Alas, plans to provide more regular Heirisson Happenings did not realise and this is the first one since early May!  Still there has been a lot happening and so please read on.

 

Our Changeover Dinner was held on 13 June at the Victoria Hotel, with the theme being something to do with ‘Friday the 13^th’.  It was a grand occasion and we were delighted to have DG Pat, and Barbara Newton (Principal, GSHS) join us.  The best dressed woman was Maree (again!) and best dressed man was Warwick who looked like a spooky Headmaster.  The new Board was welcomed, looking remarkably like the old Board, with the exception that Bronwyn Denman has stepped up as President 2025-2026.  Good on you Bronwyn!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the last few months, we have had interesting speakers including Debbie Fletcher who described the major’ Land Use Agreement covering the south west of the state’, Helen Cawardine from Shelterbox who described her’ Trek through the Tarkine in Tasmania’, Francesco Boquet who gave a most amusing farewell presentation covering ‘his year’s exchange in WA’, our resident poly math Ken Mullin who presented twice – firstly dealing with the nature of Digital Assistants on Phones and then ‘the challenges of working in an AI world’ and  Don Burnside who talked about leading ‘a tour of national and internation visitors across the Nullarbor.’

 

 

 

 

 

After frantically ticking some items on his bucket list (going to Rottnest and seeing a quokka, seeing a koala, watching some more football), Francesco left on 7 July.  A group of past host parents and club members farewelled him.  He said a number of times how much he enjoyed his exchange and how appreciative he is of all that we did for him.  The news from Argentina is that he is settling in back at home, but he not very excited about having the take school seriously. 

 

 

 

It has been a busy few weeks taking Eye Contact to a range of venues, including Penhros College, Girrawheen Senior High School, several libraries in the City of Stirling, and the Street Chaplains Annual Conference.  Upcoming outings will be at the Joondalup Wanneroo End Homeless Group (12-18 October), and City Matters an event being held on 15 November. The exhibition has a huge impact whereever it is shown, especially at schools.  We will be looking for bookings in 2026 later this year.

Phil England (now deceased), creator of Eye Contact

 

The PHSG provides free food and clothing to needy people each Sunday morning and we joined other volunteers on 29 June.  It was a great experience for those present (Ken, Justin, Sheridan, Maree, Warwick, Don, Bev – I think that was all), in getting an insight to the issues facing Perth’s poor.  The effort put in by the PHSG folk is inspiring.  We will be doing that again on Sunday 31 August.

 

As in previous years, we again supported the Clontarf Academies Combined Sports Day, by – you guessed it – doing a sausage sizzle for the hungry basketball and footy players.  Jacqueline and Don did the honours, after they had managed to get the barbecues going at the Kingsway Venue.  The young lads demolished a mountain of sausages and onions in a very short time!.  It was an enjoyable outing.

 

 

We have made a good start to fund raising this year.

Thanks to Justin, we all had chores to do at R4A (being Ready for Adventure) and we raised plenty of money supervising traffic and organising parking.  Unfortunately we did not come away with as much money as we hoped, and one young bloke felt his need was greater that Rotary’s in making off with the some of the proceeds, and we have learnt a lesson from that experience.

We have had three outings running the sausage sizzle at Bunnings in Bayswater, with the net proceeds being about $4,500.  We have got the process down to a fine art now, and we hope for more bookings over coming months.

Classic Cars and Coffee is still going well, although returns over the winter months are down a bit.  However, it is still a worthwhile event, and an opportunity to see some great cars