Mike Lawrence RIP. Snow Leopards, the Mosque Outing, Melanie Walker and a Peace Initiative.

Last Week
Sadly Past President Mike Lawrence died at about midday on Saturday morning.  I asked Mike Lamb if he would kindly provide an In Memoriam as he has known him longer than most of us.

Michael Lawrence 1936 to 2019

Michael Lawrence became a Rotarian in 2000. In 2004/05 he served as President of the Rotary Club of Rosebank. In his service of eighteen years he worked tirelessly on a multiplicity of projects and was particularly true to the Object of Rotary in his daily activities. The Rotary Family was always meaningful and of great importance to him.

In latter years, he took on the onerous duties of Administrative Officer of the club and discharged his responsibilities in an exemplary manner including the changeover to computerised reporting and the mentoring of his successor, Jeannette Horner.

Michael was the victim of a physiological anomaly – his heart practically filled his entire body.

He took a keen interest in the activities and achievements of others and was always there quietly offering support and encouragement.

I enjoyed a close personal friendship with Michael, initially based on sharing a deep commitment to the promotion and extended use of electronic commerce, particularly EDI – Electronic Data Interchange - as a means of expediting, simplifying and accelerating inter-company transaction exchanges such as orders, invoices, etc. In business Michael worked tirelessly at promoting and implementing EDI with his company, Reckitt Benckiser, FMCG suppliers and major supermarket chains.

He has a zest for life that he held on to despite chronic heath issues that debilitated him for many of his later years and which he bore stoically despite the adversity.

Michael had a consuming passion for flight which we shared and which he passed on to his son Mark.

In flying, the position of an aircraft in an envelope of air – whether climbing, banking or any other manoeuvre is called it’s attitude.  There is a quote that we both enjoyed:

“ It’s your Attitude not your Aptitude that determines your Altitude”

Michael flew high. 

Michael is survived by his wife, Carol and his son Mark.

We extend our deepest sympathy to both families as they mourn the loss of this fine man.

A memorial service will be held at 3pm on Thursday 7 March at Harveston Retirement Village, 30 Penchartz Road, Honeydew Manor followed by refreshments and a rousing farewell to Michael.

Michael Lamb  

Our Friday Meeting

Dr Rodney Jackson was our guest speaker, accompanied by his wife Darla, talking about Snow Leopard conservation in the Himalayas.  

I said enough about Snow Leopards last week but what is interesting is that they are not related to leopards at all, they are effectively a type of tiger.

What I didn't do was to show a picture of one so here's one taken by Rodney for National Geographic magazine.

He showed us others that emphasised the amazing camouflage of these cats as it was extremely difficult to spot them against the Himalayan mountain side.

We had a number of visitors.

Former Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Larissa Phillips presents President Jean
with a banner from the Rotary Club of San Marino, California

Artist Mario Soares and his manager, Mpho Mosia

Nicole Broome

Nicole Broome and Mpho Mosia are helping with our Rotary Arts Festival.






And last but not least Cuthbert Gumbochuma won chocolates by being the closest to guessing the amount in the Foundation Bottle...but it was much more than anyone guessed.

I am sure there was a bit if insider trading there.....otherwise he would have offered them round as any good Rotarian would!





The Saturday Outing - what President Jean had to say

Rotary Club of Rosebank fellowship outing to Nizamiye Mosque in Midrand where we had a delicious, plentiful lunch and the best baklava I have ever eaten. 😊











This Week
Our Speaker is Melanie Walker who used to do dangerous things but now is more of a gardener amongst other things which includes writing  for SA Garden and Home, presenting a gardening show, “Grounded” on 1485 am Radio Today; scriptwriting and researching for a couple of shows on DSTV (including Studio 53 – lifestyle and entertainment show that goes out on M-Net Africa); scriptwriting and doing voice-overs for Bike SA Tv; organising the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge Experience; teaching on Show Garden Design at Lifestyle College.




Peacemaker

David Ives
Rotary Club of Rhinebeck, New York

David Ives was a 16-year-old in rural Ohio in 1967 when he embarked on a trip that changed his life

. With his parents, Ives visited church missions in South America, where he saw people living in shelters made of corn stalks or tin cans, and in homes with no furniture other than a mattress on the floor. He saw rivers that were used as both sewers and sources of drinking water. “That’s the touchstone I can never get rid of,” he says, “the feeling that I had when I saw poverty for the first time.”

Ives turned that experience into a career dedicated to peace and the eradication of poverty. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica, he was a nutrition educator, helping people plant gardens to feed themselves during difficult economic times. While there, he tried unsuccessfully to save the life of a child whose lungs were filled with worms as a result of drinking dirty water. “She’s on my mind a lot,” he says.

Ives is a former Rotary Peace Forum coordinator, an adviser to the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, and the executive director emeritus of Quinnipiac University’s Albert Schweitzer Institute, which conducts programs based on Schweitzer’s philosophy of reverence for life to bring about a more civil and ethical society characterized by respect, responsibility, compassion, and service. He has organized Rotary peace conferences around the globe which feature world leaders such as former Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Óscar Arias Sánchez. At one of those peace conferences, in Côte d’Ivoire, Ives — himself a polio survivor — helped administer the polio vaccine to children in local communities.

With his fellow Rhinebeck Rotarians, Ives helps raise money for U.S. high school students to visit Costa Rica and carry out humanitarian projects in conjunction with Earth University, which teaches students from Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America how to work for socioeconomic and environmental change. 

Though now living with Parkinson’s disease, Ives, who turns 68 this month, shows no signs of slowing down his peace efforts — particularly where Rotary is concerned. “I’ve been extremely impressed with the power of Rotarians to be a force for peace,” he says. “We have great potential to do even more.”