Quiz brings out the friendship and ... competitiveness

The annual Rotary Quiz  is always an excuse for a good laugh and the 'clash' between the Rotary Clubs of St Johns and Auckland East was the very finest example.  Typically St John put up its finest - a team of our younger members being Team Leader Anil, Fiona (dressed as a fairy to bring on the spells) and our Ambassadorial Scholar Wesley. 

It was clear they had been weel briefed on the 15 minute preparation rule that applies to all St Johns Rotary teams but held their own in the first Rotary question round against the formidable experience of the much more mature Auckland East Rotary team.  After the draw of the first quesytion round the second did not fare quite so well but the courage and daring of Fiona in attempting a couple of questions that did not quite pay off was applauded. Throughout the audience participated fully with appropriate cheers, jeers, cat-calls and estatic applause ... at times.

A fun meeting yet again!

Other highlights were the comparison of the Rotary Calendar vs the delicious Rotary Christmas Puddings - both are very good personal and corporate gifts with the bonus of supporting the community at the same time.  For both you can contact Christie or email stjohnsrotary@gmail.com   The 2012 Calendars are $10 and the puddings $20.

Trivia in abundance but what a night!

Saturday night saw 170+ people making up 20 teams gathered at the St Heliers School Hall for a night promoted as "FUN, LAUGHTER & TRIVIA".  It was all of that.  Teams comprised some Rotary club, corporate, political and mixed teams. 

Quiz Master extraordinaire, Steele, ensured that the thoughful, interesting and sometime outright obscure questions developed by our resident knowledge-bank Frank were delivered and answered professionally and with the Four Way Test in mind ... possibly.  This of course was helped by the wine (yes we had a licence for the wine, beer .. and soft drink) and the atmosphere created by the teams of whom most dressed up to represent their values (or lack of) and intent to have a FUN night out.

Being reponsible hosts the table decorations included plentiful snacks to nibble on, followed by delicious pizzas and finshed off with desserts on a stick.

However, in addition to the fun, the other purpose of the evening was to raised funds for the club's community projects in the year ahead and give members of the community the opportunity to support this.  To this end, in addition to the admission investment of a whole $25 per person there were a series of raffles, the opportunity to purchase quiz answers (a certain political group did this well - thank you and please come back next year) plus an auction with some amazing items donated including an impressive painting done by Brenda (what talent).

The total for the evening was over $8,000.  Thank you everyone for taking part - come back next year and bring even more friends.

To see a 3 minute video from the evening CLICK HERE 

Golfers in support of SHINE

Tuesday 8 November saw a full course at the Remuera Golf Course for the second annual Brian Gibbes Memorial Golf Tournament by the Rotary Club of St Johns Inc.  Brian Gibbes was a past member of the club and passionate about golf and helping youth.  Therefore the memorial tournament was established to raise funds to then be applied to a scholarship in Brian's name for promising youth needing a helping hand up.


The day was fine and every person on the course had a thoroughly great time and a huge thanks go to the main organisers, Gary Key and Andy McCarrison who of course were ably assisted by many club members. But the main thanks goes to the main sponsor and the many corporate teams supporting this fantastic cause. 


The scholarship will be implemented in partnership with SHINE.  This year's tournament raised at least $18,000 and this will be added to the $20,000 from last year to provide a capital base from which the scholarship will be funded.

Women in Rotary

Some members have assisted with the Women in Rotary display at the Every Women Expo.

Have a look at http://www.womeninrotary.rotarysouthpacific.org/

Bowled over

What a night!  Seven teams of six bowlers enjoyed a colourful night of Ten Pin Bowling - members and friends... and who was that lady in red.  Teams were named by colours and most dressed to suit - the yellow team took the 'colours'.  Bowling styles - let's just say there were several although it was noted that Peter was the fastest at 19.63mph and Angela attempted to go with her ball down the lane.  Isabella and Colin managed to go the wrong way to the distress of their team mates but Patrick ... what a high score (must have been practicing every day at lunch). And Liane was spotted using THE RAMP but it kept her out of the gutter unlike some.  Thanks Brenda for organising a great night out.

