We are back with Charmaine's Story, A "New Beginnings" drinks party at Ann's, and a great charitable initiative......

From the Pen of the President....

I pray that 2022 will be a year of happiness, fulfilled dreams and hopes for all our members and friends.  The start has seen both sides of the vaccine controversy becoming increasingly adamant.  Consider the strong statements that have been made about Novak Djokovic and his Australian visa problems.  RI has come out in strong support of being vaccinated, a view supported by most medical and scientific experts.  I am astounded by the number of people who really believe that the vaccine is a way of injecting a fluid computer chip into your system or that the vaccines were developed by experimenting on unborn foetuses.  No doubt about which side of the debate I take!

 

Costa Qually
President

Tailpiece

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realise how little we understand about life, ourselves and the world around us  (Socrates)

Last Friday....

....we kicked off the year with a hybrid meeting at Wanderers, and as our techno-boffin  Ann Hope- Bailie took care of proceedings it went ahead without a hitch.

It was Charmaine Leesman's turn to share her story with us, and as she works in Pretoria she beamed in via Zoom.

An unforgettable highlight of her young life must have been when she had the rare privilege of meeting Mother Theresa at the age of 15.

She met the love of her life Michael in creche when she was only 3 years old, and started dating him when they were still at school. The other two men in her life are her two sons Gerald and Tyron

Her other babies are her much loved dogs Gabi, Hannah and Babba.

She reminisced that as a child her dad had driven a BMW  and she had told him that one day she would work for BMW and sure enough, after starting her working life at OK Bazaars she then bagged a job at a BMW dealership and then was promoted to BMW South Africa where she worked for many years.

Volvo then headhunted her and now she has a challenging career with Stellantis, one of the leading global automakers.

Charmaine is a bit of an adrenaline junky and has done the famous Bloukrans bungee jump, rated as one of the highest commercial bungee jumps at 216 meters.

Her charitable passions involve children and animals, and the SPCA has a very special place in her heart. By joining Rotary she is hoping to channel these passions.

Thank you for sharing, Charmaine.

"New Beginnings" drinks at Ann's...

As our Christmas gettogether had to be cancelled last year, we thought it fitting that we should begin 2022 with a little bit of fellowship. Ann and John Hope-Bailie graciously hosted the drinks party and judging by the snapshots taken, it was a very jolly occasion. 

David Bradshaw got a bit chilly and borrowed Ann's dressing gown to keep him warm.

Charity Begins with Me Initiative....

The Rotary Club of Rosebank has had a long standing relationship with Paul Harris recipient Stephan Ferreira of Charity Begins With Me.

Last year we donated a JoJo tank to the vegetable garden project that he spearheaded in Durban Deep and he is now asking for assistance for his township recycling swap shop.

He is encouraging the children of the Durban Deep informal settlements to collect recyclable waste and in exchange they are then able to "buy" an item on offer, be it food, clothes,sweets, toys or stationary.

Last week Sybille dropped off a car-load of items collected from our members that went into "stock"

On Saturday the children lined up with their bags of collected recycled waste.

The items on offer:

The informal waste pickers now have their turn to make a living from the collected recyclable waste.

This Friday....

.... Our first Business Meeting of the year. 

"See" you there.