Venue: Damien on Fisher
Guest Speaker: Chief Inspector Matt Nairn SA Police Officer of the Year 2019
Visiting Rotarian: Briony Casburn (McLaren Vale)
Guest: Graham Ey, Anne Highet, Genese Mullins
Attendance: 23 Members 5 Guests
President Jason's Announcements
For Pink Ribbon event next month please get raffle tickets finalised and more attendees would be welcome.
The Club's AGM is in November......please volunteer......saves phone calls.
Guest Speaker: Chief Inspector Matt Nairn, SA Police Officer of the Year 2019
Stephen Baker, in introducing Matt (who was accompanied by his wife Anne), explained that the quality of nominations this year was very high....several other officers would have also been worthy winners but Matt was the number one pick..
Matt had 4 nominators - the City of Adelaide, Don Dunstan Foundation, Encounter Youth and Hutt Street Centre. Each expressed their appreciation for Matt's leadership and commitment to community safety, and care for the homeless and most vulnerable. In carrying out his job he goes out of his way to communicate personally with affected people and relevant organisations, is collaborative in his approach, handles complex situations with integrity and humanity, and trains his officers to meet those same high standards. He often makes himself available after work and when on leave.
Local lad Matt started work as a tradie (optical mechanic), and then travelled Australia. It was after the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983, which he helped fight, that he decided to join the police force.
Metropolitan Adelaide is split into 4 Districts and he is in charge of Eastern with 300 officers.
He has been in and out of Adelaide for most of his career, including stints with the specialist response to major incidents team and as a police dog trainer......some of the training took place on this Julia Farr site. He studied and sat for exams to become a commissioned officer. Duties then took him into the Operations Centre and introduction of tasers. Some two and a half years ago he was appointed as Chief Inspector of the Adelaide Local Service Area.
Homelessness is being tackled on a number of fronts. On one of his patrols down Hindley Street he noted a dozen people sleeping rough outside Hungry Jacks. South Terrace has had problems with indigenous drinking and poor behaviour for many years. There are other parts of Adelaide which are also affected. Through talking with those sleeping rough, some of whom had suffered loss, trauma or family violence, he was able to gain a greater appreciation of the issues. He then involved multiple agencies (18 including the Adelaide City Council) in the solutions in a collaborative fashion....and there has been considerable success. This year indigenous groups came down from the Northern Territory which further complicated the situation. Because many of those sleeping rough have mobile phones there is a capacity to direct them to areas with free charging facilities and help can be made available at those spots. Treating them as human beings has been very beneficial. Under Operation Paragon, the CBD is divided into 4 quadrants each with 2 officers who have a responsibility to know everything that is happening.....the intel is invaluable. Businesses have become more understanding and cooperative. On the negative side, the problem continues with ice fuelled violence.
Matt is pleased that Ian Cox of the Hutt Street Centre has recently been appointed to coordinate, advise and keep accountable agencies involved in the State Government's homelessness initiatives. Likewise the Don Dunstan Foundation is doing a mighty job under its zero homelessness tenet....the Foundation has already been successful in housing 160-200 people.
Matt was thanked by acclamation.
Below is the A-team of Jason, Matt, Anne and Stephen
Spots
Jerry Casburn apologised for Sorel's absence (moving house), urged members to sign up for the Independent Theatre's production of Mrs Warren's Profession happening mid-November, and expressed appreciation for the volunteers attending the Calperum clean up and maintenance on 12-13 October.
Patsy Beckett extolled the virtues of car trialling on 27 October.
Reno Elms is leaving soon for Bali and will be visiting the Salvos boys orphanage in Denpasar, the facilities in Palu for which our club donated $10,000 following the 2018 tsunami, and Ruth and Naomi House.
Finale
Ever lucky Jerry Casburn won the big bucks, while John Russell nabbed the chocolates. Birthday anniversaries include Judi on18/9, Mavis a major one (100 according to David) on 25/9 and Vera on 28/9. Bob Mills was thrilled with the Glenelg premiership after 33 years. He finished the excellent meeting with an Irish story about burning the candle at both ends......and we finished on time.
Rotary News
Wash for 6 schools in Rural Nepal
The Rotary Club of Kirriemuir, UK and the Rotary Club of the Himalayan Gurkhas have teamed up to bring washrooms, handwashing stations, and most importantly hygiene education to six schools in rural Nepal.
By Barbara Lovegrove
When the request for help to repair/replace toilets came from Nepal, it was of great benefit to have visited previously the country and to have observed the lack of sanitation and its deleterious effect on children in rural communities.
The Rotary Club of Kirriemuir, the UK working with the Rotary Club of the Himalayan Gurkhas, Nepal have planned a new project which is due to start after the monsoon in September 2019. Six rural schools will have new toilet blocks constructed and this will be combined with a health education programme. The schools chosen for this project are in some of those rural hill villages where our partners still have close connections.
A thorough community assessment was carried out in each village. All schools had an adequate water supply on-site. However, the existing toilets were woefully inadequate and health education was minimal. Children, particularly girls, frequently missed school. This offered an ideal opportunity to make a real difference for the 2500 children and 150 staff who made up these six schools.
