This week our November Captain Sarah planned a "Fun" activity. Our meeting began with a Member's Minute by Jann, who researched the origins of the Members Minute and then shared her reasons for joining our Rotary Club. This was the perfect lead in to our Fun get to know you activity of two truths and a lie. We were divided into groups of three and had to take it in turns to say three things about ourselves, one of which had to be a lie and the others in the group had to guess what was true and what was not. Needless to say a lot of laughter and merriment ensured and we all came away from the meeting with a lot more knowledge about our fellow members. On Thursday I had the privilege of seeing our funds at work, I attended one of the Ravenswood Family Centre's Learn to Swim lessons at the Aquatic Centre. Rotarians will remember that our club sponsored this program and it was fabulous to see it working. I have asked for the Centre to send us some photos so that I can share them with you. On Friday Night Jann Rowlands our Youth Director, organised for us to hold a book stall at the East Tamar Primary School Fair. Despite the rain we all had a fabulous time and the children went away with a wonderful assortment of books. We donated $150.00 dollars to the school and some beautiful picture books to be given to students who could not attend this fun evening. Next week the fun continues. A reminder about the Group Forum night on Wednesday at the Grand Chancellor and our Board meeting on Thursday and Carols meeting on Friday.
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Kerral from the Emmanuel Centre introduced us to Besta and told us a little of her amazing story of survival as a child in Sudan, orphaned at the age of 4, she was brought up by her aunt.
Besta remembers sitting in a ‘‘classroom’’ underneath a mango tree scrawling in the dirt. The now mother-of-five said her experiences led her to dream about one day helping other orphaned children to gain an education so that they could get ahead in life. The Bright Star Dream Foundation's aim is to raise funds to support four schools in South Sudan, while creating awareness about the ongoing poverty in the country. Besta travelled back to South Sudan in February and visited her old school. ‘‘I saw the mango tree and that was my classroom and it is still a classroom and still there is nothing,’’ she said. ‘‘They sit on rocks writing on the floor and they have nothing. ‘‘I can feel their pain, I can see their struggle and I know how hard it is to lose both parents so my dream is to help.’’ Besta said there would be as many as 150 orphans in just one school of 400 students. ‘‘Their parents were killed as a result of the (civil) war. They may of died because they had no food, or were murdered in their own home, or stepped on a land mine, or some of them would of died of disease because there are no health facilities,’’ she said. ‘‘I want to give the children hope, and education is the key for everything. If we support them to get a good education we help the whole country. If we get these kids educated, things will be different in the future.’’ To donate or for further information contact Kerryal Willis on 0447408123. Besta and Kerryal are going back to Sudan later in the year and we all at Tamar Sunrise wish them well with their endeavours. Next week we have a fun activity planned for our meeting and there will also be a Carols meeting on Thursday and a Cocktail Party debrief on Friday morning. This week we welcomed Gordon Manning, owner of Floats in Kings Meadows as our guest speaker. Gordon's business is floatation therapy . He has a series of flotation tanks and he explained his customers use these tanks for a wide variety of reasons such as recovery and sleep, relaxation, pain relief and creativity and learning. The tanks are fully enclosed and are filled with a solution of epsom salts, which Gordon claims are able to improve heart and circulatory health, improve skin, improve nerve function, relax the nervous system, reduce inflammation, reduce stress, improve oxygen use, improve absorption of nutrients, prevention of migraine headaches and helps in flushing toxins and heavy metals from the cells. Any one interested can book online at www.floats.com.au Our Carols committee continue to meet and are getting ready to launch this years Carols. Please stay tuned for details. Susan Dolby also reported back after representing the club at the RYDA workshops held at Symmons Plains last week. Susan was not only impressed with the students who attended but the program in general and urged us all if at all possible to grab the opportunity to attend these valuable workshops that prepare students for driving safely on our roads. Many thanks must go to Annette Viney Northern RYDA Chair,Rotary District 9830 and her team for organising such a fabulous and worthy event. 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:
