President Neville has said all that there is to say so I won't repeat it. Instead, just to show that there is more to the Festival than looking at or buying paintings, here's one of the workshops in progress.
Last Week
Chris Piears, an Honorary Ranger of SA Parks spoke to us passionately about his interest in wildlife conservation and in particular the work he has done with the Big Five. He intended focusing on Leopard conservation because, much to my surprise, leopards are much more endangered that I thought but downloading the video turned out to be a bit of a problem.
It didn't matter at all because he had many interesting and entertaining things to say as you can see the by the level of concentration on the faces of visiting DG Nominee Jankees Sligcher and President Neville.
What was particularly interesting and unusual was that both of his sons have followed him into the business of conservation.
Marianne Soal was inducted as a member of our club the week before but she successfully ran away before she could be photographed. This week we nailed her to the floor so here she is with President Neville.
This Week
It will be more of a Social Meeting than a Business Meeting as 10 of us are away at Discon.
This Coming Year
You will have noticed, I hope, that I have put on a couple of items for July and the DG's Visit at the beginning of August.
On Friday 15th July we have been invited to join New Dawn for a Dinner and Port Tasting at Cheese Gourmet in Linden. This is what Jo Dick of Cheese Gourmet has to say:
I have managed to organize Mike Neebe from Axe Hill to do 3 port tasting as well as a white and red wine. We did this pairing recently and it was very successful. We will match five cheeses with these varietals.
I would like to suggest we do the port/wine and cheese tasting as the starter, a "cheats" cassoulet made with Peter James-Smith's Toulouse sausages and an Eaton Mess as a dessert.
Date 15/7/16 at 18h30 for 19h00 start
R250 per head
Mike will have some wine and port for sale on the evening
We will send round a circular at the beginning of July after this busy month has come to an end.
Club Assembly Saturday 30th July 9,00 to 12,00 Wanderers
This is a very important meeting as you, as club members, must tell the Board what you expect of us for the coming Rotary year.
I have asked the various Directors to make a Powerpoint presentation of their possible plans for the year for you to discuss and decide what we should go ahead with, scrap or anything else that you would like us to look at. This meeting will set the tone for the year and we will have a similar one at the end of January.
We will have lunch at Chariots afterwards so please invite your partners to come and join us.
DG's Visit Friday 5th August
DG Grant Daly will be visiting us for the morning of the 5th culminating in our usual lunch. We are the only club he will visit. We have already begun to sort out the details and please do your best to attend. It's early in the year but that has distinct advantages as we will be able to talk about our plans without having to show whether they are a success or not! No doubt there will be a meeting with the Anns but he hasn't even been inducted as DG yet and we will hear in due course.
RAVINDRAN MOVES AUDIENCE WITH PERSONAL STORY
RI President K.R. Ravindran closed the convention in Korea on Wednesday, 1 June, with a poignant story about his mother's fight to survive polio at age 30.
When Ravindran was 11 years old in his native Sri Lanka, his mother awoke one day feeling weak and short of breath. Sitting down to rest, she found herself unable to move. The polio virus had quickly invaded her nervous system, resulting in paralysis.
She was placed in an iron lung at the hospital to enable her to breathe, and was told that her chances of walking, or even surviving without a ventilator, were slim. But most Sri Lankan hospitals were not equipped with ventilators in 1963.
Ravindran's grandfather, a Rotary member, hosted a club committee meeting in his living room the evening after his daughter was rushed to the hospital. Rather than simply offer consolation, his fellow members went to work, using their business acumen and professional connections to find a ventilator.
One of the members was a bank manager who called a government minister to facilitate a quick international transfer of funds. Another member, a manager at SwissAir, arranged to have a ventilator flown in. The next day, it arrived at the hospital.
"There was so much red tape at the time in Sri Lanka, but somehow, those Rotarians made it all fall away," Ravindran told the packed audience at the KINTEX Convention Center in Goyang city.
Ravindran's mother spent a year-and-a-half in a hospital bed, but her condition gradually improved. She eventually left the hospital walking -- with a walker, but upright, on her own two feet.
"Fifty-three years ago, my mother's life was perhaps one of the very first to be saved from polio by Rotarians," Ravindran said. "We have saved millions of lives since then.
"Tonight, I stand before you as her son, and your president, to say that soon -- perhaps not in years but in months -- Rotary will give a gift that will endure forever: a world without polio."
At the convention's general session the day before, Rebecca Martin, director of the Center for Global Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had described how close we are to polio eradication. Earlier that day, Rotary released an additional $35 million in grants to support global efforts to end the crippling disease.
This year's convention, one of the largest in Rotary history, attracted more than 43,000 attendees from over 150 countries. Ravindran, in his final speech to members as their president, emphasized what it really means to be a Rotarian.
"There are people on this planet whose lives are better now because you traversed this earth," he said. "And it doesn't matter if they know that or not. It doesn't matter if they even know your name or not. What really matters is that your work touched lives; that it left people healthier, happier, better than they were before."
LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT YEAR
Following Ravindran's remarks, members of Ravindran's Rotary Club of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and RI President-elect John Germ's Rotary Club of Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, took the stage to exchange club banners, a tradition that unofficially marks the changing of the guard.
Germ told the audience that Rotary is about to begin the most progressive year in its history.
"You told us that we need to change and become more flexible so that Rotary service will be attractive to younger members, recent retirees, and working people," Germ said. "You spoke with clarity, and groundbreaking legislation was passed this year at the Council on Legislation.
"Clubs now have the opportunity to be who they want to be, but at the same time remain true to our core. I'm pleased to share with you that Rotarians all over the world are responding with great excitement."
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