Rotary Club of Hout Bay

rotary hout bay breezes - 21 mar

The Argus Cycle Race went ever so smoothly this year, and its thanks once again to Don Peters that this indeed happened and thanks also to the 25 or so Rotarians who managed to set aside a full day from their valuable weekends to attend, thereby raising funds for various important Rotary causes. Also an excellent PR exercise between Rotary and the Valley, Rotary Hout Bay forms part of a proud network of Rotary clubs all assisting along the route. Hout Bay Rotary once again arose to the occasion. What a great team.

  

___________________________________________________________

Roll up! Roll up, this coming Sunday!

A wonderful relaxation and outing with friends, that's what happened last year!   This Sunday  28th March, its all happening at the Constantia Bowling Club. Doesn't matter how well you play, or whether you don't, have a great time.  You'll be bowled over. Its such fun. A family and partners day special. Its a 9.30 start.

 

 Sunday 28 March at Constantia Club 

Constantia Clubhave kindly made the bowling club braai area available to us, so the club will be organising two bags of fuel and each person or pair should bring their own food/salads etc i.e. picnic style. The  bowls club bar will be open for cool drinks, spirits and wine at club subsidized prices.

Time - approx 9.30 start and we should finish playing by noon.  Cost is R25 per person.  Bowls will be supplied, but bring your own just in case we need them if you have some.  

________________________________________________________________

Farewell, good friends

It was farewell to Peter and Sandra Johnson the other night and this was a sad event. Peter served as president for the year 2007/8 following Mick Feuilherade and it was a great year which included the opening of the Operation Medical Hope HIV/Aids clinic extensions in Hangberg and many advances in the educational field, Peter’s speciality. We wish this lovely couple every happiness in France in their new home, so much closer to their grandchild which was their wish.

 

_________________________________________________________

      Mick's Magnificent Machines!

 Mick Feuilherade

achieved Rotary honours with publicity in the Sentinel as follows to sell advertising on the second of his litter wagons to service the roads and pavements of Hout Bay. The article speaks for itself.

 

Click to read enlarged version

________________________________________________________

  Red Cross Children's Home : Rotary to Network

Rotary was gracedby two excellent speakers on behalf of the Red Cross Children’s Home, Burns Unit, in the form of Emilene Hoffmeyer, a mother whose child was recently badly scalded and burnt and who appealed for support after some brilliant work on her child by this superb unit.  Liz Linsell of the Red Cross Children’s Trust  gave a most interesting and excellent prepared Power Point presentation on the valuable work performed by the dedicated staff and some of the history that led to the establishment of this extraordinary Capetonian venture.

No doubt Community Services chaired by Patrick McLaughlin will discuss this approach at the next community services meeting but it was agreed that first we had to establish what assistance was being given to the Red Cross Children's Home generally and the Burns Unit in particular. Quite clearly, a lot of support has been given by Rotary clubs in 9350 in the past and an opportunity to make contact with other clubs working in this area might be the outlet. 

below Red Cross Children's Hospital from air

PRESIDENTS CORNER

Fellow Rotarians,

We have a new Rotary Club in Cape Town being inaugurated:

Charter of RC Noon Gun

RI has officially signed the Charter of RC Noon Gun. The Charter Dinner can now go ahead on Saturday 27 March 2010, 19h00 at the Cullinan Hotel.  The Charter of a New Rotary Club is always a highlight for a Rotary District. We are inducting 20 new Rotarians into the D9350 family!

Your club is asked to support in one or more of the following ways:

1. Please have at least 1 representative (& partner/s) attend the charter dinner:

1.1.   Ideally this would be an office bearer in your club.

1.2.   Please consider having your club pay for at least 1 representative.

1.3.   Please have your representative bring along your club banner and a short message of support from your club.

1.4.   Please circulate attached to clubs, PDGs and appropriate persons.

Please let me know if you and your partner want to go to the Charter Dinner.

Past President Mike Ochse of the Pinelands Rotary Club has been nominated as District Governor Nominee for the Rotary Year 2012/13. As far as Hout Bay is concerned we do not put forward a challenging candidate, so we will support PP Mike’s candidacy.

Attached is a copy of the DG’s February Newsletter with pictures of Rotary’s birthday party at the Waterfront.

See you all on Tuesday.

