Week 24 : 15 December 2023

Ho, ho, ho...

Bells jingled, crackers cracked and laughter was heard all around as RCMP got into the Christmas spirit (hic!) to celebrate the last meeting of the year!

The few 'bloopers' by President Veronica, Brian J, Graham R and Lew T are bound to attract Santa's eye (He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been good or bad - so be good for goodness sake!) Nope they definitely get bags of coal!

However, a round of applause for all the Santa's, Elves and Mrs Claus' who are working tirelessly over the next couple of weeks in bringing joy to the many clubs, kindies, schools, parties and office gatherings leading up to Christmas. It's hard work in those hot costumes so a VERY BIG thank you to all our Dial A Santa helpers.

Here are some Christmas facts to digest with your Christmas turkey...

• You can thank Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria of England, for your Christmas tree. He bought his wife a tree and she decorated it - and thus the Christmas tree tradition was born in 1848.
• Rudolph first appeared in 1939 as a Christmas story for the Montgomery Ward department store, and in 1949 Gene Autry recorded the song ‘Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer’ NOT Bing Crosby.
• Mistletoe is an aphrodisiac - an ancient symbol of fertility and virility however the Germanic translation of mistletoe means ‘dung on a twig’ so you may want to think twice from now on before you pucker up.
• We all know them as Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen; but their original names were Flossie, Glossie, Racer, Pacer, Scratcher, Feckless, Ready, Steady and Fireball!

I wonder why they changed them?

Guest speaker - Milly Formby

Our Guest Speaker, Milly Formby, is originally from Gippslandin Victoria and is an Artist and Zoologist. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Zoology) and a Master of Science (Zoology), both from The University of Melbourne; along with a  Bachelor of Visual Arts Monash University.

Her fascination with shorebirds began while she was studying at the University of Melbourne.  In 2015 Milly moved to Perth to take a job at the University of WA.She had never flown a plane before and had no childhood dreams of becoming a pilot. Nor is there any history of aviation in her family. So one day she thought “I could learn to fly a Microlight and follow the shorebirds on migration to Siberia”. From that, her epic “Wing Threads” circumnavigation of Australia was born.

As background, Milly introduced us to the mighty little shorebirds. They fly over 25,000 Km from their breeding grounds in Siberia to their non-breeding grounds in Australia. What makes it so amazing is, they don’t glide or land on water. So their epic migration is done in one non-stop journey over about eight days, where they flap continuously the entire way! Before leaving, they fatten themselves up then use up all this body fat on the way. They also leave their chicks behind. By a miracle of nature, those chicks mature and make their own way to Australia!

Milly decided the first step to pursuing this big dream

would be to test her wings by flying around Australia. In 2016 she began training with flight instructor, Gordon Marshall at Sky Sports Flying School in York, about 200 kms east of Perth. But she didn’t have a plane, so Milly ran a crowdfunding campaign in 2017. At the start of 2018, she was sponsored by Microlight manufactures Airborne Australia who offered to their aircraft for her to build up her hours. Along the way, as she learnt to fly, Milly was awarded the Amelia Earhart Fly Now Scholarship 2016 (Women in Aviation International) and the PanAir Flight Training Scholarship 2019 (The 99s International Organization of Women Pilots)

 After further fundraising, having her own Microlightbuilt and forming a support team, she was ready. Her circumnavigation of Australia, “Wing Threads” was supposed to take six months. One year and 20,000 Km later, her adventure was completed in September 2023.

Along the way she visited 105 schools, talking to 6,550 students about shorebirds and her journey. Milly has written and illustrated a children’s book A Shorebird Flying Adventure, which is available through CSIRO Publishing.

You can also watch the Wing Threads documentary on ABC iView. https://iview.abc.net.au/show/wing-threads.

 

Special Event

Graham Rennie was presented with a Certificate of Excellence for the many years he has upheld RCMP's I.T., website, domain names and all things technological. Including weekly projections and fixing it up when things went pear-shaped! 

 He was fined last week for appearing centrefold in the City of South Perth Peninsula (sans staple in the belly button) thus being labelled as  “Hunk of the Week” by our fines master Jenny - but we know that no one could have brought Technology to Mill Point as well as Graham. Many thanks for all that you do and have done!

 

 

Announcements and Director Reports:

Graham R - Manning's men shed looking for volunteers to help build chicken coops for local schools. Contact Graham directly.

Brian J - Ukraine merchandise on sale after the meeting.

Gerry McG - received $700 cash from a 'mate' after he saw photos of the Bushfires in Oz - a picture paints a thousand words!

Raelene G - BIG thanks to Marg Hyatt for taking over as attendance officer whilst Raelene swanned around Oz for 3 months!

Kelly G - Club photo on the lawn after meeting: Donations of non-perishable goods for Southcare hampers to Veronica please.

Gorby - This weeks donation of bread, buns, pies, cream buns etc., would probably retail at about $500 - all collected and delivered to needy causes by RCMP - thanks Brumby's!

Our thoughts and good wishes to Scott D who is in hospital undergoing surgery, and Roger D still undergoing treatment.

Attendance this week:

71 attendees in all, comprising - 41 members; 30 guests including Geoff Baker MLA, Mayor Greg Milner; Friends of Rotary Vaughan and Julie Emery; Honorary members Peter KK, and Sid Jessup; visiting Rotarians Alan Ramsay and Kim Larson RC of Como; and Hannah Nimmo-Lawrance (photographer).

The Club of 2023!

 It took a while but at last we all got together and the photographer snapped us in all our Glory!