Camera - and action

The meeting of the 29th September was another busy one with many guests including a couple of prospective members and a film crew continuing the documentary of Varayame's story.

Varayame is becoming a fan of our breakfasts, tucking in with healthy appetite. It is now almost a whole year to the day since he arrived into New Zealand and he has now completed six surgeries and his extraordinary recovery from his last, being the amputation of his feet, means that following breakfast he was off to the Limb Centre to be fitted for his prosthetics and begin the process of learning to walk for the first time.  Varayame continues to be very active in his new found sport - wheelchair basketball.  His dream is to become a doctor.  The meeting contributed $170 from the day's Sergeant Session (Sunshine Fund) to help Varayame with those little things that he needs to purchase as his stay extends.



Not a powerpuff in sight and President Bruce ran the meeting with the usual efficiency and humour.  Of particular note wasFriday's social Ten Pin Bowling where there are now 7 teams competing.  Then of course, teams and sponsors are being assembled for the Golf Day on 8 November and also for the Trivial Night on 12 November - click here for the flyer and full information

Mary Ann provided a hugely interesting account of her trip to conquor Mt Kilimanjaro.  The preparation for the trip, the effort of the climb, the exhilaration of reaching the top ... exhausting and inspiring.  The often observed holds true - our own members invariably rank top as quality guest speakers.

Scholarship winner places 2nd at CORK OCR

Young kiwi Laser Radial sailor, Andrew McKenzie placed second at the CORK Olympic Classes Regatta in Canada, hot off the back of a win in the youth regatta which preceded it.

“Arriving with one day to acclimatize on the back of 30 hours of travel was not easy however, my Rotary host family made me feel very welcome and at ease,” reports Andrew.

“The light and shifty conditions of the CORK International regatta made for a challenging start. My pre regatta winter training on Auckland harbour, in equally light and choppy conditions, proved to be the perfect preparation and resulted in me winning the Laser Radial youth event with five wins from ten races in the 150 competitor strong fleet.”

The second regatta was the CORK OCR, an open event.  “The competition for this regatta was of a much higher standard and included the top Canadian women Olympic trialists. Conditions were better with predominantly 12-16 knots for the three days that racing was able to take place although the other two days were lost due to extreme weather.  Consistency was the key. Eight out of ten finishes in the top six was enough to secure 2nd overall. I am extremely happy with how I sailed and have learnt many new things on big fleet racing and boat speed.”

McKenzie, from Auckland’s Kohimarama Yacht Club, was in Canada for the CORK Regattas after being selected as the 2011 recipient of the Yachting New Zealand St John’s Rotary Scholarship.

“It was an awesome couple of weeks racing for the young guy who has two more years left as a youth and will now come home to start getting ready for the coming year’s youth selection trials aiming to make the NZL Yachting Trust Youth Team to go to Dublin, Ireland in July 2012,” says YNZ’s Youth Head Coach Ian Neely.

From: Briefings, 8 September 2011 Yachting New Zealand newsletter

St Johns Facebook is now up and running.

A Facebook page has been created for the club.  Anil will be administering this and will bring it on-line as a comunity contact point for the club over the next little while:


Click here to view the Facebook page


This Blog will continue to showcase the activityies of the club and the website www.stjohns.rotarysouthpacific.org will be the clubs primary administratyion, contact and information resource.

Ladies of St Johns Romanian Cooking Event

Next time - cooking for dummies, and event for the men

Three in One Meeting - just incredible

Today's meeting was amazing with Varayame attending following the amputation of his feet - his recovery from this is so incredible and his spirits so high, especially at the likelihood of prosthetics being fitted next week that he lifted everyone's spirits as well; this is a club/ROMAC project.  In addition we had the Fiji RWC team along for breakfast and also our guest speaker Andrew McKenzie, this year's St Johns Rotary Youth Yachting Scholar. 

Fiona shares a quip with Fijian RWC team members

What a breakfast - continental and / or cook - what choice!

