The Rotary Club of Randwick was originally established in 1948 and Botany not long after. Both clubs have a rich history of service to their local and wider communities. The two clubs merged in July 2020 to form our new club. Since July 2020 we have laid strong foundations and, after the world's COVID difficulties, we are now back to having regular meetings at our fantastic venue - the Graphic Arts Club in Mascot.
As a club we look forward to serving the community across a range of programs - local, international and particularly youth related. We are also active across the various Rotary Programs - The Rotary Foundation, Australian Rotary Health, Rotary Australia World Community Service and Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children.
We are always interested in welcoming friends and new members who share our passion for service within our community. Please feel free to come along to any of our meetings or give one of our members a call if you would like more information.
2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at the Graphics Arts Club,
182 Coward Street,
Mascot.
6pm for pre-meeting drinks and chat, meeting with dinner starts at 6:30pm.
We will again be meeting at the Graphic Arts Club. We gather downstairs for a drink before heading upstairs for the meeting over dinner.
We are very pleased to welcome as members five long serving Rotarians who were formally members of the Kings Cross Club: Ray Aitken, Warwick Nelson, Phillip Paraggio, Ken Patteson and Mark Swain. A very big welcome to you all and we look forward to the benefit of your long history and experience within Rotary to guide our Club into the future.
We will have several special guests on the night:
Aya Murakami, a Rotary Foundation Global Scholar from Japan, who we met at our last meeting. She will tell us a little about herself and her current postgraduate studies in Law at the University of NSW.
Ana-Karena Lloyd, with her mother Kate, will tell us about her recent experience with the National Youth Science Forum, with sponsorship from our Club.
Our last meeting....
The meeting on 9 March was our first face to face meeting of the year, and after all the COVID lockdowns it was great to have a very full room back at the Graphic Arts Club.
We welcomed a number of guests:
Aya Murakami, a Rotary Foundation Global Scholar. Aya is being jointly sponsored by the Rotary Club of Nara in Japan and our Club. She is studying a Master of Laws at the University of NSW, with a focus on disadvantaged communities. Aya was given a very special "Welcome to Country" by Aunty Barb. To find out more about the Global Scholar Program https://www.rotary.org/en/our-programs/scholarships
Galit and her partner Chris
Five Members of the Kings Cross Rotary Club
Items of interest:
With the large number of guests at the meeting, the opportunity was given for everyone to tell us all a little about themselves.
The Club has donated $1000 to the RAWCS Tonga Appeal (see item under)
We will be sponsoring a Year 9 student nominated by the Smith Family to the next Rotary Youth Enrichment (RYPEN) camp in April. Aunty Barb will canvas her community for other potential nominees. For more information on RYPEN https://botanyrandwickrotary.org.au/page/youth-projects
Collections are now occurring from the Sydney Airport donation bins, and consideration will be given to attaching QR codes to facilitate electronic gifting
Richard gave an update on the Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) Program. There are 60 children from our South Pacific neighbours waiting on major surgeries, many of which are open heart, that they can't have in their own countries. Whilst our borders are now open, we are waiting on the hospital surgical units to do likewise. For more information on ROMAC see https://www.romac.org.au/
School Citizenship Program is planned for the third semester
The District Conference is being held 18 to 20 March at The Warwick, Cabramatta. Christine, Greg, Richard & Julie, Aunty Barb, June, Ken, Warrick and Aya will be attending, and other members are encourage to go along. For details see https://rotarydistrict9675.org/Stories/district-conference-18th-to-20th-march
Members were reminded that half yearly fees are now due.
The annual Rotary District Conference was very well attended by members of the Club. This major event on the Rotary calendar was held at The Warwick, over the weekend 18th to 20th March 2022.
It featured a fantastic array of guest speakers covering Rotary and general interest topics, with plenty of time to mingle and meet with likeminded Rotarians from across the District. It was a reminder that Rotary is a lot more than projects at the Club level. The combined resources of Rotary Clubs achieve incredible results at District and International levels, many of which were showcased at the Conference.
ROMAC Chair Harold Sharpe OAM has written to advise that his good friend, Bruce Tyrrell AM, has offered to help ROMAC once again, and has agreed to release some more of his popular DRINK NOW VATS wines especially for us.
These are currently available to you at a very attractive price of just $110 per dozen - delivered direct to your door. By purchasing these wines, not only will you be able to enjoy a great drink, but you will also be helping change the lives of sick children from our neighbouring islands in the Oceania region, as a generous percentage of all sales will be donated to ROMAC.
The Rotary Club of Botany Randwick has donated $1000 the Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) project to to provide funds for humanitarian programs to assist the people in Tonga recover from the volcano and tsunami disaster.
Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) will be working with Rotary New Zealand World Community Service (RNZWCS) and Rotary Club of Nuku'alofa (Tonga) in providing aid and assistance to the affected communities and restoring their livelihoods. The aim is to get Tonga back to normality as soon as possible so that they can look after their own communities again.
The Club will also continue its association with the Its Time Raffle, with tickets selling at $10 a ticket for 1, with a generous discount for purchase of multiple tickets and use the funds raised to further support the people of Tonga.
Our Club retains 50% of the sale of the tickets, with all these funds being further donated to the RAWCS Tonga Appeal. 40% of the funds raised will go to Its Time Foundation in Fiji (Solar Schools Project) and 10% to Plastic Free Oceans, an Its Time Foundation initiative.
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a paralyzing and potentially deadly infectious disease that most commonly affects children under the age of 5. The virus spreads from person to person, typically through contaminated water. It can then attack the nervous system.
Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. Our goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever.
As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we've reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.
Rotary members have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 123 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort.
In 1985 it was estimated that there were 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries. Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year. With only 6 cases reported last year, and one so far this year, we are so close.
The Four-Way Test The Four-Way Test is a non-partisan and 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
Welcome to the Rotary Club of Botany Randwick. 
ROMAC Chair Harold Sharpe OAM has written to advise that his good friend, Bruce Tyrrell AM, has offered to help ROMAC once again, and has agreed to release some more of his popular DRINK NOW VATS wines especially for us.
The Rotary Club of Botany Randwick has donated $1000 the Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) project to to provide funds for humanitarian programs to assist the people in Tonga recover from the volcano and tsunami disaster.
$10 a ticket for 1, with a generous discount for purchase of multiple tickets and use the funds raised to further support the people of Tonga.