Sergeant David Hulme opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. This was followed by a message from President Jane Belton, outlining the fact that
August is Volunteer month and than gave a quick rundown of what our Membership committee will be working on this year under the direction of Michelle Tanner.
This was followed by a video with Rotary President Gordon R. McInally outlining his goal to get Rotarians to focus on mental health and wellbeing. A slide was also shown about the Rotary Action Group – Mental Health Initiatives.
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Our guest speaker for this evening was
Wanda Leadbeater from the Waikato – Hauraki - Coromandel Rural Support Trust. Wanda arrived in New Zealand in 2007 after meeting her husband Bernie overseas. A mother of two, with a legal background and a double degree. She has been a volunteer with the Trust for 6 years.
Rural Support Trust is a part of a nationwide charitable organisation set up to work with primary producers during challenging times.
They cover from south of the Auckland Harbour bridge to Lake Taupo, including the Hauraki and Coromandel regions, encompassing the 11 territorial Council authorities and Waikato Regional Council. They provide free one-on-one confidential support for farmers and growers at a time and place that suits. When required they will refer clients to the right professional; such as farm management, mentoring or counselling. They are now also supporting NZTBA Waikato and NZ Thoroughbred Breeders' Association.
The Trust has access to rural networks and professionals, health services and providers, local and central government agencies, and Civil Defence, allowing them to be well placed to assist in times of need. 40 facilitators are located throughout the region. They are rural people with local knowledge who have faced the challenges that rural life bring.
They also have data from a recording platform developed to show how many cases have contacted them within Matamata area and what services they required. Whilst they try to advertise themselves through social media, most of their promotion is through word of mouth. Wanda is passionate about the work they do, which was very evident as she spoke from memory and not from notes.
Keep up the fantastic work Wanda.
Sergeant David Hulme asked Merv King to inform us who this week's Mystery Rotarian was.
Merv had no idea who the person was, so used a process of elimination. Starting with clue “ I have more relatives in Matamata than my spouse. He assumed the term spouse was used correctly indicating formal conjugal relationship i.e., marriage. This eliminated all singles, widows, widowers and divorcees. The number of relatives meant beggar all because even 1 is more than none. However, this made some progress but not much.
Next clue: “Played rep sport for Waikato.” This could mean several things. What sort of sport? Maybe tiddlywinks? Also representing how many? Maybe just him or herself. However, this provided for considerable progress, as a goodly number of members arrived in the Waikato after their "use-by-date" when it came to sport. He felt it prudent not to name them at this juncture.
Next clue: “Was Head Prefect at secondary school". Now this narrowed the field substantially. Obviously, this person was a goody two shoes who did their homework. Must be of a better class, ruling out another group of members who was also refrained from being named. So having eliminated all those in non-spousal situations, those arriving in Waikato either aged or infirm and those not coming up to scratch as head prefect material he was down to 4 possibilities. Finally, using the very scientific-never-fail system of eeny meeny miny moe, he concluded it was Kevin Kent. Sadly he was wrong... pay the fine! In fact it was Leonie.
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Merv chose David Gasquoine, who has two weeks to think about the following clues.
- Biked the distance of one and a half times around the world before 16.
- Sailed the "measured mile" in the Irish Sea
- Played soccer in Gibraltar.
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From members announcements -
Next week Community night is at Peter Vossen Builders new house – 8 Summer Eve Place, off Kaimai Drive – 5.30 to 6.30ish
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Daffodil Day Friday 25 August
We require 10 or so members to help with Daffodil Day. You will need to collect the daffodils from Railside by the Green, time to be confirmed in follow up email and delivered to a mapped area provided.
If you would like to volunteer, please contact Ray Coote on 021 292 8220 or email
ray.sandra@xtra.co.nz before next Tuesday community night so we can confirm numbers and ensure we have enough.
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Lincoln Students 28-29th August – Peter Vossen has filled the spots for one night and needs 7 more places for the other night. If you have not put your name down and can help, please contact him.
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Hope to see you all again soon.
