The club was delighted to be able to catch up again with Brigit and the team at Urban Angels in Marcoochydore since they moved to their new premises.
Unfortunately Brigit was unable to be there, but we had a great time and were a bit spoilt by an amazing breakfast and looked after by Lee and the amazing volunteers. Brigit sent through this note to the club...
"I am so disappointed to have missed the breakfast this morning. Your support means a lot to me and I was so looking forward to catching up with you and your colleagues. My husband and I think we had a virus of some sort…not Covid! Whilst I am feeling much better today, I thought it was prudent not to risk spreading something about the place.
Peter Hall has also asked me to pass on his appreciation for your support of Urban Angels. He would have liked to attend this morning’s event as well but he unfortunately has Covid.
Had I been there this morning, one of the things I would have shared with you, is Peter’s future plan for the Service Street space.
You would be aware of Peter’s engineering, design and project management background. This along with his endless capacity to think ahead as well as consider the needs of our team and the overall goals we seek to fulfil, have seen him come up with a plan for building a food safe area on the mezzanine. Peter has designed a space where we can do all the packaging and labelling of our food. The plans include a dumbwaiter which will be installed downstairs in the foyer to transport the cooked food upstairs for packing. We currently do both the prep and the packaging downstairs and we can only do one of these tasks at a time. The new space will enable us to produce more food and improve our efficiency. Down the track, we hope to mechanise some of our packaging processes and create a saleable range of meals…the new space upstairs will be invaluable for that. We used to run a social enterprise catering business which came to an end due to Covid (no more big functions!) and have since been thinking of alternative ways to create a new revenue source. We are currently researching starting up a subscription meal delivery service which would require us to mechanise our packaging somewhat. There are already several people who receive our meals because they are delicious, nutritious, convenient etc. and in return, they provide us with donations. We are unable to “sell” our meals as the packaging is not tamper proof and our labels require Nutrition Information Panels which involves an onerous process. Given that our product is already valued in this way, we thought it was a good place to start looking at building a new business. You see therefore, how Peter is always thinking ahead!"
..and finally if you happen to have a rather luxuriant moustache...here's the recommended PPE.
Miranda McLennan and Ruth Logan were our guest speakers on Friday morning.
Both of these fantastic women are truly "making a difference" to our Sunshine Coast community and are to be congratulated for their achievements, professionalism and enthusiasm.
First up was Ruth, who you may have seen in her brightly postered ute around the Sunshine Coast promoting the "It's a bloke thing" program to increase awareness...all over Queensland and NT. and promote action among men to get their prostate checked, especially if they are over 45 (?) with family history of prostate cancer, and men who are getting on in years and have not had a PSA test.
There would not be one man in the room who would not relate to Ruth's message about how poorly men look after their own health and many would be aware of this silent killer. A certain scribe lost a family member to PC last year and knows how important it is to get checked regularly and watch that PSA level for any changes. But he only made the call to the GP after hearing Ruth's talk. (and he is one of the more intelligent members of the club, even if he says so himself!.)
Thank you Ruth for the work you do, and the lives you are saving.
Next up was Michelle's best mate Miranda who is also a bundle of energy and enthusiasm. Miranda is a HR executive and start up coach who has been actively involved in getting the local young chamber of commerce off the ground. It has become tremendously successful and after being under the wing on the Maroochydore Chamber of Commerce is now flying on its own.
It was so inspiring to hear of Sunshine Coast Young Chamber of Commerce and their achievements in bringing together the young entrepreneurs of the Sunshine Coast and the support that they give each other through the organisation.
This year you can enter as an individual or get a few mates and enter as a team.
And this year we'll have some novelty prizes to add a more fun to the event.
We cannot guarantee that the 5km swim will have a photo finish like last year, but we can guarantee great weather and lots of fun, and that you'll be helping Rotary and Alex SLSC support some great local Sunshine Coast Community groups.
The Rotary USC Community Fund (RUSCCF) was established in 1996-97 and first awarded in 2001 by the combined Rotary Clubs of the Sunshine Coast. Rotary Postgraduate Scholarships are awarded annually to students who have completed their undergraduate degree at USC and have enrolled and commenced postgraduate studies at either the Master or Doctorate levels at USC.
The RUSCCF Committee is made up of representatives from 17 Rotary clubs from Caloundra to Noosa. Each club is encouraged to make an annual contribution to the Fund at the RUSCCF Annual Joint Meeting and Dinner. To date, the combined clubs have contributed more than $210,000 to the Fund and have awarded 63 scholarships to USC students.
