Rotaract - Barwon assemble 600 birthing kits in memory of Tess
This month I will start by sharing this story told by Beth from Think Humanity in Uganda, about a Congolese woman she once met whilst working in a remote refugee camp. “This woman came up to me and tearfully told me how just that week her heavily pregnant friend Esther was turned away from giving birth at the camp clinic because she did not have a plastic sheet or “mama kit”. She said they later found Esther dead in the bush with her deceased baby lying alongside her”. Esther was turned away to die, scared and alone in the bush because the camp just didn’t have enough resources to assist with the birth of her first child.
Stories such as this highlight the urgent need to provide safer births in countries like Uganda and have inspired the Rotaract Club of Barwon to assemble and distribute 1,600 birthing kits in the past 2 years. These kits contain plastic sheets, soap, gloves, sterile scalpel blades, cords and gauze squares to help address the 7 cleans needed for a safe delivery. Recently Barwon purchased 600 kits to assemble in memory of Tess McDonnell, mother of a dear friend to the club. It was a touching day for the 25 people, including 8 of Tess’s family members and 4 Rotarians who gathered to help the club strive towards making maternal health a reality for women everywhere.
New Rotaractors
In other news at its first meeting in October Barwon President Liz Fagan had the pleasure of inducting 6 keen new Rotaractors, boosting the club’s membership to 21. The group are a strong force in Geelong and were recognised earlier this year as winners of the Community Citizenship Category in the local youth awards. They have a proud partnership with sponsoring Rotary Club of Geelong East and keep very active by, among other things, feeding breakfast to over 120 students twice a week at the North Geelong Secondary College.
The enthusiastic 6 new inductees to the Rotaract Club of Barwon with their new member certificates.
Note from the Bulletin Editor: Thanks again, Robyn Campbell , for your first class reporting of the meeting.
Our Meeting of 15 March
Our chair for the evening was Jonathan Hepner and our Sergeant was Sue Hill. President Andrew Rofe welcomed all visitors & guests. He also thanked all members and friends who have made our recent events very successful.
The Evenings Program - The progression and application of sport science in professional sport
Our speaker for the evening was Jamie Hepner on the topic of the progression and application of sport science in professional sport, Australia leading the way.
Jamie works at Catapult USA, he has a Bachelor of Applied Science from Ballarat University, has been a strength and conditioning coach for the Geelong Falcons, worked at the South Australian Sports Institute. Jamie has also worked with the AFL Vic as head of athlete management team and the Port Adelaide football team with the reserves. At the Institute of Sport he worked with researchers and practitioners in a lab-based setting.
Jamie is currently working at Catapult as an applied sport scientist. Catapult started by 2 men in Australia and has now spread to rest of world. The company is involved in evidence based research to confirm training practices and application of science to measure performance and track load approach of training.
The Australian Institute of Sport was set up in 1976 as a training environment of coaching and sports science. Professional teams saw this as a competitive advantage and now quality training and recovery practices are no longer a competitive advantage they are the norm.
Catapult sports wearables are GPS and or GNSS/global navigation satellite systems to create waypoints to validate source in motion to calculate changes in velocity and measure the intense movements of the athlete. The data is then downloaded to web based software for analysis.
...and then a presentation
At the conclusion of Jamie's talk, he was thanked and presented with a small gift, then PDG Eddie was invited to the lecturn.
He began by asking Jonathan to come forward with DG Jane and announced that Jonathan was to be recognised with his first PHF Ruby.
After DG Jane had made the presentation, Eddie described how Jonathan had been the first member of Geelong East to rise to his challenge of becoming a Sustaining Member and making an annual donation to Rotary Foundation.
Since then, he had added the last of five Sapphires to his initial PHF badge with tonight's Ruby being the first of the possible three.
Then mainly for the benefit of newer members and visitors, he advised that for each jewel added through personal donations to The Rotary Foundation, an individual Rotarian was entitled to name an additional PHF.
Jonathan indicated he had already recognised his wife Wendy and his father Maxwell Glenn Hepner, and announced he now wished to recognise Wendy's and his three sons Jamie, Jackson and Lucas as additional PHF's as a result of their contributions and leadership achievements in the community and Church.
DG Jane presented each with their certificate, lapel badge and medallion on ribbon and after congratulating the three newest PHF's in Geelong East, complimented Jonathan on the leadership he had demonstrated in supporting The Rotary Foundation.
Tony Alsop is circulating a form for the meeting to be held at the Barwon Heads Hotel in lieu of a meeting at Buckleys on April 12. This evening will enable our club to thank the Hotel for the assistance they give for our Pancake night. Don’t forget to put your name down for this friendly members and partners evening.
Showgrounds
Adrian Innes thanked all the helpers who attended the showgrounds over the weekend. He advised that the takings for the weekend were in the vicinity of $7252 with expenses of around $4232 leaving a profit of around $4090. Any leftover eggs, bread, rolls etc was donated to the Rotaract club for their breakfast cIub.
Ride the Bellarine
Ross advised that they still need 8-9 volunteers. For those who have registered as volunteers, if you don't receive Confirmation of your please registration please contact Ross. All donations to the Australian Rotary Foundation Trust and End Polio Now are tax deductible.
Andrew Thornton is looking for Sponsors for him to do the ride. He will be sharing sponsorship with Bryan Humphrey and are hoping to get as many members as possible behind this event.
International report
A short International committee report was presented by Andrew Thornton where he advised that funds have been distributed to the Fred Hollows Organisation and also 2 shelter boxes
Raffle
Special thanks are extended to John Goodall from Goodall Meats who donated a generous meat hamper for our weekly raffle. The winner was one of Jonathan Hepners guests and he was delighted with the prize.
Eddification
Rotary has released $35 million in new grants to support the global effort to eradicate polio. The funds will build on last year’s historic achievement of stopping transmission of the wild poliovirus in Nigeria and all of Africa. Just two countries reported wild polio cases in 2015, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Rotary’s funds will go toward efforts to end the disease in those countries and seven others.
Apologies: Chris Adam, Bill Bailey, Ron Carroll, Simon Cavenett, Allanah Clifford, Peter Gillham, Bruce King, Colin McElhinney, Frank Pinder and Sam Ramondetta.
Leave of Absence: Keith Dawson, Sue and James Dunlop, Peter Funston, Bryan Humphrey and Roger Pierce.
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In other news at its first meeting in October Barwon President Liz Fagan had the pleasure of inducting 6 keen new Rotaractors, boosting the club’s membership to 21. The group are a strong force in Geelong and were recognised earlier this year as winners of the Community Citizenship Category in the local youth awards. They have a proud partnership with sponsoring Rotary Club of Geelong East and keep very active by, among other things, feeding breakfast to over 120 students twice a week at the North Geelong Secondary College.