Dave Woodrow introduced his old mate Peter Hall …. Dave met Peter, Howard George  and others through Maroochydore Rotary and have been personal and Rotary Friends for 30 years about!.

Peter discovered that Urban Angels and Birgit were making meals for the homeless in inadequate conditions, so he acquired a commercial property and fitted it out with a commercial kitchen --- rumoured to be about $500,000 worth!!!  Peter does not seek publicity on the donation or his support and its great to see Brigit again and keeping up her amazing community work that truly "makes a difference."

 

 

Urban Angels provide about 10,000 meals a month to those in need …. And one of their offshoots is they run the kitchen at the IFYS Hub down at the stadium. They have three chefs  and ro0tate them to provide a variety of meals ….. including vegan and vegetarian.   They have even convinced some of their charges to try the vegetarian meals and their clients found they were good and in many cases now look for them as a preference!!!

 

Their neighbour at Maroochydore is Men’s Shed and Men’s Shed grow a whole bunch of fresh herbs, spices and vegies for them.

 

Alex Rotary know Birgit because she ran the Urban Angels café in Newspaper Place Maroochydore and the club went there at least twice for a vocational visit and breakfast and also a breakfast when we visited Push Productions and Paul Morton in November 2017). For the nostalgic readers..here's some pics from not so long ago..

Birgit has agreed that we should come up to Urban Angels for breakfast meeting and vocational visit …. Her comment was give me a few weeks to organise it. This is whats in store if our last visit is anything to go by...

 

In an unusual development the club has been invited to investigate and quantify the impact of lost golf balls on the Australian economy. Every year these losses cost the Australian economy millions of dollars every year. "It's just not just the cost of the balls which are all imported" local golfer Dave Woodrow noted, "its the mental health impacts and the time lost in looking for the ball, and other secondary effects." the past senior citizen of the year noted as he drove off the tee for the third time. 

 

Already the club has identified a significant financial impacts and inefficient spending on different colours of golf balls, folks blaming the clubs, (and buying new ones that ares't any better), mental health impacts of folks giving up exercise in frustration at losing so many golf balls, etc. etc. It's a huge issue. 

 

The club has also discovered a paradox among older golfers who anecdotally seem to be the main losers of balls. Local health professionals have noted that older people with reducing eyesight, and mental fitness are especially disadvantaged as even IF they do see the ball in flight, they can't find the ball because of memory loss. 

 

The club has initiated a survey to investigates how much unproductive time is spent looking for balls. This has a major impact on the economy and already the club has noted that  "This seems to have a strong relationship to cultural identity". Apparently golfers from a certain northern european country (closely related to Mel Gibson) would spend several hours looking for a lost ball until daylight fades, whereas others lose interest in looking (or forgot what they were doing) after a few minutes.

 

"The mental health impacts are significant" according to the club health professional, and very high stress levels have been recorded among golfers who have lost balls at critical times in their rounds.

 

Other root causes of lost balls are difficult to quantify. Local Rugby League celebrity and anonymous honorary Rotarian noted is known for his large collection of drivers. "I blame the golf clubs he responded in the club survey"  However so far there has been no noticeable drop off in his lost balls.

 

The club has confirmed that "All of these issues will be investigated and a full report will be sent to the Australian Productivity commission."

 

A spokesman for the R&A golf club noted that this was the first time that a comprehensive investigation into this significant productivity issue was being carried out and was long overdue.

 

 

The club has put a lost golf ball survey on its web page and is offering a gift worth $25 to every golfer who completes the survey. You can reach the survey by clicking HERE

The scene of many community events, and fundraising from our very own Charmaine - Th eBli Bli Castle - is moving...stay tuned for more details...and if you haven't seen the movie...well what are you waiting for? .....its a classic. 

 

 

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.

 

 

 
“Imagine Rotary”   the theme for 2022-2023 explained by incoming President Jennifer Jones.