12 February 2019  
President's Message
member photo

This week’s speaker was Adina Thorn who heads a highly skilled specialist legal practice with expertise in dispute resolution and litigation. She has helped hundreds of owners of leaky buildings find justice by taking large building materials manufacturers such as James Hardie and Carter Holt Harvey to court for faulty product liability. Adina spoke passionately about representing the everyday man and that with the help of funding organisations, people who normally wouldn't be able to afford ongoing legal costs have an opportunity to fight for justice without having to bear the financial burden as the funding organisations help shoulder the costs.

Our 5-minute speaker Byran Coyte shared with us his story about Bangers to Bluff with “little red” - the banged up ute which he bought, repaired, and drove down to Bluff with wife Sue. The race consisted of stopping at designated pubs and solving quizzes along the way to collect points with the finale ending in an auction of the “bangers”. In addition to being a great charity event to help raise funds, it sounds like a wonderful fellowship adventure.

Many thanks to those of you who have completed the survey about fundraising event and our tagline. The survey closes in a few days. It only takes 2 minutes to complete, so please take the time to share your thoughts with us.

Meeting registrations are now being sent through Clubrunner which means you will receive email invitations to join our breakfast meeting. To register, you just need to scroll down the page and double click "Register as member name" Gill will be sending out a quick "how to guide" shortly. I appreciate your patience as we use this technology to help us become more effective in how we manage our Club.

Finally on Mal’s Challenge, we have secured pledges of $20K from individual members and are trying hard to raise another $30K to meet the challenge. Bryan Coyte proposed a that if every one of the 70 members in our Club, contributes $429 to the Club Trust, we will be able to capture Mal’s matching $50K which then increases our total Club Trust by an additional $100,000. 

We have less than 7 weeks to capture Mal’s generous offer. The health and future of our Club depends on each of us and what we do today. Please contact Treasurer Grant Hally or me if you are able to make a donation. By doing so, you will be part of the team that creates a legacy which will enable us to good in our community for many years to come.

Have a great week & see you next Tuesday.

Lucy

Stories
What Do You Think About Our New Tagline?
 
Our original Downtown Logo was created some 10 years ago to reflect our Club's uniqueness and personality within the Rotary world and in our community.
 
Christine Fenby has taken the initiative to help us refresh our logo with a new tagline to reflect our dynamic nature.
 
Share your views about the tagline in our upcoming survey. With enough votes, we will order some customised clothing with our new logo so that we can all proudly wear our logo at different Rotary and public events. 
 
 
Read more...
News from Exchange Student Durita Reinart (1994-95)
Over the summer holiday's Past President Niels Jaegersborg received news from one of our Club's former exchange student Durita Reinart. 

 

 

Langs Beach Estate the 27th of January 2019.

 

Dear Fellow Rotarians 

No doubt you will agree with me that one of the strongest areas within Rotary is our different types of youth exchange. 

In August 1994 our club welcomed a new exchange student Durita Reinert from the Faroe Islands (Total area is about 1,400 square kilometres with a population of 50,000. Situated north-west of the United Kingdom and about halfway between Norway and Iceland. It is an autonomous country of the Kingdom of Denmark). Their first foreign language is Danish and that was probably the reason I was asked to be her Counsellor. I rush to say that Durita spoke good English upon arrival and Rita soon took over as her South Pacific Mother. She turned 18 the 23rd of December and spend a great time with the Gardners, the Hallys and the Wylies.

Rita spend a lot of time assisting Durita with her presentation about the Faroe Islands planned for the 4th of April 1995. She did not at all follow her prepared script but made a great job of it. The conclusion was a lesson in Faroes chain dancing to every body’s delight. One of our fellows did not believe that he should participate but the young lass walked up to him and dragged him out on the dancefloor making it into yet another remarkable Rotary Tuesday morning.

The 21st of July 1995 Durita travelled back to the Faroe Islands after a remarkable year. Ever since they have been fighting over where to hang the Kiwi calendar, we have sent them. This last Christmas we did not send a calendar and letter as usual. We wanted proof of address and Friday the 18th of January a wonderful parcel arrived with a most elaborate letter. Durita had sent it the 21st of December – 28 days shipping time from the very far north to the very far south is not too bad!

A few years after Durita’s visit she and her sister Marita returned – they rang from the Airport without any prior warning! It was their Grandmother who had initiated that Durita should go as an exchange student and had paid for Durita’s plane trip and again it was Grandmother who had financed their new trip. To their great sadness the grandmother passed away while they were in New Zealand and they had to cut their trip short.

Durita took up the job in a fish factory in Thorshavn and within a few years she became the Managing Director. Unfortunately, many fish factories in the Faroe Islands did not survive a major restructuring and also “Durita’s factory” went into receivership. The Rotarian who was known to her Grandmother and who facilitated her exchange to New Zealand had become Durita’s mentor. He suggested to her that she should study accounting and while she did that - work in his accounting company in Thorshavn. She now holds a Bachelor of Commerce and later this year she will submit her final thesis for her Master’s Degree.

If you would like to make contact to Durita her e-mail address is: dr@spekt.fo 

In conclusion this is yet another great story that has happened thanks to the global Rotary Fellowship. I will suggest to Durita that she should follow in the Rotary footsteps of her Mentor.

Kind regards

Niels 

   

Read more...
Mal's Challenge- Getting to $100K
On 29th May, Past President Gill announced "Mal's Challenge" to our Club and his desire to help build up our Club Trust by an additional $100,000!  
Read more to find out why and how you can help make this happen by 31 March, 2019.
 
