Walking Together to End Polio
On 18 October, the Rotary Clubs of Camberwell, Hawthorn and Glenferrie joined forces to organise a community walk from Fritsch Holzer Park to Auburn Hotel in support of End Polio Now.
Despite the warm 26°C weather, more than 30 enthusiastic participants came together to raise awareness of polio eradication. Even some members who had recently undergone surgery joined the event, demonstrating their wonderful commitment to this important cause!
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The Environment and Sustainability Committee of our club has booked a stall at the Camberwell Market for Sunday the 15th of November. The aim of this stall is to recycle a variety of items donated by club members, which they no longer wish to keep, and to sell them at the market. The proceeds of the sales will return to the club and will be used for humanitarian projects.
I would like to ask members to gather together saleable items they wish to donate for the stall. There will be a collection point or collection at a time closer to the market date.
Items suitable for sale must be secondhand or handmade. These would include secondhand clothes, (especially vintage), scarves, jackets, jewellery, china, glassware, metalware, or other interesting bric-a-brac.
District Governor Graeme visited Glenferrie with his wife Sue at our meeting on 29 September. Graeme, a Camberwell Rotarian, who was introduced by Chair Cheryl Pisterman, is a retired Chartered Accountant and married to Sue for more than 50 years – they must have been teenagers!
Graeme began his presentation with a short video of RI President “Yinka’s” ideas for Rotary in 2026-2027 and a slide illustrating the District’s Goals (see graphic & discussion on the next page.
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At our last meeting we welcomed 14 young guests at our youth focused night. Organised by the youth committee, many students from Swinburne were seated amongst the members, which worked well. At the end of the presentation, we were able to offer students information about RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award), Mock Interviews and Camberwell Rotaract.
Initially we were entertained by a talk from Ardie Martono who had recently attended the RYLA Camp.
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There was non-stop action at Bunnings Warehouse Hawthorn for most of the day, September 12th, for one of the club's most successful sausage sizzles ever. Hearty congratulations to Foundation Director Joanne Shentu and the Rotary Glenferrie Sizzlers for a supremely succesfull fundraiser. On a beautiful sunny day, patrons 
were at times queued well down Burwood Road in both directions, patiently waiting for their barbecued treat. As one patron said, “How come your sausages taste so much better than when we cook them ourselves"? The answer, of course, is a trade secret.
Sales were in the mid $3,000s with a net profit of around $2,400, all of which is to be donated to the Rotary founded global ShelterBox organisation, currently working to help victims of disasters in Nepal, Gaza and the Ukraine.
The fundraiser for ShelterBox was a Rotary Glenferrie Peacebuilder Project.
The September Sumba Eye Project mission to Indonesia faced unexpected challenges, with the Waikabubak eye clinic closed through lack of funding and volcanic disruption limiting the surgical program. Despite the setbacks, the team completed 14 cataract operations, screened local schoolchildren and trained teachers and health workers to identify eye problems. Just as importantly, valuable new partnerships were strengthened to help build a more sustainable eye-care service for the people of Sumba.
Heloise Murray and Isabel Bowden are both students of Loreto Mandeville Hall in Toorak, and accomplished debaters. In May this year, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Glenferrie, they represented their school at the Rotary District 9800 Model United Nations Assembly (MUNA), where they were assigned to speak on behalf of Russia. MUNA is an annual, two-day weekend event that is part of an international Rotary project to educate senior high school students (years 10 - 12) on the United Nations organisation and its vital commitment to world peace, in addition to health, education and living standards around the world. Come along and meet Heloise and Isabel, learn more about MUNA and discover what Russia had to say in this year's event.
