Our next meeting will be 6:00pm for 6:30pm on Wednesday 13 May at the Graphic Arts Club, 182 Coward Street, Mascot 2020.
Visitors are very welcome - please make yourself known at the bar!
Membership Fees are now due
President's Message
Welcome to this Newsletter of the Rotary Club of Botany Randwick Inc. Our club has been serving the local and international community since 1948.
Rotary promotes the ideal of service through fellowship. Attending our meetings allows members to enjoy the fellowship of other club members, enrich their professional and personal knowledge, and meet other business leaders in their community.
As a Club we support a wide range of projects. As well as having a broad range of local and international community projects, we are particularly focused on the Rotary projects, Australian Rotary Health, Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) and Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) together with The Rotary Foundation.
We welcome everyone to come along to any of our meetings to join in the fellowship and to learn more about what we do.
Our speaker this week is Edith Bowskill from an organisation known as A21, which is dedicated to the elimination of human trafficking and slavery everywhere.
Afterwards we will adjourn to the Graphic Arts Club Restaurant for dinner, drink and a casual chat.
Our last meeting - 22 April
Our speakers at the last meeting was Tara Coleman from the Police Citizens Youth Club (PCYC) at Matraville.
She spoke about some of their programs which include:-
Activity passes for sporting activities and programs – these would support young people who may not be able to afford our programs. This would allow them to participate in activities such as our 3x3 basketball competition, Safer Driver Course, school holiday programs, afternoon boxing sessions, and our basketball programs including Learn to Play and Intermediate Basketball.
Fit for Life donations- This supports our free Tuesday and Thursday morning program where we pick up young people from their homes, run a fitness session, provide breakfast, mentor the young people, drop them to school. Additional funding would help us continue offering this program at no cost to participants and ensure we can reach more young people who benefit from the routine, support, and positive start to their day. We run the fit for life program every Tuesday and Thursday morning during the school term.
The PCYC are also currently hoping to purchase a floor scrubber, which would help staff and volunteers quickly hygienically clean the floor for the turnaround of the court for the next activity, making the PCYC able to offer more programs and classes in a given timeframe.
Our club, in conjunction with Rotary Maroubra, are currently considering supporting the PCYC's requests for funding.
Dog Day Report
It was a beautiful sunny warm day at Maroubra with a few gusts of wind that kept us cool. The locals with dogs arriving early in anticipation of the day. Randwick Council Mayor, Dylan Parker opened the event speaking about success of the day in its past years. Honorary Member, Anty Barbara Simms did the Welcome to Country and spoke about dogs and their long association and relationship with humans.
Our Dog Day event supported the PCYC this year and if you look at the article on Tara presenting to our club you will see what the proceeds may go towards.
Our club have 30 members and friends helping out on the day with set-up and preparations, and we would like to thank Maroubra Rotary for assisting in the pack up.
The dog competition raised funds with many subscribers entering events such as Best Dressed, Best Trickster, Cutest Pooch and Most Rescue. Our hot dog stand was well received, and a number of people enjoyed the humor.
All in all it was very much enjoyed by the many, many visitors and their dogs.
Much thanks to Bendigo Bank, Randwick Council and The Juniors for sponsoring the even and helping make it a worthwhile event.
2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at the Graphic Arts Club, 182 Coward Street, Mascot. 6pm for pre-meeting drinks and chat. The meeting, followed by dinner, starts at 6:30pm and the evening normally concludes by 8:30pm.
For a Rotary Club that doesn't very often do BBQs, our team excelled themselves last Sunday!
The big effort was in support of Ronald McDonald House Randwick's big fund raiser for the year -"Walk Me Home", when more than two thousand people walked the 25 km from Rose Bay via the very scenic Coastal Walk - Watsons Bay, Bondi Beach, Coogee, finally arriving at the Randwick House to be greeted by Rotarians handing them a sausage sandwich.
It was truly amazing to see how everyone just got stuck into the various roles - delivering supplies from the fridge, stacking bread and napkins, cutting sausages strings, cooking onion and sausages, refilling sauce bottles, serving, cleaning up, etc.
