Our distinguished Member, the late Cynthia Edgell conferred a generous bequest on Rotary Melbourne as a provision of her Estate. Under the umbrella of our Community Welfare Committee, Marry Barry, Philip Cornish, David Carruthers, Chris Sotiropoulos, Branko Panich & Kevin Sheehan deliberated as a Sub-Committee and created the criteria for an annual Cynthia Edgell Empowerment Opportunity Gift - with the aim of continuing the mentoring role that was Cynthia’s dedication.
Simply titled ‘Cynthia’s Gift’, the implementation for 2025 involved identifying partner organisations through which applications were sought for 2025 conferment. Then from the numerous applications received, the hard task of selection was undertaken and given the generosity of the bequest, three Awardees were selected. The backbone of mentoring delivery is through the involvement of our partner organisations and for those applicants who were not selected, each received a personalised letter identifying elements that they can address should they wish to make a future application.
At our Rotary Meeting, President Philip conferred the 2025 Awards on:
Nyaluet and Selba could only our meeting join on-line and so a future opportunity for their attendance will be arranged at a future date.
Together with the Awardees respective sponsors, Western Chances, Brotherhood of St Laurence and Afri-AusCare, Rotary Melbourne will continue a mentoring role for these three, worthy, 2025 Awardees as they pursue their dreams and ambitions.
Now the Community Welfare Committee are progressing toward the 2026 Award conferment’s and have identified additional organisations to add to our list from which to draw worthy, motivated applicants and partner the ongoing mentoring role. Any input from Rotary Melbourne Members would be most welcome.
