Sergeant Justice Rhule opened the meeting at 7.15pm in the Vikings Club Dundas.
President Trudy Stevenson introduced guests Vicky Anderson, John Barber, Jenny Young, Neil Donovan and guest speakers Kathryn Hammond from Dundas Area Neighbourhood Centre (DANC) and our latest member Sandra Payne.
Apologies received were Jules Adan (Overseas), Paolo Santiago (getting Married), Ed Strom (Eugowra Floods), Joseph Mack (not well) and Russ Riddell (Baby sitting in Queensland).
James Addo did not let us down and was the only member to remember it was a Ghanaian dress theme evening, wearing a rich maroon and gold broad stripe jacket and matching hat.
Mike Morgan was called upon to announce the passing of our late PDG Graeme Turnidge’s wife, honorary member and Paul Harris Fellow Elaine, who passed away on Saturday night at the age of 88. The funeral will be held on Monday 28th November at Allan Drew Heritage Chapel 221 Old Northern Road Castle Hill at 2pm.
Last Sunday’s Market Treasurer John Green advised there were 45 Stalls, 8 tables hired and $459.70 made in donations at the gate, making a total of $2299.70. Our rain god Market Manager Bob O’Shea scared away the rain at 5am and brought on a new challenge the wind at 9.30am. There was a few breakages and a couple of early stall leavers as a result.
Phil Newall announced Dr Dahlia Sartika, speech therapist, sponsored by our club, working in Indonesia, received acknowledgement for her work on development of the Indonesian Speech Recognition Threshold Test for Children and Normative Study. Her work was accepted for publication in the journal of Hearing Science as advised by the Associate Editor Wiktor Jedrzejczak.
Guest Speaker Kathryn Hammond has been the manager of DANC for the past 18 months. The Centre is in its 45th Year running community programs for early intervention, community and justice support and is located at 21 Sturt St Telopea. The administration team who coordinate the support consist of 1.6 and works in conjunction with the local church and community groups such as Rotary.
Sometimes people find it difficult to understand exactly what kind of support they need and where to find it. Dundas Area Neighbourhood Centre can help them get started on that journey by working together to discover what specialist support they may need through their information and referral service. They have a wide variety of information at hand including mental health, families and children, health, housing and more. Once people are comfortable and with their permission, they are referred to professional groups and government assistance agencies to receive the support they need. The centre’s contact number is 02 96844250. Opening hours are Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 10am-3pm.
The Centre works with community Groups to provide a range of activities for fitness of body and mind. This includes table tennis Mondays 12pm-3pm, Art classes Mondays 12pm – 4pm, Guitar get- togethers Friday 3.30pm -5pm. More community groups are invited to set up and those interested are asked to contact the centre to share their ideas.
Friday Connects is a luncheon and preparation of food hampers, thanks to the support of Second Bite and Coles. Sunday night meals are provided through the organisation of the local church and we are able to contribute with the generosity of market stallholders such as Gus and his family and Lisa with bread, eggs fruit and vegetables.
The main project Kathryn is asking us to assist with is the upgrade of their community garden. The plan is to have 30 raised plant beds and each family will be allocated one with an open community plot in the middle. This produce will go towards supporting the meal efforts that are provided at the centre. A working bee is planned to remove rubbish and to create 30 concrete beds. The area is fenced off and each bed owner will be issued with a key to gain access. The plan is to be ready by March 2023. Land & Housing are the owners of the land on which the project is situated.
Our second guest speaker and our very own Sandra Payne was introduced by Uncle Chris Johnson who gave us an insight to the innocent baby child through to the adventurous women of today. This included being Helen and Chris’s flower girl at their wedding. No doubt Uncle Chris would have influenced Sandra to her first Rotary exposure of RYPAN and her second as guest speaker at our club. Sandra completed Hornsby Girls High before completing a TAFE course in bush regeneration. This led to Macquarie University to do degrees in Science and Biology. Her career was rightly headed to Ryde Council Capital Works as their Bush Care Coordinator and Bush Fire Manager.
Our Sandra is full of life and bought her first Honda Motor Bike in 2009 (Kevin), Travelled Argentina and toured on a BMX650GS and as if that was not enough she later travelled from Airlie Beach to Fremantle Western Australia on her bike ,as you do. She now also has a BMW bike (Roy).
To spice up her life even more in 2010 Sandra joined the Australian Army reserve in the Transport Division and you name it she has driven it. In 2014 she was involved in Operation Resolute, Sovereign Boarders and Darwin Larakia before joining her fellow comrades in Batemans Bay carrying out water distribution during the notorious bushfire season.
Sandra has now decided to swap the army life for Rotary and aren’t we glad she did.
Rod Jolly gave acknowledgement to both speakers who fulfilled our thoughts and aspirations and members joined him in appreciation by acclamation.
A quick heads and tails was won by Cristy Newall (how she looks after her man).
Happy Fines were dominated by James Addo who went to great lengths to explain how a disgruntled stall holder thought what a wonderful man John Green was when he came to her rescue with the right things to say. Trudy’s 10 year old niece received a Bronze Medal in a national competitive field in long jumping. She was also happy her husband James survived having found a tick in his head.
Trudy thanked our guests for attending and reminded that the AGM is next week. She thanked Ed Strom and Bob O’Shea who are returning to Eugowra on Monday and will advise what things are desperately required for the flood effort. They are desperately short of people to prepare and cook meals but you would need to be able to provide your own accommodation. There are showers and toilets available at the showground.
Book now by
Humanitix for the Xmas Party on Friday 16
th December at the FC Social Barefoot Lawn Bowls 6 Park Road Rydalmere. Tickets $60 per head.
Meeting Closed 8.15pm.
Hub Reporter Gary Hayman.