Another sneaky Rotary Moment!

Roberta McIvor-Wright

It was February and the time was fast approaching for our Rotary South Pacific Presidents Elect Training Seminar at Waipuna Lodge in Auckland. Our incoming delegates from around the Pacific were bringing their new enthusiasm and fresh ideas to share with others; the whole 400 of them!

Naturally, we needed a traditional NZ welcome for the group. Sounds easy, after all, we Rotarians have great networks and well versed in putting on a good show right?   Not so easy. The date clashed with the Te Matatini competition in Christchurch and Polyfest rehearsals around the country. Not a group could be found. Then, through a Rotary colleague at a secondary college in a low socio economic area, bingo, a small group of more junior children agreed to perform for us.  In just two weeks they put together their show. (Their costumes were made by themselves, right from the cutting and dyeing of the flax.) Their teacher gathered them up early on Saturday morning 7 March as some families have no transport, gave them breakfast at the school and got them to the venue by 8 am. What a show it was with shining faces, strong but beautiful items, finishing with the powerful obligatory haka! The energy was palpable!

The conference was told about the fundraising the group were beginning, to travel to Waitangi, to study NZ history and the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. At recess, generous Rotarians willingly popped notes and coins into a Maori “kite” or flax basket, and on the Monday morning, myself, DGE Jennie Herring and Conference Chair Trish Boyle went to the school to present the money (koha) to the group.   

The rest, as they say, is history; read the thank you response from a fourteen year old below, addressed to all the Rotarians in the South Pacific. Rotary Moments, I am once again gently reminded, can sneak up and catch us by surprise.

 Sylvie Wilkinson

R/C Pakuranga

D9920

 

To The Rotarians of The South Pacific.

Kia Ora,.

My name is Roberta, I am a student at Otahuhu College, and I am also a member of the Kapa Haka group.

Last Saturday we had the privilege of performing for you at the Waipuna Lodge during your leadership conference.  We had a fantastic time and we enjoyed seeing your smiling faces looking up at us.

On Monday, the group and Whaea Darlene (teacher) and I were surprised when we were gifted a cheque for a thousand dollars from the conference people.   We were so emotional we all cried including Whaea. I am deeply grateful for your generosity. It means a lot, not only to me, but every member of our Kapa Haka group.

This year we are planning a trip to visit the Treaty of Waitangi and to experience the Far North.  This koha has made a significant start to our fundraising ventures and pushed us closer to our goal.  I was overwhelmed at the amount of kindness you showed us and the smile is still plastered upon my face. Performing for you has made me more confident about presenting in public.  You have definitely enhanced my life in a most positive way.

When I’m sitting on the bus to Waitangi, I will be thinking of all you Rotarians and your generosity, and how much you’ve contributed to our experience.

Kia Tamatane,

Roberta McIvor-Wright

Year 11 Student.

Otahuhu College, Auckland, NZ

My Rotary Moment: The Rotary family assists after a disastrous work fire

     

By DGE Karen Purdue, Rotary Club of Invercargill Sunrise, NZ

The worst moment of my business career happened on August 8, 2006.  In the space of 30 minutes, our Alsco NZ laundry factory was destroyed by fire.

At the time, we had 1500 customers, including the main hospital in our town.  We also employed 100 staff.

I didn’t get much sleep from that Wednesday night onwards for several weeks.

On the Friday morning, my Rotary Club of Invercargill Sunrise was meeting for our usual breakfast. Despite my tiredness, I decided to go as a bit of normality seemed to be a good idea. 

When I arrived, several Rotarians gave me a hug and spoke encouraging words.  I don’t think they know how much that meant to me.   

They didn’t know that less than an hour earlier, I had slid down the shower wall and bawled my eyes out as the reality of the disaster sunk in, and the enormity of the recovery was becoming obvious.

During the course of the Rotary meeting, many offers of help were made by fellow club members, who through their business or contacts helped our business to get new premises, office furniture and a photocopier. A Rotarian, who was a psychologist, worked with our management team to help us come to terms with what had happened.

Many of the Rotarians were customers and offered their assistance, like doing their own laundry until we got back on our feet.

The local insurance assessor was also a club member. We got to know each other very well over the next two years.

I received flowers, food and many offers to help care for my young family.

I experienced what it’s like to be part of the Rotary family.  As someone more used to caring and helping others, I will never forget the kindness, caring and practical assistance from the members of my Rotary club.



Included in May
Rotary Down Under
magazine

 

 



 

My best day in Rotary: Leading a Rotary Friendship Exchange to Alaska

By PDG Cathy Roth, Rotary Club of Geelong Central, Victoria, Australia



Welcome to Barrow, America’s northern-most city: Australian District 9780 Rotary Friendship Exchange and District 5010 Rotary Club of Barrow members enjoying time together in Alaska. Cathy Roth is far left and husband John on the far right.



Scanning the hazy horizon bathed in the eerie, half-light of an Arctic summer night, our quietly-spoken Inuit guide warned us that polar bear were close by, and that we should stay close to our twelve-seater van.  Curious otters, bobbing up and down, like arcade air-gun targets, peered at us from the still sea.  The myriad of small ice-flows reflected the long, thin fingers of moonlight. 

Here we were in June 2007, eleven Australian Rotary Friendship Exchange members from District 9780, standing on the very tip of Alaska, and well into the Arctic Circle, looking across the sea-ice to the North Pole. It was almost surreal.  

As the bitter coldness clawed at our throats, it was hard to imagine living through a winter here.  Yet in this environment of self-preservation, the beauty, the fullness, and the magnificence of Rotary shone through, more than I could ever have believed possible. 

As homes and hearts of Rotarians were thrown open to host us, so too was revealed a caring and a selflessness for their community that was humbling.  

Community service includes the Inuit communities which for centuries have lived alongside nature in a sensitive ecological balance.  Projects include the provision of warm parkas for Inuit children attending school in the bleak winters, and the fostering of Inuit tourism ventures enabling culture and dignity to be maintained whilst economic independence is able to be established. 

Rather than work for the community, Rotary in that northern-most point of our globe works with the community, quietly, unassumingly – a little like Rotary’s founder Paul Harris himself. 

Seeing this Rotary in this environment, was more than humbling.  It was a quiet reminder of Rotary’s responsibility to be a guardian to every facet of our global environment, as well as the incredible ability Rotary has to impact every nation and all its peoples.

By-line: 
While not a NZ Pacific story, this is the first of a series over the coming months that will illustrate why various 'ordinary' Rotarians are Rotarians.

Cathy Roth was instrumental along with Beryl Robinson in bringing to and establishing Rotary Leadership Institute in New Zealand and Australia.

Included in May
Rotary Down Under
magazine