Michelle Somers, Mary McIvor & Jeanette Blackwood
Photo by Sandi Tarant
Jeanette Blackwood:
Jeanette was born in Dandenong the youngest of four children; the eldest being our Past President Gary Evans. Her father was a Rotarian and her mother a member of Inner Wheel, so the importance of community work was instilled early in her life.
The family moved to a farm in Lang Lang for a few years before moving to Berwick, when Jeanette was 9 years old. She and her sister attended St Margaret's, thereby beginning a long relationship with the school.
Jeanette met her husband, Peter, when she was 16 and they have two children, Maddie who is a qualified Construction Engineer and Max who is a Mechanical Engineer with Toyota. Peter works in the film industry.
Although a qualified Property Valuer, Jeanette has worked for many years in Local Goverment as a contractor negotiating land sales, subdivisions and road allocations.
Her hobbies include travel, cycling and Human Powered Vehicles (HPV).
Michelle Somers:
Michelle was born in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. She has a younger sister.
Her family moved to Australia in the early sixties and did not know a lot of English. Her father taught himself English by translating the daily paper on his way to work.
After leaving school, Michelle joined the Commonwealth Bank and worked there for a few years. During that time she did a course on HR at Swinburne, which helped her in later years.
Once she began to earn money, Michelle began travelling overseas. She still loves travelling and has quite a long bucket list of places to visit.
She met her husband, Andrew our Treasurer, during a skiing trip with Rotaract when they were both members. They have twins, Ainslie and David, who also went to St Margarets and were keen participants in the HPV scene. Ainslie is studying Medicine at the National University in Canberra and David is a carpenter.
Michelle has had a variety of jobs in banking and education, and has just completed a payroll for 520 staff.
Her hobbies include Park Runs, Bowls and of course travelling. She is our best hope in the Annual Bowls competition with the Rotary Club of Monbulk.
Mary McIvor:
In her own words, Mary considers herself a "Lucky person".
She started with nothing, being born in a remote village in Nigeria that didn't have power or fresh water. Water had to be carried from the bush.
Mary met her late husband while at school and they had two children, Godwin who is now 29 and his sister Sofie who is 26.
To earn money to support her children after her husband died, Mary left her children with her sister and moved to South Africa in 1999, where she sold fruit on the streets.
In 2003, she moved to Wellington in New Zealand, with nothing and knowing noone. She was helped by a Nigerian Church member who provided accommodation and when she got a job continued to send money home to her children.
She got married again to a kind man who had helped her to get established and remained there until 2010, when she moved to Australia. Her second husband died in 2022.
Once established in Australia, Mary was able to bring her children to join her. In 2012, she accepted a foster child, Jayde and the family members have a close and loving relationship.
Mary is currently working as a Support Worker in Aged Care and now has her own 5-bedroom home.
Mary's brothers were both Rotarians.
As you may be aware, this is my last issue as Editor of our weekly bulletin, ‘Spoke N Words’, before returning the baton to my friend and mentor, Past President David Button.
Many thanks to everyone, who together, have contributed enough funds to enable a 40 ft container of DIK goods to go to the Rotary Club of Victoria Falls.
