Latest News

Speaker 7th September: Robert Irvine

Robert spoke of the work of the Friends of Organ Pipes National Park which varies with the seasons to include planting and maintaining native flora,monitoring wildlife and removing invasive plants and litter

Speaker 21st September: Dr Lloyn O'Brien (pictured)

Lloyd spoke about the work of "Somebody's Daughter"- a project which has grown from an in-prison activity to improve the self-esteem and vocabulary of female prisoners in Victoria, to one of supporting women on their release from prison and to coaching vulnerable youth in life-skills to try to prevent them falling into crime and the Justice system.

The tall ship 'The Enterprize" arrived back at 2 North Wharf on Monday 26th September just before 1pm. 
8 happy students slowly disembarked and reluctantly farewelled the friends that they had made I've the last 4 days.
The students were supported by the following clubs Footscray, Collingwood, Altona City, Brighton, Brighton North and Keilor East. 

Two interesting presentation at our August meetings. Our fellow Rotarian, PP Jamie Robertson spoke on August 3^rd about his recent trip to Scotland. At the meeting on August 17^th Rotarian Catherine Eagleson spoke about her work as a “wordsmith” creating word puzzles.

The Rotary Club of Footscray club is supporting this project, which will involve the installation of a Hellenic themed mural, celebrating the Greek influence in Footscray.  

For details of the project click here.

Rotarians are invited to attend the inauguration ceremony at 12.30pm on Sat 9^th September at The Line, Yewers Footscray. Details below.

The Rotary Club of Footscray hosted the 2023 Footscray Art Prize Dinner Dance on August 5^th, at Croatia House following the exhibition of the artists’ entries at Footscray Arts Community and a review of the exhibition by Bernadette Fitzgerald, Senior Producer at Footscray Community Arts. Daniel Santangeli, Artistic Director & Co-CEO was our after dinner speaker

Both of these events were very well attended and the Club should be complemented for hosting to such a high standard during this biannual event.

Apart from the financial return for the club, as facilitator of an important community event the club gains much in the community.

Students from Kensington Primary School held fund raisers to buy stationery items for students in a remote area of Timor Leste. The school is Liaruca Elementary and Junior High school. What a journey it has been. Timor Leste is only 686kms from Darwin.The supplies were packaged up before Christmas and dropped off at DIK to be included in the next container going to Dili. The container left Australia on the 28th February and was expected around the 28th March and on the 5th April it was in harbour awaiting release.

At the opening of the Footscray Art Prize on President Bob gave a delightful and appropriate speech ending by saying that he hoped that our prizes for the secondary school and primary school winners created hope in the art community.

Jaydyn Gregorio (pictured) won the Secondary prize with an amazing painting on a mirrored surface.

The primary school winner was Grace Nguyen for her beautiful crocheted creation.

See Photo Gallery on webpage for more photos.

The Changeover from President Maria Silber to Bob Newman was held at the Yarraville Club on 29th June. Maria reviewed the past year whilst Bob spoke of the plans he has for the club in 2023-24.

District Governor Elect Michael Lapiña from the Rotary Club of Wyndham proposed the toast to Rotary.

A Paul Harris recognition was awarded to Carol Castano for her leadership of the handcraft group that has over many years raised money for Foundation.

Ryan Haque was sponsored by our club to attend the National Youth Science Forum earlier this year. This was the first NYSF for three years due to COVID and in contrast to previous residential events in 2023 the event was a hybrid of on-line and face to face activities in hubs around Australia.

At our meeting on July 4^th we viewed a challenging recorded address from newly inducted RI President Gordon McInally. There was also discussion of plan for the club in the coming year.

At District Changeover the club received a "People of Action Award" for the Horn of Africa Project. All credit to Jama Farah for his outstanding work shipping recycled medical equipment ot Africa.

The Rotary Youth Sailing Challenge provided a once in a lifetime opportunity for young people to experience an amazing five days at sea. Our club, along with Echuca Rotary supported one of these 24 students to participate in this exciting adventure, sailing from Melbourne to Adelaide. Rodney and Maria also hosted 4 of the voyagers when they arrived from South Australia.

