My fellow Rotarians and friends of Rotary

COMMUNITY'S CHALLENGES = ROTARY'S OPPORTUNITIES!

We sometimes forget how much we need human contact to keep us happy, so for some of us, our weekly Rotary Club meetings have been a very welcome boost. A large part of this is due to the varied and interesting speakers who have regaled us with their presentations, entertained us with their stories and intrigued us with their experiences. The credit must go primarily to our Program Chair Gulian Vaccari for all the guest speakers he has brought to the club, in this Rotary Year.

Last month, we also had a good start with two significant events. Firstly, the Australia Day Celebration of the Strathfield Council, supported with BBQ by the Rotary Club of Strathfield. Given the pandemic condition, several Rotarians participated. It was a great Rotary engagement with our local community, and we managed to make a little more than $1,000 for our charity endeavours.  My sincere appreciation to all our members who worked very hard despite spending quality time with their families on a public holiday. Many thanks, Roy Ellis, Charles Pitt, Steven Argyris, Mathew Elias, Nella Hall, Nick Hamilton-Kane, Arie Pappas and Andrew Aravanis. A notable absentee was Rod McDougall, who helped us organise before going out of town. As usual, Andrew donated all the meat items, and we thank Andrew for his generosity.

The other significant event last month was launching the Rotary's 'Adopt a Tree Project'. The launch was an opportunity to show Rotary's dedication to growing our communities through a coordinated tree planting project. In addition, Rotarians were asked to encourage the public to take home an information flyer and adopt their trees via their own phone or computer.Members of the public and Rotarians could adopt as many trees as they wish at $5.00 each via the website (click) In addition, they can choose to have the names of their children, grandchildren, pets, etc., on the certificate. Rotary Clubs were asked if their members would like to roster at the five Bunnings sites to promote the project.  Our members Rod McDougall and Roy Ellis volunteered at Greenacre Bunnings on Tuesday, the 26th of January. Yours truly volunteered on the 27th of Wednesday.

As you all know very well, the Rotary Club of Strathfield has been embarking on many programs, namely, 'Food for All' Program, 'Mind Your Health' Program, 'Education and Empowerment' Program, 'Local Community First' Program and 'Rise to the Occasion' International Programs. Most of our community service projects are confined to the abovementioned programs, which will help our club to focus and address a few selected critical needs of our society. I wholeheartedly appreciate all our members for their generous and tireless contribution, leadership and support this Rotary year so far, and the best is yet to come!

 "Volunteers are unpaid not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless."  -  Anonymous

Yours in Rotary Service

Thaya Ponnia