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. This week our guest speakers were James McKey from the State Government and Paul Bloomfeild from Utas who presented the University's plans to move into the centre of Launceston at the Inveresk site. Paul explained the reason for this move, stating that they were basing it on the Geelong and Deekin University experience. The aim of the move was to have a higher education presence in the North of the State. Paul spoke about the Memorandum of Understanding between Local and State Governments, the University and Tas Tafe. It was said that the project would have major social and economic benefits. For more details please go to the University website. utas@edu.au/northern-expansion. On Saturday 26th the Rotary Club held our Cocktails for a Cause Party. Please look at our Facebook page for photos of the event. Next week's meeting is a casual get together at the Hotel Launceston. This week at Tamar Sunrise we had a lot to celebrate. First It was with great pleasure that Caro Brown introduced the club to Simone Hackett, our club's applicant for next year's Professional Development Exchange to Montanna in the USA. Simone and her husband, Daniel run Riverfly 1864, originally founded as a river-based guiding business in 2005. It has grown to become one of Tasmania’s most respected guided fly fishing operations. RiverFly was a Tasmanian Tourism Award Finalist (2013), in a first for the Australian fly fishing industry. We all wish Simone well with her application and believe that she would be a fabulous ambassador for our State. Our Guest speaker this week was our very own Lou Mason who was speaking in her other role which is that of an Interplast committee member. Earlier this year we were pleased to give this great organisation a donation towards their next trip. Interplast’s intentions are simple. They exist to repair bodies and rebuild lives. In a nutshell, they are a not-for-profit organisation working to improve the quality of life for people with disability who are disabled as a result of congenital or acquired medical conditions such as cleft lip and palate or burn scar contractures. They do this by sending fully qualified Australian and New Zealand volunteer plastic and reconstructive surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and allied health professionals to the Asia Pacific region to provide free surgical treatment for patients who would otherwise not be able to afford access to such services. They pride themselves on leaving a legacy. They aim to do themselves out of a job. They focus heavily on facilitating medical training and mentoring for in-country medical personnel by supporting and building the capacity of local health services. Quite simply, their purpose is to provide life-changing surgery today and sustainable health systems tomorrow. - See more at: http://www.interplast.org.au/who-we-are/our-organisation/#sthash.IXPo77ZJ.dpuf This week Jann Rowlands our Youth Director met with Lynn Wyllie-Watson and her team at the Child and Family Centre at Ravenswood. The Rotary Club of Tamar Sunrise are extremely proud to be a sponsor of this great Centre's early learn to swim program. We hope that it is the first of many projects that we will do together. This week unfortunately our guest speaker was not well, so we had a spirited conversation led by Toni Wagner on genealogy. Toni has been researching her family tree and told us a fascinating story about an uncle who was a convict but ended up a wealthy landowner in New South Wales.
I would like to take this opportunity to remind every one about our Cocktail Party on September 26th at Chalmers Church. All are welcome and it is for two fabulous causes. The first being our Nutrition and Meal program in the Philippines and the second is the local Learn to Swim program run through the Ravenswood Centre. The Cocktail committee have been working hard to ensure a fabulous event and I urge all members and their friends to attend. This week was a very special week for Tamar Sunrisers. Not only did we have the pleasure of entertaining the District Governor John Dare and his wife Lesley, we officially welcomed Marisa Davenport to our club, plus Susan Dolby brought in this year's finalists for the Children's Book of the Year. John began his address by thanking Danny Gibson and Lou Mason for the fabulous work that they are doing organising next years' Rotary Conference to be held in Deloraine. He advised us that he had three main goals for our district. They were : 1) To increase the numbers of members by 100 . 2) To talk up our programmes- he urged us to get on board the excitement bus and share our successes with our community. 3) And finally he encouraged us to strengthen our club by adding one extra service plan, such as the re-introduction of the Rotary Bowel Scan Service. John also spoke about his wish that all clubs increased their giving by 10% over last year. We were all inspired by John's speech and agreed to try and make his goals a reality. One of the regular highlights of the Tamar Sunrise Year is when Susan Dolby brings in the finalists of the Children's Picture Book Awards and reads to us her favourites. This year it was a story of immigration and acceptance titled, My Two Blankets, that captured our imagination. On Friday the first Carols Committee meeting was held and already the buzz is out there that it will be a bigger and better event than last year! Next week we have Lou Mason from Interplast as our guest speaker with Toni delivering her Members Minute. We also have a Board meeting at 7.00am at Cube Aqua, all members are welcome to attend. |
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