Many people ask me “What was the highlight of your year”?There have been many highlights and personal achievements but for both Maureen and I working with Rotarians and Rotary Clubs and witnessing the quality of projects and their impact on the community has been the most rewarding.
Here is a snapshot of our year.
A review of the 2021/22 Rotary year cannot ignore the impact of COVID. Having said that over the last twelve months, and despite COVID, so much has been achieved by Rotarians in the 64 clubs in District 9800.
At District level highlights include the development of a scalable Rotary International student mentoring platform. I was humbled to receive an award from Zondwa Mandela on behalf of the Mandela Foundation at the launch of Mentor Match and I look forward to continuing to support and grow this initiative. Rotary Central Melbourne, supported by District 9800 and Mentor Match were successful against 65 other applications for a Victorian Government Grant of $185,000 to develop a scalable mentoring platform (Rotarians, friends of Rotary and corporates as mentors and international students as mentees).
Developing corporate strategic support from firms such as KPMG on high impact District 9800 projects. District team support in connecting Rotary Clubs/Rotarians, during and after COVID restrictions, which included Zoom Morning Teas, numerous online and physical workshops, a learning and development platform, a number of new interact clubs and development of new Interact Council connecting all District Interact Clubs and providing strategic and advisory support to many clubs and individual Rotarians across the District.
After many on again off again Covid restrictions and lockdowns our District Conference team (The A Team) was able to organise (in 3.5 months) and run a very successful “Let’s Get Together in Albury" District Conference which was well attended and well received. The feedback has been terrific and participants were thrilled to get together, face to face, after such a tumultuous time. I’m pleased to report we applied for a $30,000 NSW Government grant and received confirmation we were successful just minutes before our opening conference cocktail party. Part of the funds will go towards a collaborative community project with Albury Rotary clubs.In relation to Rotary Clubs, there are so many good stories in Rotary District 9800 highlighting the collaboration between Rotarians, Clubs and the community. I can only touch the surface of the impactful Rotary Club projects across the District with a limited number of examples below;
1. WAREHOUSE SERVICE PROJECTS:
WERN (Western Emergency Relief Network) Collaboration between 13 Rotary Clubs working with 7 Local Government Areas and working with 100 plus Agencies to provide emergency relief and assistance to people in need.
RIMERN ( Rotary Inner Melbourne Emergency Relief Network ) building on the WERN model, 15 Rotary clubs including two from another District working with many communities and agencies to help people in need.
DIK (Donations in Kind) West Footscray is a volunteer-based recycling facility. At the end of last year, DIK had shipped 648 containers of equipment and supplies containing goods worth $78.3 million to 33 countries. A wonderful example of Rotary clubs across District 9800 and beyond providing much needed assistance to many communities around the world.
2. PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITIONS:
Another focus within our District has been Rotary Clubs working with schools and students (and other Rotary Clubs) all over Melbourne to host public speaking competitions.
- Ainger Peck Public Speaking Program hosted by Rotary Club of Richmond, now in its 32nd year.
- Four Way Test Rotary Balwyn Public Speaking Competition is based on similar competitions that have been run by a number of Clubs over many years. The objectives are to provide a competitive outlet for secondary students attending schools within the City of Boroondara to hone their public speaking skills and promote the Rotary Four Way Test to secondary students as a moral compass—a positive way of living their lives
- Wynspeak. A youth public speaking competition for secondary school students in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne in its 19th year a joint project of Rotary Club of Hoopers Crossing ( and now Rotary Club of Altona City, Caroline Springs and Melton and Apex Hoppers Crossing).
- Bayspeak is a youth public speaking competition based on the Wynspeak template developed by the District Vocational Services team led, in recent years by Mary Barry and Warwick Cavell.
3. EASTSIDE /BAYSIDE PROJECTS:
Rotary Balwyn’s Camberwell Market project. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Rotary in Australia in 2021, Rotary Balwyn is donating approximately $1,000,000 over 5-7 years from the Camberwell Sunday Market (which has operated since 1976) to assist other Rotary Clubs in Australia in their humanitarian endeavours.
A vast number of community groups benefit from the proceeds of the market. A number of other Rotary clubs in the Boroondara Local Government area provide volunteers at the market and their share of the proceeds also go to supporting their community: a wonderfully collaborative community project having an enormous impact.
Canterbury Rotary's signature project FORaMEAL, which involves packing emergency food in Australia and overseas was created by club member, Doug Hawley, and supported by many Rotarians and Rotary Clubs. Each pack contains lentils, oats, rice and a specially designed vitamin sachet providing increased nutrition to the meal. The pack feeds 5-6 people.
This year during COVID, the Rotary Club of Canterbury decided to redirect part of their FORaMEAL effort to help the most vulnerable during Stage 4 COVID-19 restrictions in Melbourne. Hundreds of thousands of meals were delivered through the FORaMEAL COVID response. During this period 27 community groups and students from over 30 schools participated in assisting the COVID-FORaMEAL rollout.
Small Comfort for Community Packs. Eight Rotary Clubs including RC Brighton North have arranged to put together care packs for patients in the Mental Health Unit of 3 hospitals: approximately 2,000 packs per year. Now Rotary Wyndham is proposing using the same template at Mercy Hospital in Werribee.
4. REGIONAL INITIATIVES:
Rotary Rochester. Monthly Community breakfast. Recently also commenced by Rotary Club of Eaglehawk placing Rotary at centre of the community.