Merry Christmas everyone,

 wishing you and yours a safe, happy and healthy New Year!

Ho, ho, ho!

 

Directors 2024-2025

Meet your new Board Directors for the 2024-2025 Rotary year.

President: Kelly Gillen

President Elect: TBA

Vice President : Veronica Lawrance
Club Service : Brian Johnson
Youth Service : Astrid Mitchell

International : Raelene George

Community & Fundraising : Rick Sneeuwjagt
Membership : TBA
Vocational : Michael Gottschalk
Treasurer : Lyn Metcalf
Secretary : Alision Thair

 

Club Administration

Programme Officer/Speakers : Brian Johnson 

Foundation Chair/District Conference : Veronica Lawrance

Sergeant/Club Dress : Michael Collett

Attendance officers : Raelene George/Margaret Hyatt/Michelle Lovkis

Risk/Insurance Liaison Officer : David Rowell

Bulletin Editor : Veronica Lawrance

Webmaster : Veronica Lawrance

Club Welfare Officer : Michelle Lovkis (assisted by Raelene George and Kelly Gillen)

Fellowship : Owen Ferguson

Assistant Treasurer : Kim Paine

Youth Protection : Brian Johnson

 

 

Week 23 : 8 December

President Veronica opened the meeting with Christmas themes and songs from the past - 'Rocking Around The Christmas Tree' (Brenda Lee 1958) outstripping Maria Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' and Wham's 'Last Christmas' by miles - (or is that kilometers?)

Guest speaker highlights -Tetyana Smith (Izyumenko)

Tetyana spoke on her home country Ukraine and the grim realities of life there since the Russian invasion. She was born in Ukraine, where she finished school and graduated from Medical College. 21 years ago she moved to WA with her son, changing to Business & Law (majoring in Accounting).

Following the full-scale invasion on the 24 of February 2022, Tetyana became actively involved in helping Ukrainians in Ukraine and displaced Ukrainians, who came to Australia seeking shelter. She is now a full-time volunteer coordinating the sourcing of medical equipment and supplies from local donors and sponsors and shipping them to Ukraine. With no prior experience in collecting and shipping medical goods to Ukraine and facing various constraints in WA, via friends, acquaintances and business partners, Tetyana found some storage, established the networks and connections with medical facilities, a local Rotary club, volunteers, local transportation, a freight forwarder and sponsors.

Doing a lot of work on her own, such as collecting, counting, recording, packing, moving etc she established a supply chain from WA to Ukraine. The goods were shipped by air and also by sea, with the latest shipment of a 40-foot container having already been delivered to Ukraine.

Tetyana has also become one of the active leaders of the Ukrainian community raising awareness of the war, advocating for Ukrainians, seeking humanitarian pathways for Ukrainians to Australia and support for them here in WA and in Ukraine. Meetings have been organised with politicians, media, Red Cross, Rotary Clubs. She has also helped with organising rallies, fundraising, picnics, various social, cultural, religious and other types of events in support of Ukraine. Tetyana has also been helping Ukrainians on an individual level, sending humanitarian aid, protective equipment and finances to families, friends, volunteers, defenders, charitable organisations, people with disabilities and in need in Ukraine.

Her hometown of Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk region is only a few kilometres away across the Dnipro River from the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe at Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, which was occupied by Russians in March 2022. Nikopol has been under daily artillery shelling causing death, casualties, infrastructure damage and destruction.

Her elderly parents were fortunate to be able to escape the war in March 2022 and make their way to Perth. The Australian government were very proactive in providing appropriate visas and humanitarian support. However, the majority of Tetyana’s family, as well as schoolmates and neighbours, are still in Nikopol and some in Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv and occupied the Kherson region.

They decided to stay in Ukraine and help defend the country in every possible way they could, whether via volunteering, helping civilians, displaced people, Ukrainian defenders, or being part of the Ukrainian army. Unfortunately, the war in Ukraine is not over and Ukrainians need ongoing global assistance.

Special Event

President Veronica announced the 'twinning' of  Mill Point RC and Ivano-Frankivsk RC (Ukraine) by presenting visiting Rotarian Taras Bondarenko with a Certificate of Recognition. The clubs have much in common and will work on joint projects of similar interest.

Director Reports

Rick introduced Kaya Coskum our year 12 student candidate for the National Youth Science Forum who will be going to Brisbane in January. Kaya gave a short presentation on her aims and ambitions and thanked RCMP profusely for the opportunity. We shall hear more from Kaya in the future.

Fines

• Graham Rennie - Hunk of the Week centrefold in the South Perth Peninsula magazine (minus staple in his belly button)
• Smart watch wearers - NOT hands free!
• Fossil fuel workers past and present!
• Ian K and Gorby - for their crumby text messages to the President.
  

 Wine of the Week

Another John Hardwick win!

Attendance: 56 Members including Taras and Nataliya Bondarenko, Ivano-Frankivsk RC, Ukraine; Carlos Garcia, Rockingham RC; Bill and Pam Boekman, Wongan Hills RC; Diana Goh (soon to be member); Kaya and Kelly Coskum; Geoff Trowbridge; and Gabrielle.

Help Wanted!

Southcare Inc is looking for helpers to assist in packing Christmas hampers for the needy. 

It is expected to pack between 30-40  hampers and this will be done over 4 days, between 18-21 December at the Southcare centre.

If you have a couple of hours to spare and would like to help please contact Duncan Edgar at Southcare on  email : duncan.e@southcare.org.au or telephone : 9436 3402 or mobile : 0447 423 578.

Thank You