Just before Christmas, Alex Rotary responded to the call out from Paul Morton from IFYS in the My Weekly Preview to help out the" Inclusive kids program" with $4,000 of debit card donations to ease the financial pressure to this families over Christmas.

 

This followed on from donations from club and members to Care Outreach Christmas appeal among others. 

 

Since then we have the flood devastation in QLD and NSW, and the club has responded magnificently with funds raised at the Alex Communities amazing  "Christmas at Alex" celebrations and later on at Christmas Eve from the Christmas raffle and BBQ at our mates at Bunnings, and then again last Sunday where the club showed up to raise funds for Rotary (RAWCS) National flood appeal. 

 

And the great news is that Cam and Co. at Bunnings have invited the club to run the BBQ on Saturday 27th January, the day after Australia Day. This can only help even further with much needed donations. 

 

And in news to hand, there is a connection between our amazing Michelle and the Wujal Wujal community through her work with Red Earth and their connection with that community. We're hoping to make a difference "personally" to that community. 

 

The bad news is that for the latest fundraiser there is a clash with the RARE repurposing day scheduled for the club in Brisbane. This was the date where Alex Rotarians were invited to help pack shipping containers in the RARE recycling centre for much needed supplies for the surrounding island communities in our Rotary District. President Tony had previously mentioned to RARE that the club will be discussing what can be done with our limited resources, and the short notice of the RARE invitation. 

 

Stay tuned, but in any event full marks to all the members who have contributed to such a busy Christmas period of fundraising, which continues on the Saturday 27th at Bunnings Maroochydore. 

 

A certain scribe was frankly amazed to find stories of our club meetings on the internet a few hours after our first meeting of the year on Wednesday. In fact his memory is getting so bad that at first he thought he had penned an amazing article himself and then promptly forgot about it. (That happens a LOT!). Anyway, it turns out that a certain scribe has not completely lost all of his marbles and this article (below) was penned by our guest on Wednesday -  JoAnne - who visited us with other guests John & Chris from Carrington at our first meeting of the year.

 

Thank you JoAnne for such king words and photo's. (Comments on photo's are the editors).

 

 

 

 

It was Phillip's turn to give a Rotary minute. It is on the amazing Rotary Foundation and in a break from club tradition we are being treated to one episode a week, to be taken over 4 weeks. Apparently its a GP prescription thing. 

 

 

...and this pic below explains why President Elect Geoff has been vertically challenged in the above ....this is what was going on with "IT support"

 

 

and finally we were delighted to have two visiting young Rotary students, one from PNG and one from Chile as unanounced guest speakers. Both give us great hope for the future.

 

 

 

 

In past years the club has built up a string reputation, and been rewarded by grants from the federally funded "Building Stronger Communities" program. This program has supported and complemented a lot of club projects. During the week an invitation to apply for grants in the program was received. 

 

From the office of Andrew Wallace MP. 

 

In sad news this week, The Board Room Surf Charity advised that it has decided to close its current model after many years of helping the community.  In recent years in specifically helping out folks on the coast with disabled kids. Many of the folks that the Board Meeting helped were on  NDIS programs who just needed that extra help to make their life bearable. Your club was also happy to support financially and physically over many years.

 

But congratulations to Guy and Mark and the amazing team who made a difference to so many families, and were really amazing at getting the surfing and business communities in particular to rally round when help was needed. Many of our members will remember spending a few days at "Casey's Yard" in Currimundi where a complete yard was transformed, and also at Mooloolah where a yard was landscaped for a mum and her kids.