Yours in Rotary

Joe Schwach

President

Rotary Club of Hout Bay

________________________________________________________

Rotary Club of Hout Bay Meeting Agenda and Duty Roster

March   23rd

Our speaker has cancelled. We will most likely have a job talk by Chris Schuchard. 

SAA;    David Heath

FO; Ralph Tobergte

Intro;   Mick Feuilherade

Thanks;   Roy Graham

 

March  30th  

Toni Marraccini - Ambassadorial scholar

SAA;    David Heath

FO ;     Ralph Tobergte

Intro;   Rainer Jahn

Thanks;  Alan Walker

____________________________________________________________________

News from New Zealand and Neville

  

Neville Morris sends news from New Zealand

as he travels on his extended holiday having been to Rotary clubs in NZ to make RC Hout Bay’s presence known and present our compliments.

 

One club was in Lincoln, near Christchurch, and the other in Pukekohe, pictured here, with banner being presentedto Mark Graham, Rotary president of Pukekohe, a club with 45 members which includes four women.

 

Says Neville, “They seem to have a great time and would Mick as Mr Attendance note two make ups.”    All the best, Neville and Joyce, from all of us.

_____________________________________________________________________

VUYO GOING A STORM WITH KIDS

 

Butch Liebenburg sent news on Kids Foundation, the person who is dealing with Rotary Hout Bay’s connection at the moment. We are all hoping he will continue this into next year. For those of you who do not know,KiDS was founded in April 1994 (the same month and year as democracy in South Africa!) by Ian Kilbride, a businessman keen to use his resources to help build the new South Africa and son ofour own Bill and Margaret Kilbride of Everton fame and Tessa De Beer-Smit, a teacher with a passion for education.

 

Both these latter folk believed that huge potential to help build our new nation was being lost through lack of opportunity and financial resources for disadvantaged learners to attend schools offering good quality education. 

KIDS was born with a desire to help these learners to attend good schools by offering individual scholarships to scholars with a will and the potential to succeed not only academically but in all areas of achievement.  From 1994 until now KIDS has supported 165 scholarships effectively providing 1025 years of education!

Butch, as close supporter of the Foundation, told his granddaughters all about the work we do on one of his visits to see them and as a result these amazing young ladies have taken it upon themselves to save up their pocket money and donate it to one of the scholar’s within the Foundation. 

Alex was a matric student at St Johns in PMB where she was prefect and head of the boarding establishment. She has now left for France as Rotary Club of Hout Bays Exchange Student. Chloe is in grade 10 also at St Johns. Alex and Chloe collect coins from students at school as well as willingly parting with some of their pocket money.  The younger girls Payton and Cameron attend Brechia house in Bryanston and always give their grandfather, Butch, a bag full of coins each time he sees them.

Originally the girls handed over R700 in coins and then Butch after his most recent visit gave over a further R1150.

At the same time, Vuyo Siyalana, a KIDS scholarship student and who is sponsored by Rotary Club of Coolamon in Australia, our twinned club, and as a result of an  Hout Bay Rotary introduction through John Glassford of Oz fame, is doing very well. He has had a most successful year in Grade 11 at Wynberg Boys High School in 2009.  So successful, in fact, that he was elected Head Prefect for the school for 2010. He was very much touched by the donation from the girls and wrote to Butch as circulated recently .

At the moment, Butch, is arranging for a special Kids evening on the 20 April at the club for a visit by Vuyo and hopefully Tessa from KIDS itself. Watch this space.

_______________________________________________________

hout bay helps haiti

What a great response!

Within 24 hours of a request by DG Mike Saxby of District 9350, Rotary Club of Hout Bay had met the challenge of raising funds for Rotary International's call for Shelter Boxes in Haiti following the devastating earthquake that claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, injured and traumatised countless thousands and made homeless some 1.5m persons.

Well done to president Joe for moving so fast on the issue, thank you to all the club members who donated and most of all, thank you to Rainer Jahn who made up the R3,500 odd needed to make what must have been one of the first pledges to reach DG Mike Saxby. 

