594 Frankton Road
Turn off Frankton Road into Goldfields Heights then Goldfields Way
Queenstown
Cost: Meal cost or without meal $5
Please advise attendance, guests and meal orders (see below for menu) before each meeting by email by 5pm on the Sunday prior to each meeting via email
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President's Update
This weekend I attended the Rotary Club of Invercargill's 100th birthday celebration.
Over 100 years, the Invercargill Club has made a significant contribution to the Invercargill community commencing with assistance at the Invercargill Borstal to establishing the Blind Centre in Queens Park, the Crippled Children Society and Southland Enterprises.
Remarkably, with a population in Invercargill of only some 26,500 in the 1940’s, the Invercargill Club established the Queenstown Rotary Club in April 1944. Queenstown then had a population of 2,365. Invercargill didn't establish further Rotary Clubs in their city until the early 1960’s.
We celebrate our 80th anniversary on 13 April. The Queenstown Rotary Club also has much to be proud of in its contribution to our community.
Thank you to all our Rotarians and partners who are assisting at the Home Show and the NZ Golf Open.
One of the Conference sessions with Past Rotary International President Jennifer Jones, is a Question-and-Answer segment. Jennifer is happy to answer ANY questions you may have, on any topic. Please email your questions over the next few weeks to annagullyrotary@gmail.com The Conference Project team, together with MC Sarah van der Kley, will choose a shortlist of questions to put to Jennifer from your suggestions.
Our Guest Speaker on 20 February was our own Ross Beal.
We are aware of Ross and Rosanna’s commitment to the ‘Fountain of Peace’ organisation and its work in developing and supporting a home village in Uganda, for orphaned children, as well as a school for their residents plus the local community.
As the earlier residents grow older, the question of what they will do, post their schooling, began to occupy their minds. Ross and Rosanna have now turned their heads to the future education needs of the children in the care of Fountain of Peace, Uganda.
They are now focusing on a scholarship program that will ensure that the children, when aged 18-21, along with 5 other students that they are currently supporting, will be resourced so that they are able to aspire to and reach their educational goals be they tertiary or vocational. They will then have careers able to add value to Uganda’s economic development. The scholarship to each child will include course fees, resources and accommodation up to a value of NZ$3,000.
Ross and Rosanna have established the ‘Connor Beal Memorial Education Scholarship’ in memory of their late grandson, Connor, who succumbed to a rare form of blood cancer in 2011 at age 11. This scholarship will be the vehicle for providing this educational support.
“The educational scholarship will be Connor’s contribution to the lives of young Ugandan’s, providing an opportunity for them while giving purpose and meaning to a life taken from us so young”.
Ross also confirmed that he has concluded his role as a Trustee on the ‘Fountain of Peace Childrens Foundation NZ Board’ following a 11-year tenure.
Beyond Water is a charitable Trust established by Sharon and her husband, both Rotarians in Auckland.
Beyond Water began in 2007 and has assisted over 250,000 people by means of deep bore wells, rain water guttering, water tanks, toilet blocks, hand washing stations and sanity products. They erect guttering to enable hand washing stations.
Sharon clearly conveyed her message to us i.e. one of hope to ease water poverty for the people of East Africa. Beyond Water is passionate about bringing clean water and sanitation solutions to communities in need across East Africa. There, 30% of schools don’t have anything that resembles a toilet. Going to school is a privilege not a right and costs parents $2 per day per child. This is unaffordable for many.
Sharon related that it costs approximately $6,000 to build a toilet block. They are squat type, but are good, culturally acceptable, and will last an estimated 20 years. Education is a big focus, and they teach health and hygiene education in schools to songs and music.
A keen group of 9 Rotarians ascended the skyline (via the new gondola) to clear growing ‘Wilding Pines’ from our adopted plot.
Some 3,500 young plants were pulled from the ground, according to our club Environment leader, Richard Bowman. Lisa Pond recorded the top tally of over 550.
Spread out across our adopted plot, every tree that could be found was removed. Practically all were seedlings or very small saplings that could be easily hand pulled.
Richard reckons that we are keeping the site under control and are probably only going to need one workday a year to address regrowth.
Afterwards the team retreated down to ‘The Bavarian’ for essential hydration requirements.
Thanks to John Thompson, Roger Marsh, Hamish Murray, David Tait, Gabrielle Schou, Lisa Pond, Grant Rees, Richard Bowman and Tim Wilshire.