RICON Hospitality Event with – Sylvie Paladino

The Clocktower in Moonee Ponds was filled with Rotarians ready for a fabulous night of entertainment and food. Sylvie Paladino was in great form and entertained the audience with stories about her life as well as being a wonderful singer. The musical entertainment concluded with the Melbourne Women’s Choir singing “I am Australian”.  The feedback from guests was very positive with a good balance of entertainment, time to mingle and refreshments. The planning committee extend their thanks to Susan Palmer, Graeme Thompson and Suzanne Zammit for their volunteering on the night.

The Rotary International Convention was held in Melbourne May 27th-31st. Among the 14000 registrants form 120 countries  with a number of our club members attending.The main sessions were held at Rod Laver Arena with the breakout sessions and House of Friendship at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre (Jeff's Shed).

The Main sessions were spectacular with inspiring presentations, updates on major projects (Polio Plus) and entertainment.

Committee Chairs reported back on achievements over the year. These achievements were reported throughout the year but when you hear about the achievements of the club as a total it makes you realise that we have had a big impact in improving the lives of people in our local community as well international communities.

Dr Akram Abdulahi was our speaker on the 1^st June.

Akram grew up in Melbourne, studied dentistry at Melbourne University and now works at dental practices and Kensington.

Akram spoke about the Hararian Community in Melbourne and its efforts in supporting their youth to ensure that they have strong connections to their own community and have positive role models.

Our final social activity planned by Ron and Kevin was on Sunday 21^st May. We went to see Catch Me If You Can at the National Theatre in St Kilda. Everyone really enjoyed the afternoon and it was a fabulous performance. If you weren’t able to come on Sunday it’s well worth the effort to go and see it before it closes.

The Mambourin/Rotary Club of Footscray Disability Worker Award

These three awards are jointly sponsored by Mambourin and the Rotary Club of Footscray and acknowledge the contribution that support workers make to the day to day lives of people living with a disability.

1 Most outstanding disability support worker of the year with a minimum of 5 years of service to the sector but preferably 10 or more, Alem Yale Tirunhe

2.Most outstanding supported employee/trainee of the year was Ben Eldridge

3. Most outstanding disability support worker of the year with less than 12 months experience was Marie Imanishimwe.

At the Meeting on May 5th the Evan Phillips Award was presented to Rebcca Ann Grange a young woman who is undertaking an apprenticeship in Certificate 3 Light Vehicle at Footscray Nissan.

This award is set up to remember and honour Evan Phillips a powerhouse in the club from 1969-2010. Thanks to Emanuel and Fred for their organisation of a very worthy recipient for this Award. I would also like to thank Evan’s daughter Judy Pepi and son in law Michael for their generous donation towards this award. 

Congratulations to Rebecca Anne Grange and we wish her well in her career.

Our Annual Golf Day was held on Friday 21^st April at Sanctuary Lakes Golf Course. The weather was beautiful, people were in a good mood, and it was a wonderful day. The day started with breakfast, followed by a round of golf on the Greg Norman designed Sanctuary Lakes Course. It concluded with a BBQ lunch, awarding of the prizes and a raffle draw.  

When Catrione spoke last month she had a slide in her presentation that showed her wide range of experiences in science. At the end of year 11 Catrione was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Footscray to attend the National Youth Science Forum. If you have ever wondered why we sponsor young people to attend the NYSF have a look at the following slides.

We were asked to run a BBQ at the Stony Creek Music Festival so that families would have a more affordable alternative to the usual food trucks. The weather was windy and at times wet but people who attended really enjoyed themselves. There were lots of children and their dogs. It was a most enjoyable BBQ to run with the music as a background. Again thanks to Rodney, Ron and Elia for their organisation and to everyone else who turned up to help on the day.

Daryl Mills was our speaker. Daryl is well known to many club members as he was a member for many years. He now lives in Mt Evelyn and we very much appreciate his long trek to Footscray.  Daryl had a long connection with Rotary and spent many years in Timor Leste where he had to overcome many problems.....

Thanks to all our sponsors for the fundraising Golf Day at Sanctuary Lakes Golf Club on Friday 21st April.