Rotary Connects the World

Meeting 3106 Monday 28^st Feb 2022 the toast was given by Ian sanders and grace read by Mark Smeaton

Meeting 3106 was officially opened by chairperson PP Mike Williams

Mike welcomed members and special guests- tonight’s speaker club member John Lyons; inductee Ian Nys his wife Michelle; Caroline and Andrew Williamson guests of Brian Burt; Julie Smeaton and Mark’s mum Pat Smeaton; Shari Lyons, Janet Done Guests of John Lyons to the meeting. Apologies were received from Colin Bazeley, Patsy Johnson, Bob Ahrens, Daniel Berrett, Kathy Heinrich, Leanne Clinch, Deb Williams, Julie Tekell, Michael Jacob, Kevin Clarke, Steve Barilla, Dino Donati, Anthony Barilla, Helen Bourne.

After inviting directors to come forward for their spots and make any announcements, Mike announced fines would go to Rotary Health and In his role of Almoner informed the club of Bruce Eastick’s Brother’s passing this week. Bruce is the sole surviving member of his siblings and the club members passed on our sincere thoughts and condolences to Bruce.

PP Brian Burt read a message from Rotary International re the conflict in the Ukraine. RI have stated they will do everything possible to provide aid and support to its members. District 2232 has 64 Rotary Clubs and 24 Rotaract clubs.

PP Mike asked us to also think about the Rotarians in Russia as well.

After a brief fellowship Chairperson Mike asked President Mark to come forward to induct Ian Nys into the club.  After the presentation Ian said he was looking forward to donating his time and being involved in our projects.

Mike the asked Sergeant Barry to come forward to present his fines session. Wheel winners this week were President Mark -who was very excited and announced that it was the first time he had won in the five years of being a member. The choice of prizes this week was a glass from a set donated by Barry or chocolates. Pres chose the glass but was disappointed when he realised it was not the set but 1 glass. After a bit of haggling and persuasion from club members Barry agreed that he should have 2 glasses because you shouldn’t drink alone!  Chris Edmonds won the chocolates. Chairperson Mike’s birthday was celebrated and congratulations on 5 year membership to president Mark and 20years to Kevin Clarke.

Barry asked Brian to come up and present 2 awards from the previous weeks Bowls night. Brian presented Bob Hinderwell and Geoff Bennier with Certificates for “caught being good award”

The usual Bunyip roundup and entertaining quotes and jokes followed.

Mike introduced member John Lyons as guest speaker. John was asked to give a second talk on interesting and extraordinary cases he has been involved in. John opened by saying that interesting cases don’t always have to be murders etc. Some of the interesting cases are purely due to the people or the circumstances. One such case was an early one involving a charismatic man named ‘George’. He was a fence (also known as a receiver, is an individual who knowingly buys stolen goods to later resell them for profit. The fence acts as a middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers of stolen goods who may not be aware that the goods are stolen.) George usually managed to avoid conviction, but his last case was due to the involvement of his wife. The goods came from a ramraid on a ladies luxury leather goods store in Unley. George needed to move the goods, so he asked his wife ‘Tania’ to help. She did but told everyone where the goods came from. Word got back to the police, and both were arrested. Police took them to separate rooms for questioning and George as usual made up a credible story, but ‘Tania’ told the truth. When questioned George said that Tania was coerced by police and was nervous that is why she said it. When it went to court Tania was asked “why did you answer the question to the police” she replied “ because they asked me” then when asked” Did they force you to answer” she replied “ No, they were actually nice and I wanted to” both were then convicted.

Another notable case involved and Axe Murderer. The case was known as Queen Vs R and people might remember it. The husband had inflicted horrendous sexual abuse on his daughters. When their mother ‘R’ found out she confronted her husband who admitted it but said that he still loved her. She got an axe and murdered him. A Murder charge can be downgraded to manslaughter if provocation (or rage) is proven. In her trail the judge had no compassion and refused to admit provocation so she was committed for murder. On appeal she was granted a new trial and found not guilty of Murder. After her acquittal there was a media frenzy and politician Prue Goward insisted on talking to her.  John was unsure what to do so he went to the Lead council who said no. John asked what he should tell Pru and he replied “ tell her to F*** off.” John did exactly that! When the Lead council was contacted by Pru’s department he called in John and asked what he had said. John told him he had just relayed the message. Of course, he wasn’t meant to take it literally but that was a lesson learned.

