Last weekend I had the pleasure of representing our Club at the Charter Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eynesbury, and it was wonderful to see the 20 new members embark on their Rotary journey with a clean sheet of paper in front of them. It caused me to reflect on our Club's amazing history, all that the Club has achieved in 65 years, and this year we too are embarking on new projects, new initiatives and new directions. In many ways we are as fresh and innovative as RC Eynesbury, which makes me so proud of our Club and all our members.

 

Our St Patrick's Day meeting featured two truly inspirational speakers, to be sure!  They were from the Spinal Research Institute (another organisation where RC Camberwell played a role in it's formation): Associate Professor Doug Brown spoke of the science, both current and future, the science of spinal cord injuries.  He was ably joined by Antonio Vecchio, who spoke of his personal journey with a spinal cord injury following a car accident (pictured below). Antonio's story was particularly poignant, especially with regard to the longevity of most spinal cord injury sufferers.  So often the talk is focussed on cure, but Antonio opened our minds to the lived experience of those living with spinal cord injury and all of life's little aspirations, objectives and dreams that remain unfulfilled, or at least compromised. Antonio is a truly amazing example of what can be done with determination, some technology and a whole lot of guts - he even plays wheelchair rugby! he is studying to be a psychologist so he can empower others to understand more about how they can cope well.  The number of questions from the audience clearly demonstrated the interest in the subject and the audience engagement of both speakers.

 

I was able to present new member David Troon with his Dinner Badge, and he spoke briefly of his journey to become a Camberwell Rotarian.  It's wonderful to have such enthusiastic people joining our Club! We also had soon-to-be-members Yvonne Wills, and also Shane Kamsner (with his wife Dr Coleen Wood) in attendance, as well as regular guests Kieren Healey and Caroline Webb - you are all welcome to come along to our meetings! 

 

Peter Steven stood in for Jon Oppy as MC, and did a fantastic job, as did Irving Lenton in the Chair role. The Raffle is proving popular, so thanks to everyone for their support. To complete the attendance picture we had Chris Howell, Jon Oppy, Adrian Campbell and Kemi Shombowale Zooming in - thanks for attending.... And I will continue to try and get Rotarians to stand in front of the lectern when they speak (and therefore in camera for the Zoomers), and not off to the side!

 

Next week is our March Fellowship Meeting (in Conochie Hall). I will unfortunately will be an apology - Geoff McCormick will cover the Presidential duties in my absence. As there is no guest speaker (and therefore would not be a very engaging Zoom experience), we won't be "Zooming" this meeting.

 

That's it from me - have a good week in Rotary.

Our very dear Kerry Anne has compiled Camberwell Rotary Cook Book. With stocked pantry and time on your hands, it is time to try out interesting recipes. Buy your own copy for $20.