Changeover 2010

June 26th marked our club Changeover this year and our new president Lyndsey Wood made this a great occasion, honouring President Val with acclamations and a continuous projection of the highlights of Val's year.

Goodbye President Val.

Hello President Lyndsey.

President Val thanked all those who helped to make her year a successful and memorable one, highlighting the "Last Night of the Proms" concert which raised $9,500 for "Birthright" as the major achievement of her year.

Val went on (not on and on, just on) to praise incoming president Lyndsey and assure her that she will find a club full of members eager to help make her year just as memorable too.

The evening's theme of Bigger, Bolder, Brighter, Blue was taken to heart by a few rather looney members and this added to the joviality and celebration of a president past and a president beginning.

Good luck for your year at the helm Lyndsey.

Posted Saturday, 10 July 2010 by Terry

The Benefits of Volunteering

Today was a magical day. The Whanganui river is always beautiful but today it was so fantastically beautiful that being there was a truly moving experience. Even David, the skipper of the MV Wairua, who knows the river like he knows his own hand, was knocked for six by the beauty of reflections from this silent highway of glass. He even found navigation difficult at times, not knowing where reflections ended, where the river became dry land or whether he was standing of falling over.

The Whanganui river between Wanganui and Hipango park (2 hours upstream) is tidal. Leaving the wharf at 7am we were lucky enough to strike a dead calm morning when the tide was full and the river slack. By 8:15am or so, when we had left the town behind and were steaming into the hills the light was perfect, being filtered through a benevolent mist still clinging to the hills. It was one of those rare moments when you wished you had your camera, wished you had time to take some images, wished the river would stay calm for a few more minutes, wished that the shy sun would remain in hiding. It was one of those moments when all your wishes came true. For the last hour of the journey we were treated to the surreal, lost in a wonderland that threatened to turn us on our heads. Had we met Alice no-one would have batted an eyelid and probably not even noticed.

There was a reason to make this trip today. David McDermid, friends and four Wanganui Daybreak Rotarians were out for a working bee at Hipango Park. Today the object was to clear the picnic tables of long grass and mow tracks to the hut and toilets. This is in preparation for further working bees and tours to the park.  Evidence of the work can be seen below.

So you see, the park got a clean up and we had the trip dreams are made of.

Posted Monday, 28 December 2009 by Terry

Last Project of the Calendar Year

Wednesday evening saw several of our members down at Kowhai Park sprucing up the "Jolly Daybreaker" pirate ship. In need of a paint touch-up before the coming high use season.

Thanks go to Miles, Marie, Graham, Gil, Lynda, Andy, Simon and his two daughters Gabriella and Madeline for all their good work.

There wasn't a great deal of painting to do so there was time for some peering through port holes. Lynda rather fancied herself as prow ornament. Interesting!

Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy the holiday break. We have lots to do in the New Year including a concrete pour at Hipango Park, a general clean up there and our usual weekend of fun and industry in the bush.

Posted Thursday, 17 December 2009 by Terry

Christmas Party

The Club Christmas Party was held last Saturday night at Judith's place. I'd say it was among the most successful social occasions the club has hosted. The food was fabulous, the petanque was pathetic, the charades cathartic, the venue venerable, the guests gregarious and the reporter very discrete.

The Christmas Fairies were not discrete.

President Val presided over the charades. Scorer Gil was, of course, on the winning team, he had to be, it was a three way tie. This was only achieved however by a recount which saw the scorer's team lose 251,321 points found to be included in error and the losing team awarded a hat full of points for the odd occasion when they really tried. The true winners (the reporter's team) were magnanimous in the face of some of the most creative cheating in the history of Rotary Christmas Parties.

Thanks go to the catering team, the host and all members who will remain anonymous until their names are revealed.

It's great having the opportunity to work together to serve the local community and, at times, the international community in need. It's also great to relax at times.

Merry Christmas

Posted Sunday, 6 December 2009 by Terry

Dictionaries Donated!

DAYBREAK ROTARY CLUB GIVES DICTIONARIES TO KEITH STREET SCHOOL CHILDREN

Members of the Rotary Club of Wanganui Daybreak visited Keith Street School today to give illustrated dictionaries to 50 of their pupils.

This is part of a Wanganui-wide Rotary project to help raise the literacy levels of our children and to encourage kids to love books. The children can write their names in the dictionaries and then take them home to keep. It is hoped that they will keep them and use them as they travel on their learning journey.

Each dictionary is inscribed inside the front cover so that the children know it is a gift from the Rotary "family". The school principal, Clyde Piercy, told the students "Whilst the internet is a fantastic source of information, it doesn't replace the "specialness" of picking up a beautiful book and having that book to treasure in your home".

Val Bartrum, president of Daybreak Rotary, said that she was delighted that members of the club had decided to purchase the dictionaries and gift them to school children as a literacy project in their own home town. This shows that a true community spirit is alive and well in Wanganui!

Posted Tuesday, 22 September 2009 by Terry