Whilst John wasn’t directly a member of our club, being part of Will’s family made him part of our extended Rotary family.

Recently John and his partner Diane attended our 2010 Club Changeover as special guests of the club, so that John could help present the inaugural Will Moulding Brunswick Spirit of Rotary Award (to Greg Sewell). John remarked that he felt very honoured to be presenting the inaugural award in his dad’s name, and was very happy to be part of the event.

John Moulding (left) with Greg Sewell and outgoing President Dean Kennedy, after the inaugural presentation of the Will Moulding Brunswick Spirit of Rotary Award.

Our kindest thoughts and condolences go out to John’s family.

John’s funeral will be at the Renowden Chapel at Springvale Botanical Cemetery this coming Monday 16 July 2010 at 11:30am, to be followed by refreshments.

Hearty voices sang our special Brunswick induction song as we welcomed our newest Brunswick Rotarian, Beatrice Melita.

President Karin congratulates Beatrice on her induction into Brunswick Rotary

Beatrice is a former barrister, and nowadays a practicing psychologist who works with the Family Court and with private clients. She was also the first Leo in Victoria for Lions, some years back — Leos (aged 12 to 28 years) are the equivalent in Lions of Rotary’s Interact (aged 12 to 18 years) and Rotaract (aged 18 to 30 years) clubs… our future Rotarians.

The Rotary theme for 2010-11

From the official media page:

Klinginsmith said he arrived at the theme after reviewing RI themes of years past. He noticed that only a few spoke to non-Rotarians.

“As a result, I decided to search for a briefly stated theme that would fulfill two objectives: the first to explain Rotary to non-Rotarians, and the second to validate our work for Rotarians,” he said. “The words I have selected to describe Rotary’s current mission and to highlight our achievements are what we do best: Building Communities — Bridging Continents. ”

You can read more, listen to or read the full speech on the 2010-11 Rotary theme by Ray Klinginsmith at the main Rotary website.

RI President for 2010-11 Ray Klinginsmith

Here’s a couple of snaps from the day (thanks to our regular visiting Rotarian Lindsay Crossen for the photos):

Thanks too to David Kennedy and Andrew Horgan for running another successful community BBQ and helping once again with our ongoing relationship with the Moreland City Council.

http://video.au.msn.com/watch/video/marysville-opens-swimming-pool/x223npw

This is the project that we contributed the $20,000 raised after the February 2009 Victorian bushfires — now up and running in the Marysville community.

We’re delighted to have been able to identify a suitable project, with funds also contributed from the Rotary Club of Ringwood, our Rotary District bushfire funds (District 9800), the YMCA and the Salvation Army.

This year’s changeover is at The Treacy Centre in Parkville — yes, the same venue as our famous (infamous?!) Changeover a couple of years ago with our karaoke and Village People performance! But this year, Karin’s entertainment is a little more subdued, choosing to have the Marcellin College music group perform for our musical enjoyment. Still promises to be yet another great Brunswick event.

All the details are on the attached invitation and booking form.

Please RSVP no later than Friday, 25th June.

We’ve now identified a suitable project (thanks to Immediate Past President David Kennedy), and have committed our funds — to the new Marysville YMCA facility.

Our $20,000 will be added to an additional $20,000 from Rotary District 9800 (our own District); plus $10,000 from the YMCA Open Doors Gift Fund and $8,805 from the Salvation Army.

The opening of this facility is this Sunday, 6th June 2010, from 1pm to 3pm.

You’re invited to join us at the event (join Immediate Past President David, President Dean and President-elect Karin) … see the attached 270kb pdf file YMCA_Marysville_opening for more information.

To recap, Megan is from Mississippi USA, and her sponsor club is Vestavia Hills is D6860. As our guest speaker she talked about her time here in Australia, having arrived at the start of 2009 (and will be  leaving again in June this year). After studying at university in Birmingham, Megan went on to do an internship and then be a journalist at the Washington Post, spending much time in Washington during the primary race and then presidential race leading up to Obama’s election.

Megan also was part of our team helping out at the Sport For Change BBQ on the weekend. She mentioned to me that she’s about to have an article published in the Washington Post (on the front of the Travel section) about her trip through central Australia. It appeared on Sunday.

If you’d like to read more, here’s the link to Megan’s article.