Happy Easter everyone
Apologies for getting the dates wrong last week in the duty roster. Will try and do better this week.
President Alice Albright opened the meeting giving us a quick rundown of the Rotary Club of Rapa Nui . This is the most remote Rotary Club in the world, located on Easter Island.
They are the only Rotary Club on Easter Island and were Chartered in October 1993 so will be celebrating 30 years of Rotary Service this year. Being such a unique place, they get a lot of visitors from all around the world. One of their main focuses is Vocational Guidance to the youth of Easter Island. Also a huge amount of work is done in keeping streets and signage clean and tidy during their Rotary In Action days.
But one of their highlights must surely be their dedication to End Polio Now and they demonstrated that be the lighting up of two of the Easter Island Statues with the End Polio Now insignia. Now that's impressive and no mean fete, given that they needed consent from so many different groups and also that fact that there was no access to electricity to complete the task, but they did it and it is simply WOW!!!!
Below are two of the moai on Ahu Tongariki illuminated with the End Polio Now message.
Following this, President Alice Albright invited
Kevin Kent to present us with a brief and thought provoking Easter message.
Thankyou Kevin for reminding us to stop and think about what has come before us and what we can do to help in the future.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Max McIvor then gave us a follow up on ROMAC.
There are currently 5 patients either here or in Australia and looking at possibly another 20 plus children before the end of the year.
Maz reminded us of the an 8 year old girl from Vanuatu who was the very first New Zealand ROMAC patient, back in 2006. Chloe had fallen into a bath of boiling water at a young age and had extensive scarring on her hands and the inside of her legs, that needed surgery. The money for this was raised by Rotarians in Auckland and again later on when she returned for a second surgery. Chloe was able to complete her schooling and go on to do accounting where she is now working in a government department as a Finance Management Officer. Chloe is now 25 and extremely grateful to her surgeon Dr. Rees and to ROMAC for helping her to live a normal life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just a few thing to think about in what's coming up!
1) Alice briefed the club on our opportunity to host an International Exchange Student from Belgium in the coming Rotary year. Looking for expressions of interest from the club members. More information to follow.
2) A reminder from Jane about the Te Aroha Auction night on Wednesday 26th April.
3) David Wheadon will be looking for volunteers for the Festival of Music on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st May.
4) Matamata Volunteer Fire Brigade are looking for volunteers to help with their Centennial Celebrations on Saturday 3rd June from approximately 5pm to 11pm at the Civic Centre.
5) Beth Taylor asked if anyone knew of any student who may be interested in the Outward Bound Course coming up in June. If you think you may know of someone, please talk to Beth.
