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.