All Systems Go for The Link and New Dawn

It's all systems go for dinner tomorrow evening at the Portuguese Hall restaurant for the August 5th Wednesday, within touch of 1 September and the first day of Spring.
     It's also all systems go for The Link Literacy Project and the meeting last week was aimed at finding the way forward, right into the heart of Rotary International and a Global Grant from the Rotary Foundation.

Megan Maynard talking to the club about The Link Literacy Project

     Ian Widdop has reported ongoing progress with this effort, for which New Dawn is getting overseas help from a club in Toronto, Canada.
     Megan Maynard provided the background to the New Dawn involvement and told the club that The Link now operates in eleven schools in and around Johannesburg, involving over a thousand children and 500 volunteers a week. Judy Symons, Debbie Nagy, Frayne Mathijs and Paul Kasango have all volunteered at some stage and find the work very rewarding.

Megan urged club members to add The Link to their MySchool cards and Woolworths

     Six of the eleven schools also offer a maths programme.
     Megan told how Margie Bashall had founded the programme after she'd already been diagnosed with cancer and ran it almost literally until shortly before she died.
     A prime motivation was the fact that 27% of all children who start school in South Africa, cannot read after six years of schooling. As she said: You need to learn to read, to read to learn.
     Quite a few of the schools involved are in our immediate area, such as Salvatione in Brixton, Sparrow in 1st Avenue, Melville, the Parktown Public School on Empire Rd., Holy Family in Rosebank and the Yeoville Community School.

Julian and Debbie Nagy at the meeting. Julian is a member of the team working with The Link and Debbie has been a volunteer maths counsellor for a number of years.

     The immediate decision to be taken is whether to go forward with the $31250 (just over R400000) that has already been pledged, or whether to wait for more money to come in.
     Ian reported that PDG Greg Stathacopolous, the District Foundation chair, leans towards the "lock and load" approach rather than waiting, over which there seems to be general agreement.
     There will be a meeting next month to take a final decision so that we're still in time for the next Rotary financial year.

Paul Kasango's Paul Harris
     When we handed over Paul Harris Fellowships at the induction of Carol Stier as the new club president at the beginning of July, all the certificates and pins had not yet arrived from Geneva, Switzerland, the regional headquarters for Europe and Africa.

A proud Paul Kasango holds his Paul Harris pin after the handover by myself and club president Carol Stier

Me reading the Paul Harris certificate to Frayne Mathijs

     It was therefore a privilege for me to hand these over to Paul Kasango and Frayne Mathijs last week. Of the other two recipients, Carin Holmes still needs to get her Paul Harris Sapphire, which I have, and DGA Judy Sligcher was the lucky one, as all her paraphernalia had arrived on time.
     Once again, congratulations to all four of you. Carol will agree with me that being able to guide the club in the awarding of the Paul Harris Fellowships is one of the great privileges of being president of the club.

Ian sings Verdi

Sing for Your Breakfast
     By this time the meeting was already running ever so slightly late and got tipped over the edge by none other than Ian Widdop, who bragged with his opera lessons, where they're learning the beautiful lyrical aria Di Provenza il mar, il suol (The sea and the soil of Provence) from Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata, written for baritone and sung by the character Germont.
     If you weren't there, Ian gave a beautiful impromptu rendition, but probably not yet as polished as that of Placido Domingo at the New York Met in 2013! Listen to it!
     Remember: There is no breakfast meeting tomorrow morning at the Parkview Golf Club. We're having a social evening at the Portuguese Hall Restaurant (6.30 for 7pm). Debbie Smith, our secretary for the year, has already booked a table. Remember to bring the necessary so as to pay your bill at the end of the evening.
     A Thought for the Week: Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. - Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD)