Home Page | Rotary Club of Kardinia

With Covid-19 rules now relaxed Kardinia Rotary Club has returned to our normal meeting time of Wednesday mornings at 7:00 am for 7.15 am start for breakfast, at the Highton Bowls Club, corner of Roslyn and North Valley Roads, Highton, Geelong.

We are a diverse group of people who work hard within our local community and the wider community. We warmly welcome you to join us if you'd like to learn more about Rotary and our Club. If you'd like to join us for breakfast please contact our President Henry Brockman at henrybrockman@bigpond.com or Secretary Geoff Caddy at geoffandbron@tpg.com.au and they can add you to the meeting attendees list.

Working as a School Counsellor in Indigenous Schools in the NT

At our meeting on November 25th Michelle van Zanden spoke to us about her experience as a School Counsellor in remote NT indigenous schools. She is based on Groote Eylandt servicing 3 schools on the island, one on a neighbouring island and one on the mainland. She shared some history of the island, the cultural practices and how that can impact on school attendance.

To see her slide show follow the link https://www.dropbox.com/s/1btbs2iowwmyql6/Indigenous%20School%20Counsellor.pptx?dl=0 . The text related to the slides is in the Story Content below.

Geelong Gourmet Goodies

Fund raising to enable our Club's service to the community has been limited in these Covid times so we are proud to present a new initiative - announcing Geelong Gourmet Goodies. These are gift boxes of Geelong and Regionally produced products perfect for giving to loved ones for the upcoming Christmas season or for businesses to present to their employees in recognition of excellent service or to customers for their patronage. Not only do the proceeds support the Rotary Club of Kardinia's community service, they inject much needed funds into local businesses who are in need of support in these times.

Please note that for the time being, on-line orders have now closed, please click the following link page/geelong-gourmet-goodies for details.

Goods will be packaged and delivered commencing in the week of 7th December or earlier by agreement.

East Gippsland Bushfire Aid Containers

Over the 2019/20 summer the East Gippsland area of Victoria was devastated by bushfires, with many communities and farmers losing homes, sheds and livestock. The District 9800 Bushfire Relief committee has established a project to supply retired shipping containers to farmers to replace destroyed sheds, as a temporary measure. Funds raised by clubs are able to be matched by funds from the District 9800 Bushfire Relief committee through RAWCS. Through the generosity of our members Kardinia Rotary Club raised sufficient funds to supply 4 containers.

Key Note Speaker - Sarah Henderson

On September 23rd the Kardinia Rotary Club conducted it's first on-line Fundraising event with Federal Senator Sarah Henderson as our guest speaker. She spoke on the topic of "Victoria's Post Pandemic revival : the challenges and opportunities".

The event was raising funds for the NIKERI Indigenous nursing scholarships so we also had Professor Mark Rose, Associate Professor Gabrielle Fletcher and Senior Lecturer Kelly Menzel as guests to share with the audience the fundamentals of the NIKERI nursing program.

The event was successful in raising in excess of $2,500 to enable the club to continue its ongoing support for the program.

MVUMI Hospital Scholarship Project

For the last 3 years the Kardinia Rotary Club, with support from District 9780 grants, has supported a Nursing Scholarship program at the Mvumi Hospital in the Dodoma district of Tanzania. At our meeting on September 2nd we had the privilege of having Doctors Angela and Brian Savage join us from the UK via Zoom.

NIKERI Indigenous Nursing program

At our meeting on July 29th Steve Funnell introduced Kellie Menzel (NIKERI Snr lecturer), and Nikki McGrady and Lani Harris (two NIKERI nursing students and Rotary scholarship recipients). Our club has been a supporter of these Scholarships and it was good to have some insight from Kellie as to the program and Nikki and Lani from a participant perspective.

East Gippsland Bushfire Recovery

At our meeting on Wednesday July 22nd we first viewed a recent Landline segment highlighting the locally driven bushfire recovery effort in Mallacoota. President Henry, after viewing this, subsequently made contact with one of the East Gippsland Rotary clubs to understand what role Rotary locally, and more broadly, can play in assisting this difficult process.

Deakin Food & Mood Centre

At our meeting on July 1st we had an enlightening presentation from Megan Hockey, who is a PhD Research Student at the Deakin Food & Mood centre. Her research is focussed on the link between diet and mental health. The research shows there is a strong link between diet and mental health and that improving diet should be a key strategy in treatment of depressive mental illnesses.

To see Megans full presentation please click the link below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xygzse2v6sxxk9v/Deakin%20Food%20%26%20Mood%20Centre%20presn.pdf?dl=0

Northern Bay College Family Learning Centre

During this past year, the club has worked hard to develop a garden comprising a number of raised beds, a chicken coop, herb garden and tree plantings for the children of the Family Learning Centre at Northern Bay College. We were delighted to receive a letter of appreciation from the centre accompanied by this letter from the children.

IMFR Challenge Walk

An intrepid band of club members took part in the International Marathon Fellowship of Rotarians Challenge Walk along the Barwon River this morning, 13th June 2020. The IMFR have kindly indicated that they will donate to a cause voted on by the participants, world wide. Check out the video:

IMFR Challenge Walk from Ben Systermans on Vimeo.

Bushikori Mbale Uganda

One of the projects that our club has supported for a number of years is the Bushikori Christian Centre in Uganda. Our club member, John Watts, who has been our link to the project, shared the following video that was put together to explain to our newer members what Bushikori is all about and what it does. This is well worth a look.

Lockdown Buddies

We recently had two amazing young people speak to the club about their excellent initiative, Lockdown Buddies. Despite Rachel and Kara having 5 boys under 5, they have established Lockdown Buddies to support those most vulnerable in the Geelong, Bellarine and Surf Coast areas during the Covid-19 period. They are supporting all age groups, from the elderly who do not have family and friends to support them, to students who are isolated, who can’t get home and have lost their jobs. They can provide Apco Care packages, and volunteers who will assist with gardening and small maintenance issues. They are working closely with Volunteers Geelong to ensure that all the support personal are interviewed, have Working with Children registration and are suitable for the tasks to which they are assigned. Their web site below has information about the services. Click the following link or refer to the flyer below that.

https://www.lockdownbuddies.org/?fbclid=IwAR0CnXeSjWna4TQrE6Vqh_JNAJF8U2gqnDFNdy7CIpU VV6PYV_zsQBOAO3g

Club Meetings

We are pleased to share that our regular, virtual Club Meetings using the Zoom platform have gone very well. Our members are rapidly becoming proficient with the platform. Breakfast continues as usual!

Meetings start with a 7:00 am join, via Zoom, with the formalities starting at 7:15 am, as usual. The meeting link will be shared via email.

Please refer to the Meetings / Calendar page for meeting detail and the meeting duties.