We will move our meeting again this year to join with the Rotary Club of Geelong Central on Melbourne Cup eve in a fundraising event for the Geelong High School music program and Habitat for Humanity.
The venue is the North Geelong Football Club with more details to follow.
Past President (PP) Tony Della-Porta provided an brief update member talk, aimed primarily at our newer members but also a reminder to those older members who may have forgotten (old age creeping in) some of the details.
Barwon River Safety Marker Project
Keith Dawson gave us the background to this project idea which started after Keith saw emergency markers around the lake at Benalla and started to investigate them. With the help of Benalla Council, Keith got in contact with Jeff Adair of ESTA, who in turn put Keith in contact with Peter Holloway of Moonee Ponds Rotary Club which was developing a similar project along the Maribyrnong River.
Peter and Keith exchanged many emails following which Keith presented the concept to our Club’s Board which approved a budget of $6,000.00 with the balance of the project’s cost to be met by grants and donations. Keith was given permission to approach the land managers on behalf of the Club.
Keith worked with Past President Graham Thomson to approach the various stakeholders including the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority and the Geelong Council and through the considerable efforts of Keith and Graham, the community benefits of the project have been recognised by the various responsible authorities and the approved signage prominently displays our Club’s name and the Rotary symbol.
Keith explained the project benefits as:
· The Club gets a community project in it’s backyard;
· The 36 life saving signs along a water way will save lives and in an area that is frequented by all ages;
· The signs (which will be made in Geelong) are a life saving asset to the community which are expected to be maintenance free for 30 + years;
- Our Club becomes a part of the 3000 plus Emergency Marker Project across Victoria and because our Club will be the first to have the Rotary symbol incorporated on the signs, we will be a reference point for other community group looking to do the same type of projects; and
- We can achieve all this for around $20,000.00 of which most can be covered by sponsorship, grants and donations.
The project involves placing 36 safety marker signs with unique identification numbers every 500 metres or so along the Barwon River Trail, running from Breakwater to Fyansford.
Identifying the location from which an emergency (000) telephone call is made is the first and most critical element in the delivery of timely and accurate emergency response services to Victorians.
If an emergency is at a street address, the 000 operator will ask for your address and its nearest intersection.
In a public open place this information is not available.
Hence the advantages of Safety Markers in open spaces like the Barwon River Trail.
Some interesting figures:
· Number of emergency calls made to 000 in 2013 - 2.3 Million;
· Number of these calls that required emergency responses - 1.8 Million;
· Of these above 1.8 million calls, 58% were made from a mobile phone. Of course, some of these calls would have been made from a street address, and exactly how many were made from an open public area is not known.
Our thanks to Keith, ably supported by Graham, for commitment to this lifesaving project which showcases our Club’s community service and which is also an excellent public relations opportunity.
Eddification
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that it has officially removed Nigeria from the list of countries where polio is endemic. It’s been 14 months since a case of polio caused by the wild virus was reported there. That leaves only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where transmission of the virus has never been stopped.
October 23 is the third annual End Polio Now – Make History event and you can find lost of information at endpolio.org and at the Rotary International homepage.