Rotary Woodend. The New Woodend Star Community newspaper is a wonderful example of a Rotary Club creating a high-end high profile public image publication placing Rotary Woodend at the centre of the community.
Goldfield Rotary Clubs (around Bendigo, Castlemaine, Rochester and Echuca Moama) increasingly focusing on all clubs in the cluster by working together on joint community projects.
Macedon Ranges Rotary Clubs also increasingly working with cluster community projects.
Bacchus Marsh is not only involved in so many grassroots impactful community projects in Bacchus Marsh but are also another member of WERN.
5. NORTH MELBOURNE:
Rotary North Melbourne in early May hosted a Ukraine Concert with 800 people from a wide cross-section of the community attending, including the Ukrainian Ambassador. Ukrainian dancers and choirs proudly represented their home country and raised $35,000 directed towards Rotary’s Charity –the Rotary Foundation’s Ukraine Disaster Relief Fund for distribution via the 62 Rotary Clubs in Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe to those gravely affected by the war in Ukraine.
I was privileged to be asked to be a keynote speaker at the event: a wonderful projects driven by club member Ted Dziadkiewicz.
Additionally, the club recently hosted MUNA (Model United Nations Assembly) with 22 Rotary Clubs sponsoring students from 22 schools to debate and represent countries of the UN. This is a fantastic Rotary youth program and a fantastic way to raise the profile of Rotary within participating schools in Melbourne: again another wonderful performance by club member Neville Page and Rotary Club of North Melbourne members.
6. MENTORING:
The Rotary Club of Central Melbourne has been the driver of a number of mentoring initiatives including mentoring senior executives in Victoria Police, Ambulance, SES, and recently,international students. Rotarians and friends of Rotary are the mentors for the International students.
Rotary Club of Central Melbourne member Warwick Cavell has been leading the new mentoring programme supported by District.
Known as The MentorMatch International Student Mentoring Program, it is an exciting new collaboration between business and Rotary to deliver an innovative mentoring program to international students across all of Victoria. The second Mentoring Pilot of Rotarian mentors in Victoria and 15 Rotarian mentors in Vancouver Canada is nearing completion. At the end of the PILOT, Deakin University will review the results, consult with mentees and mentors, amend the program where needed and then scale up the program. Unlike Rotary Victoria Police, Ambulance and SES mentoring to senior executives, the Mentor Match program is social mentoring with Rotarians using both their skills and social connections to work with international students.
7. ROTARY GIVE EVERY CHILD A FUTURE
This project is a Rotary Centenary project, with the Centenary Clubs of Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland and Wellington working with UNICEF (now supported by Rotary Clubs across Australia and New Zealand) to immunize 100,000 children under the age of five in nine Pacific Island countries – in parts of the Pacific, nearly one in sixteen children die before their fifth birthday. The Rotary100 initiative was created to stop this! Across these Pacific Island countries, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, Rotary will help introduce three life-saving vaccinations to prevent diseases including cervical cancer, severe diarrhoea, pneumonia, blood infections (sepsis) and meningitis.
Nearly 85% of the USD3.9 million has been raised, a wonderful collaboration between Rotary Clubs (a key driver being Rotary Melbourne), UNICEF, The Rotary Foundation, the Federal Government, Philanthropic groups and the governments of the nine Pacific Island countries.
8. ROTARY CLUBS IN THE CITY OF BOROONDARA - ROTARY 100 PROJECT
Rotary Glenferrie led a consortium of Rotary clubs in the City of Boroondara comprising of Camberwell, Canterbury, Glenferrie and Hawthorn to build a special interactive playground feature at Yarra Bank Reserve in Hawthorn as part of commemorations of Rotary's 100 years Down Under. The playground is close to the site of the of the original ferry which crossed the Yarra at this point, connecting Richmond with the Parish of Boroondara. The site has considerable significance for the local indigenous people. The consortium partnered with The City of Boroondara in the construction of a new all-abilities playground at the site. Rotary contributed a unique interactive play sculpture that captures the spirit of place and celebrates 100 years of service in partnership with the local community. Planning commenced in late 2019 with construction completed in late 2021, well in time for the Rotary 100 Down Under celebrations.
CONCLUSION
Anyone attending the April District Conference at Albury would have viewed the enormous number of service projects being undertaken across District 9800, highlighting the strong collaboration and partnering between Rotary Clubs and Community Groups.
Over the last 12 months, the 64 Clubs of Rotary District 9800 have achieved much and had a huge impact on the lives of many people. I am pleased to have worked with so many special, big-hearted people who passionately share the one agenda “helping their communities”.
Thank you to the Board, the District Leadership team and the Assistant Governors and their enormous contribution to the work being done by all clubs across the District.
It has been a privilege to get to know so many Rotarians and see the achievements and impact of Rotary Clubs across our Community, and it has been an honour for Maureen and me to be invited to clubs around the District and to be so warmly welcomed. You’ve made us feel not only part of your clubs but also part of your communities, many of you have even invited us to your homes and we’ve made so many new friendships.
“Service above self” is outstandingly evident in District 9800 now let’s “Imagine“ the future of Rotary. Best wishes for the District Leadership Team for 2022/23 lead by District Governor Amanda Wendt.
Thank you and goodbye for now.
Dale
Dale Hoy
District Governor 2021-22
+61(0) 419 364 994
