A Good End to New Dawn's 2025

The calendar year has ended for the Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn with an array of fellowship and club meetings before the usual break over the festive season. These have mostly been well attended, as has become the norm over the past months.

Although there was no end-of-year function as in the past, members gathered at a number of fellowship opportunities to have fun, but also to spread the word about Rotary and all the good work that is done by the organisation.

        Club members and visitors gathered for a group photo at the last meeting of the year

This included visits to see the hit musical Chicago, starring Kiruna-Lind Devar, the daughter of proud club member Brenda Sakellarides of the National School of the Arts, but in her day also a star of the musical stage.

There was also a visit to the Music in the Park musical evening which, because of all the rain and thunderstorms Johannesburg has experienced over the past more than a month, was moved at the last minute from the Wanderers Golf Club to the GTC Atrium in Corlett Drive. The evening was pronounced a success nevertheless.

        The gang at PRON with owner Emma Chen (in pink), an old friend of New Dawn 

Before that the club gathered at the restaurant PRON (People's Republic of the Noodle) in Linden, surely now a favourite restaurant amongst club members.

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         Yasmin Shapurjee, Audrey Gatawa, Zena Kimaro and Judy Symons enjoying the Chinese cuisine at PRON

Very good news for the club is that after all the fun and celebrations (or because of it, who knows), Judy Symons agreed to be the next club president from July next year until the end of June 2027.

Her club officers will be Yasmin Shapurjee as secretary and Joan Donet as treasurer. These posts have been duly reported to Rotary International, which stipulates that the positions must be filled by the end of the calendar year preceding the year of service. Well done, you three!

           Loné Lourens accepting Christmas donations on behalf of Woodside Sanctuary

The last meeting of the year was marked with a visit from Loné Lourens, Marketing and Fundraising Manager at Woodside Sanctuary, to collect gifts and donations of toiletries donated by new Dawn members at the instigation of Judy Symons.

At the meeting Zena Kimaro told the club that her efforts to start an Interact club (for school kids from 12-18 years old) at the Parkview High School for Girls has been met with huge enthusiasm and has already been officially registered.The girls will start on projects in the new year.

         Brendon Hart with Judy and President Jankees Sligcher

Brendon Hart, Operation Manager of the Parkview Golf Club, attended the meeting as a visitor and to accept a small cash donation that the club makes every year to the kitchen and waiting staff that serves us at breakfast every Wednesday morning, literally in the past weeks come rain or shine. This is also an attempt to cement the already good relationship between PGC and New Dawn.

With a few potential members waiting in the wings, things are looking good for the next year, as well as for the next Rotary year that starts in July 2026.

See everybody again on 14 January 2026.

A Few Thoughts for the Weeks Ahead:

It's never too late to be what you wanted to be. - George Eliot (1890-1880)

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbours and let every new year find you a better man. - Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. - Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968)

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. - Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill (1874-1965)