Posted by Sam McCurdy
Rotary Club of Berwick’s Changeover
At the end each financial year, Rotary Clubs organise a Changeover event where the outgoing President hands over to the incoming President. The incoming President then introduces the committee members for his/her term of office.
Therefore, on Wednesday 30th June, the Rotary Club of Berwick held their 2021 Changeover. Approximately sixty people attended the event, which was held at Beaconsfield Football Club at Holm Park.
Unlike previous years, the outgoing President was also the incoming President, as David Button agreed to continue his good work for a second term of office.
In summarising last year’s activities, David highlighted the restrictions that the COVID pandemic had on the Club’s projects and activities. Major annual events such as the Australia Day celebrations at Pioneer Park and Carols by Candlelight at the Edwin Flack Reserve, had to be cancelled. Fundraising projects were also severely limited by the COVID restrictions.
On the brighter side, easing of restrictions during the first six months of 2021 had allowed the Club to organise two popular Berwick College Debutante Balls, which were held in May. They had to be cancelled in 2020 much to the student’s disappointment.
David removed his President’s collar to allow District Governor, Bill Degnan, to formally induct him as the 2021-2022 President of the Club. In doing so, he handed back to President David his Presidential collar, the original Club Charter and the ‘Reins of Office’. The latter item was created by the late President Allan Funston in 1999-2000 and is unique to the Rotary Club of Berwick.
 President David Buttonwith his wife Judy and daughter Saffron |  District Governor Bill Degnan handsthe reins of Office to President David Button |
David then introduced the members of his 2021-2022 Board
2021-2022 Board members of the Rotary Club of Berwick
L to R: Jack Kraan, Wendy Langdon, Sam McCurdy, Jen Marshall, Peter Batterham, Greg Lee with President David Button in front
Missing from the group photograph are Board members Tim and Jane Moore, who are currently isolated in Queensland.
Rotary Berwick & District Benevolent Society (A project of the Rotary Club of Berwick)
The main Office Bearers for the Rotary Club are also Office Bearers for the Rotary Berwick & District Benevolent Society (The Society). As such, the 'Society' has been included as a standing agenda item at all the club’s Board meetings.
PP Gus Dominguez became our representative for the 'Society' on the Casey North Community Information Support Service (CNCISS) Board, replacing David Collyer. Funds raised by the ‘Society’ were again mainly provided by donations from the Magistrate’s Court, with a small contribution from coin donations made by the public at Coles Berwick Supermarket.
The ‘Society’ conducted a successful 2020 Christmas collection of food and toy items, involving seven local Secondary schools and public donations at the Berwick Market Square. These items were delivered to CNCISS in Narre Warren, where they were made up into Christmas hampers to be distributed to those in need within the local community.
In March, six Rotarians and two CNCISS staff members sorted 3 pallets of new clothes, which had been donated by a large Retailer through Rotary Donations in Kind. From the sorting, CNCISS received 30 boxes and 20 boxes of the clothing were also provided to Windermere Child and Family Services for distribution to those in need within the local communiity. Other items donated by Rotary Donations in Kind to the ‘Society’ included 300 pairs of CROC shoes and 132 walking frames. These were also offered to CNCISS. It became clear that both CNCISS and Windermere do not have sufficient storage capacity, or sufficient staff, to handle large quantities of donated items such as this.
In June, the ‘Society’ was part of a review of selected charities by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), to ensure that they were still meeting the requirements for charity registration. Based on our responses to the review, the ACNC confirmed that the Society has a continuing entitlement to be registered with the public benevolent institution (PBI) subtype.
Posted by Sam McCurdy
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This year, two Presentation Balls were organised by the Rotary Club of Berwick and Berwick College for students in Years 11 and 12 at the College. They were held at The Grand Reception in Cathies Lane, Wantirna on Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th May.
The 2020 Presentation Balls had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, so it was awesome that this year’s could be held. It was a tribute to the courage and tenacity of the organisers that they managed to pull them together, despite ongoing fears of further COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions. In fact, some of the disappointed students unable to participate in last year’s cancelled Balls, were able to participate in these.
Fifty couples were presented over the two nights. Twenty-seven couples being presented to the Rotary Club of Berwick President, David Button and his wife Judy, at the Wednesday event and twenty-three couples presented to Principal Kerri Bolsch and President of School Council, Jarrod Flanagan, on Thursday evening.