As the largest service organisation of its kind in the world, Rotary has the infrastructure to quickly respond to disasters and Shelterbox, a Global Rotary Club project, was among the first to respond to the humanitarian crisis.  A Shelterbox management team arrived in Haiti last Friday and by now some 2,000 Shelterboxes are deployed.  pics New York Daily News

 

One Shelterbox costs R8 000 and provides emergency accommodation for an extended family of up to 10 people with a tent and essential equipment to use while they are displaced or homeless.  In Southern Africa, Shelterboxes were most recently deployed in response the 2009 earthquake and floods in, respectively, Malawi and Namibia.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ANOTHER SHOW, ANOTHER TOWN !  (Mother Russia comes to Hout Bay)

Rotary had a great meeting produced at 4-hours notice by Colin Sutherland following the mysterious and possibly final disappearance of Andre Jacobs, scheduled on our weekly speaker billings. Well-known as a tap and dance showman, Colin did his second act on short notice in as many weeks.

 

This time he was billed as "Banking in Russia" which he managed to weave as such, giving us all an amazing look at life in Russia in the early 'nineties whilst he served as a consultant in Mongolia, Khazhkstan and various portions areas in that mysterious middle zone of Asia/Russia/Europe.

 

Above is an example of a part-retirement programme to keep welfare monies coming into households - an over-60-year  woman cleans ice off roads in Novosbirsk. In South Africa they also give such welfare but don't seem to get anything back for it.

 

On the right is Colin's bank where he consulted for a while, the National Bank of Ukraine, with its strange, baroque frontage but no central heating! The Federal Reserve Bank in the USA employs some 16,500 people whilst this bank employed 73,000 - another example perhaps of what SA is trying to do.

 

Below is the similarly rather strange assortment of food on the menu at the local market in Kazakhstan, which Colin's wife, Dagmar, had to chose between for the evening meal.

Thank you Colin for the interesting talk at short notice. This coming week your editor, Patrick McLaughlin, will try and be as half as entertaining with a talk on the business of parliamentary reporting in South Africa, perhaps a subject as equally mystifying as outer Mongolia to most Rotarians.

 

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Future Talk:-

On 23^rd February we have as our guest speaker award winning Author and Journalist Tim Butcher.

Pres Joe says he will circulate more details on Tim nearer the date but in the mean time the website for his book ‘Blood River’ can be  found at www.bloodriver.co.uk.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sponsorship needed for Bursary Applicant, an urgent appeal

from Fedde Renkema  

 

 

We received an application from  Tombani ( better known as Pitchou, the car guard).  Pitchou has official status as a Refugee from CongoDRC.   He has a bachelor’s degree from Congo but his academic papers are not recognized in SA.  He now has a letter of admission for a Honours degree in Social Science at UCT (1 year program). 

The course fees are R21,000, but he has savings of only R6,000 and is applying for a grant of R15,000.  He has excellent references.  For years he has been the unpaid supervisor/spokesman/manager of the Area Marshals (the car guards with the red bibs) and the Coordinator Miked Rigg is extremely positive about him (“very reliable, good leader, interested in studying).

The VocServ Committee will interview him on 26 January.  However, our Bursary Scheme requires that 1 or 2 Rotarians endorse his application and are becoming co-sponsor, contributing R5,000 while the remaining R10,000 would come from Club funds.

The Vocational Committee urgently appeals to club members to consider becoming Pitchou’s sponsor.  The registration for the course is already next week.

Please contact Fedde for further details.

ARGUS CYCLE    TOUR 2010

 

The 2010 cycle tour will take place on Sunday March 14^th.

 

We will need 63 marshals and we have secured some already from South African Figure Skaters and Helderberg Sunrise Rotary Club.

Whilst not everyone will agree that our Club is well rewarded the contribution to our Club Funds is substantial and your support is needed.  The more we have to farm out the less we will earn.

Please don’t make holiday bookings to coincide with the day,  if there special reasons for decreased activity let me know and we will accommodate you.  

+++++++

This year is special as it will be the 25^th year that Hout Bay Rotary has marshalled the Argus, so lets be positive and make the day good fun.  We appear to have some budding actors who enjoy fancy dress – why not get dressed up for the Argus Day and give everyone something to smile about.

 

 

 

   

How high will you climb for your community?

Rotary Club of Hout Bay have selected Anna Khuzwayo, a local AIDS counsellor, to represent them on a climb up Africa's tallest mountain peak, Mount Kilimanjaro.