The "Sergeant Session" was highly entertaining and very well thought out. 
Anyone who thought a Rotary meeting was dull got that myth thoroughly dispensed with!

Andrew McKenzie is a high achiever with commendable future plans and is the 15th
scholar and like his predecessors finished tops in the CORK Regatta in Kingston. The scholarship provides promising young sailors assistance to their first international competition



Other activities mentioned during the meeting were:

• An update on Varayame (mentioned above)
• The success of the Glen Taylor Camp that many members made donations to
• The Brian Gibbes Memorial Golf Tournamant in October to raise funds for a sporting scholarship
• Also in October is the Trivia Night raising funds for club projects but also an incredibly popular fun event
• Simon Jones gave an update on Deltacom and the fact that the club support programme has contributed $18,000 back to the club over the years and 150,000 to Rotary in general - people signing up can ask for 5% of their bill to be donated to their charity - in this case, the club.  More information later as services have hugely increased since first launched.

At Africa's Highest Point

Member Mary Ann Davison with here good friend Nicola Dewar at Uhuru Peak - the very top of Kilimanjaro in August

Truely 'Active in the Community'

NEWSFLASH

Update from the Community Committee (Local and World):

• Dictionaries for Schools:  Students in Pius, St Josephs, Glenn Innes and Glen Taylor Primary Schools have recently received their dpictorial dictionaries at a special presentation.  For some students this is the first book they can truely call their own.
• Hospice Garage Sales:  Club members continue to support these - an easy hands on opportunity
• The Great Kiwi ANZAC Day Breakfast:  Planning for the 2012 ANZAC Day breakfasts event continues.  Look at http://www.thegreatkiwianzacdaybreakfast.co.nz/
• Habitat for Humanity:  Another hands on building dau is being organised for early 2012
• Varayame:  This ROMAC project initiated and supported by the club has been an huge success - see earlier Blog Posting
• Zambia:  a USD250,000 project between Rotary and Child Fund where the funding has been approved and in-process of being made available so the work in Zambia can commence.  The vast amount of work by members Gary Key and Gary Lord is acknowledged
• Samoa Water Project:  this joint water project with the Rotary Club of Auckland Harbourside has now been completed and the project report is due out shortly
• Group Study Exchange (medical focus with Alaska - District project): Club has offered to host the inbound team for part of their stay in March 2012 and has submitted a application to the GSE Outbound committee for an excellent candidate who the committee has recently interviewed.
• Ambassadorial Scholar:  Wesley Johnston is with the club and the club has flagged its interest in hosting again next year, possibly also looking for a suitable outbound candidate from the local community.
• Emergency Response Kits (& ShelterBox):  the club will continue to support this project.  ShelterBox will be on display at the clubs stand at the St Heliers Festival in early 2012.
• Trees for Survival:  This continues but a new club champion is needed.  The growing unit is at Glendowie Primary.
• Fundraising activities are varied but include Rotary art calendars, the delicious Christmas Puddings and Entertainment Books

A Welcome and a Farewell

Welcome to Christine (centre), our newest member who was introduced to the club by Brenda.  Christine holds a senior position at the University of Auckland and has the classification Medical Operations Manager.  Living in St Heliers, she is looking to continue her involvement in the local community through the club.

Also at this meeting we farewelled Carin who is moving to Malaysia but is keen to remain a district member but through the eClub that is in the process of being formed.  Thank you Carin for your support and involvement of the club during your time with us and all members wish you the very best for the future.

Meeting at Grace Joel - retirement to look forward to?

Club meetings are an opportunity to socialise, plan for service and have fun.  Occasionally, the club holds meetings at alternate venues and here is the report from one such meeting in September:

A most enjoyable breakfast meeting hosted by Grace Joel.  We were treated to delicious array of dishes in their rather luxurious dining room prior to being addressed by Brooke Read, Sales Adviser at Grace Joel.  Brooke explained that Grace Joel is part of the Ryman Health Care group which has 24 villages throughout NZ with plans afoot to launch into the Australian market next year.

