President Peter Smith's Column

Pride of Workmanship Awards – Vocational Service

Unfortunately I was unable to attend last weeks Pride of Workmanship Awards - but I am assured that it was a great night.

The POW Awards are a highlight of the Strathfield Rotary year; the awards are our way of recognising and acknowledging women and men, nominated by their employers, peers or members of the community, for their achievement and commitment in their workplace.

The success of the evening could not have happened without the Chairmanship of PP Doug Potter, MC PP Terry Rohan and the trio of presenters of PP’s in Peter Foss, Peter Manenti and Grahame True. Well done fellows.

There were 10 Award Winners on the night – see the full list in Ian Jonson’s report elsewhere in the newsletter. It was great to see that Karinne Bedingfield was the winner of the annual The Ray Sherry Shield. Karinne, who is a teacher in the Social Science Department at Meriden School, was recognised for her outstanding work with the senior students - including her coordination of the students work on the Chalmer’s Road School mural. Karinne is also well known to Strathfield Rotary for the tremendous work she does as the Co-ordinator of Meriden’s Interact group.

A special thank you to all the Rotarians who donated raffle prizes for the evening. Thanks to the great prizes - and the raffling skills of David Martin – an amount of $825 was raised. Proceeds are to be donated to the New Zealand Earthquake Appeal.

Group Study Exchange (GSE)

To night we are pleased and proud to be part of a combined meeting by the Rotary clubs of Breakfast Point, Burwood, Concord and Strathfield to meet and welcome our GSE guests from Taiwan and the Philippines.

We are also pleased that DG Marilyn Mercer and Graham Wilson (Chairman, D9690 GSE Committee) will be in attendance to officially welcome both teams on behalf of our District.

As part of the GSE visit Paolo Giammarco has arranged a vocational visit and BBQ at the Strathfield SES HQ at 1 Weeroona Road (at Council Depot) on Saturday 12 March at 9am. SES has invited all Rotarians to attend the BBQ. Please contact Paolo for further details – and a Commitment Sheet will be circulated this evening.

Girl Guide Hall – Ismay Avenue

Members will be pleased to know that due to a combination of the $3,500 we raised for the Girl Guides and an insurance claim by Strathfield Council ALL the work at the hall has now been finalised. There is a full new guttering system, new plasterboard ceilings, and repairs to toilets, flooring, electrical fittings and painting etc etc. Total cost exceeded $12,500.

Clean Up Strathfield - Cooke Park

Thank you to the 6 Rotarians who helped man the BBQ at the Clean-Up Australia day last Sunday. An enjoyable day which gave us an opportunity to enhance the good relations we have with Strathfield Council. Council will be making a $500 contribution to Rotary to offset our BBQ and drink costs.

Many thanks: Marlene and I would like to thank everyone for their kind thoughts - and the beautiful flowers – on the sad passing of both Marlene’s sister and brother during February. Your thoughtfulness is greatly appreciated.

President Pete