Upcycling is the new buzz word and our Rotary Exchange Student Emma spreads her wings...

From the Pen of the President.....

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

The heat over the past week has been amazing – everywhere in the world it seems that climate conditions are extreme. This scenario is what prompted environmental programs and the recycling of waste. We were presented with a unique way of upcycling waste at Friday's meeting. I think the aim is to not use anything which cannot be reused or repurposed and have another life!!

There are thousands of projects on the go and organizations to consult in this regard. You can recycle your waste and be a responsible citizen, do not expect to have someone do it for you. You can also assist with reducing waste and even make money from waste and do a ‘spring clean’ and donate your unused goods, past their prime clothes or out of date paraphernalia. There are no acceptable excuses – GET TO IT!! 

This week we will be celebrating the life of Rotarian James Byrne (Friday) and also Past Ann President Carol Lawrence (Thursday) – this is the circle of life!!

May their souls rest in peace.

Ann

Last Friday....

.... was a Friday the 13th. There are various theories as to the origins of the common superstition why this day is considered unlucky. Roger Wedlake shared one of them with us: On Friday the 13th 1307 Phillip the IV of France rounded up representatives of the very influential Knights Templar, a monastic military order, accusing them of trumped up crimes. They were brutally tortured and eventually burned at the stake. Thus began the infamous Inquisition.

One of our guests on Friday was former Rotarian Derrick Lange who was asked to tell us a little bit about himself. Now, well into his 70s he relayed the account that at the age of 50 he pushed a wheelbarrow for 660 km from the Zimbabwe border to Johannesburg with the aim of raising awareness for cancer. He did this under the Rotary banner and managed to raise R107 000, which was a sizeable amount of money over 20 years ago.

Unfortunately the only photo we have of Derrick is one that I took of my laptop screen. Due to loadshedding constraints the photo is a little grainy.

We were privileged to welcome Mark Fruhauf and his wife Winnie McHenry from the Upcycle Foundation to address our Club and tell us a little bit more about the concept of upcycling.

They were introduced by Rita Millan from RC Northcliff, who met Winnie 20 years ago and  is passionate about wanting to share the extraordinary work that Mark, Winnie and her team have accomplished.

The Upcycle Foundation had its beginnings in 2006. Winnie was a design and development consultant and applies her god-given creativity and ability to think out of the box to use literally anything that you and I might discard or throw away and repurpose it and breathe new life into it.

Mark was at pains to point out that there is a vast difference between recycling and upcycling. Recycling is the destruction of waste in order to create something new, whereas with upcycling you reengineer  waste and create something new from  it's current state, thereby increasing its value.

Mark uses the example of a vinyl record, where the record sleeve might be recycled with the input of energy, water and chemicals; the record itself would more than likely end up in landfill. Why not upcycle the record sleeve and make a gift bag, and turn the record itself into a wall clock?

In 2009 Upcycle had a breakthrough when Investec ordered 5000 branded drinking glasses as corporate gifts.

This was the first test of upcycling as a mass production model.

Upcycle also has a memorandum of understanding with several large companies whereby they will take on their advertising material, clothing or gifting that has been misbranded or is out of date and de-brand the items. They remove the identity and then on-sell them, thereby raising funds to  enable to do more. training.

A good example are the 60 backpacks that we as  Club  purchased from Upcycle towards the end of last year to donate to Charity Begins With Me for one of their school projects.

James Croswell thanked Mark and Winnie for their very insightful presentation with a home grown spekboom plant.

Again, apologies for the poor quality of the photo.

Our Rotary Exchange Student Emma finally spreads her Wings...

The build-up to Emma's departure to Germany has been nothing short of frenetic and last Wednesday she finally boarded a flight to Amsterdam and from there flew on to Dresden where she was met by her host family.

Terry Cannon, from the District Youth Exchange Committee, AG Jean Bernardo and President Ann were there to bid her Bon Voyage and God Speed. 

We have no doubt that Emma will be a worthy ambassador for Rotary and for South Africa.

May she soar!! 

Please click into the short video Emma compiled before heading out.

This Friday....

.....we will have our first Business Meeting for 2023. Please join the meeting to find out what plans the Rotary Club of Rosebank has in store for the balance of the Rotary Year.