Our monthly Business Meeting, a very successful EcoBrick Building Event and Countdown to the Centennial Conference....

 From the Pen of our President......

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

 

 Many thoughts have come to mind since our meeting on Friday:

I have been putting together a history of the club for the Rotary Club of Johannesburg (our mothership)– first thought, Rosebank Rotary Club is AWESOME!!

I have gone through many photos and put them into a video, there must be hundreds more – where are they? Lets get them all together.

I have been watching the fires raging in Cape Town with great sadness – thought, we need to be grateful and enjoy what we have!!

I watched the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh on Saturday afternoon – thought, we REALLY need to count our Blessings and enjoy what we have!!

Who are you going to share the Ramble with this week?

Please join those of us attending the Centennial this coming weekend – District is still offering tickets until Thursday.

 Yours in Rotary,

 Ann Hope-Bailie

President - Rotary Club of Rosebank

Johannesburg

Last Friday.....

... was our monthly Business Meeting with report backs to the Club by the Board, thereby keeping its members in the loop.

• Attendance - monitored diligently by Pam Donaldson. On average we had 21 members attend the weekly meetings, a slight decrease from the previous month. 
• Membership - David Bradshaw might have been on a well-deserved  break in the Cape, but he did submit his report, which our Prez presented. 

1. Gareth Hood (Sonja's son, who teaches in China) has had his fireside chat and will be inducted on Friday the 30th of April. He will become our second e-member (unless we count Juanette, who is a bit of a hybrid)
2. Rui Lopez, who was introduced by PP Jean will have his fireside chat shortly and will be next in line to be inducted.
3. Roger Wedlake - used to be an Excalibur member and is very keen to join Rotary Club of Rosebank.
4. David has been very busy drumming up enthusiasm at Dainfern with the aim of forming a satellite club. So far there are 8 potential members. He is also looking at Steyn City and Jackal Creek Estate.
5. He visited Carol Lawrence, who has settled in nicely at Ekklesia Park in Blairgowrie.
6. David plans on picking up Peter Margolius for our next hybrid social meeting at the end of the month, and reports that Hugh Rix and James Byrne are also looking forward to coming to the meeting at Wanderers.
7. Jean and Ann visited Judy Powell

• International - James Croswell reported back that he had spoken with Dr Mpho, who heads up the Palliative Care Department at Baragwanath, and he is hoping that we will be able to do a formal handover of the refurbished container at the end of May.                                                                                                                                                                                            James also dispensed with an interesting snippet of information, that one no longer would have to pay a subscription to join an Action Group, and he is encouraging Rotarians to join an Action Group like HEWRAG                                                                                                                         
  
  
  
• Youth - AG Jean reported that the InteractClub of Highlands North Boys High School had voted for a President and Vice President, but that it was still quite difficult to arrange meetings as only the Matric class attends school daily. They are planning a Blood Drive and organizing a Blanket Drive at the Norwood Spar. They are looking for project suggestions for Mandela Day.                                                                                                                                                                                               District RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) will this year again be an online course                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
  
  
   

• Publicity - Thanks to our weekly Ramble going to Rotary Africa and also District we have been getting regular exposure in the monthly publications.
•  Foundation - Les Short - Not much longer for the Grant reports to be finalized and ultimately submitted, which is a prerequisite if we want to apply for a further grant.  
• Fundraising - Sonja Hood and a few others of us (over 200 people to be exact!) attended an enthralling Zoom presentation organized by the Rotary Club of Helderberg in the Cape - Clem Sunter - topic: Beyond 2021 - The World and South Africa - Latest Flags, Scenarios  and Probabilities. She is exploring the possibility of inviting Clem to present to a Rotary Club of Rosebank fundraiser.                                                                                                                                                                                        Although our annual Quiz evening is still a few months off, please give some thought to donating prizes for the  Raffle.
• Community Services - Sybille had done a sight inspection of the Durban Deep vegetable garden to determine where the JoJo water tank we are donating to the community will be placed.                                                                                                                                                                                    
  
  
  

The intended area is walled and well secured and there is ample space to establish a sustainable vegetable garden.

The existing vegetable garden is thriving, but there is no space to expand at its present position.

The annual Blanket Drive has been confirmed and will take place at the William Nicol Pick 'n Pay on Saturday the 7th and Sunday the 8th of May, there will be three shifts of two hours each on Saturday and two shifts on Sunday. We need 4 volunteers for each shift  as we have to man two entrances and Costa has circulated a spread sheet for members and friends to put their names down.

And the meeting ended with Sybille taking a video of the Zoom attendees singing a hilarious Happy Birthday to the Rotary Club of Johannesburg who are celebrating their Centenary in April.

President Ann has painstakingly converted it to a wonderful tribute.

Ecobricks Galore...

On Saturday the 17th of April the Rotary Club of Rosebank was represented at an event in Diepsloot to celebrate the beginning of a very ambitious ecobrick community centre building project.

This was in support of Diana Musara, President Elect of the Rotary Club of Randburg. 

We have reported on the Khensani Collection NPC in previous editions of the Ramble. It is a non-profit company who have been operational in Diepsloot since 2016, providing assistance to the underprivileged.

They do extraordinary education-focused work with youngsters in the area, offering teen mentorship, after school lessons in maths , English and science, entrepreneurship programs and coaching and career guidance.

They are now planning on building a further two classrooms as well as a library and a gym, and all of this with ecobricks. 

Claudio Marangonic, a teacher at St Davids Marist Brothers and his wife Jane, who teaches at St Mary's are both  passionate about the environment and had been encouraging their learners to make ecobricks, but it was only when they were shown pictures of the Khensani classroom that they realized that there was purpose in their commendable endeavours. They were therefore very excited to bring a group of their students to this ecobrick making event.

Sybille is also planning on getting  an article published in  the Killarney Gazette to showcase this ambitious project with the emphasis on St Davids and St Mary's  challenging other Johannesburg Schools to beat their record of 500 completed ecobricks. 

There were many groups involved involved in making this day a success and Sybille even picked up a rake and helped fill a bag with the volunteers from Move a Million,  a passionate group of activists that want to make a difference.

The youngsters left that day with a sense of achievement, knowing that their future ecobrick endevours will be going to a good cause.

Countdown to the Centennial.....

Please heed DG Annemarie Mostert and our President Ann's call and attend this weekend's Centennial Conference. The programme is jam-packed with the most amazing speakers and promises to be the best district conference ever.

This Friday......

Sonja Hood shares her story.