Selecting good ambassadors for our country

Coronet Peak ski field near Queenstown, NZ during their South Island safari.

Rotarians get involved in many community activities, and in my 28 years in Rotary, no event has brought me greater pride than helping the selection of students to go to another country, to share in family life attend school with a commitment to learn and to enjoy a new culture. I have moved on to other things in Rotary as a Governor, and serving on the Board of Rotary Down Under with fellow directors from Australia, but I thoroughly enjoy continuing to offer my services to interview students and families for the Rotary Matched Student Exchange Programme between New Zealand and Australia.

 

This programme is a short exchange of 12 weeks, with secondary students selected from Year 9 (the first year at secondary school) to go on a matched exchange to Australia in the following year. Kiwi students go to South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland early in Year 10, and a selected matched Australian student comes to New Zealand for 12 weeks.

 

The lead up to selection is exciting, with much anticipation. Families get into the process of selection – will it be good for my son or daughter? can we afford the cost of travel? how will they get on living with another family, and what if there is a falling out?   The answers to these questions are sorted out in family interviews, and this is where I get my kick, as I love dealing with these issues and dozens of others.

 

The smiles come on the faces of students and their Mums and Dads when you show genuine interest in their well-being, that you are there to help build their confidence and to make the exchange experience a memorable one.  If the match is made and the students are well prepared, they will fit into their exchange as planned. With full knowledge given to them by their selectors and mentors, it is a very successful Rotary venture.

 

When you get a big hug and thanks at the end, you really feel part of their family. It is great for Rotary’s profile.

By PDG David Watt

Rotary Club of Karori, Wellington, NZ

Concert at Karaka features International Youth Exchange Student Paula Busse from Germany

The Rotary Club of Papakura, NZ held their 17^th annual Concert at Karaka on May 23 and 24. The Concert at Karaka was initially organised to showcase local and youth talent and to give experience to young emerging musicians.  It has achieved this aim magnificently over the years. 

This year was no exception, with the star of the show being inbound Rotary International Youth Exchange Student and violinist Paula Busse from Witten, Germany who was accompanied by Jonathon Dunlop on the piano.  Paula had already demonstrated her talents by arranging a musical evening at one of our member’s homes to raise funds to purchase an Emergency Response Kit which was immensely successful. Paula began violin lessons when she was eight and music has developed into a real passion for her. From the age of twelve, she has participated in national young musicians’ competitions with excellent results in both solo and chamber categories. Due to her outstanding results, she was given grants for international master classes for string instruments as well as for piano trios. Prior to her Rotary exchange Paula was first violinist and principal Concert Master of a youth orchestra in Dortmund, Germany.  Truly Paula was the star of the show!

Joining Paula were baritone Benson Wilson who was born in New Zealand of Samoan descent and had just completed his BMus (Hons); Maia Vegar, soprano, who has recently completed four years at the University of Auckland studying Classical Performance Voice; the Aorere College Front Row junior boys choir; Juan Kim who has played the piano since the age of six and who has recently completed a Batchelor of Music in Piano Performance; and our annual favourite the Dalewool Auckland Brass Band conducted by Nigel Weeks who have appeared at all of the 17 concerts.

The concert is held at the New Zealand Bloodstock sales centre where the artists perform in the sales ring where a few days before hand yearling horses traded for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.  New Zealand Bloodstock Ltd provide the venue each year at no cost, but reap the reward of a thorough clean of the centre and a polish of the brass railings which surround the sales ring.  The acoustics in the centre are magnificent with many of the professional artists who have performed over the years declaring them to be the equal of or better than many concert halls in which they have appeared.

This weekend is important to the club as a fellowship opportunity and many stories are shared over the polishing rag while shinning the brass rail or manoeuvring the vacuum cleaner or broom.  Partners of the members turn out in force to provide refreshments to the audience at half time and the after show party.  The Papakura Floral Art Group fill the premises with floral arrangements and many of the patrons look forward to seeing these every year. 

Rotary Youth Exchange is a family affair

Rotary Youth Exchange participants Tracy, Matt, Rob and Mikaela McLean

My name is Tracy McLean (nee Mills) and in 1980, I was lucky to be chosen by the Rotary Club of East Coast Bays, Auckland, NZ (in then District 992, now 9910) where my father Don was a member for over 25 years, as a Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) student, and spent 12 months in Grahamstown, South Africa. I had one of the best years of my life and continue to keep in touch with both Rotarians and friends from that time.
 

I returned in 1981, completed my nursing degree, married Steve and we had three gorgeous children. What I didn’t realise at the time, was the ongoing impact that Rotary, and in particular RYE, would have on my life. Steve, my husband, joined Rotary in Wellington in 1994, and we then moved to Queenstown where he joined the Rotary Club of Queenstown. He has been a Rotarian for 20 years, President, and Assistant Governor of District 9980. He and I served on the District Youth Exchange Committee for 10 years, and have both received Paul Harris Fellow recognition from the Queenstown club.
 

