Valentina and her husband David, who have moved from Bogata in Colombia (note spelling!) gave us an entertaining and visually splendid tour of the delights of Colombia, and encouraged us all to visit their beautiful country.  It covers an area of 1,141,748 square kilometres (440,831 sq mi) and has a population of around 52 million. Its rich cultural heritage—including language, religion, cuisine, and art—reflects its history as a colony, fusing cultural elements brought by immigration from Europe and the Middle East, ith those brought by the African Diaspora as well as with those of the various Indigenous civilizations that predate colonization.  Colombia is one of the world's seventeen megadiverse countries; it has the highest level of biodiversity per square kilometre in the world and the second-highest level overall.  Its territory encompasses Amazon rainforest, highlands, grasslands and deserts.

 

 

The speaker was our own Jacqueline Baril who spoke about the "Shine for Hannah Month.”  Hannah’s House provides support to families caring for children with complex medical needs who face immense challenges—physically, emotionally, and financially. The funds raised through “Shine for Hannah: enable Hannah’s House to provide essential services, such as in-home nursing care, respite, emotional support, and guidance to families navigating these difficulties.  If you would like to make a donation to this important and worthy charity, please follow the link https://fundraise.hannahshouse.org.au/donate

 

 

 

To celebrate WA Youth Week, we were visited by GSHS teacher Thomas Baines and four students – Soe, Sharni, Riley and Makalya – who had been to RYPEN with support from Heirisson.  They gave an entertaining presentation of the activities at RYPEN and the challenges involved.  They all agreed it was a very worthwhile thing to have done, and thanked the Club for its support.  In addition, Freshta Danish from GSHS attended the 2025 NYSF in Canberra, with support provided by several clubs including Heirisson.  Freshta told us about the content of the program and said she had learned such a lot, and it reinforced her commitment to pursuing a tertiary STEM course. 

We also had visiting Rotarian Marc Schlotzhauer from the Rotary Club of Havelland-Konigswald who is completing his degree in Business Administration at Curtin University, before returning home.  He was able to provide his impressions of life and study in WA.

 

 

A team led by Rick Fletcher, comprising Jim Crossland, Ken Mullin, Sheridan Webb and Don Burnside gathered at our storage facility at Joondanna and did a mammoth cleanout of the large shed, sending heaps of items deemed surplus to requirements – enough to fill the trailer – to the Balcatta Tip.  In addition, we donated about 500 ducks to Peter Smith from the Mandurah Club, with the remainder of the Duck Derby Kit being donated to the Morley Club.  There were collated by Ahmed Siddique and Lukas Best and they are now stored at the Bassendean Men’s Shed.  Hooray!  It has been informally agreed in the event that Morley hold a Duck Derby, Heirisson will assist in being a beneficiary by selling tickets. 

The result of all this meant that we were able to bring the Eye Contact exhibition (in its two boxes) into the large shed, which means we have released the smaller shed, there by saving us about $230 per month in storage costs.  Another Hooray!

 

 

 

 

Francesco played in his basketball team’s semi-final but sadly they lost.  Not downhearted, Francesco has continued to be out and about and has a wish list of activities for his last few weeks in Australia, including a visit to Caversham Park to hold a koala  (Don), a bike ride around Rottnest Island to get a Quokka selfie (Don), iFly to try indoor parachuting (Sheridan and Bob), and attendance at a soccer match (Ken is looking into tickets for the Australia Japan match 5 June).  Currently he is back in Margaret River and after going to the Anzac Day football match with Bev, he will be off to the North West Safari.  When he returns from that, he will be moving to Sarah Burnside’s and Gareth Parry’s home in Coolbinia, until he returns to Argentina. 

 

 

 

 

Greg Hunter, Maree Liddell and Jim Crossland helped set-up for our all-day sausage sizzle at Bunnings in Bayswater. We made good money at this event with quite a lot of our members showing up to help. Don has sent the results to us all and most agreed it was good fun and the snags weren't bad either.

 

 

 

June Wade sussed out a great venue for this social evening, being at the Swan River Distillery in Victoria Park (see https://www.swanriverdistillery.com/) . All who attended had a great time as did Uber.   

 

 

 

We provided crowd control services at one of the street crossings at the JFOM on Saturday and Sunday 3 and 4 May.  It is quite an event, with fast cars whizzing past large crowds.  Providing this service provided valuable dollars for our fund-raising.   A big thanks to Debbie Fletcher who developed a schedule for people to be on duty.

 

 

The Ready for Adventure event is being held at the Wanneroo Showgrounds over three days (see https://www.ready4adventure.com.au/).  Thanks to Justin’s advocacy, we have the opportunity to provide parking services and we could raise a lot of money.  However, we need a lot of the people to help out and as well as Heirisson members, we are reaching out to other clubs to provide helpers.  Debbie and Rick can provide more information.. 

 

 

Changeover Dinner has been booked for Friday 13 June at the Victoria Park Hotel.  Please put this in your diary and await further instructions on the details!