louisiana, USA, faced a crisis. The city, located about 30 miles across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, had taken a direct hit from the 2005 storm.
“Katrina literally destroyed more than half of our city,” recalls Mayor Freddy Drennan, a member of the Rotary Club of Slidell North Shore.
His club and the Rotary Club of Slidell collaborated on a service project to help rebuild and reopen more than a dozen nonprofit agencies that serve low- to middle-income residents.
Most of the organizations didn’t have insurance, and many would have left town if they managed to survive at all, says Don O’Bryan, a member of the Slidell North Shore club, who headed the effort.
Among the agencies the clubs helped through the three-year project were a local Boys & Girls club, Habitat for Humanity chapter, day care center, food pantry/soup kitchen/mobile meals program, senior center, women’s shelter, and adult day care center for the developmentally challenged.
For many club members, the project did more than help mend the city’s safety net; it mended their spirits too.
“The most memorable thing I’ve had in my life was those three years,” recalls Jay Rose, a member of the Slidell club who managed several of the rebuilding initiatives.
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