ABC program inspires club project, Local Turtle sling invention Steve's design approved by Council (Feb 07, 2022)

Steve gives SalTy Souls Update

SalTy Souls receives approval for Steve's design from Council for new home

A huge amount of work by Liam Pinese (ADAPT town planning) and our very own Steve Newton came to fruition last Thursday when we finally received Development Application approval from Sunshine Coast Council to have the new SalTy Souls Legacy home placed at the Thrive Centre in Maroochydore. Steve's amazing design has captured the approval of Tamara and Kerry Smith and the team can now look forward to building a home that does the legacy of Ty Kennedy proud.

Steve took the club through the personal stories behind SalTy Souls and the dedication of the SalTy Souls family to make a difference to disengaged kids on the coast through their "Stand Tall" programs and personal coaching methods that have had amazing results.

Later Steve and John went to the Thrive centre where we spoke to the team and Brendon Jenkins from Core fitness who also does some amazing work in this youth space and will be moving into the Thrive centre. It all has the makings of a great project that Alex Rotary is so pleased to be part of.

Also in late news the Rotary District Grants association have heard about this and have put up $6,000 towards the project that do so much for the disadvantaged kids that go through the stand tall programs. Members will recall that Sienna High School also got behind Salty Souls with proceeds from their high school ball donated to the program, and of course we've had great support from Sunshine Coast Council, ADAPT (pro bono work), Alex SLSC and Pratt Properties have generously given Salty Souls the land to put their new HQ on.

In even later news, you may have seen on Channel 7 news that the Thrive centre is being used on weekends for the Maroochydore "Homeless Bus" project. Great work.

A garden for young and old

Intergenerational Garden anyone?

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.

Turtle Care - and a locally designed rescue stretcher

Turtle Care comes to visit

On Friday we had special visitor from Caloundra Pacific with a real passion for the environment, and especially turtles. Matthew Lynn was goest speaker who took us through the fascinating world of turtles. I think most of us were aware of the terrible damage that plastics do to turtle in terms of plastic bags and the like, but the impact of micro plastics on young turtles were heartbreaking.

Matt at the team at Turtle Care are doing a great job in supporting the turtle population on the coast (green and hawksbill) and are to be congratulated for their fantastic work which often involves moving turtles from one location to another. After developing some prototypes, they have developed a "Turtle Sling" that will enable 4 people to move a turtle to safety. See the model below.

Club receives grant for new presentation system

Club receives Grant for presentation system to deliver "WorkLife" program

Things have been busy on the donation and grant aspects of our community programs, details to follow. One welcome grant was $3,500 from Federal grants for stronger communities fund. The club was awarded this for an audio visual system to deliver club programs including the worklife program to audiences around the community.

In the meantime we have been fortunate to secure help from the past Maroochydore club sound system and from the Buderim Choral society. So our BIG thanks to them while we source a new system for the club.

Here's a pic, note Michelle displaying the Buderim system, while our mate Steve tries (unsuccessfully) to duck below the Maroochydore speaker!

..and here is Tony's pun for the day as he sees the team bring in the speakers...."Mike, Craig and John make a "sound" start to the day. Oh dear.

Mike's Rotary Minute

The clubs Rotary Minute

Alex rotary takes a minute every week to talk about Rotary. Sometimes a member will talk about a large project like the global work that Rotary has done to eliminate Polio, or sometimes the history of Rotary or sometimes special projects in education, community health or some of the thousands of activities that the million Rotarians around the world do in their communities.

Last week Craig took us on a bit of a tour around various community and health (physical and mental) initiatives that Rotary does to "make a difference" everywhere. (We're in more countries than MacDonalds). The week before Mike gave us some food for thought that he has summarised here.

Mike's minute...

Rotary Minute: - Serve To Change Lives

Fellow Rotarians, our World President’s theme for this year is

“Serve To Change Lives.” I would like you all to take a minute to consider what this means. Most of us joined Rotary to serve the community, both locally and internationally. However, have you ever considered the opportunities that your club offers you to learn new skills. Skills such as Project Management, Leadership, Proper Business Procedure, Becoming a better communicator. Let me give you an example.

How many here have volunteered to be a treasurer? (two hands went up) Isn’t the opportunity to become a better money manager a skill that we could all benefit from?

Ask yourselves, am I getting the full value from what my Rotary club can offer. As a better communicator, leader, project manager, etc would I not be an even greater aid to the community. Would not the skills on offer not increase my usefulness to my family, career, community, and the world at large?

I ask you to take the opportunities your Rotary club offers you and take a minute to consider “Serve to Change Lives” by changing your life through your service in Rotary.

February is Peacebuilding month

Club donation to Global Sight Solutions

Rotary New Theme Explained

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

The theme graphic was designed by an Australian indigenous artist to link with the Melbourne convention in 2023.

Circle - connections to one another
Dots around it - Our People
There are 7 Dots because of our Rotary’s 7 areas of focus
Circle + dots around it - Navigation star, our guiding light
Green solid line - digging stick (used when doing hard work);
for us it’s People of Action, represents the tools for getting things done
Colors: Purple, Green & White -
Celebrate DEI- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Freedom to express ourselves differently but still with a special connection.
Purple- Polio
Green- the Environment
White - Peace
Represents Empowerment and Newness and also the colours were utilised for the women's movement giving us the opportunity to grow our female membership.

Look - no helmet?..but no wrinkles!

Skydiving for seniors

A certain Sunshine Coast Senior Citizen of the year decided to go go skydiving on his birthday.

Suspiciously his family were only to pleased to help Dave show himself to of an aeroplane, and stumped up for experience.

Here's a pic of the young fella at 15,000 feet, and you may notice that he has carried out a full risk assessment and decided that a helmet is NOT required.

A source who witnessed the landing said Dave touched down like a "baby giraffe on an ice rink". Nice one DW.

Charmaine's story

Thank you so much for such an amazing presentation this morning and how fortunate that I was visiting Alex today as I belong to an E-Club which means that we meet online and not in person as we do here at the happy and hardworking Alex Rotary Club !

I checked out your very interesting website and noted your passion for your foundation and I would just like to explain very shortly how valuable my membership and partnership is with Rotary -

I have been gifted the following over the last few years for my Rotary Project in Africa -

50 refurbished and recycled computers from the Rotary Club of Nundah
25 refurbished laptops
medical supplies from the "Donations in Kind" warehouse in Brisbane
school desks
600 "Days for Girls Washable Sanitary Packs" from the Rotary Club of Rockhampton
Books and educational equipment
very high quality clothing for the AIDS Orphanage in South Africa (where my own passion lies)
Bedding and blankets
Over 600 village wheelchairs from the Rotary Club of Surfers Paradise
$12 000 sea freight charges to cover costs of transporting the containers from Brisbane to Johannesburg
two x 40 foot containers (now used as a classroom and business centre) in Africa
200 Hippo Rollers from a Canadian Rotary Club to transport and store water to remote areas - this is the link to our project in a small little African country called Lesotho :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GylYQZ8059s

Please be mindful that we are here to help and the future is in great hands when we meet young and passionate persons like yourself and we thank you for your service !

Have a safe and happy Christmas and please let us know how we can help.

Click on image to go to the links