Meetings are held at 6.30pm on the first and third Thursdays of the month.
Meetings are held at 6.30pm on the first and third Thursdays of the month.
Footscray West Primary School have sent a certificate of appreciation for our donation of $500 to their Vision and Values launch. Each student planted a sunflower seed…nearly 680!…in a small pot to demonstrate the value of responsibility.
Their new responsibility icon is a plant!
There are 6 primary schools in our area and we have been able to donate $500 each to St Monica’s Primary School and Footscray Primary School.
On October 3rd club member Stephen Palmer spoke about his life and work as a “Person behind the Badge” presentation
At the meeting on October 17th Megan Bridger-Darling spoke about “National Survivors Day”. The day commemorates the courage and journeys of survivors of sexual, institutional abuse and their supporters. This was a challenging presentation for all present.
Attending the meeting was Sophia Wilson - pictured with Maria Silber. Sophia is the nominee of Footscray High School as the recipient of the District Foundation Grant Scholarship which will support her during year 11 and 12.
Sophia, a student at Footscray High School and the Rotary Foundation Scholarship recipient for 2023-24 who recently attended one of our meetings has written to Maria Silber with good news.
The Multi District Impact Summit (District Conference) will be held at Morphetville Racecourse in Adelaide May 16-18 and is set to be an inspiring gathering of Rotary minds, all coming together to make a greater impact.
As spaces are limited secure your spot today at rotaryimpactsummit.org!
A promotional video can be viewed here.
The Annual General meeting of FRACS was conducted prior to the regular meeting on December 19th. This fund which resulted from a merger of Western Region Aged Care and the Rotary Community Service Fund with a charter to support charities, with deductible gift recipient (DGR) status, working in Footscray and the inner West.
At our Christmas meeting Eloise, our outgoing Exchange Student spoke to us briefly about her year ahead in the Czech Republic/Czechia, and included a brief message in Czech. Eloise has had a number of “ups and downs” finding a county to host her exchange and after offers from France, Switzerland and Austria didn’t eventuate a host club was secured in Czechia.
At this meeting we were honoured to welcome DG Michael Lapina for his visit to our club. He complemented the club for the impact it has had locally and internationally.
He then spoke to the annual theme “The Magic of Rotary”...
Nina Fromhold, from Memory Lane - Life Stories was our speaker on November 7th.
Discovering a recorded message of her “Nan” 4 weeks after she passed away made Nina realise the value of such a recording as it included important content of the family history in her grandmother’s voice.
Such recordings provide an understanding of a person across subsequent generations and avoids their story being lost.
Of late, this on-going project has been flying under the radar for most members of the club. Since its inception, it has grown and evolved to the extent that the original focus of providing disease prevention and primary care for rural school children has ended, perhaps temporarily, while the tutoring visits to Vietnam’s main dental hospital has gone from strength to strength.
We mourn the loss of our longtime member Frank Brown, who died on 19th November. A member of the Rotary Club of Footscray for 49 years having joined in April 1975, President 1986/87 and Paul Harris recognition with Sapphire 1992-93.
The Rotary theme during his year as President was “Rotary Brings Hope”. During his presidency the Club’s 50th Anniversary was celebrated with a black tie gala dinner at the Arts Centre. Other highlights of that year were Sir Edward (Weary ) Dunlop being the most significant lunchtime speaker and a Children’s Christmas party being instituted.
The 2025 cohort of Rotary Exchange Students, including Eloise our sponsored student, departed from Tullamarine on on Saturday 18th January, on their adventure in various parts of Europe. Eloise recently spoke at our club meeting and was keenly anticipating her exchange in the Czech Republic, which is now a reality. We look forward to updates from her during the year.
Through the generous support of health services, donations of valuable medical equipment continues.
Jama has recently taken delivery of 40 hospital beds and matresses from a nursing home in Kew and this week Western Health donated XR and anaesthetic machines and more ultrasound equipment. Western Health recently published an article in one of their newsletters featuring the association with the Rotary Club of Footscray and this wonderful project.
Valentina Bolados Cornejo and Alice Giang from Audika spoke about hearing issues.
Hearing is fundamental to our connections with others and is the third most common problem over 70 and more common in men and diabetics.
Hearing loss results in:misunderstanding, emotional impacts, stress in relationships, depression/anxiety/social isolation and is associated with dementia.
To minimise impact of hearing loss they advocated regular hearing checks and avoiding noisy environments.