The village offers a range of options from independent apartment living to full hospital care and everything in between. Residents reside in stunning homes, and enjoy fabulous resort style facilities which include an indoor pool and spa, beauty salon, gym, library, bowling green, shop and so much more.  With the change in demographic of residents over the past 20 years the minimum entry age has recently been raised to 70 years.  Interestingly enough our very own Gary Key was showing a great deal of interest in the facilities on offer however with the level of repartee flying around, there is a strong possibility he’s already been black listed! Certainly an entertaining meeting!  For most members, enjoying such facilities is still a distant dream with year of work still ahead of them before retirement.

Varayame progressing

Varayame had his last operation, and very successful, to remove his feet on 23 August - in fact it went so well he bypassed ICU and went straight back to his room.  He is in plaster to the thigh and will be going back to family in Auckland very soon where he will have the plaster on for another week.  As soon as he has properly healed he will be fitted with prosthetics at the Auckland Limb Centre.  This process will take at least 6 to 8 weeks and it is hoped he will return home to Fiji around the end of November.

This is a project of Rotary Oceanic Medical Aid for Children and the Rotary Club of St Johns Inc to restore this young man to health and his ability to walk again - for more information about ROMAC go to www.romac.rotarysouthpacific.org in the first instance.

Foir an additional article about Varayame on his arrival go to http://stjohnsrotary.blogspot.com/2011/05/club-provided-support-and-family.html 

Cleaning up the (yachting) field

Breaking news

Andrew McKenzie, the current awardee of the StJohns Rotary Yachting Scholarship has "cleaned up" the field in Kingston. 

The scholarship was set up by the club over 12 years ago to help fund promising young sailors to their first international regatta - the CORK regatta in Kingston, Canada.  All these awardees have excelled and some have gone onto Olympic competition.  The scholarship is now administered by Yachting New Zealand.  Most of these sailors compete in the Laser Radial section but there have also been a couple of board sailors.

A wedding

A unique wedding in the Rotary world, in New Zealand at least, was held last Friday when our very own Ambassadorial Scholar Wesley Johnson and his fiancé Elyse Collins were married in St Stephens church in Ponsonby, followed by a reception held at the home of Michele and Eddy Mann. The bride looked stunning in a short white dress, and the groom had polished up quite well too! Many thanks to Brenda and all the many others who helped with this event and made it the great social success it was, enjoyed by all present.

On top of Africa

Congratulations to (Tensing) Mary-Ann on reaching the sumit of Mount Kilimanjaru in Tanzania last Friday, at 5,895 meters, no mean feat!

Fish 'n Chip Night reeled then in

A great venue (thanks Michele and Eddie) and great company.  The pictures show it all:

An amazing time at the 2011 Rotary Youth Leadership Award camp!

Five fabulous young people provided us with an entertaining account of how RYLA 2011 has empowered them with new skills, courage and the motivation to succeed.

Oliver Bartosh, Brett Band, Kimberley Mayhead, James Wilburn and Joshiah Lord were selected by St John’s Rotary as the 2011 RYLA attendees. Oliver and James recapped the messages of the various speakers that provided a cohesive mix of laughter and learning to deliver a variety of motivational messages. Kimberley explained how these same motivational messages were key tools when the groups were formed and dispatched on ‘the island experience’ accompanied by the NZ Army. 24 hours of grueling physical activity followed, survival skills and fitness levels were sorely tested.

Joshiah spoke of the Dragon’s Den experience and the novel and  inspirational ideas that emerged that day.

Brett summed up for us what a truly wonderful project RYLA is and how grateful and proud they all were to have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to participate. They arrived as timid individuals and explained how they quite quickly bonded into a group to meet the challenges before emerging at the end of the week physically and mentally exhausted but somehow totally exhilarated and motivated to ‘seize the day’ !

Busy meeting!

Left to right: sitting -  Sara Graham-Reid and Varayame,
standing - Sitiveni Rubuka and Varayame's mother

The meeting on 30 June was busy (what's new!) with many guests:

Update on Varayme - Sarah said that his progress was excellent consdering with his spinal infection resolved and he is funally out of hospital for a break prior to returning for surgery to his feet that will enable him to walk (after a fashion) for the first time.  The Sergeant's Session of $242 went to assist Varayame's family with their expenses while in NZ.

