Rotary Club of Gloucester

After fundraising, grants and handwork, all five Exercise Stations are now in place within Gloucester Park for the whole community to use and enjoy. This project was started in July 2013 and is one of many projects that Gloucester Rotary Club has contributed to the community.

The Community of Gloucester got together behind their local Gloucester Rotary to collect shoes for the Soles4Souls Project. Over 70 pairs of shoes were collected during this project and they were then sent to Africa as a world community service. This is a complication of Rotarians hard at work sorting out the shoes.

A big thank you to the community for their generosity

A warm welcome to special guests, including family and friends of our nominees to this special event being the presentation of the Rotary Club of Gloucester unsung Hero Awards for outstanding community service.

Volunteers are the life blood of our community and this award offers an opportunity for our club and our community to recognise and celebrate the efforts of those dedicated individuals who have over many years contributed to the quality of life in our community without reward or recognition.

We the members of the Rotary Club of Gloucester believe that through this community service award we will promote the importance of volunteers to the well being and vitality of our community

In our search for suitable candidates for the award we contacted numerous service and not for profit organisations and community groups seeking nominations that met specific selection criteria.

Community service is the heart of the Rotary Movement. The Rotary Motto of Service above self is the basis of all rotary undertakings and is certainly demonstrated through our community service.

It is great for us all to be here tonight to show our support for, and to celebrate the acknowledgement of 6 very special people in our community. Thank you all for coming

 

(Rodney Somerville, Kevin Bolton, Deborah Faull, Judith Ingram, Susan Dixon, Dorothy Kirk)

 

Dorothy KIRK was nominated by Leonie Benson. Dorothy chose the NSW SES Gloucester as her charity

 

Kevin Bolton was nominated by Jillian CARSON. Kevin chose to give half to the Gloucester Scouts and half to the Gloucester Junior Hockey

 

Deborah Faull was nominated by Alison Fittler. Deborah chose the Starlight Foundation.

 

Susan Dixon was nominated by Lynne Spencer. Unfortunately Lynne is unable to be here this evening, so our Secretary Ashleigh Hickman will read out the nomination. Susan chose the NSW Cancer Council.

 

Rodney Summerville was nominated by the Sports Council, and Ashleigh will also read out Rodney’s nomination. Rodney chose to give half to the Prostate Support and half to the Gloucester Rugby League.

 

Judith Ingram was nominated by Vicki Coombes. Judith chose the Guillain Barre Syndrome Foundation

 

Congratulations to the tireless efforts of these very deserving winners, and also thanks to all those who took the time to submit a nomination, round of applause, and those on the assessment panel.

Presentation: Engineers Without Borders ……… Jade Spencer

Gloucester Rotary was involved in the sponsorship of Jade’s Project in December 2017. And This is her story.

Jade went to India from the 3^rd to 18^th December with the ‘Engineers Without Borders’ Project run by the Charlestown University. Her project in India was to improve the nutrition of the Salt Farmers. These Salt Farmers and their families will stay in the desert for 8 months in a year working on their Salt Farms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a wonderful experience with the host families. One night, after dinner we were all sitting around and talking when one  of the daughters asked us if she could give us Henna tattoos. The girls all sat down and created wonderful, intricate patterns on our hands, when they were done, our host mums dressed us all up in traditional Saris and wedding attire. We drank tea and danced with them. They tried to teach us the Gujarati Garba but we failed dismally.

 

Another day, we were waiting on our escort to take us to a nearby village to talk to salt farming families and I found Mama standing on a stool on top of a sleeping cot, rummaging around in the top of a cupboard. I asked if I could help her, she handed me a box of photos. She then sat down with me and shared photos of her at her wedding, her kids growing up and of her life. It was a wonderful experience. We didn’t speak each other’s language, but were able to communicate and connect with each other without our translators. We laughed and we cried. It was such a special moment.

 

 

 

 

The son of the household sat down with me one evening while I was trying to help with dinner and we shared our love for coin collecting. He had an awesome collection from people he’d met who had come from all around the world.

Our first night in community, our host sister took us to a temple a short walk from their home and they whole way there we held hands, because she felt a strong connection. She then explained about how they worship.

 

 

 

There were so many things at the salt farms to talk about, but my group mainly focused on nutrition. Because the families are out on the salt farms for up to 8 months at a time, and then go back to the villages when monsoon season hits, they don’t have permanent housing on the farms themselves. They have no electricity to keep food fresh and fresh water is scarce. They mostly rely on dry packaged food which has little nutritional value. We were tasked with finding a way to increase nutrition, we spoke with local doctors and Rudibans (women who sell safe food products in a similar way we might use a Tupperware representative- in home demonstrations and then regular orders that are delivered monthly to the salt farms).

 

It was discussed that there was a need to increase calcium and other vitamins and minerals that you get in milk. Fresh milk is hard to store in the heat, so powdered milk became our main focus. When we were talking with families and other representatives, we found out there is a mistrust of powdered milk because fresh milk is promoted as healthy and powdered milk could be bulked up with other things.

  

 

Part of our project was to create an educational program to demonstrate how healthy powdered milk is, how it can be used and how it can be of benefit to their children.

 

Our project received a distinction from the university and has now been passed onto community leaders to roll out to the community.

Kylee was the chosen candidate for this year’s RYLA camp held on 17th to 24th March at Yarrahappinni Adventist Youth Centre Grassy Head (near Macksville). When Kylee arrived at the camp, she was warmly greeted by the leadership team. They were warned that by the time the camp ends, all of them will most probably suffer from PRD post RYLA depressions which none of the candidates believed. Their phones were taken from them throughout the whole week so there are no connect with the outside world. Every morning they were woken up at 7am with the leaders singing and banging on the doors, windows and walls. When Kylee came home from the camp, she admitted that she miss the wakeup call routines.

  

 

The first subject Kylee learned was all about finding out your purpose and direction, which was defining the 5 pillars of purpose. That helped you figure out your life purpose and tiny steps you can take to reach that purpose. Kylee also learnt about promoting the right perceptions and how your appearances and patterns of speech promote a certain look. And how to change them to promote the key themes of your desired personal image.

 

The young RYLArians were also involved in a lot of activities that promote teamwork and also obstacles to overcome one’s fear. Kylee’s greatest challenge was to overcome her fear of heights and one of the activity was abseiling. Despite her fear, Kylee did manage to do one Abseilling activity which she tend promptly fainted upon reaching the ground…. But Kylee can now cross that off her bucket list and never do it again!

The last lession was about priorities, leading yourself and developing habits for success. Based on the core goals and purpose, RYLArians made three goals for 2018 to help reach their core goals as well as prioritising them.

Kylee thanked the Gloucester Rotary for giving her the opportunity to go this camp. It is an experience she will never forget. Not only has she made lifelong friends , most importantly she has learned lots of valuable lessions that will help her in her life journey.

 

Rotarians were very impressed with Kylees’s speech and hoped that she will consider applying for the leadership role for next year’s RYLA.

For view of the full slide – go to RYLA 2018