At the Annual General Meeting this past week, members were presented with the various distributions made last year by our Club Trust to individuals and organisations in our community. These distributions and donations help change peoples lives. Fundraising is an important aspect of any service organisation as money is needed to do good work. We can either raise funds through events such as celebrity dinners/auctions, etc. or if we have enough capital to invest, we can use the interest earned to support our Causes.
 
Since the announcement of Mal's Challenge, we have received donations and pledges of $20,000. Mal has already committed $10,000 and is willing to bring it up to $50K if members are able to donate the remaining $30,000 by 31st March 2019.
 
All donations made to our Club Trust are tax deductible and members will receive a receipt from our Treasurer Grant Hally.
 
If you would like to make a donation, you may do so directly to:
ROTARY CLUB OF DOWNTOWN AUCKLAND INC. CHARITABLE TRUST
Account: 12-3252-0053102-00
 
Feel free to contact Lucy or Grant Hally if you have any questions on the above.   
 
This is a great opportunity for us to double the size of our Trust and to leave a legacy for future programs to help those in need.
 
Read more...
City Mission Volunteering 
Volunteering at the City Mission - the Process Behind the Giving
 
     (Helping hands: Lucy, Keiko, Andrew, Trish, Gill and Jan) 
 
 
Have you ever wondered what happens to the clothing and items you donate to City Mission?
 
Four of our Downtown Rotarians found out first hand when they volunteered to help sort and fold clothing donation at the City Mission (CM) distribution centre in Grafton. Andrew and Trish of CM, told us that since the Marie Kondo craze (a TV decluttering expert who has started a trend around the world), the CM has been flooded with donations of clothing. So much so that they had to stop receiving donations for a few weeks as donations have started to pile up. Every week volunteers are needed to help sort clothing (there are only 2 full time staff on site- Jackie & Trish) which then gets directed to either the refuge, or to one of the 4 Op Shops in Auckland to help support families in need. Proceeds from the Op shop goes towards keeping the mission operational. Did you know that the CM spends apx. $30,000 a year on disposal fees as sometimes the donated items are in such bad or unusable condition, that they have to be thrown away. On the other side of the spectrum, sometimes there are really good and unique items that are donated which end up being collectibles. Drop into your local City Mission Op shop to take a look and help support the community. 
 
Read more...
New Year's Yacht Cruise 
On 22 January 2019, we had our first Rotary "meet-up" aboard the yacht "The Savoy". 

 
It was a wonderful evening, cruising around the Auckland Harbour while enjoying drinks and homemade nibbles (gazpacho, cheesy olives, veggie & grazing platters, tortilla, smoked salmon pikelets, lamb parcels & fishcake sliders) provided by our awesome catering team (Joanne Wills, James Hook, Jan Malcolm, Gill Johnston, Karen Hally and me). What a great way to catch up with mates and to meet new ones as well!
 
 
Several guests were amongst the 50 of us including District Governor Ingrid Waugh and her husband John. 
 
 
 
Read more...
City Mission - Cooking for the Homeless
Auckland City Mission (ACM) is one of the 7 social causes our members voted to support. City Missioner Chris Farrely and Fundraising Executive Lyn Stevens came to speak at our Club earlier this year to share more about the new facility "HomeGround" due to be built by 2020. In the interim, the ACM has moved into a new temporary facility. To learn more about the project click on the website:
 
Five of our Club members (Jan, Byran, Gareth, Des, Kat) and Weilian (who joined from our facebook page), volunteered at the City Mission from 11am-3pm on 21st of January to help prepare lunch/dinner service for about 170 people. 
The City Mission serve about 250-300 meals a day with only one onsite chef and with the rest of the help provided by volunteers.
 
Did you know that last fiscal year, ACM distributed 12,753 emergency food parcels to struggling families and individuals? They successfully housed 112 homeless clients; they provided 14,362 health consultations to vulnerable, high-needs patients and also admitted 375 people to residential drug &n alcohol detoxification. 
 
The Auckland City Mission is in regular need of volunteers and group volunteers to help serve meals to the homeless. Kat & Gareth would like to run this event again if there is interest from the club members. So please get in touch with Kat if you are keen to volunteer on a regular basis either solo or part of the little Downtown Rotary group.
Read more...
Meeting Responsibilities
Reception
 
Team Lead
Turkel, Dan
 
Team member
Wilson, Peter
 
Team member
Winstone, Kenneth
 
Speaker
 
Introducer/host
Trigg, Des
 
Thanker
Langton, James
 
5 minute Speaker - Alex Keuch
 
Upcoming Speakers
Feb 19, 2019
How I Survived a Heart Attack
Feb 26, 2019
Dealing with Dementia
Mar 05, 2019
Secret SAS Missions in Africa
Mar 12, 2019
General Market and Economic Outlook
View entire list
Upcoming Events
Rub Shoulders - Get Together at the Davidson's
Davidson's House
Mar 10, 2019
4:00 PM – 7:30 PM
 
FULL: RMHC Cook Night
Domain House
Mar 12, 2019
4:00 PM – 8:00 PM
 
Food Service for the Homeless at The City Mission
Haeata Community Centre
Mar 20, 2019
11:00 AM – 3:00 PM
 
District Conference 2019
Napier
May 10, 2019 12:00 PM –
May 12, 2019 12:00 PM
 
Rugby World Cup Japan October 2019
Sep 21, 2019 – Nov 02, 2019
 
Please add mailservice@clubrunner.com to your safe sender list or address book.
To unsubscribe from future e-mails, click here.
To forward this email to your friends, click here.
To view our privacy policy, click here.
 
ClubRunner
905.829.5299
102-2060 Winston Park Drive, Oakville, ON, L6H 5R7
 
ClubRunner is a registered trademark of Doxess Technologies Inc.
© 2016 ClubRunner. All Rights Reserved.