The Rotary Club of Langwarrin

On 10th December the fledgling Interact Club combined with Rotary members and some parents to hold a sausage sizzle at Bunnings in Frankston. It was a spectacular success, with everyone helping out and managing to raise in excess of $1200! A big thank you to Bunnings, Sam Eccles of Elisabeth Murdoch College for arranging the day, the Interact members, parents and Rotary members - the net proceeds will help towards the construction of a Peace Garden, hopefully at the College. The day was such a success that further sausage sizzles are planned. Well done to everyone!

On October 8th, we held a Trivia Night at the Langwarrin Community Centre in aid of Shelterbox DownUnder. There were 10 teams and 10 rounds, and a fiercely competitive night it was! Teams included the Rotary Club of Endeavour Hills, Elisabeth Murdoch College, and Peter Haberle's legal eagles. After a long night of pitted wits, Peter's team triumphed once again by the narrowest of margins. Congratulations to them, and also a big thank you to all those who attended which helped raise enough funds for a Shelterbox and more besides. A note of thanks as well for Peter Haberle who organised the event, and Helen and Jeff Kirkland who were the questionmasters for the night. Bring on the next one!

STOP PRESS!

From 27th August our Club will be doing sausage sizzles every Saturday and Sunday for 6 consecutive weeks, as Chris & Marie are running an advertising promotion. The sausages will only cost 50c during this promotion period!

                                 

The club is excited to announce the arrival of another new member - Sonja Bottern, who is the Project Co-ordinator of the Langwarrin Community Project. Sonja joined in November 2005 and will be a valuable asset to the Club - welcome Sonja!

The Club is very pleased to announce that on July 18th 2005, President Richard Lewis inducted our newest member, Mark Dabrowski of Mark the Jeweller in Langwarrin. We welcome Mark into the Rotary fold and we're sure he will be a valuable asset to the Club. Mark has already been a generous donor of gifts to the Club to raise much needed funds. Mark spoke of his pride at becoming a member of Rotary, and his eagerness to become an active member to help the community, both local and international.

Following the success of the sausage sizzles at Chris & Marie's Plant Farm in Carrum Downs, both Chris & Marie agreed to be guest speakers at our Rotary dinner on October 3rd 2005. It was a fantastic evening, with around 35-40 people present - including the President, Secretary and Treasurer of the newly-founded Interact Club. Everyone had a great time, and Chris & Marie ended the evening with a Q&A, and gave away superb prizes for correct answers. Our sincere thanks to them both and we look forward to continuing our association with them into the future.

One of the many successful projects undertaken last year was the initiation of funding for the Indigenous Scholarship program run by the Australian Rotary Health Research Foundation (ARHRF). This is an ongoing project this year, and the Club gratefully acknowledges a very generous donation received from Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. We will continue to raise funds for this excellent project.

In October 2005, the Rotary Club of Somerville-Tyabb hosted an evening at which our sponsored student attended - it was an excellent evening, with many members from other clubs, such as Hastings and Seaford-Carrum Downs, who were co-sponsors of the student. It was left to Mac Spring, who had initiated the project to give a stirring speech on continuing to support such a worthy cause.

The Club is pleased to announce that, in keeping with the Rotary aim of twinning Rotary Clubs in this the centenary of Rotary, that the Langwarrin Rotary Club has successfully twinned with the Glossop Rotary Club in England. Like Langwarrin, Glossop is primarily a farming community that had built up over the years into an important town which serves a major city (in Glossop's case, it is 20km from Manchester).

Andy Eccles, who lived in Glossop before emigrating to Australia, said "I think this will be an exciting opportunity to share ideas, programs and of course fellowship across the miles in this centenary year of Rotary". To view the Glossop website, please go to our Links page.

We will update you on forthcoming developments on this project.