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Welcome to the Rotary Club of Berwick

Serving the Berwick Community and the surrounding District since 1961

President - Isobel Caulfield

Rotary International is an international service organization whose stated purpose is to bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian service and to advance goodwill and peace around the world. Members enjoy networking with others to improve their professional skill set and make connections throughout the world.

While the perception is that Rotary is for older people, the reality is that Rotary is for anyone who wants to serve to improve the lives of others. Many of the members of the Rotary Club of Berwick work full time and have very busy lives.

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Do you want to serve the Community and make long-lasting friendships? Could Rotary be the organisation that is right for you?
Club Contact:	For Dinner bookings contact:
Secretary P.O. Box 30, Berwick 3806 email: secretary@rotaryberwick.org Book into a meeting: CLICK HERE	Wednesday nights, 6:30 pm for 7:00 pm The Beaconsfield Football Club 200mt from Emerald and Holm Park Road intersection Beaconsfield, VIC 3807, Australia Email: attendance@rotaryberwick.org

Paul Harris Fellow Shane Gray

As we know, Rotarians have a tradition of supporting the Rotary Foundation by honouring others in our community through the awarding of a Paul Harris Fellow. PP Jim Wilson proudly announced that this evening the Club would be presenting a PHF to Shane Gray.
Shane is a dance instructor and runs the Pakenham Dance Studio.

For years Shane has given young adults with special needs in our community an opportunity to mix and have fun in a safe environment by holding a monthly “Special Needs Disco” at his dance studio in Pakenham.

Shane quietly works in the background investing considerable time and effort for the community. Over the years he has trained the participants of local Debutante Balls, many conducted by the Rotary Club of Pakenham.

Rotary Action Groups

Rotarian Action Groups are international groups of Rotarians, family members, program participants, and alumni who are experts in a particular field or passionate about topics such as microcredit, peace, the environment, or water. Rotarian Action Groups (RAGs) give members opportunities to engage in service activities and network with like minded members around the world. Read more:

https://my.rotary.org/en/take-action/empower-leaders/join-rotarian-action-group

https://rotaryserviceblog.org/category/service-activities-and-resources/rotarian-action-groups/

Rotary Junior Community Award

President Isobel had the honour of presenting with a certificate for recently completing The Rotary Junior Community Award.
Josie Wilson, from the Rotary Club of Pakenham (who is passionately leading this program in her own Club and also within our Cluster), explained to us that in order to achieve this award, which is designed for boys and girls in their final year of Primary School, Callum successfully completed a number of activities in the following four areas: Community Service, Physical Recreation, Social Experience and Skill Development.

Supporting St John of God Hospital's Community Health Sessions on Managing Chronic Pain

Rotary Club of Berwick is proud to support the St John of God Berwick Hospital Community Health Sessions and forward an invitation to attend “Managing Chronic Pain” Tuesday 23^rd July at the Hospital from 6.00 PM.

Rotary connects the world, our new president Isobel Caulfield

The official vision of Rotary International resonates with President Isobel. ‘Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change - across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves’. President Isobel noted that the change may be in ourselves. That could mean by taking on a new role that you didn’t think you could do...like being President...or just the satisfaction of a job well done serving the community.

In Isobel shared with us that she felt overwhelming and honoured to be inducted as President. She congratulated and thanked Geoff for the past few months.
Isobel said the club needed leadership and Geoff stepped up to the job. She also thanked the board and all the club members for supporting Geoff. Isobel spoke of how ironic it was that changeovers have become a thing between the Double’s and Caulfield’s. In 2010 Di passed the IWC Berwick Presidential Collar to Isobel. In 2016
Geoff handed over the Rotary Collar to Mark...and in keeping with the tradition, Geoff was now handing the collar to her. Isobel thanked her father Graeme and her late mother, for being such active members of the community in which they have lived. Doing things for the community is something which Isobel has done
all her life. She especially thanked Mark and their daughters, Rachel and Anna, who also give so much to the community, both through Rotary and through Rotaract.

Reflection and New Beginnings, Change Over Night at Berwick

After what will go down in history as the best rendition of our National Anthem, MC for the evening, Adrian Funston (Funno) called everyone to order, for the Club’s 58th Changeover Dinner. Guests had come from near and far to witness the induction of Isobel Caulfield, as the Rotary Club of Berwick’s new President.

Geoff Double’s last official role as President, before handing over the collar (and the reins) to Isobel was to share with e

veryone what a great honour it was to, once again, be the President of the Rotary Club of Berwick. He thanked Lea and Steve Paton for all the work they did with the Club over many years, before they resigned from the Club, and he also thanked Gerald Treasure for stepping up and leading the Club whilst we were without a President. I think that makes Gerald the oldest President our Club has had!

President Isobel Caulfield holding the Rotary Club of Berwick Club Charter!

