Our next meeting will be a Ten Pin Bowling night on 10 April 2024 at
Manhattan Superbowl & Newmarket Hotel
549 Gardeners Road Mascot
Members are reminded that Membership fees are now overdue!
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 in 2023, to join in the fellowship and to learn more about what we do.
There will be no meeting at the Graphic Arts Club on this occasion. Instead, we will enjoy a night of fun and frivolity, and maybe some serious ten-pin bowling!
Manhattan Superbowl & Newport Hotel
549 Gardeners Road Mascot
Appetisers of pizza breads will be followed by ordering and paying for your meals at the Bistro of the Newport Hotel from 6.30pm. The bowling will start afterwards upstairs around 8pm.
Non-bowling Rotarians and guests are welcome to dine at the Bistro and cheer on the bowlers at no charge.
Our last meeting
A good roll up of members and guests enjoyed talks by Alanna Duggan from Lifeline and then President-elect Simon, before we headed downstairs to enjoy a convivial dinner and a few drinks.
Alanna spoke of the work of Lifeline and the recent establishment of a call-in centre in Westfield Tower at Bondi Junction. The centre was founded by Daisy Turnbull to support people in our community, run by locals for locals, connecting them with care and providing a voice of calm.
Simon then spoke on the topic "The Young and how we can engage them in our Club". His starting point was the State of the Young in 2024, with anxiety, depression & mental health issues prevalent. Print and platform media compete producing manufactured consent, with public trust in media sources being corroded continuously.
We need to frame Rotary as an ethical, responsible and respected community-based organisation. We can build resilience by engaging a younger audience, whose objectives in joining Rotary may be based on networks, mentoring, connections, shared knowledge with flexibility in when and how they want to engage.
Rotary offers an unrivalled brand, global footprint, ‘Rubber on the Road’ and a high ‘feel good’ quotient.
Our club can offer access to 3 universities, a constant revenue stream and deep networks.
7-point plan:
Be explicit in our messages
Get digital
Change meeting structures
Broaden the speaker spectrum.
Fund engagement tours
Engage government Office for Youth.
Engage universities.
And our major event, the Dog Fun Day was a great success!
This was the first big event that we have put together as a merged Club. We had a fantastic turnout from our members and most went home very tired! It was great to interact with members of the Maroubra Club - a fantastic joint effort in making the day a great success. We sold over 450 sausages and many raffle tickets, with the raffle to be drawn on Wednesday 10th.
We look forward to putting it on again next year, when we will have learnt from our first effort and make it even bigger. Even the Mayor of Randwick City Council, Philipa Veitch is encouraging us to put it on again!
Proudly Partnered with Sydney Airports Corporation
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, with dinner, starts at 6:30pm and normally concludes by 8:30pm.
Dog Fun Day supporting local mental health initiatives.
March 2024
Planning to the Dog Fun Day!
Support to ROMAC child Melenaite at Sydney Childrens Hospital
February 2024
Sponsorship of a family room at Ronald McDonald House at the Sydney Children's Hospital, allowing families from rural NSW to stay close to their children whilst undergoing treatment.
Donation to the Philippine's SHEP project.
January 2024
Sponsorship of Michaela to attend the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) at the University of Qld.
Sponsorship of Oliver to the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, a weeklong personal development program.
Renewal of our annual Indigenous Health Scholarship
Refer to our website for the full list of projects supported.
Baby Melenaite from the Pacific Ocean island of Tonga, was born with a large teratoma, a 2.5kg mass of tissue and blood vessels, on her lower back.
Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) arranged for her, with mum Michelle, to fly to Canberra, where the 2.5kg tumour was removed at The Canberra Hospital. Unfortunately, some remnants remained and she was transferred to the Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick for more specialised treatment. Unfortunately, the tumour resulted in other complications, impacting her kidneys, bladder and hip joints.
In March 2023 Melenaite underwent 5 hours of surgery at The Sydney Children's Hospital in Randwick. Firstly, an operation by Urologist Dr Sarah Guitronich addressed the kidney issue. Then followed a 4-hour operation by Neurologist Dr Saeed Kohan to excise the remaining teratoma. Following these procedures, Melenaite was fitted with a hip brace and returned to Tonga with her Mum Michelle in April 2023.
In mid-February 2024, Melenaite and Michelle returned for reviews of her various issues at both Canberra and Sydney Children's Hospitals. This included an MRI under general anaesthetic. It was great to see the child that was here twelve months ago as a babe in arms, returning as a very lively near 2-year-old!
Following the all-clear they returned home to Tonga on 8 March 2024, farewelled at Sydney Airport by Botany Randwick and ROMAC Board Member, Richard. It is planned that they return in a few month's time for a further review.
Whilst in Sydney, they stayed at Ronald McDonald House close by the Hospital. Our Club is a major supporter of the House, and it is fantastic to see the reciprocation of this support in their assistance to ROMAC children.
These yearly scholarships are awarded through Australian Rotary Health to Indigenous tertiary students as a way to support the barriers of tertiary study and qualification in Australian Indigenous populations. They are jointly funded by a Rotary Club or District and the State or Federal Government. Each scholarship is worth $5,000 per year.
The Rotary Club of Botany Randwick has been funding one of these scholarships each year, for the at least the last 15 years.
Our Scholar this year is Jesse, who is studying Vision Science at Flinders University. Jesse wrote recently to update us on his progress:
"I wanted to express my sincere gratitude to you and the Botany Randwick Rotary club for the invaluable support extended to me throughout 2023. The club’s generosity through the Rotary Indigenous Health Scholarship played a pivotal role in allowing me to engage my studies at university.
Rotary International’s monthly theme for April is Maternal and Child Health.
This theme highlights the importance of ensuring the well-being of mothers and children around the world. Every day mothers risk their lives giving birth and millions of children die each year from treatable, preventable causes. At least 7 million children under the age of five die each year due to malnutrition, poor health care, and inadequate sanitation.
To help reduce this rate, Rotary provides immunizations and antibiotics to babies, improves access to essential medical services, and supports trained health care providers for mothers and their children.
Rotary’s projects ensure sustainability by empowering the local community to take ownership of health care training programs. Maternal and Child Health Care is also recognized as one of Rotary’s Six Areas of Focus.
Let’s work together to improve maternal and child health globally!
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 a Ten Pin Bowling night on 10 April 
Simon then spoke on the topic "The Young and how we can engage them in our Club". His starting point was the State of the Young in 2024, with anxiety, depression & mental health issues prevalent. Print and platform media compete producing manufactured consent, with public trust in media sources being corroded continuously.
Baby Melenaite from the Pacific Ocean island of Tonga, was born with a large teratoma, a 2.5kg mass of tissue and blood vessels, on her lower back. 
Rotary International’s monthly theme for April is Maternal and Child Health.