They also briefly discussed the common symptom of tinnitus - ringing in the ears. There are many causes including stress, and although there is no cure, they advocated distraction as the best management.
We would like to provide an update regarding the Horn of Africa project, which has now successfully completed its latest initiative to send essential goods to the Horn of Africa region.
The Horn of Africa project was commissioned to provide those living in the Horn of Africa region with the resources and materials that would make a positive difference in their lives. In particular, the project aimed to provide medical equipment to local hospitals that were in dire need, and to support locals who would otherwise travel long distances to receive the basic medical care that they needed. The beneficiaries of these donated resources can now boast of much improved facilities and vastly superior patient care.
At our meeting on 21 March tow speakers Fortuna Berhane of the Australia Tigray Alliance and Dr Hiwet Aregawi a medical practioner who arrived in Australia a year ago. They gave us apowerful insight to the needs in Tigray following the two year civil war.
Fortuna emphasised the waty in which support can be provided whilst Hiwet spoke of the lack of supplies that resulted in many deaths,
Sharon Read, Acting Director of Western Health Foundation spoke at our March 7 meeting.
During her presentation she highlighted the fundraising efforts last year that financed the purchase of an ultrasound scanner for use in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit which will assist in the management premature babies.
Two containers have recently arrived at port of Berbera, Ethiopia.
A container of medical supplieds arrived early March and has been transported to Jig Jiga, Somali Regional State of Ethiopia.
Last week a second container arrived and included a large donation of ForaMeal from RC Canterbury and also donated clothes.
This year the Rotary Club of Footscray is again supporting and sponsoring 2 very important Awards in our Vocational Services programs- the Mambourin and Evan Phillips awards.
Partnering with Mambourin Enterprises, our Club will present 3 Awards, which include $1,000 to each recipient matched dollar for dollar with Mambourin in these categories:-
1. Outstanding Supported Employee
2. Outstanding Disability Support Worker
3. First Year Disability Support Worker
Andrew spoke about his grandfather, Arch Hoadley, the first principal of Footscray Technical School and prime mover in the formation of the Rotary Club of Footscray.
Having completed degrees in Mining Engineering and Geology Arch sought adventure and was a member of Mawson’s Antarctic Expedition in 1911-13 as a geologist. On returning from the Antarctic 1914-16 he was a lecturer at the Ballarat School of Mines.
Arch took up his appointment at Footscray in 1916 with 184 day students and 132 evening students. Fees were 15 shillings per term or 5 shillings for evening students and free to those under 14.
His philosophy was to educate young men so that they could:
Speakers at our February 1st meeting were Charlie, Fred and Mikaela, who our club sponsored to the Rotary Sailing Challenge on a four day cruise around Port Phillip Bay on Enterprise in January.
All three are very grateful for the opportunity to have such an amazing experience.
Funds ($2234) supporting the Rotary Youth Sailing Challenge were raised through our Christmas raffle.
We were delighted to be invited by the to conduct a sausage sizzle at the Western Bulldogs family day and practice match at the Whitten Oval on Friday 23rd February. Two shifts of members sold hundreds of sausages and drinks to the Bulldog fans. Extra supplies were required after the midday rush. This was the most productive sausage sizzle the club has conducted and the profit will be approx $4000.
We are pleased once again to provide an update on the Horn of Africa project. A project commissioned by the Rotary Club of Footscray, as part of Rotary District 9800, and Donations in Kind, to support those living in the Horn of Africa region.
We have achieved another success in fundraising for the Ayder Hospital in the Tigray Regional State of Ethiopia, which is the largest hospital in the region and the only one with surgical facilities. A once state-of-the-art facility providing world class care to people all over the region, the hospital is now in shambles after the recent conflict in the country.
Our outgoing exchange student Anita left late Saturday for Italy.
She was very excited and had said that she will send us photos of her adventures.
Host family "sisters" and members of the Rotary Club of Nuoro gave her a warm welcome.
At the meeting on May 16th, three awards will be made to staff at Mambourin Enterprises. These awards by our club in partnership with Mambourin. will be made in the following categories:-
1. Outstanding Supported Employee
2. Outstanding Disability Support Worker
3. First Year Disability Support Worker
The Annual Golf day on April 19th was held at Eynesbury Golf Course this year, due to rising costs at Sanctuary Lakes. We were well supported by Sponsors and Donations from far and wide, as well as from our members too. We had 56 players join in for a fun day and most I spoke to, enjoyed the day of relaxed golf (always better in a cart if you don’t have to walk!) and the food received favourable comments too.