In preparation for the Balls, the participants had undergone 10 weeks of intensive dance training to enable them to perform the Tango, Gipsy Tap, Merengue and the Progressive Jive. Their performance of these dances was a joy to behold and delighted their dance teachers, Joanne Mills and Judy Blackhurst, as well as the large audience of parents, family and friends.
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Photos provided courtesy of Sandi Tarant and Isobel Caulfield
In addition to performing the dances, the students enjoyed getting dressed up for the occasion. It was amazing to witness the transformation of students in school uniform at training, to sophisticated young adults dancing at the Ball.
In summary, the 2021 Presentation Balls for the students at Berwick College were a big success and it is hoped that they can be repeated next year.
Our congratulations go to organisers, Isobel Caulfield and Peter Batterham, on a job well done.
Posted by Sam McCurdy
An historic joint meeting of the Rotary Clubs of Berwick and Biggleswade (UK) was held on Wednesday 28th April 2021. A meeting that would have seemed almost impossible before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in February 2020, was made possible by means of Zoom technology.
Biggleswade is a town in Bedfordshire England, which is approximately 60 km North of London, 30 km from Cambridge and approximately 17,000 km from Berwick. The Berwick’s Club meeting started at 7:30pm, which equated to 10:30am in the UK. Despite the tyranny of distance and the significant time difference, several of the Biggleswade members successfully linked in to the meeting.
After the initial pleasantries, the two Clubs exchanged information on their Clubs and the local projects that they were involved in. President David Button explained how the two Clubs were initially connected.
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Michael Scott-Worthington from the Rotary Club of Biggleswade had paid a personal visit during the Berwick Club’s Cemetery Working Bee in January 2020, to present a cheque from his Club to support the victims of the East Gippsland fires that had ravaged the area in November and December 2019. The bushfires caused the loss of five lives and destroyed more than 300 homes.
The cheque was subsequently added to other funds provided by the Rotary Club of Berwick to BlazeAid. It is a volunteer-based organisation, which assists disaster affected people to clear, repair or replace fences lost on their property resulting from natural disasters such as bushfires, floods, or cyclones.
Past President Isobel and her husband Mark have spent the last two months working with BlazeAid in fire affected areas. Therefore, it was appropriate that she should be our guest speaker on the night, highlighting the work that they were involved in, which was mainly removing and replacing fences destroyed by the bushfires.
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Biggleswade reported that they have not had any face-to-face meetings since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Group meetings, such as that in Berwick are unlikely for a while, as the UK is still very much in lockdown mode. However, they advised that they have already had similar meetings via Zoom, with Clubs in Florida and the Cayman Islands. Berwick is the first Club in the Southern Hemisphere that they have linked up with.
The interactions between the two Clubs was stimulating to all involved, so both Clubs agreed to stay in contact with each other in the future.
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Rotary provides plenty of opportunities to help communities here and abroad.
On Saturday April 10th 2021, members of the Rotary Clubs of Berwick, Pakenham and Emerald along with the President of the Interact Club of St Margaret's School and Berwick Grammar worked together to pack hospital beds. These beds are going from St John of God Hospital in Berwick to St John of God Hospital in Dili, Timor Leste. It was a terrific morning's work, followed by a nice morning tea.
Meaningful service projects such as this one, do create time to learn more about each other and the impact we can make as part of the Rotary family (Rotary, Rotaract, Interact); as well as involving people such as Duncan (President Annabelle's father), to see what we do. It is a win-win for everyone.
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We are fortunate to be involved with Rotary Donations in Kind (DIK) and with St John of God Hospital, who are one of our important club sponsors. I am very pleased to see a range of ages working well together and having a good time doing it. PP Laury and PP Gus were standouts, having complete tool kits and cable ties at the ready for any occasion.
Friendship and Service, it doesn't get much better than that!
The 2021 ‘Clean Up Australia Day’ was held on Sunday 7th March.
Rotarians and friends from the Rotary Club of Berwick combined with Cubs and parents from the Berwick Central Cub Group to clean up Buchanan Park, as their contribution to the community and the ‘Clean Up Australia’ day. The collaboration between the two organisations was arranged as a community project by Rotarian Jen Marshall and Berwick Central Cub Leader, Annette Lake.
