Dear Melbourne Rotarians,
Firstly, a very Happy New Year to you all and I trust that you’ve all had a wonderful holiday season catching up with family and friends and probably a little over-indulgence! I hope 2021 is shaping up to be both a calm and prosperous year for you all. I think we were all very happy to see the tail-end of 2020 and are looking forward to a much more certain 2021. The first few days in the US and Europe have unsettled us somewhat, but we can see that our own situation here in Australia is blessed by comparison.
I was hoping to meet you in person very soon, as we re-engage with face to face meetings. However, whilst we are working towards that, it is unlikely to be in the very near future. We have been fortunate that our on-line meetings have kept a sense of collegiality amongst us, and the great work of our Rotarians continues. I would like to highlight a few things that we can all be proud of, without diminishing all the other achievements that the wonderful silent majority of our club continue to accomplish.
Our ‘Give Every Child a Future’ project – guided by Chris Wang and Robert Fisher – continues to be well supported throughout the district and will indeed be a key charity to be profiled in the Australia Day celebrations coming up soon, as will the International Women’s Day event.
Our ‘Safe Families’ endeavour is extending its work to contain family violence by seeking to introduce a new ‘Ambassador’ model, which will allow it to have an even further reach than the admirably extensive work that Dorothy Gilmour has been able to do. Notwithstanding lockdowns, Dorothy has visited more than 40 clubs in the last 18 months and this program will allow that work to extend much further.
I mentioned at our final Christmas meeting that a group – including Pam Brown, Jim Orchard, Norman Taralrud-Bay and myself – organised a visit to Bairnsdale to meet with several clubs in the area, so as to provide information on our trauma support ‘Healing the Hurt’ initiative. This has proven to be a much needed service in the local community, which has gone through so much. They had already been affected by drought, before the bushfires which also signalled the start of our year with coronavirus, and we will continue to work with them on these mental health initiatives into 2021.
The word of the year has been ‘pivot’ and Rotarians everywhere have shown how adept they are to change and demonstrated their tenacity to continue, even in the face of all that has been hurled at them this year. I do look forward to the second half of this year, to seeing everyone face to face again before the end of it, and to indeed sharing some good cheer!
My thoughts and wishes are with you all.
Marion