The Scholarships are valued at $4,500 each and three scholarships are awarded each year.
On Sunday morning 26th June, as well as having several hundred folk at Buhk Park fo rtes swim, Rotary will be showcasing "Shelterbox". This is a world wide Rotary initiative to help folk who have no roof over their head or food to eat.
ShelterBox was founded in 2000 in the town of Helston, Cornwall, UK by Rotarian and former Royal Navy Search and Rescue Diver Tom Henderson, OBE.[8] That same year the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard adopted it as its Millennium Project.
Shelterbox is helping the folks in Ukraine, and also these notable disaster relief projects.
One of ShelterBox's largest responses was the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti in 2010. ShelterBox provided shelter for 28,000 families, or approximately 25% of all tents delivered in areas surrounding Port-au-Prince.[12]
After the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, ShelterBox provided assistance to about 1,600 families in the disaster region.[13]
In 2015 the charity responded in Nepal providing aid to families who lost their home, after a powerful earthquake left 9,000 dead and nearly 22,000 injured.
In 2017 ShelterBox responded to category 5 hurricanes Irma and Maria in the Caribbean. Aid was provided in the islands of St Kitts and Nevis, the Dominican Republic, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, and the British Virgin Islands.
In terms of conflict-related responses, Syria remains one of ShelterBox's largest projects. Since 2013, the charity has been providing emergency aid to families affected by the war in Syria.
Steve has some details on how you can support Ukraine via Rotary, and this article gives you some more information on the organisation sending medical aid to war victims..
Rotarians unite to send medical aid to Ukraine
Rotary members in North America, Argentina, and Europe are collaborating with a U.S.-based association of Ukrainian health care workers to collect and ship more than 100 tons of critical medical supplies to Ukraine. The effort was built off of connections Marga Hewko, president of the Rotary Club of Chicago, had forged with the Ukrainian medical community in Chicago. Rotary clubs have pooled their resources to secure donations from equipment manufacturers and purchase supplies which are then flown over to Europe for distribution within Ukraine. Read how Rotary’s network has been providing support to Ukraine.
On Friday Tony and John followed up on how the club may be able to help with The Smith Family and their youth programs. So in ZOOM meeting (what else?) with Marlo we found out that there are two programs where we may be able to help. The first one is "Straight Talk" which is much along the lines of the mock interviews and WorkLife programs where adults and kids sit down and have chats about work and work experiences, opportunities, difficulties and "things you really need to know about work".
We've given a list of 12 Rotarians who have about 400 years of work experience behind them to The Smith Family and are willing to help out with this program of coaching kids on the work environment.
The other program John spoke about is the WorkInspiration and Reach Out program (WIRO) and we found out more about this in the ZOOM meeting. It involves selected kids jumping on a bus and going around a few industries / workplaces and seeing what goes on "behind the scenes" and all sorts of jobs that perhaps the kids were not aware of. On the Sunshine Coast this involves visits to Structural engineers, Logistics organisations, Electrical supply organisations, Insurers, and Property developers.
The club is perhaps not so geared for this, but now that we know what its all about, keep an eye open for any businesses who are community minded and who would be happy (With Smith Family and Rotary help) to organise a 2 hour visit from a selected 10 - 20 kids who would benefit from some exposure to different workplaces - it may change someone's life.
The club heard from Mag at Shepperton South on how they had taken to heart the BBC program about mixing kindergarten kids and old folks.
They asked the kindergarten kids what they liked about visiting their grandparents at the local old folks home. Answer? "Nothing". So they decided to do something about that and set about building a play area for young and old.
At recent board meeting the club decided to investigate it further, and will look to take it up as a project in this year, subject to more research and planning.
So here's some pics of how the Shepperton Rotary approached the task and what they achieved.
Brilliant. Stay tuned for more developments.
Click on image to go to the links
What'dya know?
Question: Which mammal is known to have the world’s most powerful bite?
Answer: Hippopotamus
Question: What is the most common present given by a male penguin to a female penguin in order to win her over?
Answer: A pebble
Question: How long does it take an elephant to become pregnant before giving birth?
Answer: 22 months
Question: What was Walt Disney afraid of?
Answer: He was scared of Mice.
Question: What were the first ice hockey pucks made out of?
Answer: Cow dung.
Question: In what state was fried chicken invented?
Answer: No state, it was made in Scotland! (really?)
Enter from the beach side, next to Coffee kiosk. Magnificent morning views of sun rising over the pacific*
(Technically it's the earth falling...but that took us a while to figure out. Ed)
