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Rotary Oceania Online Event September 12

I was privileged to be asked to attend this meeting which I thought was only going to include participants from Oceania - New Zealand ,Australia and the Pacific Islands - but to my delight young people from all over the world attended. Some 26 Countries in all, because of the dreams of our own Auckland City Rotoract Member, the master of communication, Becky Giblin.

The main presenter was Michelle Tanner from the Matamata Rotary Club who gave the best overview of our Polio Eradication Programme.

The main Rotoract subject of the event was to present the GECAF (Give Every Child A Future) Project .

Recognition of Rotary Service

In recognition of 100 years in Rotary, past RI President Holgar Knaack issued thank you letters to all club members with over 25 years in Rotary.

On their recent visit, DG Steve Chaney & his wife Edith, presented the letters and a 2021/2022 theme pin to our members.

At the time of writing the club's average years of service per member is 20. Apart from a great spread of Rotary knowledge, we also have many years of experience in mentoring youth, running community and international projects and knowing the needs of the community we serve. The hands-on Service Above Self culture which has spanned the life of our club is what makes us all proud members of Papakura Rotary.

From the Archives:

Playground equipment & a mini bus - two projects serving to change lives in the local community

19^th Year - 1966/67 - President: Bob Jolly

The club took on a project which was the beginning of a very worthwhile improvement to the Massey Park playground equipment. This was made possible by the club’s tradesmen and the generosity of local firms. The project spanned the following two Rotary years with continued improvements.

21^st Year - 1968/69 - President: Jack Kidd

The club sponsored a mini bus for use by voluntary workers and patients at Kingseat Hospital, funding a large portion of the cost. As there was always the demand to take patients for outings, the mini bus was noted as having “a terrific impact on the Hospital”. From the club’s perspective, it was noted that more people have had pleasure from this one project than any other.

Emergency Box Packing

Well it finally happened, and it is all over due to the need to complete the packing in a hurry because a new paying Tennent started to bring in large items of equipment no matter if we were ready or not. This caused an absolute panic for reasons of Health and Safety if nothing else.

We were informed of the requirement to complete the remaining ERK boxes last Thursday - I found out on Friday hence the reason for my Call to Action email to all members and a reach out to the RYLA team who helped a couple of weeks ago. As luck would have it, 33 members of Takapuna and Browns Bay Clubs manned the packing line with around another 12 or so preparing the Tarpaulins and fitting in the completed Buckets.

Veteran packers like John and David Hawke (who both turned up with a couple of extras), Allan Hayward from Newmarket, and of Food Box Packing fame, and me turning up to check out for the Sunday packing and around 2.30pm the whole job was complete with all Boxes packed. What a shock and a great relief - but then a clean up was still needed to allow more machinery to be stored ( A Nightmare ). Lots of emails ,texts and phone calls to cancel the Sunday packers, I finally arrived home exhausted and never want to see another ERK box again.

Perhaps spare some thought for Willard and Gabby Martin and David Broadhead from the Ellerslie Rotary Club when they were left with this challenge - not fair to say the least and full credit to them all for the splendid job that they undertook with very testing parameters at the end. Very well done Ellerslie.!!!

The photo of John with the very last Box tells it all and that’s the machinery being moved in next to him - the other shot is what it was like 2 hours prior the finish. Click Read More to see more images.

Foodbox Packing

Salvation Army Foodbox Packing

Further changes are happening at the Manukau depot and we have now been reduced to two packing Tuesdays per month - the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays - so we can relax a little now and only the core group need to attend both days.

The Papakura packing day, where we need full troop attendance, is on the 2nd Tuesday when we will share the day with the Manukau City Sunrise Club, so our next day is September 14th.

The 4th Tuesday, which is the 24th August, will be manned by Otahuhu and Halfmoon Bay Clubs with maybe just a few of us to assist with rubbish etc.

If any one really feels like travelling into Mt Wellington then Allan Haywood from the Newmarket Club would be very pleased to see you as Mt Wellington is packing every WEDNESDAY.

The address is 18 Allright Place Mt Wellington

Time is from 9:00 - noon.

The Salvation Army remain very grateful of our help.