Hi everyone
Hope you didn't overindulge in lots of yummy Easter Eggs last week.
This week we had our lovely Incoming President Jane Belton calling the shots and guiding us through our meeting.
Jane shared a few interesting fun facts about Easter in that over 20 billion dollars is spent worldwide at Easter on things like Easter Eggs and clothing and food.
The heaviest Easter Egg ever made weighed 7190kg!!!!
And the heaviest Chocolate Bunny ever made weighed 4245 kg and was made in Brazil.
That's one heck of a lot of chocolate!
Our Speaker for this evening was Beau Timberland
Beau is the Community Advisory for the Matamata Piako District Council
Beau comes with a variety of knowledge, having previously worked in Kerikeri, Whangarei, the Kermadec Islands and the Australian Northern Territory. Beau has only been with the council in his role as Community Advisor for 6 months and he is passionate about his role and to help grow, enable and support community groups and their projects.
Beau is happy to help promote any projects we have and is keen to help us go about getting new projects off the ground. He is currently working with a Group who have established the Waharoa Community Garden at the old bowling green in Waharoa. He said that they came up against heaps of challenges but it is now thriving. They have worked hard to involve young offenders and to give them some meaningful work that also benefits the community.
One of the things that he is working on in Matamata is the planting of fruit trees in parks. This will be a 3 year trial with the first plantings to take place soon in Tom Grant Drive. What a great idea!
There is also the Morrinsville Crop Swap who are looking to establish a seed library.
Also lots more opportunity for work to be done at the Matamata Dog Park and the Hauraki Rail Trail.
Beau commended Matamata Rotary for all of the great work it has done and continues to do around the town and encourages us to keep up the good work.
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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 David Hulme about the Te Aroha Auction night on Wednesday 26th April.
3) David Wheadon is 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.
