A Friend of Rotary pays us a visit, Emma goes on vacation, a memorable Skittle evening and Charity Begins With Me promotes reading.....

 From the Pen of the President....

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

 

So our “Winter Wardrobe” project seems like it could get exciting – AG Jean has offered to provide the venue, we have a number of Rotarians with sewing machines. Those who can knit should get started – scarves, beanies, snoods, mittens or shawls. There is a lot of wool floating about (heard about it) – start bringing it in please. We need donations of fleece and ribbing. Do not be intimidated if you cannot sew or knit – I am sure you are able to use a pair of scissors? Make a cup of tea? Please do not hesitate to ask friends and family for help with knitting or donations of clothing or any materials. The wardrobe is going to require some shoes as well – Lorenzo’s son has given us some fabulous donations of shoes and caps (just need transport from Cape Town). I would like this to be a CLUB effort – you know what that means – if you cannot be there – we need your money, donations or time.

 

There is something about reacquainting oneself with old friends – it brings such pleasure! We had that last Friday listening to Mike Greeff, and over the weekend I received an email from President Richard of the Rotary Club of Otway, UK – they would like to reignite the relationships we had and assist with one of our projects!! Lets see what develops. CONTACTS - This is also what David would like us to do – approach our everyday contacts and friends to become Rotarians.

 

Back to sizzling weather – no rain – are we ever happy!!??

Have a good week.

 

Ann

 

Last Friday....

....Rosebank Rotary club said “hello” and gave a warm welcome to Mike Greeff, who was part of the Rosebank Rotary family for over 20 years, and many of the Rotarians and Rotary Anns that attended the meeting, spent time afterwards chatting, catching up and making plans to visit with Mike and his wife Fiona in Clarens where he now lives.

Mike Greeff's introduction to the Senior Youth Leadership Course was serendipitous. At that stage he was working for FNB and had been asked to help out and present a motivational talk to the learners, and the rest as they say is history.

Mike ran the annual courses for more than 20 years and he reminisced fondly of the family hitching up their caravan and heading out to Kloofwater  for the weekend. They so enjoyed “going to the Mountain” each year! He even remembers Lorenzo singing O Sole Mio!

His skills in leadership and strategy inspired the learners attending the camp to aim higher in their aspirations. More importantly, his decision to join St.Davids's Marist Brothers College as CEO was as a direct result of his involvement with SYLC. 

 He was awarded a Paul Harris fellowship. This is awarded for excellence in service to Rotary. This humble, but qualified and capable leader was unaware that he would be a recipient and he still regards this honour with awe. He will also forever be grateful for Rotary's sponsoring his overseas MBA trip.

The main reason for Mike's visit however, was to talk to us about the Royal Drakensberg Education Trust of which he is a founder member and Trustee. 

https://www.royal-drakensberg.org.za/

The Trust's humble beginnings were in 2007 when the Carte family of the famous family run Cavern Hotel near Bergville asked him to share in their vision to create an Early Childhood Development Centre in this rural and disadvantaged part of the Drakensberg. Mike lived on site for a year to ensure that the project got off on a sound footing.

The Trust has three main areas of focus: The Royal Drakensberg Primary school, the Khanyisela Project and the latest addition Baby Boost.

The school caters for children up to grade 3 and has 102 learners.

The Khanyisela Project is the main recipient of the Rosebank Rotary Anns fundraising initiatives. It works to improve the lives of 650 pre-school children in the impoverished Amazizi district and concentrates on education, social, emotional and cognitive development as well as health and nutrition.

The objective is to learn to read so that students can read to learn. Mike shared the vision of the “Valley of Excellence” which has international support, including that of Redford Rotary Group in the United Kingdom. 

Their latest initiative, Baby Boost, started by Dr Marisha Nash,  is a carer and baby project and concentrates on the first 1000 days of childhood. 

Mike said that in affluent Johannesburg one's wealth is measured by the cars or houses, but in rural Drakensberg, Mike was asked how many chickens he had. He answered that he had no chickens at all, only 5 dogs. 

His title is “Umkhulu Mike” – “Grandfather Mike” and he bears that title with pride.

When a pebble is thrown into water, no one can tell how many subsequent ripples form or on what distant shores the ripples unfurl. This is Rotary in its very essence.

Emma goes on vacation....

Schools had a short mid-term break and Emma's host family motored down Kapacz in Poland for a few days of sightseeing.

The weather started off quite miserable but eventually cleared up sufficiently so that they could get in some skiing.

They visited the nearby town of Jelenia Gora and the Czech border was only a stone's throw away.

RC Esbjerg, Denmark pips RC Rosebank at the Quiz Challenge post.....

If there is one thing that the Covid lockdown experience has taught us is that distance and time differences are easily overcome with Zoom technology and that Rotary Fellowship is truly universal.

Last Wednesday's quiz challenge against the Rotary Club of Esbjerg in Denmark was testament to this.

The quiz coincided with RC Esbjerg's weekly meeting and collectively they proved to be formidable opponents and quizmaster David Bradshaw's challenging questions did not seem to phase them and they walked away victorious by a small margin.

The ever-popular Skittles evening raises funds for Club projects....

... In the words of Pam Donaldson: "Well done Sonja, best Fundraiser ever!!" 

 The Swiss Club in Kyalami always host us graciously and it is lots of competitive banter, great fun, good food and all for a good cause, and last Friday evening's Fundraiser clearly did not disappoint.

A respectable amount of R5 200 was raised. Thank you to everyone  who participated.

A One Man crusade for Literacy...

The excerpt below was taken from Charity Begins with Me's  Facebook page. Stephan Ferreira does such amazing work amongst the most vulnerable people in the Durban Deep informal settlement.

We got soaking wet last week and the week before. The rain simply got the best of us. Today the sun was out, and we took some time out to catch up on reading. A lot of the kids really struggle with reading and don't have access to libraries. If we can just see a little improvement this year, it will all be worth it. I am also planning a few reading competitions so be sure to watch this space!!--

This Friday....

...Roger Wedlake will no doubt give us a insightful and entertaining lecture on the origins of Masonry.

Don't miss it.