Dear Rotarians,
It has been a sad but productive month. The fires have dominated our lives for the past couple of weeks. They have affected all of us. But I am so proud to be a member of Rotary in Australia. We have helped.; not only do we have firefighters amongst us but the many Rotarians who have turned up at Yanakie to serve breakfasts and dinners to those CFA volunteers, not only locally but from as far away as Narre Warren and Berwick.
It would be difficult to name all Rotarians who helped but outstanding is Adrian Fyfe and Rose. Adrian organised us and has been elected to be the "cluster group" fire aid co-ordinator. Some anecdotes might amuse: The egg-xtrodinary efforts by Liz and Murray to perfect the fried egg ( page 17 of the Red Cross handbook), and the "yolks" we had with the CFA about the greenies.
The most poignant was the waving "bye" to the firefighters as they left for the Front. Emotions of those in 1915?
A statistic; of the 21 people who turned up to volunteer for the Red Cross emergency service 10 were Rotarians.
We had a very enjoyable evening at the Foster Museum with the Yarram Rotary Club and the Rotary caravanners. Many thanks to Barrie as MC and his team of helpers, notably Adrian, Les, Geoff, Liz, Margaret, raffle sponsors and of course the partners who provided delicious salads and desserts.
The next few weeks will be busy. We have the Foster Show (gate duty) GSE visit, the Seachange festival, joint visit to Yarram RC at the Port Albert Museum (15 April ? with fish and chips) and Craft Markets on March 8 and 12 April.. Hope to see you there.
Yours in Rotary,
John Rice
