Happy Australia Day!
I shall be representing Rotary at the Citizenship Ceremony in the City of Perth. But in case you think I'm the only Rotarian who's doing anything this week, I thought I should update you all on all the other things that our members have been getting up to in the quiet month of January. There's actually so much being done by so many that I just can't keep up... and my last email was getting too long.
Our silent achiever, Judith Pinczuk, has been keeping tabs on a couple of initiatives to address the homeless issue in partnership with several other Rotary Clubs around Perth. Keep an eye/ear out over the next couple of weeks for more information about the Rotary Hamlets Project. We're planning for this to be the Rotary Australia Centenary Project. Barry Thornton has accelerated his learning of the Chinese language. He has put together a series of ads and media releases in the Oriental Post to promote our fundraiser on Friday, 8/2/2019, at our Chinese New Year Lunch. With all that effort he has put in, please make sure you don't disappoint him by booking your attendance at www.trybooking.com/ZJOU Our tireless peace-maker, Jurgen Baumhoff, who is active in both of the world's leading peace builders (Rotary and UN) has been busy building the relationship between the Rotary Club of Perth and UNAAWA. Not satisifed with just getting the initiatives of the our club published in their local newsletter, he continues to promote Rotary to other UN organisations across Australia with an article about the Rotary Path to Peace submitted for publication their national newsletter. After a short break Phillip Skelton is back on deck canvassing support from key people in our state for the Rotary Path to Peace Project. Having briefed our Director of Community Service, David Wee, he now has an unstoppable team who are gearing up to present a draft plan to the state authorities. Apart of putting together the plan for the coming year, President-Elect Vangelis had been wheeling and dealing his way into the locker rooms of Perth Glory and Manchester United to have them to put up a show for us later this year (don't worry, it won't be in the locker rooms). Get your autograph books and selfie-sticks ready. I don't know how she manages it, but Jill continues to send and receive 100 emails a day to make sure that the next couple of events coming up are organised. In between that she tries to run her family business and look after her family, including planning for Uncle John's upcoming visit. The Very Reverend John Shepherd is busy packing his bags after being tapped on the shoulder by the Archbishop of Canterbury to take office as the Interim Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome. I'm sure he'll have even more entertaining stories for us when he returns later this year. We're going to miss him for a while. Past RYE Victoria Creux (from Paris...remember her?) continues to promote peace and goodwill across cultures 7 years after her year in Perth. When I spoke to her last week, she was just finishing off with UNICEF Cambodia and looking for opportunities in Shanghai. If you have any contact that may be beneficial to her for employment or just social, please let me know, or contact her direct if you still have her details. Don Mazzucchelli has been brushing up on his Italian and WA history as he and Maxine hosted our Italian Rotary Exchange Student, Chiara Colombo, for a week-long visit to Albany. Beatrice Cervi, apart from all the professional assistance she provides to help us address homelessness in the city, continues to serve in the District Board and was busy with projects like the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) camp in the past week. While Tristan represented our club at the RYLA wrap-up on Friday night to see how our sponsored youths went, I had the privilege of seeing our latest Rotary Youth Exchange student off to Switzerland to build cultural understanding and goodwill. Just as we were surprised a couple of years back to host an African girl from Switzerland who spoke French, the Swiss will probably be surprised to see a Chinese girl from Australia who speaks Japanese and is now learning German. I suppose that's just Rotary's special way of promoting cultural understanding and creating lasting peace. Our club also sponsored Tim, a recent UWA graduate looking towards a career in social services, as a "buddy" to Camp Opportunity where he was a great help to campers with disabilities. When I caught up with Tim earlier this week, he was still excited by how he had been able to make a difference in someone else's life so directly that he now wants to join Rotary or Rotaract to do more for his community. Marco Camer-Pesci has been so motivated by the success of the recent Vienna Pops Concert on New Year's Eve that he's now too impatient to wait 12 months for the next one. So over the past 2 weeks, he's been cooking up a blueprint for a mid-year fundraising concert at Government House. Keep your ear out for this. If he approaches you for help, please say yes. While busy ramping up support for Mesothelioma research, Jo Morris and her team at Reflections has been working hard at finding major sponsors and putting the final touches to Steeltoes and Stilletos, an event coming up in March. The latest major sponsor announced for the event is STEEL BLUE Boots. While not in Perth, Ray Della-Polina continues his service in the Rotary Club of Seminyak. He's even had visitors from other Rotary Clubs in WA pop in to say hello. So if you're going to Bali, remember to drop in to Rotary there. Ray will make you feel welcome. Darren Lomman has just about completed setting up the new plastic recycling plant and wants us to drop in to have a look. Together with Alta Terblanche, who has been busy filling up our speaker schedule for the coming months, they are organising a visit for all Rotary Clubs who supported Greenbatch come see the new facilities in action. Amanda Stephenson and Stephen Inouye is helping District Governor-Elect Graham Peden get the President-Elect Training weekend organised while Larry Hirsch and his team puts Rotary Means Business back into gear for their first meeting this year at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Research and Innovation (CERI) in 2 weeks. If you managed to follow this email to this point, you've done well. I too hate long emails. Have a good rest this long weekend and I look forward to achieving more with your help in the months ahead and to seeing you next Friday evening at the President's Cocktail. If you haven't booked, here's the link: www.trybooking.com/ZJOR Yours in Rotary Service, Wesley Sim President 2018-2019 Rotary Club of Perth |