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DG MAY Newsletter

Posted by John Glassford

G'day,

Well April came and went so fast. May is well under way and we look forward to the D9700 Learning and Training Assembly on Sunday May 26th at 9.30am. Venue the Grenfell High School. Please make sure that ALL your Directors attend this important part of our calendar. DGE John McKenzie looks forward to meeting you all in Grenfell. John will outline his plans for his team and you for 2019-2020.

Membership is slipping for 2018-2019, we will be below 1,000 on July 1st unless we look at a serious push to increase our numbers. We all know that if we do not find more members to join us how much less that we can do for our communities and our Foundation.

We still have 6-7 weeks to go so let us finish the year in a good state for our continued growth in 2019-2020. Changeover dinners are well under way and the majority of our clubs are set for their dinner or luncheon.

The past month has been a busy one for most of us on committees, especially the Transition Management Team for our merger and the combined Drought Relief Committee of D9700 and D9705. Reports follow in this newsletter.

The newsletter is HERE.

Continue to Be Inspired and To Inspire those around you.

DG John Glassford

Was Trachoma Introduced to Australia?

Posted by Michael Milston on Apr 27, 2019

Some Rotarians asked this question

... read the response on the End Trachoma site

DGJG MARCH/APRIL NEWSLETTER

Posted by John Glassford on Apr 14, 2019

G ' day

My sincere apologies for missing last month’s DG news. I do have a good alibi though called the Griffith 2019 Conference. A full report in pictorial form can be found by clicking on the link in our club runner D9700 web site. I have also included some comments from a few of the delegates to Griffith 2019. 322 delegates came to Griffith which is 80 more than the average of the past three conferences. That is a 34% increase in attendance which we hope will help with the next D9700 conference, our last one as D9700, in Temora with DG John McKenzie and his team.

MARCH/APRIL DGJG NEWSLETTER

We still have two and a half months left for 2018-2019 to be The Inspiration!!!! We have lost 12 members from July 1^st 2018, to the present time. Let us get active and inspire others to join this fabulous organisation we call Rotary. It will not be long before we are less than 1,000 members (1,008 at present count). Let’s together aim to improve our numbers so that we leave the District in a better shape than we started number wise.

So plenty to do ahead of us, one area I would like to look at starting is a Rotary Means Business Fellowship. Those who may want to join us here in this fellowship please give me a call or email me. Keep being the inspiration as you prepare to hand over to the incoming President and Directors. We look forward to seeing all of you who are involved in the District Assembly in Grenfell on May 25^th.

Yours in Rotary

Stamping out Trachoma

Posted by Michael Milston on Apr 24, 2019

What a great response from Rotarians at the recent Griffith D9700 Conference

We were inundated with stamps from far and wide. There were collections and stamp albums, someone even included their love letters inside the envelopes! (No we didn't read them, and suggested they might like to keep the contents

)

Thanks to AG Elaine, these stamps will be taken to our contact in Melbourne who will prepare the stamps for sale.

YOU CAN HELP PREPARE THE STAMPS YOU SAVE. We have included a special guide to help Carrol who does all this sorting and preparation out of love!

Thank you for helping to stamp out Trachoma, one lick at a time!

A Classic End to a Classic Conference

The 2019 District Conference came to a close with a stage full of singers waving and swaying and bringing the curtain down on a classic conference. The three day event was packed with outstanding speakers, attended by a 5 year record 320 Rotarians and included a large contingency of Rotary and Business displays in the Rotary Showcase. It was preceded by the Polio Awareness Ride Across the District Expedition including an iron lung called Maggie. Click here for a photo album of the weekend taken by John and Marie Egan.

Polio in PNG

Posted by Michael Milston on Apr 27, 2019

HEALTH workers and social mobilisers who will be vaccinating every child and delivering life-saving messages to communities will now be recognised by vests donated by Rotary International (RI), reports the PNG Post Courier Online.

The report continues: 'District governor of Rotary International in PNG Wendy Protheroe said 10,000 jointly badged vests will be distributed to all health workers during the second phase which has been planned for this year.

“Rotary International has pledged and is supporting you as well in terms of being proactive and making sure we reach every child to get vaccinated.

PARADE Progress

March 21 Molong to Cowra

8 intrepid riders left Molong in two shifts. One to Canowindra, and then another to Cowra. Arriving in Cowra with two flat tyres, but elated spirits! Great support from the Orange Treadlies who made up up most of the riders between Orange-Molong-Cowra!

And Rtn Michael Cain rode the bloody lot in one go!! Well Done Mick!

