3 May 2020 (May 01, 2020)

From the President’s Desk.

On 3 May 2002 little Hanna Nygren Bergea was introduced to Sweden and to the world. Who would have thought that, in 2020, Hanna would be domiciled in Queenstown and sharing her 18^th Birthday with her Rotary International Youth Exchange host family. So, Happy Birthday Hanna from the Rotarians of the Rotary Club of Queenstown who have had the privilege of being your hosts for your Rotary Youth Exchange year here in New Zealand.

Hanna is from Nynashamn, Sweden (60km south of Stockholm) and is sponsored by the Nynashamn Rotary Club. Despite the restrictions that have been placed on her Exchange program, and her freedoms as a result of the world wide Covid-19 pandemic, Hanna has continued to embrace the opportunities of her time here in New Zealand. So from us Happy Birthday Hanna.

Hanna, you are a credit to your Family, your country, and your host Rotary Club, and you have been an exceptional student that we are all the richer for having you in our midst.

Stop Press: Hanna advises me that she has tickets and flights scheduled for a return to Sweden leaving Auckland on 9 July. We will monitor this as current flight schedules can be compromised - nothing is set in stone.

Rotarian Bruce Jefford took it upon himself to venture to New World for the simple purpose of purchasing 3 bottles of wine. Mission completed Bruce left the New World supermarket. In accordance with all of the protocol required of a community constable he proceeded to the footpath edge, he looked right, he looked left, and then he stepped out in front of an SUV moving through the carpark at speed. It is with sadness that I report that the 3 bottles of high quality Pinot Gris were declared deceased at the scene. Bruce reports that Pat was overcome with grief at the loss of these items of such value and she took it upon herself to immediately attend to offering solace and comfort to the distraught female driver of the SUV. On a bright note the New World took it upon themselves to provide Bruce and Pat with complimentary replacements.

Bruce also checked the toilet roll department to see if Kermit was correct.

PS: Bruce did survive and he also reports that he received a complimentary ride in a flash ambulance to the local hospital where they attended to repairing some cuts and bruises, a damaged elbow and determined that nothing was broken. He also confirms that he had not consumed any of the wine before leaving the supermarket. Pleased to hear that you are all OK Bruce.

Queenstown Rotary Club supports the Wakatipu Community Foundation

At last week’s Rotary Board ‘Zoom’ meeting your Directors were requested to consider support of the Wakatipu Community Foundation ‘Greatest Need’ fund. The purpose is to provide support to our community that is currently facing an unprecedented crisis as a consequence of Covid-19. The Directors were unanimous in confirming a recommendation to the Rotary Club of Queenstown Charitable Trust to support the Community Foundation to the tune of $20,000.

In February, at the Sponsors BBQ at Lake Hayes Pavilion, we had announced that Happiness House and Central Lakes Family Services would be the recipients of the Duck Race proceeds. Of course, with the cancellation of the Queenstown Winter Festival, the annual Duck Race is also cancelled. Your Directors wished to honour this commitment despite the cancellation and recognised that the needs of both these organisations will be heightened currently. The Directors therefore also requested the Trust to support these two charities and the recommendation was $4,000 to Happiness House, and $4,000 to Central Lakes Family Services.

In addition we have now received $9,200 from the car parking at the NZ Open in February and can confirm the distribution of these funds as announced equally to: Southland Hospice for Palliative Care Nurse, REAP for driver license training in Queenstown, Wakatipu Youth Trust, and Harvest Community Gardens Network Inc. I am delighted to report that the Trustees of the Charitable Trust have accepted and approved the recommendation above and, to that end, the Wakatipu Community Foundation Greatest Need Fund will receive $20k and Happiness House and Central Lakes Family Services, $4k each. Can I say thanks and my appreciation to the Directors, and also to Chairman Bruce Boivin and the Trustees, for their benevolence and for this commitment in support of our community organisations.

In response to the Donation to the Wakatipu Foundation, find below a copy of an email received on Friday from Jennifer Belmont.

Wow Chris and team you have made my day! Thank you so very much! This is incredible of you all.

The response from you and others has been both humbling and inspiring for our hard working team. To date, we have raised $580k from donations throughout the world and now have granted out over $170k. We did include Happiness House and Central Lakes Services in those initial grants and expect more funding in our next round.

We believe that the generosity of spirit shown in making a gift, any gift, at this critical time is the bedrock of what is good about this community, and will be what helps us all get through this current crisis together. We have an amazing community and I feel so very very blessed to be a part of it.

So thank you..thank you. I am overwhelmed with gratitude.

Jennifer Belmont

Trustee, Wakatipu Community Foundation

So in summary, despite the lockdown and the restraints and freedoms applied under Alert Level 4 and Alert Level 3, your Rotary Club is still doing some good stuff for the benefit of a community that is hurting right now. With hospitality, accommodation and tourism on its knees due to the Coronavrius, and somewhere around 8000 people out of work, the financial support committed by you, the members of the Rotary Club of Queenstown in support of our community, makes me, and should also make you, proud.

So that brings week one of Alert Level 3 to a close and despite access to coffee and takeaways, it does not seem any different to the previous five weeks. However can we dare to say one week to go ???.

I suspect that when we do get back to Rotary meetings, we may need to introduce photo ID so that we will recognise each other. I noted on recent ‘Zoom’ meetings that Chris Taylor has changed his name to “Paddy”, and Bruce Boivin and David

Tait have lost contact with their shavers and are sporting great beards. Maybe we could have a “shaveathon” and auction these off for charity ?? In addition education has continued as Tony Robins and Ken Fox have mastered the technology of video conferences and David Broomfield has multiple computer screens and his desk looks like the cockpit of the Spaceship Enterprise. That said I note that I have 3 screens running plus an IPad - the world has gone mad !!

All the best to you each for the week ahead, hopefully we are nearly through this and with a little bit of luck the Government may cut us loose on the 11th of May. We will watch this space with interest.

As with every Bulletin over the last 6 weeks, my offer still stands that if any of you require any support of any type please do not hesitate to give me a call and we will endeavour to get it sorted for you.

Look after yourselves take care stay safe.

Kia Kaha Rotarians

Nga mihi mahana

Ross

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