Posted by Co-President Jack Kraan:
It is with deep sadness that we learnt this week of the passing of our esteemed Past President Rob Taylor. Rob was a stalwart of our club for 3 decades, joining in 1990 and resigning in 2020 when his health was failing him. Where there was a job to be done, Rob was there to do it, always in Rob’s way.
I first met Rob in 1989 prior to his membership of the Club. Back in the 80’s, our District ran a three month youth exchange program with New Zealand. Rob’s daughter, Kathryn was selected by the Club as our exchange student to New Zealand and I was the counsellor for both Kathryn and the incoming New Zealand student.
Rob got to learn about our Club’s activities during this time and was impressed enough to join. It was not that long before he became the President of our Club.
One of Rob’s pet interests was the Centurion program which he administered on behalf of the Club for many years. The Centurion program is an Australian program that helps individuals to actively support the great work of the Rotary Foundation. It provides Rotarians, friends and family, an opportunity for individual giving of an annual tax deductable donation of $100 for as long as they choose.
Contributions to the program become part of the District Annual Giving Program, which means half of the $100 comes back to support District Foundation programs that support our clubs. The other half goes towards the wider programs of Rotary such as End Polio and disaster relief. The contributions also count towards Paul Harris Fellowships.
District Foundation funds can be used to fund a variety of district and club projects and activities.
A few of our Club’s activities that have been supported by Foundation funds recently include the BlazeAid trailers & equipment, the Tongan tsunami project (with RC Narre Warren) and school scholarships.