What inspired our members to join Rotary? And how has it impacted them? Read their personal stories below.
My involvement with DIK started sometime after Timor Leste gained its Independence in 2002 when the West Footscray store had started to ship all manner of supplies to Timor, and they sought some assistance in packing containers. That started my long involvement with Donations in Kind of over 20 years and it is impossible to capture in a few paragraphs the multitude of activities and my involvement but more importantly the great service this project delivers.
Inspiring people and inspiring projects. The Club has always had a vibrant make up of business people and leaders in their field. Very much about can – do and supporting Melburnians who need help. Although times have changed significantly during my membership. The business world has changed with many more professional company members compared to senior corporate managers. In addition, the number of female members has grown from 1% to 22% giving different dynamics to the Club. New members like the inspirational young lady ,Stephanie Woollard, who established Seven Women at the age of 22 to empower marginalised women in Nepal demonstrates that with vision, compassion and being energised, you can deliver change.
I was born in southern Italy and my family were part of the explosion of migrants coming to Australia after the second-world war. My father was the first to migrate on his own, arriving in 1951. My mother and two other siblings and I arrived in 1955. A tragedy occurred with my father passing away in 1958, leaving the family in a serious financial situation. To assist in supporting the family I was selling newspapers outside the then Spencer Street station at the age of fourteen. I started working at age fifteen having left my education at Tottenham Technical School in year nine, and spent the next fifteen years working with an importing company reaching the most senior executive level. In 1977 I started my own food business.
When I joined Rotary, retirement for me was a long while off, 14 years in fact. At the time, I wasn’t looking to join Rotary. However, I was looking for something different to my then Corporate life that allowed me to become more involved with the community whilst enjoying the fellowship that Rotary does so well. I was introduced to Rotary by a friend who was passionate about the projects, diverse membership and fellowship that the club offered. The projects involving disease prevention, clean water and sanitation in isolated communities, health issues such as polio prevention and eradication and education to underprivileged groups caught my eye. These were areas that I had little or no experience in at the community level.
Nearly fourteen years ago I was formally proposed for membership of Rotary Melbourne by a neighbour in Canterbury. In the preceding decade I had been in a high-pressure corporate role with a multi-national publisher covering Australia and New Zealand, then living and working between Melbourne and Sydney for a couple of years. My voluntary connections in Melbourne were few, and I was keen to give something back to communities here and beyond. Rotary
provided the solution.
I joined the Rotary Club Melbourne in 2010. I had attended many meetings of various Rotary Clubs before, but always as the guest speaker, and on many occasions, I would be asked about “my interest in joining Rotary” but I never did as I was busy with my work and studies. When I joined Rotary Club Melbourne, I had been in the role of CEO of Benetas for a few years. Benetas is a large Victorian based not for profit company that provide a range of support and accommodation services to older people and people with a disability. It is easy when you work in a reasonably sized and organised industry to feel that you have all the connections that you will ever need, but for me, nothing could be further from the truth. Some may also have the view that if you work in a mission driven, for purpose company, your obligation to “build a better world or give back” is lessened because you are already making a contribution through your work.
During 1976 I was thinking about “life after work” and searching for how I could be involved in giving back to the community. Rotary was one of a number of organisations I was considering to be a good fit with my values, principles and outlook on life.
Apart from being an organisation established by bringing together Professional and Business people, the question in my mind was what set “Rotary” apart from other service organisations, and how could I use my accumulated business, professional, community and life’s experiences to best effect?
I was a teenager when my father invited me to join him at a Father and Daughter lunch at Melbourne Rotary. That was my introduction to the Rotary concept. My father was a surgeon and he found it impossible to fulfil the 85% attendance rule which was in place back then, so he did not remain a member for very long, but I still remember how much I enjoyed that day.
I joined the Rotary Club of Melbourne in early 2017 after returning to Australia from 16 years spent working overseas. Before joining the club, I had no previous experience with Rotary or any other community service organisation. The decision to join Rotary was based on a somewhat vague goal of wanting to do more more to contribute to society after several decades where my time was consumed by work and family commitments.
Having grown up in an isolated community I was left with no doubt that the welfare of everyone in that community was dependent on the attitude and generosity of ALL within it. This thinking became an inherent part of my subconscious. Fortunately, my partner of 28 years had a similar upbringing. We had both lived frugal, simple lives where nothing was taken for granted and so developed a great sense of gratitude when abundance and public recognition became part of our daily existence.
