19 January 2005
Greetings Fellows and a Happy New Year to you all,
Yes it is hard to believe that Christmas has gone and the New Year is well under way.
We are all well aware of the tragedy and subsequent circumstances following the tsunami on Boxing Day in Asia.
District Governor Lloyd Roever and I have been in contact over the break and have discussed what Rotary and in particular District 9690 can do to assist.
Some Clubs in the District have already collected thousands of dollars and are sending aid to the affected areas via their local Rotary Clubs.
Our view is that the affected areas have had an initial flood of donations of money, medicines and medical aid and to simply send money at this time may be a generous thing to do but there will soon be a need to help with the rebuilding of dwellings and facilities that may take years to achieve. Perhaps we can make contact with a Club in an area of need and as funds are collected we can “send on” our collected support directly to that Rotary Club for distribution to help rebuild etc. The use of these funds can then be monitored by our own Clubs to be sure that every dollar donated goes towards the best possible project of the restoration of homes and families.
We can discuss this as a Club at upcoming meetings to allow for all useful suggestions to be considered and implemented.
Meanwhile in consultation with Ray McCluskie we have discussed making our Centenary Celebration a charitable event, (without detracting from the celebrations), as there will be several Clubs in attendance.
Let’s see what we can do to help these people so badly affected by the worst natural disaster that we have ever seen.
I am sure that we can pull together to make a substantial contribution.
In the meantime we will resume our normal meetings this week and prepare for the year ahead and to celebrate the Centenary of Rotary.
“LET’S CELEBRATE ROTARY” together doing what we do best,
More next week,
President Keith