The passing of Lawrence Atley OAM was a sad milestone for the Rotary Club of Footscray. Lawrence was a dedicated and passionate Rotarian who enjoyed and valued his time in Rotary and the friends he made there.
Basil's story is a story by numbers: two continents, four Rotary Clubs, 50 Years of Rotary Service - are all an integral part of the Basil Ornellas story
Rotary’s number one priority remains the worldwide eradication of polio. 
Organisers were pleased with the turnout for the End Polio Now Walk following the November Zone 8 Conference in Canberra. 87 registered walkers, including RI President Elect, Gordon McInally (holding the baton) and RI Director, Jessie Harman, enjoyed the walk in the pleasant surrounds of Lake Burley Griffin. To date, $55,000 has been raised, but further donations would be very welcome.
In October, under the direction of PDG Ross Butterworth, volunteers rolled up their sleeves for some Hands-on Volunteering with the DG at Western Emergency Relief Network (WERN).
This month's featured speakers are:
Prof. Janet McCalman, AC, a teacher and researcher in interdisciplinary history at the University of Melbourne
Richard Harrison, Australian author, speaker and cricket umpire.
If you have an interesting speaker at your club that you would recommend to other clubs, please contact Speaker Bank Chair, Jill Weeks (Hawthorn) via the Speakers Bank page: https://rotarydistrict9800.org.au/sitepage/speaker-bank (Available only to members logged on to the District website)
The two-day Global Congress Against Malaria brings respected malaria experts, governments, NGO's, corporates, Rotarians and non-Rotarians together in Melbourne, Australia, to share, educate and discuss how to Finish the Fight Against Malaria.
For the earlybird rate, available to 23rd February 2023: https://www.globalmalariacongress2023.org/registration
Bees and other pollinators are essential to maintain production of our food crops and are responsible for one in every three mouthfuls of food we eat! Over recent years there has been an alarming reduction in pollinator populations worldwide. Thanks to this enthusiastic group of bee champions, many more Rotary clubs and communities are actively engaged in fighting the decline of pollinator populations worldwide.
Now in its fourth year, Rotarians for Bees, a project of the Rotary Club of Canterbury, Victoria, is expanding into New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory as a project of the Rotary Club of Castle Hill, NSW.
The Water for Education Project, providing four schools in Siem Reap with water filtration systems, has successfully installed a water filtration system providing one school with delicious clean, clear water. The water is available to both students and the wider community. Rotarians and friends from Australia, Cambodia and Singapore joined together to celebrate this project in action.
The Hush Foundation's Gathering of Kindness for 2022 is a 'gathering with a difference' - for healthcare workers, patients, carers and supporters.
REGISTRATIONS NOW OPEN!
The 17th International Tennis Fellowship of Rotarians (ITFR) World Championship will take place in Melbourne Park “The Home of Tennis”, over 4 days from 23-26 May 2023, in the lead up to the RI Convention.
Don’t be put off by the “World Championships” tag, it’s an event for tennis players of all ages and abilities.
The full results of the Zone 8 Regionalisation Pilot vote were shared on Wednesday: 90% of Zone 8 clubs voted Yes. Within District 9800, the proposal secured overwhelming support with 98.44% of clubs voting Yes. I’m very pleased to note that every club voted.
The willingness of our members to embrace our evolving circumstances by trying new approaches is incredibly heartening, and inspires me with confidence for the future of our projects, clubs and movement. No doubt, this was envisaged by Paul Harris when he proclaimed, “This is a changing world, we must be prepared to change with it. The story of Rotary will have to be written again and again.” If ever we needed licence to have a red hot go at new approaches, this is it.
As Rotarians, we know that when we engage people in meaningful, convenient and fun hands-on volunteering, we demonstrate that Rotarians are indeed “People of Action”. In mid-September, this message found an even wider audience when Rotary Inner Melbourne Emergency Relief Network (RIMERN) volunteer, Ros McMaster was announced as the Westfield Local Hero for the Airport West Shopping Centre, winning $20,000 for RIMERN towards the cost of its first van!
Terrific evening with Westside cluster clubs of Rotary Club of Bacchus Marsh, Rotary Caroline Springs, Rotary Eynesbury, Rotary Club of Melton and Rotary Club of Melton Valley, talking Growth Action Plan (growmyclub.org), club projects and packing 100 soup kits for the local foodbank.
On 27th September FORaMEAL food packs to make 100,000 nutritious meals were transported to Rotary’s Donations in Kind warehouse. The packs will be collected by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and sent via Poland to the people of Ukraine. The shipment will also include 6 pallets of medical and surgical supplies supplied and packed by the Ukrainian Association of Melbourne and DIK, and, as a special request, underpants, that were sourced from all over Melbourne.
Volunteering runs through the veins of our Rotarians, and in September, Volunteering with the DG involved two shifts of volunteers helping the Afghan Community to sort, pack, and box household items donated from all over Melbourne.
From October 1st to 31st Rotarians and friends are being encouraged, once again, to take action to raise awareness, funds, and support to end poliomyelitis, a vaccine-preventable disease that still threatens the children of the world today.
Thanks to the efforts of Rotarians and volunteers from GlaxoSmithKline, the area at the rear of Kew Rotary Club's Fair Trade shop at 650 High St East Kew was transformed from a rather overgrown space into a potential haven for bees following an onsite working “bee”.
Do you believe that you can make a difference in the campaign to control the spread of malaria? The position of District 9800 RAM Supervisor has been vacant for some time and RAM Southern Region is keen to hear from an interested party to assume this position on behalf of District 9800.
The GardenDesignFest is the biggest open garden weekend event in Victoria. Keep 12 -13 and 19-20 November 2022 free. The popular bi-annual event is on again in 2022 following its cancellation during COVID. It is now more important than ever to get out and enjoy nature in a beautiful garden setting.