The ‘Clean Up Australia Day’ organisation supplied the workers with rubbish bags, high Vis vests and disposable gloves in various sizes. Care was taken to be COVID safe with the supply of a First Aid kit, a bottle of hand sanitiser and a QR code for COVID tracing purposes, together with a manual record for those without a smart phone.
After a safety talk by Rotarian Graham Johnstone, work began at 10:00 am and teams of Cubs, parents and Rotarians worked efficiently over the next two hours, to pick up a wide variety of rubbish throughout the park.
Almost 100kg of rubbish were collected, made up of 6.6 kg of recyclable materials and 91.4 kg of rubbish, including paper, broken glass, two fire extinguishers, a bicycle wheel, two shopping trolleys and a broken wooden pallet.
After the rubbish had been collected and placed for Council pick-up, the workers were treated to a morning tea, which provided an opportunity to network, compare stories and experiences.
In summary, a thoroughly enjoyable time was had by all and Buchanan Park was left spotlessly clean.
It is hoped that this is the first of many such collaborations between the Rotary Club of Berwick and the Berwick Central Cub Group, to assist the local community.
Posted by Sam McCurdy
Approximately 40 volunteers from the Rotary Club of Berwick conducted their annual ‘Working Bee’ at the Berwick Cemetery on Wednesday 20th January. This entailed activities such as a general clean-up of fallen leaves and branches, painting wrought iron grave surrounds, pruning, and watering the roses, as well as other allocated duties. This activity marked the 56th year that a Working Bee has been conducted at the cemetery, continuing the long partnership between the Rotary Club of Berwick and the Berwick Cemetery Trust.
The first Working Bee in1965 was conducted over two days and was organised by Allan Funston, who chaired the Club’s Community Service Committee at the time and later became Club President. Allan was also a member of the Cemetery Trust Committee. One of the highlights of this first Working Bee was the removal of two snakes from the site.
Interestingly, recent Working Bees have been coordinated by Allan Funston’s son Adrian (Better known as Funno). Funno and his dad both served as Presidents of our Rotary Club.
A highlight of the latest Working Bee was a tour of the 2-acre terraced extension on the Western side of the cemetery. This two-million-dollar development will provide the capacity for at least 200 lawn graves and 3,120 niche wall memorial sites for cremated remains. Cemetry Trust Members, Neil Lucas and Garth Bradbury, explained the complications of the development, which had to accommodate steep terrain, as well as respecting the grave of a woman buried there in 1854.
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Cemetery Trust Member Garth Bradbury describes the new development site.
Neil Lucas, Chairman of the Trust, thanked the volunteers for their work and acknowledged the ongoing support of the Rotary Club of Berwick for the Trust, over the last 56 years.
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The 56th Working Bee Team
The night culminated with a gourmet BBQ cooked by our experts Alf Giesen, Jack Kraan and Graham Johnstone. It provided an enjoyable social environment well into the night.
Posted by Sam McCurdy
 (Photo courtesy of Rotarian Maureen Scott.) |
On Saturday, 9th January, a group of volunteers from the Rotary Club of Berwick got together at Alameda Homestead Nursery in Devon Meadows, for the final packing of 53 Kits for the ‘End Trachoma’ project. This is one of the Rotary Districts of Australia projects - Building Healthier Communities.
This project was driven by Rotarian Jane Moore and there has been plenty of work put in to make it happen.
The 53 kits of hygiene products were packed up by the busy band of volunteers and are now ready to be shipped to Papunya (Northern Territory) some 240 km north-west of Alice Springs. They will be given to school children under 10.
The kits are designed to supply everything needed including an instructional card. Improving the day-to-day hygiene of the children should help to prevent them from contracting Trachoma during their lifetime.
Australia is the only first-world country left that has not controlled Trachoma. It is a serious but preventable disease that can lead to permanent blindness. Prevention is the best method of control and that is why this project is so important. Knowing basic hygiene and having the right equipment to carry it out is the key.
The packs contain toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, combs, hairbands, face washers and hand towels as well as shampoo and conditioner. A letter for each bag from a local primary school was included.
This is Rotary in Action. It takes a lot of work by members such as Jane to get projects such as this one up and running. It gives all the members at the Rotary Club of Berwick great satisfaction that their Club is making a difference.
