This week our guest speaker was Colin Anker, Project Officer for Youth Families and Communities for the Red Cross in Launceston. 
Colin spoke about the three main projects that he is involved with, they are save-a-mate, Talk OUT Loud and the Quick Start Breakfast Club.
save-a-mate (SAM) was started by Australian Red Cross in 1997. The save-a-mate program is now available across Australia from urban centres to rural and remote communities.
save-a-mate's purpose is to promote the health and wellbeing of young people by providing education, service and support on key current and emerging health issues, particularly those related to alcohol and other drug use and mental health.
Colin said the this year as part of this program the Red Cross would be running a "safe partying" scheme at the Falls Festival.
Talk OUT Loud program is a series of Mental health workshops to reduce stigma related to this issue. They also encourage young people to seek help and help each other listen.Good Start Breakfast Clubs provide a healthy breakfast and nutrition information for thousands of school kids, who may otherwise go to school hungry, in areas of greatest need around Australia.
Providing a healthy breakfast helps children to achieve their best in the classroom and in the playground.
Breakfast clubs are about more than providing a healthy start to the day. Schools are supported to set up breakfast clubs, to provide a safe and welcoming environment where children can sit down and enjoy a nutritious morning meal with others. It is also a place where caring adults can be role models for healthy eating and good hygiene.
Breakfast clubs are run right around the country, from cities and towns to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Working with communities, Red Cross supports a range of programs to complement and build on the work being done in Good Start Breakfast Clubs.
Nutrition and budgeting workshops for parents, such as FOODCents, hygiene education, as well as school community gardens are just some of the ways Red Cross is building a healthier future with communities.
One of the long-term goals is to support communities to run their own breakfast clubs, ensuring community ownership and control as well as sustainability of the program. In Launceston the Red Cross runs this programme at the Mowbay Heights and Ravenswood Heights primary Schools.

Next week we have a casual meeting where we will take the opportunity to farewell Clark who is relocating to Hobart for work.

This week under the guidance of our September Captain Sarah, we were delighted to welcome as our guest speaker Curly the effervescent manager of Launceston's popular Harvest Market.
Curly shared her unique life story of how she began her working life in Yorkshire and through a series of fortunate events arrived in Tasmania and fell in love with our lifestyle and fabulous wine industry.

Curly explained that the market was very proud of its 90% farm produce make up of the stall holders and shared with us the philosophy of good fresh locally grown food which has been such a success in our community. The market has been a beginning point for a lot of businesses and will celebrate its fourth birthday in February.
If any rotary members were interested in volunteering for the Harvest market, please contact Curly or go to the Markets Facebook page.
We also had a micro board meeting and a Carols meeting, all of which are going well.
Next week we have  Guest Speaker: Colin Anker 
Red Cross Good Start Breakfast Club 
Member's Minute: Janice Devine 
All members and their friend are welcome to attend

At This week's meeting our guest speaker was Rachel Beech from Just Cats Tasmania.
Just Cats Tasmania is a registered Charity and totally survives off the generosity of the public, they care for 35 to 90 felines at a time and they are about to extend the shelter to accommodate more un homed felines .
Their primary goals are:

• To support and promote responsible cat ownership, including the Tasmanian Cat Legislation
• To give every cat who comes into their care the best chance at life
• To offer discount desexing to those in need 

And importantly, they are a true 'No Kill Shelter' which means they euthanise only in the most extreme circumstances, where severe injury or illness would prevent treatment or rehoming, or in cases where rehabilitation of a cat is not in the best interest of the animal due to extreme distress. They do not euthanise to 'make space' or if we are 'full'.

Some of the services they offer are:

Help with unplanned litters
They can take in mother cats either before or after they give birth, so that their kittens can be cared for and grow up to be rehomed at a later date once their vet work has been done, and also to desex Mother Cat before returning her home, or they can rehome her if needed.

Help with Desexing
They can help with discounted desexing for Male and Female cats - whether they are your own pets or feral cats.

Stray or Feral Cats and Kittens
Has a cat had kittens on your property and you would like them to have a chance at life?  Contact Rachel for help with catching them.  Once in Just Cat's care they will asses them and whenever possible rehabilitate them and place them into homes.
Rachel impressed us all with her passion and conviction and I urge anyone if you are either looking for a new cat or have a cat related problem please get in touch with Rachel at Just Cats.