Quadruple treat of bite sized opportunities

The Rotary Club of St Johns gourmet market was a quadruple treat of bite sized opportunities! 

The Salmon Man Ron Aratema

Wine, salmon, coffee and chocolate all went together well at the successful evening.  It was a particular attraction that the products on offer were of high quality from innovative businesses the Fine Wine Delivery Company, The Salmon Man and Jack’s Coffee.  The evening also included fascinating presentations describing the start-up of these relatively new businesses, their journeys to date, and how striving for excellence in their products and service have contributed to their success. 

This but one example of the innovation clubs are introducing to make their club meetings more enjoyable for members and partners and also as a way of interacting with the community.  This particular meeting had some members from other clubs but also several people interested in finding more about Rotary and how Rotary might fit their desire to be active in their local area.  Although St Johns Rotary is a breakfast club, their first meeting of each month is a dinner event and has proved extremely popular with member's partners.

Petone Fair ... a success again

The Petone Fair has now been organised & run by the Rotary Club of Petone for 23 years.

A very successful & busy day was experienced at the latest Fair on Saturday February 15, 2014 with approx 33,000 visitors in brilliant Wellington sunshine!!  A feature display showcasing the Rotary Emergency Response Kits was incredibly popular.

 

The stand and Rotarians could not be missed!

 

Club members all stood out so well in our highly visible RC of Eastern Hutt vests & wonderful Emergency Response Kit sun hat's sponsored by Errol Tong. This all helped raise the Public profile of Rotary International & RNZWCS in general, as well as the very successful ERK Project our RC of Eastern Hutt introduced to Rotary NZ way back in 1983.

The public appreciated the insight into how Rotary supports those in need in the Pacific in times of disaster

The RC of Eastern Hutt now look forward to setting up & manning our ERK Display again at the next Martinborough Fair March 1, 2014 which is being organised & run by the RC of South Wairarapa. 

 

See also www.rnzwcs.org.nz  for more information about the Emergency Response Kits

View a clip about Rotary Youth Leadership Awards 2014 in Christchurch for young adults

Rotary publicity in full swing

 

 

The NZ Rotary publicity campaign starts on Friday 15 February.  The aim is to raise general awareness that Rotary is going great things in the community and that Rotary welcomes the support of like-minded people.  The campaign is supported by a number of high profile people in the community.  Campaign information is at www.facebook.com/rotarynz ... when there please support Rotary by "Like" the page.

 

 

This increased awareness among the public is a perfect time to suggest to friends and colleagues they might like to find out more about what Rotary can offer them and suggest the best way is to visit a club and meet some Rotarians with no pressure or obligation.  A call to 0800 4 ROTARY will assist getting people to a club most suited to them.

Winners all around

From small, tentative beginnings in 2001, Rotary Club of Howick’s Bookarama second-hand book fair has grown into a major fundraiser and logistical exercise which has provided a win-win-win-win-win-win-win-win for everyone.

The first winner is the environment which benefits from the relocation of some 12,000 pre-loved books with new owners annually and the appropriate recycling of over 10 tonnes of waste paper rather than its consignment to landfill.

The second winners are the bibliophiles of Howick in Auckland, NZ who get to purchase these pre-loved books, the majority of which have new prices of $20-50, for $3 or less and get to re-love these books all over again.

Winner number three is the Rotary Club of Howick, its members and their friends and family who for the six weeks of the campaign display true spirit of teamwork and camaraderie to get the job done.

The fourth winner is the Rotary Club’s Charitable Trust fund which annually benefits from NZ$25,000-$30,000 that can be applied through the club committees to community projects.

The fifth winners are the community groups who benefit from the distribution of these funds so that they can finance and progress their projects.

Winner number six is a fairly recent initiative. For the past three years, three schools in less affluent areas of Auckland have collected a big truckload of well sorted leftover books with which they conduct their own $1 book fairs and raise money for the school, but more importantly placed many books in houses where their presence is a rarity.

Winners number seven are community groups associated with the schools to whom the schools donate some of their surplus books.

And finally winners number eight are a series of local church groups with Pacific island connections who receive the balance of unsold books which they send to churches in the islands for distribution to their parishioners.

So what started 12 years ago as a small fundraising venture has grown into a many faceted exercise that truly epitomises Rotary’s 4-Way Test of being “beneficial to all concerned".

Cromwell’s 20th annual ‘Rotary Fishing Classic’ competition was held at Lake Dunstan in Central Otago

Cromwell’s 20^th annual ‘Rotary Fishing Classic’ competition was held at Lake Dunstan in Central Otago, NZ on Sunday November 17, 2013. It was a brilliant day with 164 entries and 102 fish weighed-in.

 

Rotary Club of Cromwell President Murray Kennedy presented prizes to David Wigg who was the winner of the heaviest fish overall at 1.644 kg. Whilst not winners, keen young participants Harvey and Millie O’Neill were also pleased with their catch. A traditional lolly scramble and the giving of certificates and prizes to all children, meant that no-one went away empty handed.

 

Over $5,000 of prizes were on offer, including a helicopter flight for three. We thank the Begg Security Group for being major supporters. We cannot list here all of the other sponsors, but with their generous and continued support, the Rotary Fishing Classic will last another 20 years.

A list of sponsors and competition results can be found at: http://www.rotary.org.nz/club.cfm?id=433 or find Rotary Club of Cromwell on Facebook.

 

 By Derek Whelan, PR Director, Rotary Club of Cromwell