WEDNESDAY 1ST APRIL 2020
LATEST NEWS
All meetings and Sausage Sizzles have been cancelled until further notice.
PRESIDENT'S NOTES
With concern and anxiety swirling around us during this COVID-19 pandemic, I feel it is very important while we are not physically meeting as a club to keep contact as Maleny Rotarians. Thanks to Chris B for getting the funnies rolling around and good to have a smile amid the gloom, even if it mainly revolves around the crazy run on toilet paper. Who would ever have predicted that? Good news is that the Vickers are safely back in Maleny from Morocco and I’m sure there will be a story to tell there about their journey home. We will still be having board meetings in some electronic form to make sure we continue to attend to club business and this will be reported in the next bulletin.
The rain over the last few days will be good to settle in the new plantings at the Settler’s Green area at the Precinct. Jim has received the account for the plants, landscaping and irrigation system to be paid from the $20,000 grant we received for the project. If you get a chance and need to get out for some fresh air, take a walk or drive to look at the progress of the project. I took a photo a week ago of the heritage camellia section and I was very happy to see a couple sitting on one of our Rotary seats under the big fig tree.
Looking to the past for inspiration, I checked my Rotary folder for March 1999 to see what the club was up to then. Well we took a trip down to Chandler in Malcolm’s plush new coach to the District 9600 Conference. We had a good representation there from our club that year. One of the guest speakers was a priest from Aitape reporting on the rehabilitation work being carried out there by Rotary FAIM teams, following the devastating tsunami. Trevor Taylor then a member of our club was one of the first Rotary volunteers to go into the outlying areas to rebuild homes.
Another interesting dinner meeting that month was our Year 10 night organised by the Youth committee where a teacher from the high school brought a group of students to the meeting. The focus was on Rotary youth programs such as RYPEN, Youth Exchange, and the New Zealand Matched Twin exchange. Speakers included Gillian Baker, daughter of Malcolm and Nancy, who spoke on her year in Brazil and Keira Orr who spoke on her term in New Zealand. Maybe this is an idea we could revive in our program. The Heads and Tails winner that week was Reg Linton.
It’s the time of the year where Presidents-elect attend the President’s Elect Training Seminar (PETS) to plan and be informed about the next Rotary year. This year it was to be a combined seminar with D9630 for the last weekend in March in Toowoomba. Now it is being held electronically. We wish Greg well for this training as he prepares to take over as Club President on 1 July.
While the world's focus at present is fighting the virus, Rotary International is still operating and good works are still happening through Rotary in communities around the world. This message is on the rotary.org main web page at the moment:
ROTARY MONITORS THE GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS CRISIS
Read how Rotary is responding to the impact of the global COVID-19 crisis. We are closely monitoring updates and recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to ensure the safest and most appropriate actions are taken by and for our members and the communities they serve.
They are recommending that members who want to be more informed on Rotary programs and further skilled in Leadership, could do an on-line course in the Learning Centre on the website. All courses are free. We need 2 people in the club to do the Grants course and so far we have only had one member do it, so if you are interested, email Michael and he can explain how to access it on the website.
So Rotary is still open for business, albeit in a totally different way than we could have expected a month or so ago. Please send any interesting articles to Keith for the next bulletin - maybe more ‘blasts from the past’ and old club photos. We are very lucky to be living in this beautiful part of the world and despite the crisis around us, the hills are still green, the white cockatoos are still eating the nuts on our pecan tree and the cobbler’s pegs are still growing great guns in our paddock. Stay safe and importantly, keep connected to family, friends and Rotary.
NOTES ON INTERACT CONFERENCE
At the recent Earlyact/Interact conference at St Columbans College, Caboolture on Sunday 8th March, the Interact group from Maleny State High School were in attendance and with the other groups managed in half an hour to assemble 75 of the Solar Buddy lights which are an Australian made product.
These were added to others and will be sent to the Solomon Islands to help other children with their studies as many of them don't have electricity in their homes. As can be seen in the photos, 1.4 billion people in the world have little or no access to electricity.
Our thanks to Paula for this report.
CANCELLED EVENTS
2-4th May Parking for Wood Expo.
9th May Smart Living's Gangsters and Flappers Night.
31st May Maleny Show
FUTURE MEETINGS
None scheduled
BIRTHDAYS FOR APRIL
1st Nancy Baker 4th Phillip Stark 12th Chris Brooker 23rd John McLennan 27th Chris Ross Smith & John Whan
WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES FOR APRIL
13th Jeff & Jan Cornfoot 26th Bill & Marlene Hankinson
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT AND NOT ABOUT THE VIRUS
DID YOU KNOW?
BIG CHEEKS.
Do you know of "Big Cheeks”?
He was a grandson of slaves,who was born in a poor neighborhood of New Orleans known as the "Back of Town." His father abandoned the family when the child was an infant. His mother became a prostitute and the boy and his sister had to live with their grandmother.
Early in life he proved to have a gift for music and with three other kids he sang in the streets of New Orleans. His first gains were coins that were thrown to them.
A Jewish family, Karnofsky, who had emigrated from Lithuania to the USA, had pity for the 7-year-old boy and brought him into their home, initially giving him 'work' in the house and feeding this hungry child. There he remained and slept in this Jewish family's home where, for the first time in his life, he was treated with kindness and tenderness.
When he went to bed, Mrs Karnovsky sang him a Russian lullaby that he would sing with her. Later, he learned to sing and play several Russian and Jewish songs.
Over time, this boy became the adopted son of this family. The Karnofskys gave him money to buy his first musical instrument; as was the custom in the Jewish families. They sincerely admired his musical talent. Later, when he became a professional musician and composer, he used these Jewish melodies in compositions, such as St. James Infirmary and Go Down Moses.
The little black boy grew up and wrote a book about this Jewish family who had adopted him in 1907. In memory of this family and until the end of his life he wore a Star of David and said that in this family, he had learned "how to live real life and determination."
You might recognize his name. This little boy was called:
Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong.
Louis Armstrong proudly spoke fluent Yiddish! And "Satchmo" is Yiddish for "Big Cheeks”!!!
Did you know that?
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