Isabella was thanked for arranging the very successful participation by club members in a Habitat for Humanity project that built a house over a weekend.

Solene attended her last meeting prior to returning to France this Sunday.  She was quite tearful and said that the "club was like a big family - you guys get on so well and it's hard to leave". 

Our Guest Speaker for the meeting was Major General Sitveni Rubuka (former Fiji Prime Minister).  He spoke of the sutuation in Fiji, mentioning that his greatest achievement oiver the years was to replace the constitution with on that started "We the people" as opposed to the former that was granted by Queen Elizabeth.  He said that todaym the people of Fiji were still trying to find a consitution that best suits them but it may not be possible to find the ideal.  In the meantime the situation in Fiji is murky and uncertain.

Congratulations - well deserved recognition

To complete the formalities of the Changeover, at the meeting of 30 June, Immediate Past President Andy received his special gift from the club members for his year as President (2010-2011).

It has been a tradition with the club for many years to show the club's appreciation to the outgoing president with a carciature

IPP Andy also presented Neil Dewar with a Paul Harris Fellow recognition.  He said Neil was "Mr Reliable", someone who could always be counted on to do all that was asked of him well and went about this with a quiet efficency.  Well done Neil.

After another successful year! a new team takes over ...



Solene in Gisha with host family Alex and Wendy

 The annual Changeover of club officers occurred at a theme dinner (Chess and Thai) at the Remuera Golf Club.  The atmosphere was jovial and we were delighted to have join us District Governor Elect Alan Eyes and Claire plus our Assistant Governor Willard Martin (also DGNN) and Gabrielle.

President 2010-2011 Andy expressd his thanks to the club for another outstanding year which saw members enjoy the cameraderie of a club doing great things.  He ran over some of the many highlights - these will be included in his formal report to the AGM in December but just some include:

Pres Andy

• Hosting two Ambassadorial students - Wesley is still with us
• Hosting RYE student Solene
• The inagural Brian Gibbes Memorial Golf Tournament
• A fantastic selection of inspiring and high quality weekly guest speakers
• A variety of socials that kept the spirits of members high and included family
• A club team in the Cure Kids $10 Queenstown Challenge
• The successful application for a large joint project in Zambia
• A water project in Samoa
• Varyame (ROMAC) medical project
• plus the usual Youth leadership programmes

President Andy made a very special recognition of a Paul Harris Fellow Sapphire Pin recognition to Gary Key for his dedication and immense contribution to several major projects including the ROMAC - Varyame and  Zambia projects.  Acknowledgement was also made of Lloyd Williams whose long service to the club was recognised and his long stint as club Secretary.

Then President Andy handed over to incoming President Bruce, a club in good heart. President Bruce introduced his Board and commented that while we were active in the community he wanted to place more emphasis on the club coming better known in the community, especially through a growth in projects involving the local community. 

The exciting times of a Rotary Youth Exchange student

"Rotary Youth Exchnage isn't a year in your life, its life in your year" - Solene Moutier at her presentation to the club on 9 June.  Solene is about to complete her year hosted by the club - 14 July 2010 to 3 July 2011.

Solene's Top Ten experiences:

10)  Rotary
Owes a lot to Rotary and would like to give something back in the future - definately would like to stay a part of Rotary in some form long-term
9) School Community - Glendowie College
Really enjoyed her time at the College.  Schoo time in Frnace is strictly learning time compared to NZ where the school is a community involving sports, recreational and cultural actoivities.  A much greater opportunity to get to know peope and make friends.
8) Black Water Rafting

Congratulations Isabella!

Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Mrs Isabella Huihana Tedcastle, of Auckland. 
For services to the community.

Congratulations Isabella from all the members of the Rotary Club of St Johns.  Well deserved.

Mamma Mia

The New Generations (Youth) and Vocational Committee know how to party! - Last night they had their end of year committee dinner at Mamma Mia in Mission Bay and the 20 present had a great time.

