Hi everyone from Sunny San Diego.

 

Just finished a 10K run next to Sea World and finished in exactly 1 hour!

 

We are looking for people to help on ANZAC Day eve on top of Mt Ainslie if you are able to please help out.

 

This week we have the always energetic Steven Utick talking about Rotary's environmental projects. We also have a French Rotarian visiting during his trip to Australia.

 

I am going to try to visit a Rotary Club over here, if I can line one up, however we have a packed schedule and finding an opening is going to be challenging...

 

Have a wonderful week, Bill is handling the meeting, see you all on the flip side.

 

The Zoom meeting was without a formal speaker. We could have done with a higher number of attendees. We weren’t exactly overwhelmed with a total of 12 people on our screens, just not all at the same time.

 

Warrick Howieson, our President, was in charge, with Faye Powell opening the meeting. She gave two toasts. The first was to Keith Gray for his very recent 95^th birthday. We were all pleased to see him reach this milestone and congratulated him accordingly. Keith accepted the accolades graciously. The second toast was to the Rotary Club of Taree on Manning.

 

Faye had joined the meeting from her caravan up the east coast of Australia heading north of Bombala up into Queensland, stopping for Park Runs wherever possible along the way.

 

Another distant but brief participant was Michael Rabey, all the way from Western Australia.

 

Warrick invited George Wilson and other commentators to talk about the recent Air Show at Canberra Airport. George said he’d ridden his bicycle to the airport, knowing that the roads would be packed and parking would be difficult. He was certainly right about that! He estimated that there were about 10,000 people in attendance. We were entertained with a rendition of several videos of stunning acrobatic performances.

 

George had been to Garden Island the week before and also mentioned the Historic Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) Albion Park Air Show with some extraordinary aircraft on display there. A former Qantas employee is one of the volunteers who conducts tours there. The display includes a City of Canberra jumbo jet.

 

Warrick mentioned that he is going to New York shortly and will attend concerts and a space show. He floated several ideas for our club to engage in to raise money for the causes we support. Some ideas mooted were a shreadathon, a lobster dinner, a Taylor Swift signed guitar, and engaging Fred Smith again who recently starred at the Folk Festival. Warrick also asked Club members to assist the Chorus of Women with lanterns on Mt Ainslie on Anzac Day eve.

 

Our next Club meeting will be held on Thursday, 18 April 2024, at the Commonwealth Club. We will hear from Stephen Utick, the Rotary Environment Coordinator, on Rotary District environment opportunities.

 

To see the program of future meetings, visit: Rotary activities Spreadsheet.

 

Ross will be away on holidays until the end of May 2024. While he is away Eric Carmody will be sending out the meeting invitations. 

 

Please respond promptly to Eric's invitations, to make his job a little easier, however if you do need to contact him his email is:  ekcarmody@yahoo.com.au   and his mobile number is 0407 221 145.

 

 

If you are not able to perform your allocated duty, please arrange a replacement and advise President Warrick (or Acting President Bill for the meeting on 18 April). Please advise Stephen of any planned absences to avoid being rostered on while away.