We were all shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of our dear friend Rod Slater on 23 April.  Rod was a long-time member of Rotary and was renowned for his support for the ideals of Rotary in all respects.  At the time of his passing, he was a valued member of the Heirisson Rotary Club.  He was an extremely generous supporter of the Club’s projects, and until recently, an active participant in the Club’s meetings, which he enlivened with his unique sense of humour.  He will be greatly missed by all members.  Our sympathy and thoughts are with his family and friends. 

For those who are able to attend, Rod’s funeral will be the West Chapel, Pinnaroo Valley Memorial Park at 2.30 pm on Tuesday 21 April.

 

 

 

 

Rick Fletcher ran a very well organised and productive session dealing with how we can improve our fund-raising efforts.  A good number of suggestions came forward which Rick compiled into a report which has been circulated to members.  We all know fund-raising is hard work, but if we are to continue to support those causes that align with our values we do need to have funds.  Fortunately we have the ever reliable Justin providing opportunities around motoring and the many wonderful donations from Rod Slater which have helped us so much.

 

 

 

David Tucker gave an excellent presentation on the operation of ‘Bicycles for Humanity’, which is a world-wide operation involved in renovating pushbikes and delivering them to countries where transport options are either limited or non-existent.  B4H in WA commenced in 2011 and since then 23 40’

sea-containers holding 8,500 bikes have been delivered to Africa, with 1,500 sent to community schools in WA.  In Africa, the

sea-containers become workshops for bicycle distribution and maintenance – termed ‘Community Bike Resource Centres’ , providing the basis for a small sustainable business.   David said that supplying 800 bikes requires $12,000 for transport, and the overall cost of getting a bike to Africa is about $27. 

Rotary support is very important and the 5 rides that Justin and others have organised to various places in WA has raised about $50,000 for B4H.  So … well done everyone.

 

 

Given Rod Slater’s passion for ensuring safe drinking water in poorer countries, it is fitting that we have been able to use $6,000 of his large donation to provide a water filter for the Los Palos School in Timor Leste.  The school has in excess of 1,000 students that require supply and installation of a water filter.  Our support will contribute to the program managed by Max Bird from the Kwinana Rotary Club which has already supplied water filters in many communities.  Thanks to Greg Hunter for facilitating this worthy donation.  Interested members can visit the school and see the new water supply system in action.

 

 

 

Following from Jacqueline Baril’s excellent presentation about the work of Hannah’s House in supporting families looking after disabled children, the Club has donated $250 to the organisation.  Several members have also made donations to this worthy and much needed charity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A fine team of Rick and Debbie, Maree, Jim, Greg, Jacqueline, Warwick, Libby and Emi and Don and Bev arrived in Government House Gardens to provide breakfast to veterans and their families on Anzac Day.  We also had members of Perth RC and students from St George’s School helping out.  After the usual shakedown of ‘who is doing what’, ‘has anyone got a breadknife’ and ‘I want a sitting down job’, it was full-on from 7.00 to about 9.30 am when food supplies ran out.  We have no idea how many breakfasts of buns, egg and bacon we served, with Jacqueline and Maree and the students being the cheerful face of Rotary serving the breakfasts, while the rest of us were in the engine room trying to keep up.  Warwick, Libby and Emi avoided this enjoyable chaos and instead did an excellent job collecting funds - $2,275.79 – for Australian Rotary Health.  In summary a great and worthwhile activity, and well done to all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another posse of Heirisson members – Greg, Bob and Sheridan, Rick and Debbie, Ken, Bronwyn, Jim, Warwick and Don – travelled to Joondalup to assist with crowd control, having been enlisted by Justin – with payment for our efforts from the organiser . Although we were not entirely sure what we would be doing, we soon donned yellow shirts and found out that we were ‘Team Alpha’ managing crowd safety at one of the crossings along the 2.2 km track around the Joondalup CBD.  It was important work preventing people from crossing the road while cars were hurtling past at about 150 kph.  However, it was also a long day, and after some members complained about sore feet, Debbie did the noble thing and went down to Kmart and purchased two folding chairs, which are now the property of Heirisson Rotary! 

 

And finally, Emi is currently on the North West Safari, and we hope she is having a great time.  We are looking forward to seeing photos and hearing about it soon.

 

 

Three guys trying to get the spare out.