With the three BBQ's running flat-out, the hungry walkers didn't have to wait long to pick up their reward after their 25km walk from Rose Bay.
The Botany Randwick Rotary Club has a long association with Ronald McDonald House and has been sponsoring a Family Room for many years.
The House provides vital, and free, accommodation for the families of children from Regional NSW whilst their children are undergoing treatment at the nearby Sydney Children's Hospital. Without this facility, these families would be left in desperate circumstances at a time when there is already a lot of trauma in their lives.
Our support of the House is reciprocated, with the House also accommodating children from the Pacific islands who come to the Hospital for treatment under Rotary Australia's ROMAC Program https://www.romac.life/.
It was also great to see our ROMAC Child, 2-year-old Tom, and his Mum Marie come down to say hullo. They are staying at the House whilst Tom undergoes treatment for his club feet at the Sydney Children's Hospital. ROMAC District 9675 Chair Jenny Pedley also popped in to say whilst she was visiting them.
The Board and staff of Ronald McDonald House have expressed a very big thank-you to all involved - it was a very successful day for them.
Two-year-old Tom, from a remote island in Vanuatu, arrived in Sydney in early March for treatment at Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick.
Tom has now had surgery for bilateral club feet, and he was discharged from the hospital last Wednesday, with both legs in plaster casts, from his thighs to his toes.
For a little boy used to having the run of his home and village, the casts are restricting him somewhat, but he is facing up to the challenge!
Tom and his Mum, Marie, are staying at Ronald McDonald House, close to the hospital. The Rotary Club of Botany Randwick has been a long-time supporter of the House, and we currently sponsor a family accommodation room.
Tom and Marie are expected to stay in Sydney for about four weeks. During their stay they will be supported by members of the local Vanuatuan community, together with the ROMAC Eastern Region and District 9675 Team. Members of our club will be assisting.
It is somewhat of a challenge communicating, as Marie speaks Tok Pisin and some French. However, Google Translate has proved of enormous benefit, with a lot of laughs at some of the “close” translations.
We look forward to following Tom's progress and hope that it won't be long before he is up and running around on his two new feet!
This project, by the Rotary Club of Botany Randwick (District 9675, Australia) in partnership with the Rotary Club of Kampala City (District 9213, Uganda), aims to renovate existing dilapidated classroom blocks and construct two new classrooms at Bukono Primary School in Namutumba District, Eastern Uganda.
The school, originally established in the 1920s, now serves over 1,500 students in severely overcrowded and unsafe learning conditions.
The proposed works will include the repair and replastering of existing classrooms, construction of two new brick classrooms with iron roofing, painting, and installation of water harvesting systems.
The initiative will be implemented by AMPE Foundation Africa (Uganda) under the supervisory oversight of the Rotary Club of Kampala City, ensuring transparency, accountability, and sustainable community ownership. Local community members will contribute labour, sand, and bricks, while Rotary and AMPE Foundation will provide funding, coordination, and governance.
Upon completion, the improved facilities will directly benefit over 300 students and indirectly impact more than 1,500 families in the surrounding villages.
Every month is dedicated to one of the major themes of our Rotary lives - May is YOUTH SERVICE MONTH!
May is celebrated across Rotary as Youth Service Month—a time when we recognise the energy, leadership, and potential of young people. It is also an opportunity to highlight the meaningful impact created through Rotary’s youth and young adult programs, which continue to shape future leaders and strengthen our communities.
The Four Way Test
The Four-Way Test is a non-partisan, non-sectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal and professional relationships.
Of the things we think, say or do:
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
To contact the Club, please email info@botanyrandwickrotary.org.au
Our next meeting will be 6:00pm for 6:30pm on Wednesday 13 May
The big effort was in support of Ronald McDonald House Randwick's big fund raiser for the year -"Walk Me Home", when more than two thousand people walked the 25 km from Rose Bay via the very scenic Coastal Walk - Watsons Bay, Bondi Beach, Coogee, finally arriving at the Randwick House to be greeted by Rotarians handing them a sausage sandwich.
