Presidential Musings for the Week

Posted by Mark Ellis AM
President's Message

Leonardo da Vinci once stated “Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose.”

Our recent member, Isaiah Lahai, gave a thought provoking and often a distressing picture of what he has gone through to come to Australia as a refugee. With his family he had to begin a new life in a foreign land with language, cultural and even temperature adjustments. which his family has had to acclimatise to.

Isaiah’s stated his resolve to not only assimilate into our country, but to give back in his activities to both our community and that of Sierra Leone. Personally, I believe we have a true hero in our club. I would encourage you all to get behind this civic minded person and assist him to work well as a Rotarian.

We are all moaning at our plight, but his story just goes to show that there is always someone, who has had to struggle a bit more than you!

 

Issues current – Really nothing much is going on this week.

It is good to see that new members are being approved by the Board, and they will be announced after due process is achieved.
 
The Farmer’s Market is still going strong and providing a fresh source of food and social life for many in the community.  We do ask members to volunteer via Clubrunner and not to leave it for a few to carry the can, as I don’t want to be overbearing in this matter.
 
Even though we are getting a good response of people tuning into the Zoom meetings, we note a regular absence of certain people, so I ask all the mentors to check that their mentees are okay, please?
  • Note that the Grand Official Opening of the Yarra Bank reserve playground is on Nov 21st.  Hopefully all playgrounds will be open so we can celebrate the tremendous amount of work this project has generated. Please watch the Bulletin announcements.
     
  • “Lift the Lid Golf Day” October 26th – We are assisting with Elizabeth’s effort to conduct this golf day. Hopefully golf courses will be re opened and the event will go ahead. I have just heard that there is an opportunity to come to the dinner if you cannot take the time off to play. I am hoping that this dinner can be held instead of our normal meeting, but we will judge this at the next board meeting and naturally once we know that we can proceed.
     
  • Please note that the AGM is coming up in late November and the Board is getting ready to proceed with its commitments
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  • The Parkinson's walk has again been cancelled. During the pre-pandemic years the funds raised by the Rotary Club of Glenferrie BBQ in the City Square, were donated to Parkinson's Victoria. As spring is upon us we now have the opportunity be active with the goal of raising funds for Parkinson's Victoria. We therefore invite you to join the Glenferrie Rotary Harriers, a rather optimistically named group with the aim of being active in some form for the first 27 days of October. Being active may include cycling, running, walking or merely reducing one's consumption of alcohol! So please click on the link to join the group and encourage friends, family and others to be part of the action.27forParkinson's - Glenferrie Rotary Harriers (27forparkinsons.org.au  You have a choice to join the team or donate (or both).
 
Well, that is it for another week – Stay alert and Positive.
 
President Mark