Smiles All Round

Rotary North Harbour  recently completed a Community Project which commenced in February 2011. It was then that PP David Hutcheson learned  that the 40+ year old toy digger for the local Playcentre sand-pit had been retired as it was no longer safe for play.
David decided to build two replacement diggers, and also a digger for each of the other Playcentres, 22 in all.

There was no workshop, nor a budget in the Club's plans for the year, however Rotarian Alan Astrop of the East Coast Bays Club, Auckland, offered his workshop and his skill, time and machines, a huge advantage for dedicated amateurs.

With premises now arranged David secured all the materials from local businesses by way of sponsorship, hoping this would make for a fully funded project.

Production started on a small scale with just a few Club members offering their time, but soon more than half the Club were involved. After more than 1300 volunteer man hours the Diggers were ready for presentation at a "Big Beach Dig and Fete."The  twenty one Playcentres' representatives, watched by many others, came forward to receive a Digger each from a volunteer member of  Rotary North Harbour.

Members summed up by saying that," this was a great Club Community project which allowed us to commit with Sweat Equity  not cash. This was surely the Four Avenues of Service in action."

When asked his feelings after the presentation, PP David said "when you consider the number of children that have used the old digger over the 40+ years of its life, think of the thousands who will use ours x 22 over the next 40odd  years. "

Treasured Art

During the first half of the year Rotary Club of Tauranga Sunrise members scour the Bay of Plenty in NZ and further afield for impressive works of art.

This club’s efforts and networks have raised more than $60,000 from their Treasured Art Auctions over the past three years, with proceeds donated to the Foundation for Youth Development's Kiwi Can programme.

Three of Tauranga Sunrise's long-standing members combined their talents to create a unique and satisfying fundraising event. Ross Brown and his wife Lynne have the art knowledge, Sally Morrison brought the business expertise, and Mary O’Sullivan  provided the sales and marketing edge, with other club members also supporting this successful fundraising campaign. 

Treasured Art 2012 organiser Sally Morrison and the charity auction’s guest artist Peter Wallers (photo courtesy of Sun Media)

A wonderful art scene is created at Ingham-Sears Mercedes-Benz showroom in Mount Maunganui. Each year in June, some 50 pieces of work go under the hammer, with a further amount on display for sale and silent auction.

The popular event combines an auction evening with a three-day art exhibition and sale.  Some of the art is donated by people changing or downsizing homes, and those who simply don’t have the space for the art they have collected over the years. The rest of the art is sold on a 50/50 commission basis.

A known artist or collection is featured each year. In 2010, the auction sold a beautiful collection donated by Joy Drayton (1916-2012), DNZM, MBE, former Tauranga Girls College principal and local body politician. The exhibition featured works by nationally-known Tauranga artist Arthur Dagley in 2011, and in 2012 works by guest artist Auckland-born Peter Wallers, who now works out of his studio in Tauranga.

The city's mover and shaker guests are greeted with a glass of champagne, and nibbles are handed out all evening, while the auctioneer cajoles them into opening their wallets for magnificent pieces of art.

Buyers, Rotarians, Kiwi Can leaders and students supporting the very successful Tauranga Sunrise Treasured Art Auction in the Ingham Sears Mercedes Benz showroom

Support for the major fundraiser has come from Ingham-Sears Mercedes-Benz (venue), the New Zealand Cadet Corps (art security), Sun Media Tauranga (for The Weekend Sun promotion and articles), Frank Vosper (auctioneer), and the local Tauranga Sunrise Rotary members providing logistics, hosting and handling sales.

A Paul Ny piece goes under the hammer at the Tauranga Sunrise Treasured Art fundraiser

Kiwi Can is the national primary school programme that teaches essential life skills and values such as resilience, respect, integrity and manners. It is a whole school programme with all children attending a Kiwi Can lesson once a week during the school year. Specially trained Kiwi Can leaders work in pairs delivering the high energy, interactive and, most importantly, fun lessons. The leaders encourage the children to take responsibility and be accountable for their actions, they instil a sense of self-worth and self-confidence, and above all they engrain a `can do' attitude to the challenges of life.

Students from a Tauranga Primary School assisting with a Kiwi Can community project

For further details, contact Robyn Skelton of the Rotary Club of Tauranga Sunrise, phone +64 21 275 8034.

Additional

For information about Kiwi Can:
http://www.fyd.org.nz/Programmes/KiwiCan(Year18)/AboutUs.aspx

Parnell Rotary in action with Garden to Table Trust

The Rotary Club of Parnell decided to support the new Garden to Table project at Wynyard Quarter this year and have been on stand-by to get underway with the first of many planned working bees.

The Garden to Table Trust currently works in schools teaching children to grow, harvest, prepare and share healthy seasonal food in a curriculum integrated programme. In this programme extensive fruit and vegetable gardens  are established in which 7 to 10 year old children help to establish design and maintain the garden and growing of food. A wide range of vegetables fruits and herbs are harvested, prepared and shared in a home-style sustainable kitchen classroom.

Waterfront Auckland has allocated land in the Wynyard Quarter where such a programme will be centrally located and utilised by 4 or 5 schools who will come to the site weekly.
Garden to Table Chairperson, Catherine Bell is a well-known foodie who is passionate about quality food, eating healthy local fresh food and teaching our young people these necessary skills.

The first working bee held by Parnell Rotary took place on a  glorious sunny Saturday 12 May when a dozen or more Rotarians turned up with Trustees of the Garden to Table Trust with wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes and strong backs to move and spread five large piles of gravel 40mm thick over a 400+square metre area. Rotarians produced delicious scones and savouries plus a little wine as well as Catherine providing coffees for the workers.

