Fellow Rotarians, you will all be aware that we have had a very busy few weeks, most of you more than me, because I've been away for 3 of them! The extra activity commenced with a combined meeting with the Matilda Bay Rotary Club to hear John Poynton AO, Board Member of the Future Fund Board of Guardians, speaking mainly about the Future Fund, Australia’s sovereign wealth fund. RC Matilda Bay President Michael Mitchell told me that PE Byron spoke eloquently and enthusiastically on behalf of our Club- thanks Byron.
Then last week our premier Fundraiser, the High Tea for Humanity, with the theme "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". What a fantastic event, with the theme brilliantly conceived by Jane, and implemented by Jane and her Fundraising Committee of Laurie G, Laurie D, Judy, Peter, Geoff & David. The outcome was a lot of happy people with their bags of reused goodies (including my 2 daughters who loved it) and in excess of $13,000 raised for our charitable causes! Beneficiaries are Greenbatch, Balga Girl’s Academy, Shelterbox & Cambodia Family Support (water and sanitation). Thanks to all, especially Jane, and all members who helped out, and attended with guests.
And this weekend, we have just returned from the Club activity with the Rotary Club of Como visiting the UWA Future Farm 2050, "Ridgefield" in West Pingelly. Prof. Graham Martin of the UWA Faculty of Agriculture gave us a fantastic rundown on the research into how we are going to feed the world in 2050, at estimated peak human of 12,000,000,000, and still have an environment! Thanks Vicky for organising all that with RC Como, including the bus.
I think no better demonstration of how RCWE is delivering on the RI theme "Aquaintance as the Opportunity for Service"(apologies for the shorthand in the heading)!
And then Monday the Rotary Means Business lunch at which the ideals of Rotary were exemplified by Rotarian Stan Perron. Stan's Perron Group is the largest private shopping centre owner in Australia. We learned how Stan did it from nothing the "PerronWay", which Stan acknowledged pretty closely followed the Rotary Four Way Test, that he first began to follow in 1959 as a Foundation member of the Rotary Club of Belmont, of which he is still an active member. Pretty inspiring for Rotary!
And we are about to present a Certificate to the recipient of the Jack Bercov Memorial Prize- more on that separately. It will be nice to be back at our regular venue for breakfast. As I said, we've been busy!