President Robert introduced Maz to speak in place of Fiona. She then gave an impromptu I've-just-been-thrown-in-deep-end talk about her 20 year association with Red Cross. It all began when her mother started doing meals on wheels and Maz thought that was a great way to help her community so she started as well, often taking her children in the holidays. For over a decade her mother ran the program for Red Cross with Maz heavily involved, sadly this stopped when they moved to Matamata. However about three years ago Maz started up again, taking her now partially paralysed mother to help her get out and about. Maz has since joined the crew on the Area Council and along with another couple of fellow Rotarians helps out there. 

She then gave a brief history on how/why Red Cross was formed, quoting directly from Wikipedia. Red Cross is an International humanitarian movement with approximately 97m volunteers and staff worldwide. 24 June 1859 Swiss businessman Henri Dunant arrived to witness the terrible aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in which about 40,000 soldiers on both sides died or were left wounded on the field. He was horrified by the near-total lack of medical attendance, so he abandoned his business plans and took charge in organising an overwhelming level of relief assistance with local villagers to aid without discrimination.

Five years later the first Geneva Convention was adopted in which all participating countries would abide by the rules guaranteeing neutrality and protection for wounded soldiers, field medical personnel in an armed conflict. Directly following this the first national societies were founded and have evolved since then. All this came about from his original work (followed by years of driving this) and he was awarded the first ever Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

 

 

Mike Steiner thanked Maz for stepping into the breach.

 

Joke from Robert...

A retired farmer sent his dog out to count his sheep, when the dog returns, it says, "Woof! You've got forty sheep out there!" "Forty?" said the farmer. "I thought there were only thirty-eight." "Yes, that's right," said the dog. "First I counted them, and then I rounded them up!"

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