An old bloke in Cudal, remembered a friend who had polio and donated $50 ("a piece of paper" he called it)!

March 19 Orange to Molong

Almost 20 riders carried the message stick from Orange to Molong.

March 19 Borowa

President Rob (RC Murrumburrah- Harden ) passing on the baton to President Alan (RC Boorowa )

President Alan (RC Boorowa) handing over the baton to President Bill (RC Cowra) at Cowra’s club meeting night on Thursday.
In centre is Wayne Co-ordinator for Cowra’s leg of the Bike Ride

March 18 Orange

Good afternoon

Attached are some photos for promoting the Orange and Bathurst Clubs participation in the ENDPOLIO district bike ride. Feel free to peruse our facebook page for any others you may like to use.

We successfully had a reporter from the local paper (see link below) and as you can see Prime TV came along so be sure to check out the news tonight or their webpage in the near future.

Amateur Videos to follow !

Rotary regards,Michelle Duncan

PR Director Orange Daybreak 2018-19

Local Orange paper the CWD ran a front page story

March 17th Bathurst

DG John Glassford was in Bathurst this weekend with the PARADE of local riders travelling from Oberon to Bathurst and displaying Maggie the iron lung.

The photos at your right are just a few of the most recent pics which are compiled in the PARADE Photo Album

March 15, 2019 Blayney

March 7,2019 Wagga

Magical Maggie is creating quiet a stir and we have only just begun.

Filling up in Ganmain just now, yes we do have a service station, a lady pulled up behind me and just looked at Maggie for ages then got out of the car. Gwen Boughey from Ganmain started talking and you could see how excited Gwen was to see Maggie. We have to record and film her story somehow. Gwen worked on these iron lungs in the infectious disease hospital in Melbourne for some time. Gwen knew every nut and bolt on Maggie and how she worked.

Second story a lady from Junee Reefs, Jan Longmore, called me to say that she contracted polio at the age of 12 and still suffers with now post polio syndrome. Jan's sister contracted polio only 9 months old and her sister is now suffering badly with post polio syndrome. Jan is 80 and would be wonderful to get her story down as well. Jan wants to know if there are any people who can help her and her sister.

These two stories are so unexpected. So Maggie's magic is working and tomorrow is a big test in Wagga. Thank you all for getting us to this stage of this journey. I have a bit to do right now but please call me anytime. I aim to be back in Griffith on Thursday next week March 14th to meet up with all and sundry as needed. I liked the last meeting of all the parties together. I have to be in Oberon on Saturday 16th and Bathurst 17th to meet up with Maggie again!

The PARADE is going much better than I had hoped for.

March 5, 2019 - Leeton

Leeton RC put on a BBQ for the people of Leeton. Thanks Leeton love your BBQ trailer. Bob then welcomed Maggie to Narrandera at the Tourist Information office, we met some dignitaries from Narrandera Shire Council. Two cyclists and Bob then followed Maggie into Narrandera where they and Maggie went up and down the main street. Some collections were made and Narrandera Rotary Club made a donation to the Polio Plus PARADE. Thank you all.

Now I hope to get some photos from Narrandera soon. Had a call from a Rotarian in Cowra today saying that they are well organised with cyclists. Maggie is a super attraction and is the reason we are doing this so that no one ever has to live in one of these contraptions ever again.

In Wagga tomorrow 10.00am for a Mayoral reception and ride down Baylis Street should be fun. Back in Wagga at the Market Place on Thursday then Coolamon and so on.

DGJG

The Parade Has Begun

Maggie The Iron Lung from the Griffith City Council Pioneer Park has started a journey of 1,600 kms around our Rotary D9700. Maggie left from Griffith Monday morning to all the cities, towns and villages in our District that have a Rotary presence. Due to logistics, we may have to miss a leg or two. However the route and dates have not changed.

We have 4 tap and Go terminals working to collect money for the END POLIO NOW program.

Maggie is in working order thanks to Ross Grillo from the Griffith Rotary Club. Ross has done a wonderful job with Maggie and I am sure that Maggie will open many eyes as we take her around the district.

Our sincere thanks to Ross and the Griffith Rotary clubs for getting us this far on our journey culminating in the Griffith 2019 Conference from March 29-31st.

I encourage all district Rotarians and friends to support our PARADE cyclists. Come and greet Maggie when she arrives at your community and support an excellent cause.

The Charleston Dance Off

Posted by John Glassford on Feb 11, 2019

Here are some photos of the era we want to celebrate in Griffith on Saturday night 30th March at the Griffith Ex-Services Club with the Australian Army Band-Kapooka.