The fourth annual “Picnic in the Peace Park” was held on 11th February 26 and despite the inclement weather was again a great social event to start the new Rotary year.
Special guest Kimberley Pierzchalski who is our City of Melbourne Neighbourhood Partner for South Yarra (where the Peace Park and Bells are located) spoke about her work with Rotary to find a location for a Rotary indigenous environment garden. Kimberley’s role is to support the local community to navigate council processes, drive local priorities and connect locals with grants for community projects. The City of Melbourne portal has more information about this and also local events and neighbourhood updates.
https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/south-yarra
Another special guest was Andrew Laidlaw, the Chief Landscape Architect at the Royal Botanic Gardens, who has been responsible for three 10 year Master Plans for the Gardens. He spoke about the many projects at the Gardens and also the importance of the human connection with nature and green spaces for creating wellbeing and peace. He also talked about the group of fifteen Palestinians who he took on a tour of the Gardens the previous night. The group is in town as a part of Project Rozana which Rotary Melbourne has previously supported through a multi club initiatve. Andrew in his role as President of Global Gardens of Peace is also now working with project Rozana and Rotary to potentially build a children’s garden in the West Bank in Palestine.
We also celebrated the Birthday of Osaka Rotarian and good friend of the club, Shinji Higuchi, with a cake under a collection of umbrellas as the rain set in (see the photo below). As the rain became more intense several of the group adjourned to the Botanical Hotel for food and drinks to continue the evening’s fellowship.