We have hosted six RYE students ourselves, and each of our three children have embarked on a year away as a Rotary Exchange student, all sponsored by the Queenstown club. Our youngest, Mikaela (18 years-old) is currently on exchange in Sweden. Her eldest brother Matt went to Austria in 2004, and Rob followed to Denmark in 2007. I am not sure if there are many families who can boast a parent, and every child having enjoyed the joy of Rotary Youth Exchange. 
 

We took this special photo in January, when all three were at home before Mikaela left for Sweden. I am very pleased my blazer still fits! I even found my return speech in the pocket on very yellowed paper... where did 35 years go ?
 

When I was heading away, NZ students didn't have blazers, but Dad organised mine because of the long around about way I travelled due to airline sanctions with South Africa at the time. It ensured that I was recognized at airports as a Rotary Ambassador under the Youth Exchange programme. It helped me in Frankfurt, Germany on a nine hour stop over, but that is another story! I am fairly sure I was the first NZ student to don a blazer with the silver fern. So the blazer a student wears is a very special momento.
 

Matt is now a successful Journalist for TVNZ based in Auckland, Rob is following his Valuation and Property Management degree working in London, UK and Mikaela hopes to study at Victoria University in Wellington on her return. Sweden is proving a special place for her, and we know what she has in store as the year unfolds. 
 

The ongoing international connection keeps popping up. Rob was hosted in Denmark, and his host brother at the time, Rasmus, happened to have been in NZ the year before, and guess what? He was hosted by the Rotary Club of East Coast Bays which sponsored me some 30 years before. Another story I often tell, is 10 years after I came home from South Africa, my brother was in the UK on his OE and had been invited to play a game of touch rugby. He got chatting to one of the other players in the pub afterwards. It transpired that these two men, talking in a pub in London, in 1990 were my “real brother” and my “host brother”. A New Zealander and a South African who through Rotary Youth Exchange were shown how small our world can be.
 

Rotary changed my life, and I hope that I have given a little back to the organisation that opened my eyes to the world, and to the generosity of Rotarians. Our connection to the youth that pass through this organisation shows the talent and the leadership that comes from this programme. We continue to keep in touch with the students we have hosted, from all parts of the globe. 
 

I encourage Rotarians to keep this programme strong, and continue to host and sponsor students to explore the world through Rotary. I have certainly gained far more than I have given to this programme. Our family has been blessed beyond measure. Thanks Rotary.

“Sweet as …”

- By Anders Lade, Rotary International Youth Exchange Student from Denmark 
 

Everything is sweet as when you are an exchange student.

Rotary is sweet as.

New Zealand is sweet as.

And life as an exchange student is sweet as.
 

Helping with the start of a new life

I clearly remember the first time I heard someone say sweet as. I was in school and I didn’t quite know what to say or how to react. Sweet as? But I learned what it meant and now I am using it myself.
 

Exchange is about culture and about learning and using what you learn. I learned about sweet as and now I am using it myself. I am turning into a real Kiwi.
 

As an exchange student you learn new things every day. I have been a Rotary Youth Exchange student for nine months. I am from Denmark and I now live in Cromwell, New Zealand. I love all the new things I am experiencing and all the new people I meet. It is amazing and it’s all thanks to Rotary.
 

When I first came to New Zealand, I knew about Rotary. I had been to several meetings in Denmark and I liked Rotary and the things that Rotary did. What I didn’t know was that Rotary is so much more than youth exchange and so much more than what you see on the surface. Rotary is about helping other people and service above yourself.
 

I have discovered and experienced a lot of impressive things about Rotary and learned about other ways to help people. Rotary is everywhere and Rotary is in every community and it is affecting every community. I come from a Rotary club in Denmark and they didn’t do much for the local community, but they did a lot for communities in other countries in Africa.

Adrenalin junkie!

 

Rotary in Cromwell is doing so much for the local community and it helps the community and it helps people. Rotary Club of Cromwell is helping kids by giving them dictionaries and safety vests. They are helping elderly people by giving them firewood. They also do things for the environment (eg. they had a big cleanup day were they collected all garbage). That is just some of the things they are doing.
 

It is fantastic that an organisation with 1.2 million members have the same goal, the same opinions, even though they are spread out across the world.
 

I have learned that Rotary is not a hobby or something you do once a week. Rotary is a lifestyle and life vision. Rotary is a big family.
 

Every time I am taking my Rotary jacket with all my pins on I get really proud. I am proud to represent Rotary and the things it stands for and does.
 