Everyone is keen to return to help with the next stage which could be fencing, planting, erecting pots or any task asked of our members. This is a great project that will be of significant interest as it develops in this central location.

For more information go to www.gardentotable.org.nz
Submitted by:

Phillippa Pitcher
President
Rotary Club of Parnell

Congratulations Bill Boyd

From the Queens Birthday Honours:

Companion of The New Zealand Order of Merit - CNZM

William Bernard Boyd, QSO - For services to Rotary International

Low Down

Bill Boyd is a member of the Rotary Club of Pakuranga Inc, Auckland, New Zealand and was Rotary International President in 2006-2007

Congratulations to NZ Queens Birthday Honour's Recipients

District 9920 Recipients

Companion of The New Zealand Order of Merit - CNZM
William Bernard Boyd, QSO - for services to Rotary International.  Bill is a member of the Rotary Club of Pakuranga.

Member of The New Zealand Order of Merit - MNZM
David Wardell, Auckland - for services to education.  David is a member of the Rotary Club of Pakuranga.

District 9940 Recipients

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit - ONZM
Dawn Jane Sanders, QSM, Wellington, for services to theatre. Dawn is a member of the Rotary Club of Port Nicholson.

The Queens Service Medal - QSM
Brian Leslie Poole, Wellington, for services to health and the community. Brian is a PP of the Rotary Club of Wellington North.

District 9970 Recipients

Queens Service Medal (QSM)
George Ward for his services to agriculture and the community. George is a member of the Rotary Club of Ashburton

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Trapped in the App - the story is to be told of the obsession by today's teenagers in technology

Kuranui Head girl and Stage Challenge organiser Katrina Simmonds recently accepted a $2000 cheque from South Wairarapa Rotary member Gay Butler.

The generous donation from the South Wairarapa Rotarians has helped to pay for Friday’s transport of Kuranui’s team of 60 students who are performing at the ASB 2013 Stage Challenge at Wellington’s TSB Arena.

The performance, entitled ‘Trapped in the App’, tells the story about the obsession with technology by today’s teenagers. The idea came from the fact that many students are tempted to stay up all night on their laptops.

Kuranui Head girl and Stage Challenge organiser Katrina Simmonds accepts a $2000 cheque from
South Wairarapa Rotary member Gay Butler.

Rotary BA Does It Again

Fiji has a new Rotary club being formed for the first time since 2002.  The last Club chartered in Fiji was the Rotary Club of Taveuni in 2002.

The new club, situated in Ba will be chartered on Friday 31 May 2013.  This will make it the 10th  Rotary Club in Fiji.  The new club will be a New Generations Club as it will consist of younger members and it already has 30 members to do Rotarian good.

Past Rotary International President Luis Vicente Giay coined the term New Generations when he shared his belief that the future of Rotary relied on involving young people in the organization’s programs and activities.  He said, “Our vision for the future, now more than ever, is the difference between success and failure.  The New Generations are our investment in the future.  Let us begin to build that future today.”

BA has had a Rotary Club prior to this, which operated from 1972 until 2003. The New Generations club will be starting from scratch and will fill a valuable role in the community bringing the total of Rotarians in Fiji to around 230.

The formation of the BA Club is being sponsored by the Rotary Club of Suva, which is the oldest Club in Fiji.  It was formed in 1936 as the 1st  Club in the South Pacific.  The current President for the Suva Club is Michael Yee Joy.

Some of the recent projects Rotarians in Fiji have been involved with include:

•   Disaster preparedness including relief and recovery after Cyclones
•   A CD scanner for Suva Hospital
•   Dialysis machines for the Dialysis Clinic in Suva
•   Water for Life projects in remote villages
•   Pre schools on Taveuni
•   Koroipita housing in Lautoka

Fiji is part of a larger district that includes 51 different clubs across Auckland and the Pacific Islands and the Ba club being chartered this Friday, is the 3rd  club this Rotary year after Highbrook and Franklin in New Zealand.

Anyone interested in finding out more about Rotary can go to www.rotarysouthpacific.org

Successful public image initiatives showcased

While this blog showcases the many success stories of projects and events from throughout New Zealand and the Pacific, the Regional Public Image Resources Blog at

http://public-image-action.blogspot.co.nz/ 

has a multitude of ideas for improving club public image actions (scroll down over the posts of the last couple of years as all the ideas remain useful) plus a number of recent success stories of practical public image initiatives in action. 

Use these ideas in your club this month.  

Recommended:  All club PR Chairs can receive notification of new Posts from this blog so you are always up to date with new and useful ideas without the need to search for these ... they come to you.  All you need to do is go to http://public-image-action.blogspot.co.nz/  and enter your email address in the "Follow by email" box on the right hand side - you can stop these at any time.

Likewise on the right-hand side of this blog (scroll down) you can subscribe to Posts when new examples of successful projects are published.

Lincoln Rotary Club keeps community fit!

The Rotary Club of Lincoln, donated a set of 7 exercise equipment to Lincoln township. On 26 February 2013, the set was officially opened by the club president, Farhad Dastgheib and Selwyn District Mayor, Kelvin Coe, followed by a demonstration of the equipment by Council fitness instructors.  Many Lincoln residents together with Rotarians enjoyed the event which was followed by sausage sizzle.

The Rotary Club of Lincoln initiated the project in September 2009 and received moral support and encouragement from all local organisations.  After a lot of pushing and completing several application forms, finally funding was obtained from the Southern Trust and Selwyn District Council which enabled the purchase of the equipment.

The equipment is regularly used by people of all ages and is going to make a positive contribution to the quality of life for Lincoln community.

www.lincoln.rotarysouthpacific.org