One of the higher profile cases that John was involved in was the Snowtown murders he found this gruesome and not interesting.  

At the conclusion of John’s talk Mike thanked him and presented him with a Rotary pen as a token of appreciation as this was his second talk.

President Mark then gave his weekly wrap up thanking guests for attending. He reported that the board needed a quick meeting to approve the shortfall in funds to install the last of the 16 TVs for Gawler health service.

Next weeks meeting will be Anthea John’s induction and member Wayne Murphy will be the guest speaker.

There will be no meeting on the 14^th due to the public holiday and the 21^st March will be the vocational visit to the CFS Region visit   

Mark closed the meeting with the four-way test.

Article from the Leader Newspaper 17th Feb

 

They’ve had to make the tough decision to close, but Rotary Club of Kapunda members, Andrew Amos, Frank Ware, Don Franks, David Hodge, Deane Rohrlach, Ian Todd and Brenton Diener remain proud of their club’s many achievements.

After sixty-three years of service and contributing an estimated equivalent of well over $1.2 million worth of benefit to its local community and beyond, Rotary Club of Kapunda will be no more.

Whilst disappointing, current circumstances made the decision to hand in the club charter “relatively easy” for members, according to President, Mr Ian Todd who confirmed last week their final meeting will be held on May 16.

“With only seven current members and five of those being over seventy years of age, it became apparent that we could not do the things we thought that Rotary should be doing,” Ian told The Leader.

Members are fiercely proud of their club’s achievements over the years, yet conceded the inability to attract new and younger members were contributing factor to their pragmatic decision to close.

“It is worth celebrating the contribution the Rotary Club of Kapunda has made to the local and broader community and noting that this last membership group have collectively amassed over 160 years of service to this club,” Ian said.

Formed in 1958 with twenty-seven members, the late Eli Hambour was Kapunda Rotary Club’s first President. 

Their first Community Service project was to raise and donate £241 towards a filtration plant for the town’s swimming pool and many more successful outcomes would follow. 

Club veteran of 38 years and longest-serving member, Mr Deane Rohrlach has gained immense enjoyment from his time in Rotary.

“When I joined, the club had thirty-five members which meant we had the capacity to get things done,” he said with pride.

 “What many people don’t realise is that  ‘Map Kernow’, the seven-metre statue at the southern entrance to Kapunda and an everlasting symbol of the town, was a Rotary Project.

“Other significant examples include the Hospital Helipad and our contribution to the refurbishment of Davidson Reserve.”  

Mr Rohrlach reminisced on the number of Rotary Exchange students the club has sent overseas or hosted over the years, and the benefits the programme had on both the individual and community. 

“In fact, as a former educator, a highlight for me has been the club’s commitment to youth development in general with examples being Kapunda High School and Kapunda and Freeling Primary Schools benefitting from the Rotary Club of Kapunda’s contribution by way of awards,” he added. 

The Club has donated thousands of dollars to other youth programmes, including Rotary Youth Driver Awareness and Citizen and Civic leadership seminars for students and young adults. 

Internationally, it supported causes such as improving a grain storage
facility as well as a dental health programme for children in Uganda. 

Contributions have been made to both the Rotary Foundation and the Australian Rotary Health Foundation, as well as the worldwide Rotary “End Polio Now” vaccination initiative.

Closer to home, the Club ran the Kapunda Rotary Art Show for more than 10 years supporting the local and broader art community. 

Always a warmly welcomed and visible presence at local events, members and supporters proudly wore the familiar Rotary aprons as they catered for the masses through the Club’s mobile barbecue trailer.

The Pinery Fire Recovery Programme, ANZAC Day Dawn Services, Christmas street parties, Australia Day and “Picnic at the Pines”  are just a few of the many events at which Kapunda Rotarians provided both the barbecue and
labour.

No one has kept statistics about how many sausages or steaks have been cooked and served at such events but Frank Ware says it’s likely to be “in the several tonnes range”.

He and his fellow members acknowledged the strong support received from the community over the years.

“Many local businesses have been major sponsors of the Club and other smaller businesses and individuals have been generous in their support as well” added President Ian.

“The Rotary Club of Kapunda’s members, partners and supporters over the years can be rightly proud of their contribution to the betterment of the community.”