Hi Club Members,
Doesn’t seem like 2 weeks since we published the last Bulletin, so time is quickly racing by.
Not sure whether this is a product of age or that the Rotary year is on a fast track to conclusion.
When you see Changeover Functions being advertised then you know that time is not on our side.
The last couple of weeks at Rotary have been very interesting with a presentation from Mat Woods from Destination Queenstown.
Mat outlined to us the tensions and challenges faced by a community where tourism is at the heart, and the challenges the locals face where tourist numbers place additional pressures on our currently overworked infrastructure.
On Tuesday night we heard from Peter Oswald whose power point presentation included how many ways you could kill yourself as a free skier, to married life and responsibility and the challenges of constructing and freely utilising a Tiny Home for the benefit of the family and the community.
This week our guest speaker is Craig Robins.
Thanks to those members who shook a can for the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal on Thursday, and thanks to Julie for filling the roster. Very much appreciated.
Following the Club’s support of the RSA Poppy Collection, and the whip round we had during our ANZAC Themed evening the RSA have thanked us for our support and invited us to a Thank you event at the Memorial Hall Gallipoli Room on Friday 9th. Stuart MacLean and the Pres represented the Club.
The Shelterbox Off the Grid project is being held at Kelvin Heights Lakeland Christian Youth Camp on Friday 16th May. Monica as a Shelterbox Board member is championing this event. Don’t forget if you wish to spend some time there on the Friday evening you will be very welcome. Our Club will be contributing in support of this initiative.
We have had a number of visitors with us during the last couple of meetings, including Doug Coleman and his wife from the States, Y.Leon Chen and his wife from Taiwan, and Manasa Natere who is the newly appointed Salvation Army Officer to the Queenstown area.
The DG’s for NZ have at the 11th hour decided to endeavour to support struggling families and to support various foodbanks by collecting 1 million cans of food. Under the heading of Cans for a Cause the plan is to collect 1 million cans of food between 9th and 16th of June. While a meaningful project, our view is that the time frame to fully mobilise for such an initiative that lasts only 7 days is too tight and would require a longer lead time to maximise the result. We do not as a Club want to be in competition to other worthy causes that are already collecting canned foods in our local supermarkets. However, in consultation with our Community Director Grant we believe that our Club “can” (no pun intended) still contribute and propose the following:
- That Members consider donating up to $10.00 of canned food
- If each Club Member were to participate then circa 200 Cans of Food could be raised.
- Proceeds would remain local and could be split between the Salvation Army and Kiwi Harvest for example
- That on Tuesday June 3rd and June 10th we will have containers at our Rotary meeting into which the Members can present their donation.
We will continue to promote this initiative over the next few weeks.
Change Over is coming up on the 17th June, so Fiona has arrangements in hand for this event.
Look forward to seeing you at Rotary on Tuesday.