Novotel $10 Queenstown Challenge

Beryl meeting another team after her (& Colin's) exciting ride
to Taihape in this logging truck from Taupo
- an example of the possible experiences!



 Yet again, the Rotary Club of St Johns Inc will have a team in the Novotel $10 Queenstown Challenge.  Current President Andy McCarrison and Graham Peters will be the team this year and this is a perfect opportunity for members, families and friends (and anyone else) to donate a few dollars to this incredibly worthy cause.  Enquire how to donate today - every dollar counts
St Johns Rotary had teams in 2006 (Beryl Robinson and Rotaractor Sam), 2008 (Toni Millar and Rotaractor Divya Dhar), 2009 (Beryl - again, and Colin Robinson), 2010 (Patrick Bell and Andy Francis).

Click on:  Novotel $10 Queenstown Challenge to learn more (go to 'Events - Novotel $10 Challenge)

Rotary founded Cure Kids and remains an active partner.

The personal life of Wesley Johnson

Wesley gave us a detailed run down on his life in North Carolina where he lives on the family farm with an assortment of pets, and dead animals derived from his sport of hunting anything that moves, including turkeys! He is also keen on owning and restoring classic cars and owns several motorbikes. Other hobbies include building, coin collection, genealogy, investing, entrepreneurship, old things, WW II and furniture making!! Combined with his studies, travel and communicating with fiancée Elise we are not at all sure where he finds the time for it all! Previous research has included

studies of bats, ants and bio-diesel fuels and he is now studying a Master of Science in Environmental Management on the subject— Alternative Fuels in the NZ Forestry Industry at the U of A.

Also at today's meeting our International Youth Exchange student, Solene, gave an update on her attendance at the Districvt 9920 Conference in Tahiti - clearly she had a great time and was excpeptionally fortunate that this year's conference was held in such an exotic location!  Next year we can all enjoy the pleasures of the Bay of Islands (Waitangi).  The life of an IYE student is never dull as she has also attended the Challenge Camp so click here to find out more and see a slideshow 

The Adventures of Carin

Recent new member Carin was this week's guest speaker and as is usual,  our own members have incredibly interesting tales to tell.  Sge had a conventional professional life in Holland and their first adopted child.  The easy life was not enough, so they set off initially for Katmandu in Nepal in 2001 collecting their second child on the way.  Nepal has 20 million people, a number which surprised many of us, and 30% of them are below the poverty line (considered to be US$12/month/person!).  The family then moved to Hanoi in Vietnam in 2003 with a population of 90 million, but with a higher standard of living.  They moved to NZ in 2008.

 

Carin joined a Rotary club in Taranaki prior to her move to Auckland and joined St Johns Rotary after meeting some of the members manning a stand in the Meadowbank Shopping Centre in support of the Cure Kids Red Nose Day in 2010.

Hawai'i from the inside

Speaker - 12 May 2011:  Ambassadorial Scholar Megan Kirkpatrick, who is being hosted by the Remuera club gave us a unique view of her home State and made us realise there is much more to it than the main islands and Honolulu! There are in fact 8 main islands and 132 others who became part of the USA in 1959.  The main actvites are tourism, military educaton and agriculture. Megan is from Kaua'i where there is an area in the north which has 12m/annum of rain and is the wetest place on the planet! Megan went to school on Oahu studying the Environment, heard about the scholarship from a friend and came to Auckland because UoA is a good school for the Environment. She is studying for a Masters in Environmental Science based on Tiri Tiri Matangi research on plant seeding survival.

End of Year committee meeting ?!



With the Rotary year coming to an end (30 June), each of the club's three standing committees traditionally have a dinner with partners to celebrate another successful year's service but this year the consensus was to combine and have a larger social event.  This was held on Friday 13 May at Mishashi, a local Japanese restaurant.  The food was fantastic and very reasonably priced ... even better when the Entertainment Book coupons was used by those who supported that fund raiser!  The four members pictured at the front of the snapshot were clearly having a great time, enjoying the miso soup, the wine and most of all the conversation.

