Rotarians and friends of Rotary,

What wonderful speakers we had last Wednesday! Dr Joanneke Maitz and Dr Anthony Cutrupi gave us an insight on the amazing work they have been doing at the ANZAC Research Institute. Jo is a clinician in plastic and reconstructive surgery and Anthony's expertise is in neurobiology and cellular programming, and their respective fields of expertise complement each other in providing hope to victims of some of the most horrific burns you can imagine. Whilst some of the images they presented were confronting, they gave some perspective as to what can now be done, and what are unfortunately still some of the limitations, to the treatment currently available. It is unbelievable what some of the developments are in this area.

It was also a pleasure to induct Aruna Chandrala as a member of Rotary. Aruna has, of course, been a member for over a year, but due to travel commitments we haven't had the opportunity to formally welcome her.

Thanks to Paolo for doing his bit with the mace and having the meeting rolling around with his Sergeant's session.

What is more, we had a great audience! Not only members but also partners, guests and members of the medical profession joined us for the evening. Good numbers always make for a good evening, and I think we all had a good evening for the first speaker meeting of the Rotary year. It underlines the importance of getting some good speakers.

Thanks to Brad for doing such a good job in organising this.

On Sunday, we kicked off the barbecue season at the Strathfield Wellbeing Walk and Talk organised by local State MP and Rotarian Jason Yat-sen Li. It was a good opportunity at an early stage in the year to get the Club out in the community, spreading the word about Rotary - it is so important to make sure that there is good awareness in the community as to what the Club does. It also brought members of the Club together for some good fellowship. Thanks to all who came along to help, most of whom you can see in the attached picture.

Barbecues are like buses: You wait six months for one and then two come along at the same time! Next Sunday 30 July is National Tree Day and Strathfield Council is holding a tree planting morning at Ismay Reserve between 9:30am and 12:30. (Here's the link)  Strathfield Rotary will be supporting this event by holding, yes, a barbecue and I would also like to see a few of us getting our hands dirty and doing a bit of gardening. Once again, we are looking for volunteers. Come along, join the party and demonstrate Rotary's environmental credentials. Please let me know if you can help!

In the meantime, I look forward to seeing you at the meeting this Wednesday!