October is Mental Health month and World Mental Health Day, October 10th, is approaching fast.The District 9800 Speakers Bank assists clubs to source interesting and diverse speakers to enhance their weekly meeting program. There are many interesting and varied speakers on the list.
Welcome to the end of month two – so much to celebrate already!
Hands on volunteering projects already connecting with new volunteers from across our community, celebrating Rotary’s vocational advantage with six awards for outstanding mentorship, two fun and rewarding DG official cluster visits, so many clubs adding new members, record amounts of members engaging with our new capability platform growmyclub.org, and International Convention gracing *our* town in May.
Truly, our members are people of action. Read on for the good oil.
Members of Rotary Passport Melbourne and other Rotary District 9800 Rotarians were in attendance on the 7th August 2022 when Rotary District 3350 Governor Iida Mitsutaka inducted 54(!!) Rotaractors into the newly-chartered Rotaract Club of Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Oodles of our clubs and their members got behind National Tree-planting Day on Sunday 31 July to plant over 11,000 trees, but what was so surprising was how many volunteers from across our community also participated in this meaningful, hands on, convenient project. DG Amanda explores what the 3-in-10 Australian adults who already volunteer are seeking in community projects, in this video produced by Alex Lapiña and DGN Michael Lapiña.
In the middle of a long Melbourne winter, Rotarians and friends of Essendon Rotary, in conjunction with The Living Room – Youth Projects were able to provide some warmth and comfort to the homeless in the city. With the assistance of a Rotary Foundation Grant sleeping bags were distributed to 130 rough sleepers.
On Saturday 13 August we held our second Volunteering with the DG event - what a fabulous day of volunteering and togetherness it was! 
Rotary Central Melbourne (RCM) member Mawien Ariik (known as Ariik) was born in 1989 in the village of Lou Ariik, South Sudan. At the age of eight, he learned that his father (Ariik Dut) had died in the South Sudan war along with millions of others while fighting for the freedom of his people. This tragic loss became Ariik’s motivation to continue the legacy of freedom that his father fought for, and to ensure those efforts were not in vain.
Fun official DG visit with Heritage Cluster clubs Rotary Club of Carlton, Rotary Club of Collingwood Australia, Fitzroy and Rotary Club of Richmond Inc. Over 60 members, partners and corporate sponsors came together to help grow their clubs to make an even bigger difference for their community.
After being contacted by Linda Widdup from Aussie Hay Runners seeking assistance to obtain a fuel subsidy from the NSW Government Rural Assistance for a Hay Run to support the farmers in Grafton affected by the devastating floods, Rotary Melton’s then President Dickson Heaney Dickson spent hours completing an application and was rewarded with $392,250.00 to assist with transport of the convoy just one way. Filling up with diesel at Temora on the return journey to Victoria cost us $1,940 just to top up and about $5,000 for the return trip.
Heritage Cluster Clubs, Carlton, Fitzroy, Collingwood and Richmond liaised with secondary schools in their area to select 20 students to attend the Nelson Mandela Youth Leadership Summit. The Summit provided a positive environment to empower the youth present to believe that change was possible. This was borne out in the comments of Princes Hill Secondary College students: “Great opportunity to meet like-minded people to discuss some generational type plans and share hope and optimism.” (Thomas, Year 10). “So many different speakers leading the way on leadership, hope and optimism. Thanks so much. Awesome.” (Celeste, Year 8)
At an age when most singers have well and truly retired, Merlyn Quaife lived up to her aim of being a “fearless soprano” by celebrating a significant birthday with a demanding but astutely constructed program of art song reflecting her career-long advocacy of Australian music. Her fearlessness was demonstrated from the outset in Johanna Selleck’s The Prospect and Bower of Bliss, settings of texts by the Restoration poet and proto-feminist Aphra Behn, where she unwaveringly traversed the highly strung, sinuously chromatic vocal lines, while not losing sight of the score’s celebration of “sweet and ravishing” things.
Rather than waste time, energy, and funding to develop own separate International projects, the Rotary Clubs of Keilor and Keilor East chose to become partners in an existing International Project. The two adjoining clubs became partners in RAWCS Project No 114-2005-06 Tonga Dental Health Project, which also utilizes the quality material available from our Donations In Kind Store. This is an excellent option for many Clubs as it allows them to be involved at a level that suits the Club.
Students need to know how to present themselves to secure a job interview, and have the skills to land that job once an interview is granted. Rotary Club of Richmond decided to invest in helping to prepare young people for a successful life. In collaboration with Melbourne Girls’ College, the club adopted the successful Mock Job Interview project, which has been going for around 20 years.
The Rotary SAFE Families website now has Guides translated in 6 languages. The Guides were created for YOU and YOUR Club to download, print and give to your neighbourhood migrant/refugee communities who may not be fluent in the English language.
The Rotary world mourns the passing of Judith Durham AO and Paul Harris Fellow. Judith was a great Australian, generous with her time in caring for others and a friend of Rotary.
What a blast the last 6 weeks have been celebrating and welcoming in the new Rotary year. Helmed by District Changeover on Saturday 25 June which saw over 200 Rotarians and friends come together to imagine what's possible in 2022-2023.
Imagine the opportunities to grow your club by connecting with more volunteers from across our community through a meaningful, hands-on and convenient project.
I’m often asked the question: “Why Rotary?” I am of a generation that tends to support causes, not join clubs. I have a full-time job and a busy household with a husband, two young kids, and a dog who believes twice-daily walks are the only cause worth considering.
Also I am passionate about my “me time” for reading, exercise, or quiet contemplation. So… why make time for Rotary?