Our newest member - welcome Fiona

Fiona was introduced to the club by Beryl and inducted today by President Andy.  She said that of all the many clubs she had been a guest speaker at, St Johns Rotary was by far the most welcoming and friendly and over the last few weeks of coming to meetings she has really enjoyed herself and is really looking forward to her time as a member.

Speaker - Judy Bailey & the Brainwave Trust

Judy Bailey Trustee of the Brainwave Trust at 5 May meeting

Brainwave is a charitable trust which exists to educate New Zealanders from all walks of life about the latest research in neuroscience. We now know that a child’s experiences from concepti

on to three largely determine how their brain develops, and whether they will become capable,  ontributing, well adjusted adults. The trust has a great deal of information they’d like to pass on – to parents, to educators, to health professionals, to social workers, to anyone who works with or parents children! Judy gave us a fascinating talk about the workings and growth of the childhood brain containing far too much material to record here. For more information see the trust website at www.brainwave.org.nz

The Early Years and Brain Development,

Turning NZ$100 into US$250,000

It is always amazing what is possible in Rotary and that an idea originating from one Rotarian can be turned into something incredibly worthwhile.  The "devil is in the detail" of course but the over view is:

Child Fund gave an inspiring talk to members at a breakfast meeting and one member enquired what the club could do to help children in need in Zambia.  From that a small project team of three developed and after much discussion and negotiation with Child Fund, the Rotary Club of Maluba in Zambia local to where the project would be implemented, becoming "expert" in the requirements of the Rotary Foundation's Matching Grant process with the help of the District 9920 Rotary Foundation Committee an application for a Contestable Matching Grant was lodged with The Rotary Foundation.  The Rotary Foundation sent an 'inspector' to the project site in Zambia to verify the details lodged and the value of the project.  In an environment where there were many similar high value projects, the Rotary Club of St Johns application has ben accepted.  Now the real work begins ....

Another member knows a lot

Steele receiving his RLI graduation pin
from District Governor Nicolas

Steele was the newest member to complete the Rotary Leadership Institite (RLI) programme.  As a Rotarian education programme there have now been five members of the club who have graduated from this in the two years since it was started in the district.  Steele commented that the course was a huge amount of fun with some really neat people and he now knows a lot about Rotary.  The club has another three members part-way through so with Beryl as the Division Chair and both her and Colin as RLI Facilitators almost a quarter of the club has benefited from the programme.

More information about RLI is at http://www.rli.rotarysouthpacific.org/

Varayame's Feet - a life changed forever

The club provided support and family hosting for a Rotary Oceanic Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) patient (Varayame) brought to New Zealand from Fiji for life saving surgery.  This is described in the article in the May 2011 issue of Rotary Down Under magazine - to read the article click here

There are significant medical challenges but irrespective of the final outcome Varayame's life will be changed for the better as will be that of his family on whose care he has been reliant.

For more information on ROMAC please visit http://www.romac.rotarysouthpacific.org/

Just starting

Welcome to the Rotary Club of St Johns Inc Blog.  This will tell just some of the stories of what the club does and achieves.  The club website is at http://www.stjohns.rotarysouthpacific.org/ and the club email is stjohnsrotary@gmail.com

Since its Charter in September 1989, the club has achieved a huge amount.  In the 2010-2011 Rotary year (starting 1 July 2010) some of the highlights to date have been:

• Wesley Johnston from Texas as the second Ambassadorial the club has hosted in the last two years arrived.
• Solene from France is of course our current International Youth Exchange student being hosted by the club amd member families.
• The inaugural golf tournament for the Brian Gibbes Memorial Gold Scholarship was an outstanding success and the first scholarship will be awarded at the second tournament scheduled for October 2011.
• A hugely successful Rotary Youth Driver Awareness course was held at Glendowie College - over 110 student took part
• Four students from Selwyn College were sponsored onto the 2011 Rotary Youth Programme of Enrichment weekend, learning leadership skills and making many new friends.
• Socials have been highlights as well with pizza nights, concerts, and more recently the day trip to Tiri Tiri Matangi.