I have done a lot of New Zealand things and as an exchange student I am pretty busy. I have shorn sheep, helped birth a lamb, milked cows, gone skydiving, walked the Milford Track, done a North Island trip and so much more. Rotary is planning some more great things for me that are going to be fun so I am looking forward to it. Sweet as!

 

Postscript
 

- by Rotary Club of Cromwell President Jean Morgan 
 

 

The Rotary Club of Cromwell’s Rotary Youth Exchange Student Anders Lade from Denmark arrived at a chilly Queenstown Airport on July 24. Cromwell club has been fortunate to host some outstanding young people in recent years and Anders is no exception. It is true that the more effort a student puts into their exchange, the more they benefit. Anders has grasped every opportunity offered and the above article written in a foreign language by Anders describes some of his New Zealand experiences to date.

 

We certainly think Anders is sweet as ...

Cover picture and story for
NZ Pacific edition of Rotary Down Under magazine
March issue

 

Charlotte Burgess’ Rector Avanzi School Project

  

Charlotte Burgess last year as a 16 year old Rotary Youth Exchange student travelled from her quiet rural community near Drury, NZ to a very different world in Alta Gracia, Argentina. This international exchange experience gave Charlotte so much as she grew in confidence and maturity, and then returned to NZ with an expanded world view.

Now a project initiated by Charlotte while in Argentina is nearing completion and will significantly benefit the children at the Rector Avanzi Preschool in Alta Gracia by adding an outside shelter. How did one young exchange student come to deliver a project benefitting so many?

Charlotte visited the Rector Avanzi Preschool in a very poor neighbourhood. The school had been established in an old slaughterhouse that hadn’t been well cleaned out and it had almost no materials or resources. With only one room, classes had to be taken outside in the heat and dust of summer and the cold of winter.

Charlotte said that that after visiting the preschool the first time, it made her feel so sad comparing the school with the opportunities she had, so this made her want to help make a difference. This goal captured in a very real way the exchange programme’s goal of building international goodwill and understanding.

Charlotte explained, “the preschool is in an area known as ‘Knife Neighbourhood’ due to how dangerous it is, and the majority of kids born there will live there for the rest of their lives just like their parents. They have no idea of another life from the one they live. The school is giving these kids the chance to get educated and get a job and make a new life for themselves.”

Teaming up with the local Interact club, Charlotte and the Interactors built and painted chairs for the children, delivered them to the school, and played with the children. She said, “the look on the teachers and kids’ faces when they saw us walking in with the colourful chairs was amazing!”

Charlotte also saw the opportunity for a larger project to construct a shelter on the side of the school building to protect the children from the weather while in their outdoor classes. Charlotte won the support of her host Rotary Club of Alta Gracia for the project and contacted her sponsor NZ and Pacific Islands-based District 9920 to also get more support for the project and its initial fundraising target of $14,000.

Impressed by the caring and compassionate heart of this young exchange student, many Rotary clubs joined with Charlotte and her family donations, and the target fundraising is now almost completed with the last few hundred dollars expected shortly.

There is still a funding shortfall for the larger project which Alta Gracia club will cover, but Charlotte is keen to continue fundraising towards it.  The project is expected to commence shortly, and on completion, will demonstrate what one young student can achieve within the framework of Rotary Youth Exchange with Rotary’s help.

Charlotte emphasised, “I was looked after extremely well in Argentina surrounded by such caring and loving people.  This is a wonderful way to say thank you and have a positive influence on the lives of many youngsters and improve their local community.”

Rotary International Youth Exchange Students take to the trees in the Adrenalin Forest

The Adrenalin Forest in Porirua, NZ multi-level aerial obstacle course is a great confidence builder and a wicked adrenalin rush, because it’s awesome fun, ultra safe and super challenging!

9940 RIYE students in the Adrenalin Forest with their national flags before taking on the challenge of the Adrenalin Forest

Nine RIYE students from  District 9940 (representing Argentina, Austria, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, USA, and New Zealand) were hosted by the Managing Director of the Adrenalin Forest Jean Caillabet last October to test their skills, balance, and determination, by daring themselves to be courageous enough to navigate confidence challenges on seven different pathways of progressive difficulty over 2.5 kilometres in length and up to 31 metres high.

The afternoon was organised by the Rotary Club of Porirua  Sundown, and afterwards the students joined the club for their dinner meeting. The Adrenalin Forest is aptly named as the students were certainly in a state of euphoria, with adrenalin surging, on having completed the challenge.  They formed an amazing bond with one another, and they will still be talking about it for a long time to come.The Porirua Sundown club are hosting a young student from Argentina, for twelve months, who is attending Bishop Viard College.

Together with the other students being hosted in District 9940, this afternoon demonstrated how RIYE enables young men and women to realize their potential and starts them on a journey towards future roles as Rotarians and community leaders.

Submitted by: Don Casagranda, District 9940