Professional plans were prepared and presented to the school staff, school boards, local communities and the local government authorities. A toilet for every 50 boys and one for every 50 girls, a disabled toilet and a separate male and female staff toilet will be provided in each school together with handwashing facilities, an incinerator and a new septic tank. It was important at this early stage to have the backing and cooperation of everyone involved. Sustainability is being treated as paramount and those involved now know this is their project and they have a role in maintaining any improvements that are made.
The schools all agreed that a professionally qualified health assistant needed to be employed to ensure all staff and pupils are trained in handwashing, toilet hygiene and menstrual hygiene management. A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by our colleagues and the school boards ensuring that toilets will be maintained in good working order, kept clean and that an allowance will be made in the school budget each year for soap. The health assistant will monitor the effectiveness of the training, the cleanliness of the toilets and school attendance. Age-appropriate health education will form an ongoing part of the curriculum.
In the course of our fundraising, the Rotary Club of Lochaber, UK offered support. They, supported the district grant, are providing reusable sanitary packs for the girls in each of the schools. Girls are particularly disadvantaged as they can miss one week of schooling every month during menstruation. Providing privacy and dignity for the female students is part of our objective.
The cost of the entire project is $149,071 with the Kirriemuir club contributing $24,000, Rotary district $9,756, a grant of $65,580 and The Rotary Foundation Global Grant of $49,735.
Our Upcoming Meetings
Tuesday 1 October 2019 6 for 6.30pm Damien on Fisher
Event: Rotary Youth Leadership Award presentation
Chair: Bob Mills...….Set up, Welcome and Apologies: Judi Corcoran & Virginia Cossid
Tuesday 8 October 2019 6 for 6.30pm Damien on Fisher
Event: Club Planning and Horrible Hats
Chair: Bob Mills...….Set up, Welcome and Apologies: Judi Corcoran & Virginia Cossid
Tuesday 15 October 2019 6 for 6.30pm Damien on Fisher
Event: Joint Meeting with RC Prospect
Chair: Bob Mills......Setup, Welcome and Apologies: Sorel Coward and Reno Elms
Meeting Enquiries to: Secretary Vera Holt on 0412 071 208 or email to unley.secretary@rotaryclub.org.au
Venue Set-up Enquiries to: Bulletin Editor Stephen Baker on 0403 687 015
Saturday Thrift Shop Roster
Early Shift: 10.00am to 1.00pm Late Shift: 1.00pm to 4.00pm
Week 1: 5 October 2019
Early: Vera Holt & Jerry Casburn | Late: Robyn Carnachan + (John Peacham)
Week 2: 11 October 2019
Early: Greg Mcleod & Vera Holt| Late: Wendy Andrews & Heather Kilsby
Week 3: 18 October 2019
Early: David Middleton & Nathan White | Late: Pam Trimmer & Ken Haines
Week 4: 28 September 2019
Early: Stephen Baker & Judi Corcoran | Late: Heather Kilsby & Wendy Andrews (Rhonda Hoare & Jason Booth)
Week 5:
Early: Bob Mullins & Wendy Andrews | Late: Jerry Casburn & Reno Elms
Rotarians, who are unable to attend as rostered, please arrange a swap or as a very last resort contact: Pam Trimmer (T) 8293 2612; (M) 0415 238 333; e-mail: pamela.trimmer@bigpond.com
Bunnings Mile End Barbeque
ALL the Bunnings Mile End Barbeque shifts are from 8am to 5pm
Next Date: Monday 30 September
Morning shift: 8.00am – 12.30pm | Afternoon shift: 12.30 – 5pm
The next Mitre 10 BBQ (now first Saturday of each month) will be on 5 October
The Tale End.……
Irish Self Sacrifice
The Irish are often the first ones to come to the aid of their country folk.
Shortly after take-off on an outbound, evening Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Boston, the lead flight attendant nervously made the following painful announcement in her lovely Irish brogue: "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm so very sorry, but it appears that there has been a terrible mix-up by our catering service.
I don't know how this happened, but we have 103 passengers on board, and unfortunately, we only received 40 meals for dinner. I truly apologize for this mistake and inconvenience, as well!"
When the muttering of the passengers died down, she continued,
"Anyone who is kind enough to give up their meal so that someone else can eat, will receive free and unlimited drinks for the duration of our 10 hour flight.
Her next announcement came about 3 hours later: "If anyone is hungry, we still have 40 dinners available."
Golf is all about life and death
Police are called to an apartment and find a woman holding a bloody
3-iron standing over a lifeless man.
The detective asks, "Ma'am, is that your husband?"
"Yes" says the woman.
"Did you hit him with that golf club?"
"Yes, yes, I did." The woman begins to sob, drops the club,
and puts her hands on her face.
"How many times did you hit him?"
"I don't know -- put me down for a five."
A golfer teed up his ball on the first tee, took a mighty swing and hit his ball into a clump of trees. He found his ball and saw an opening between two trees he thought he could hit through.
Taking out his 3-wood, he took a mighty swing.
The ball hit a tree, bounced back, hit him in the forehead and killed him.
As he approached the gates of Heaven, St Peter asked, "Are you a good golfer?"
The man replied: "Got here in two, didn't I?"
