NEW president Kerilee Dawson presents her predecessor with a certificate of service, badge, and the banner which had hug from the lectern during her year in office.
THE Rotary Club of Palm Beach has weathered the impact of Covid-19, building our fellowship, welcoming three new members, creating a very deserving Honorary Member, Brian Stanley in recognition of his four decades of service to Rotary, and seizing every opportunity to work together as a club and as a member of Rotary District 9465, Zone Five, to serve and make our world a better place. While we saw some of our cherished events canceled (Rockingham Beach Cup 2020 and the Anzac gunfire breakfast 2021) and rescheduled (often more than once), our hard-working board members were also pro-active in rethinking our calendar of events, creating new projects, and bringing others to fruition for the 2020/21 Rotary year.
We are fortunate to have a permanent base at the Clipper Hotel – we were one of the first clubs to farewell Zooming and return to face-to-face club meetings.
Over this last year, our meetings have welcomed many excellent guest speakers (thanks to past member Sally Wynn and PE Kerilee), enjoyed the company of visiting Rotarians from both Baldivis and Rockingham, and shared in excellent fellowship events.
We also achieved our goal of working with Rockingham, Baldivis, and Kwinana Clubs – successfully sharing projects and social events – a great benefit to all Rotary clubs in this area.
We also worked together to update our strategic plan, develop a new club shirt and focus on membership, both retention, and attraction. Thank you to Kerilee and John for your work in these areas.
The rebirth of the very successful combined service clubs meeting at the Salvation Army was a highlight in August 2020 and the baton has been handed to the Rotary Club of Baldivis for 2021/2022. We look forwards to being back at Peel Manor House on August 23 with the 10 other service clubs in our area. Thank you to both the vocational and community arts and innovation committees for bringing this dream back to life.
Over the last two Rotary years, past president and Paul Harris Fellow Laurie Smith has coordinated a labour of love to raise funds to build a 1.5-ton replica World War II gun to be installed at Point Peron. The project was the brainchild of Phil Edman, the Point Peron Restoration Committee’s president. Construction was completed and the massive gun installed this year.
This $27,000 project was a successful partnership involving the Point Peron Restoration Committee, our community, arts and innovation committee, Adrian Watt of Sheet Metal Fabricators at Spearwood, TAFE workplace learning students, and the Department of Parks and Wildlife! What a great legacy for our city.
Unfortunately, Covid-19 Large Event Guidelines forced the difficult decision, in August 2020, to postpone the Rockingham Beach Cup.
On the club’s behalf, the RBC Committee secured City of Rockingham iconic event funding of $175,000 for 2020 and we now have Channel 7 Sponsorship for 2021.
The RBC 2019 was acknowledged in the finals of the Rockingham/Kwinana Chamber of Commerce Business Awards.
We now await the 2021 City and Lotterywest new funding approvals — and COVID permitting, we will stage our fourth iconic Rockingham Beach Cup.
We maintained a flow of funds into the charity account with Bunning’s sausage sizzles (thank you Kelvin) and two BMX parking supervision days (at the Rotary Club of Baldivis’ request).
For the first time, we worked with the Bendigo Bank, raising $2500 by selling 50 raffle books – well done to International Director Des. We were the sellers of both the first and third prize-winning tickets and our very own Patchara Weggers took home the $15,000 first prize!
Most importantly, these funds allowed us to maintain our traditional support of the youth in local schools (Rockingham Senior High School scholarships, Comet Bay College’s Defence Families Dinner Student Award) and — much to the pleasure of youth director Shaun Dwyer — sending students to the RYDE (Regional Youth Driver Education Program), RYPEN (Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment) and National Science Youth Forum.
We supported community initiatives including Rotary Health Indigenous Scholarship, Handicamp, and Polio Plus.
In addition, we will remember Laura Firth’s moving request to support the Braveheart Foundation through her 777 commitment by participating in seven marathons over seven days in seven states.
While our Timor Leste international projects were put on hold, we supported the Mukti Foundation.
The event highlight of this year was the 2021 Rotary Beachside Festival, led by the two Kevins! A perfect sunny Sunday on March 14 saw chairman Kevin Fahie and our dedicated vice-president Kev McDonnell brings together a hugely successful event and cement a new partnership with Rocky Secret Runners! Job well done!
The Joint District Conference at Optus Stadium was supported by six members and was a resounding success, bringing more than 500 delegates together to address homelessness and mental health. John Simmons, Rae Heston, and I are on the 2022 conference committee.
A highlight of our conference participation was assistant governor Rick Dawson’s video submission of the club’s excellent work in creating nesting boxes for penguins and hollows for the black cockatoos. Well done to AG Rick Dawson for his creative film-making.
The penguin nesting box project, with construction guided by our very skilled Neil Wall, sprung back into action – 25 new boxes and shade structures are now on the island. Club members and guests visited Penguin Island on March 23, 2021, to check out the success of this wonderful breeding initiative.
The club continues to maintain a strong social media presence through our Rotary Club of Palm Beach, Rotary Beachside Festival, and Rockingham Beach Cup Facebook and Webpages – thank you, Lindsay.
Our dedicated vocational director Rae Heston has achieved excellent results with articles in the local paper and her outstanding weekly bulletins.
I acknowledge all of our outgoing board members for their outstanding leadership and work this past year. Thank you to vice-president Kev, President-Elect Kerilee, secretary John, treasurer Doug, and directors Rae, Shaun, Des, and Laurie. Your wisdom and experience have carried us through a challenging year.
I close with an acknowledgment of the families of all Rotarians and in particular my very patient daughter and son-in-law Cassie and Jason. While we Rotarians choose to be a part of this organisation, it is only possible with the support of those around us that we can give the time and effort that some of our ambitious projects require.
Thank you to all and I am honored to have had the opportunity to serve as president in 2020-21.