As well as members of neighbouring Rotary Clubs, Inner Wheel Clubs and Rotaract being on hand to celebrate the year that was and welcome in the new Rotary year, special mention was made of Isobel’s father Graeme and his wife Lily, who had travelled from Maryborough, in central Victoria.
After the formal Toast to Rotary, eloquently presented by Jack Kraan, which was answered by the District 9820’s new Governor, our very own Adrian Froggatt (who took the opportunity to ‘plug’ the Bendigo Conference in March next year), there was one little surprise in store.

A very humbled Jack Kraan was honoured by the Principal of Nossal High, Roger Page, for his commitment to the school. For the last 6 years Jack has been an active member of the School Council, as their community representative.

Jack Kraan acknowledged for his service to Nossal High School

On Wednesday, 26 June 2019, Roger Page, the Principal of Nossal High School in Berwick presented Jack Kraan with a special acknowledgement of his service to Nossal High (6 years on school Council as a community member) from the Minister of Education and Deputy Leader of Victoria, James Merlino.

Kids on Track

Gary Castricum introduced our Guest Speaker, Dr Lynette Buoy, who is the CEO of Windermere.

Lynette commenced as the CEO with Windermere in early 2013. Previous to this Lynette was the CEO for the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare - the state peak body for 95 welfare agencies, General Manager for The Smith Family in Western Australia and also held the position of CEO for the Lady Gowrie Child Centre (Melbourne) Inc.

Lynette explained that Windermere Child and Family Services takes its name from the location of the Melbourne Orphan Asylum from 1878, in Windemere Crescent, Brighton. Since then it has grown into a large organisation providing multiple social services including:

Victim Assistance Programs
Disability programs
Day Care Services
Kids on Track program

The Kids on Track program started in May 2010, in collaboration with Pakenham Police and Gilwell Park Scouts. It is an 8-week schools early intervention program that covers topics such as anxiety and depression, drugs and alcohol, anger management, cyber safety and bullying.

Kids on Track aims to give young people the ability to learn positive behaviours in themselves and others, and the skills to make better informed choices, so they have the opportunity for a better future.

Initially, it involved working with young people from 10-15 who were coming to the attention of police for a variety of wrongdoings. This later changed in 2013 to be a school-based program focused on young people aged 10-12 (Primary school grades 5 & 6).

Originally, the program was referral-based through Police identifying young people who had received a caution, or who were deemed likely to offend. It now focuses on schools where antisocial behaviours are present and there is a history of family engagement with police and growing evidence of high absenteeism. High absenteeism is considered by the Department of Education to be more than 30 days absent in the school year.

The program structure is:

Week 1: Introduction & Family Basics

Week 2: Family Dynamics & Relationships

Week 3: Mental Health

Week 4: Anger Management

Week 5: Teamwork (Victoria Police)

Week 6: Bullying & Peer Pressure

Week 7: Cyber Bullying

Week 8: Graduation

The program also provides one-on-one counselling to those children deemed to be "most at risk" and covers the areas of Casey, Cardinia and Frankston. Since its' inception, the program has helped over 2,000 students.

It costs $50,000 per annum to run the program, which equates to approximately $400 per student. Windermere raises funds through philanthropic donations, which have totalled $700,000 since 2011.

New Dental Hospital for the Solomon Islands

The Rotary Club of Berwick has partnered with the Rotary Clubs of Ballarat West and the Rotary Club of Honiara to equip a major dental centre that will improve 1000's of lives in the Solomon Islands.

Using the expertise of Dr David Goldsmith (RC Ballarat West) and his team of volunteer dental equipment experts combined with the sourcing and shipping power of Rotary Donations in Kind (DIK) and then added to the tax-deductible Rotary Australia World Community Service, Project 29/2018-19, we have an opportunity to make a lot of peoples lives a whole lot better. Please read on.

The Solomon Islands has a population of over 625,000 scattered over more than 900 islands but Government services and most facilities are centered on the capital, Honiara. The Solomon Islands is one of the world’s poorest nations with a GDP that has been ranked 173rd. of 185 nations. The National Referral Hospital (NRH) in the capital, Honiara, is the largest hospital in the Solomon Islands and looks after the most acute cases from all over the country with over 300 beds and over 50 doctors. This hospital sees the vast majority of the medical cases in the Solomon Islands and is often overstretched, and at times at bursting point

The NRH Dental clinic was closed in 2012 . Dental Services at the NRH are currently being provided out of a single dental chair caravan parked in the hospital grounds. Public dental services are rudimentary, even in Honiara, and are mostly limited to extractions and pain relief. Each morning over 100 pain patients attend the only public dental clinic in Honiara, which is located in the Police Station in Chinatown. It has 4 chairs so they only see the first 30 patients and send the others away. There is a high level of edentulism but the public dental prosthetic lab. has been closed for 4 years. In addition, Betel Nut chewing, which is common in the Solomon Islands, results in one of the highest incidences of Oral Cancer in the world

However, there is no shortage of dental professionals. The Head of Population Oral Health Research, Dr Ellison Vane, tells me there are 40 qualified dentists in the Solomon Islands, but the lack of facilities means many are working part time, or not at all, and they are losing their skills. In addition, there are 15 dental students currently training to graduate at the Fiji and PNG dental schools.