Jerry Bernardo, My Rotary, the DG's Visit and "Fake News"

Last Week
Jerry Bernardo gave us a talk about himself....the youngest of 10 children.
It was very interesting how his real interest is in designing engines and machinery for specific purposes starting with his father making him clean engine parts when he was very young. 
I often wonder how many people became mechanics and engineers because every weekend fathers had to work on the car.  Cars have become more sophisticated today and constant adjustment is neither necessary nor possible.
Jerry moved on into building and we at Rotary Rosebank are forever in his debt for his use of those skills for Rotary projects over the years.



My Rotary
Ann Hope-Bailie has sent every member instuctions on how to register on My Rotary.  Almost all of our members are registered but it is very important that we are all on there.  Mentors of new members please make sure that your new members are registered.  Rotary International is now completely geared to electronic communication and we have to not only be registered but also all our projects etc have to be on my Rotary.  This means that the District Governor is able to see what we are doing, what we hope to do and what the status of our membership is at anytime.

This Week
It's the District Governor's visit, an annual event. 
We are lucky be visited so early in the year  as Jean and her executive will have a separate meeting with him before lunch and will lay out our plans for the year.  He will never know if we have managed to achieve them or not!  
If the visit was at the end of the year it would be a different story!
Our District Governor is Charles Deiner who is an agricultural consultant specialising in animal production and egg quality.  He is a member of the Rotary Club of Middelburg.

School for skeptics   by Vanessa Glavinskas   

When the BBC offered a quiz titled “Can You Spot the Fake Stories?” I was confident that I would do well. With a master’s degree in journalism, I thought falling for “fake news” only happened to other people. But I was fooled four times on the seven-question quiz.  

I’m not the only one who has trouble with this. Even the digitally savvy generation now growing up has a difficult time distinguishing credible content from fake stories. In 2015, Stanford University launched an 18-month study of students in middle school, high school, and college across several states to find out how well they were able to evaluate the information they consume online. 

Nearly 8,000 students took part in the study, and the results showed that they were easily duped. Many middle schoolers couldn’t tell the difference between a news story and an ad. College students weren’t able to distinguish a mainstream source from a group promoting a certain point of view. Students often decided if something was credible just by how polished the website looked. The study highlighted a fundamental problem: Today’s students are struggling to differentiate fact from fiction online.

“We’re living in the most overwhelming information landscape in human history,” says Peter Adams, a senior vice president for the News Literacy Project, a nonprofit that aims to add information literacy to middle and high school classrooms across the United States. “It’s confusing because people are consuming information in an aggregated stream, and social media gives things uniformity. A post from a conspiracy theory blog looks the same as a post from the Washington Post.”

To help students learn how to evaluate and verify information, the News Literacy Project launched a virtual classroom called Checkology. One part of the web-based tool allows teachers to present students with news reports, tweets, and other social media posts. The students must determine whether they are credible by looking for a variety of “red flags.”

Jodi Mahoney found Checkology last summer while researching ways to educate her students about fake news. Now she uses it in her classroom, where she teaches students about technology, from email etiquette to basic coding.

“What’s the best way to prevent yourself from spreading misinformation?” she asks a group of sixth-graders at Carl Von Linné Elementary School in Chicago. Eleven-year-old Michael raises his hand. “I think, first you double-check the site where you got it from,” he says. “Then look for clues to see if it’s credible.”

“Good. What kind of clues?” Mahoney encourages the students to start naming them. One student calls out that you want to avoid clickbait. “OK, what’s clickbait?” she asks. The room is quiet. “If you’re not sure, look it up. Let’s Google it.”

The class decides that clickbait is something “designed to get attention or arouse emotion.” The students have learned that’s a red flag because a strong emotional reaction can override your ability to critically evaluate information – a tendency often exploited by people trying to spread misinformation. Next, Mahoney asks them to log in to checkology.org to practice figuring out whether information is fact or fiction. 

“Go to module three,” Mahoney instructs. The students put on headphones and log in. A few minutes later, 12-year-old Guadalupe struggles to determine whether a sample Facebook post sharing an article headlined “CDC Issued a Warning – Don’t Get a Flu Shot This Year” is real. She ultimately decides it’s real because the post “gave a lot of facts about the flu” and included a source. She clicks “fact,” and Checkology corrects her. This post was fiction. 

“That lesson shows that just looking at it doesn’t give you what you need to know,” Adams explains. “If you don’t go upstream to another source, you can’t know if it’s true or not.” 

While the sixth-graders can’t always tell fact from falsehood, Mahoney says she appreciates that Checkology encourages students to be skeptical. “They are so comfortable using the internet that they don’t question it,” she says. She sees it at home too. “My [third-grade] daughter recently told me that the platypus wasn’t a real animal because of a YouTube video she saw.” 

After the class completes a module, Mahoney can create a spreadsheet to see how the students did. “The first week, they all scored very low,” she says. “The data showed me that I needed to be concerned.” At that point, her students couldn’t distinguish among types of media: News, entertainment, ads – they all seemed the same to them. After 13 weeks, she says, she’s starting to see students connect the dots, but emphasizes that they need to continue to practice. She adds, “This needs to be taught all the way through college.” 

Mahoney included a unit on fake news for her sixth-graders, because that’s when most of her students get a cellphone. “They start getting bombarded with content in fifth, sixth, or seventh grade,” she says. She also wants schools to put more emphasis on teaching news literacy. “We spend a lot of time lecturing kids on what not to do on the internet and how to be safe on the internet,” she says. “Now we need to teach them how to understand the content that’s out there.” 

Former teacher Michael Spikes agrees. When he taught media studies and news production to high school students in Washington, D.C., he would tell them, “You can’t be SpongeBob and just absorb. You have to be an active consumer of information.” His mantra: “Where is the evidence?”

If you want to see if you can recognise "Fake News" here's a little game you can try. http://factitious.augamestudio.com/#/  I didn't do so well myself (Peter)

Induction Photo's, a trip to Bloemfontein, Jerry Bernardo and Princess Ann

Induction Dinner
All the photo's I have received so far are on a 'Jean Bernardo's Induction Page' so just click on the link.

Don't forget to Book
I have booked 20 places for the 1st August at 19,30.  Come back to me as soon as possible as it is filling up and I want to see if I can increase the numbers if necesary.  peter@pjsfood.co.za

Last Week
Unfortunately I wasn't at last week's meeting as I was away in the wilds of Bloemfontein for the Inner Wheel District Conference.  It does give me the excuse to be a bit self-indulgent!

Some of the 'partners' listening to Fred's stories.

The Conference is always enjoyable as we partners are entertained whilst the women are conferencing.  We just have to appear for the meet and greet and the Induction of the new District Chairman...that's what she is called.  I imagine she is not a District Governor because that might cause a revolution amongst the ungovernable.
We were taken to Judge Fred Beckley's farm outside Bleomfontein to see his collection of classic cars, mainly Jaguars, and to be entertained.  I knew Fred well when he was on the board of PACOFS and I was with the SABC in Bloemfontein.  It was a great pleasure seeing him as well as many of our old friends in the Free State, many of whom are Rotarians or members of Inner Wheel.  It also means that we see people we see once a year from places as far away as Port Elizabeth and Botswana, relationships that go back a long way.
To get back to the cars.  I think there must have been about 40 in all and Fred regaled us with stories of how he had acquired them, who their owners were and a bit about the cars themselves...how Christine Keeler had ridden in the E-type but he didn't say who.......
There were some other cars from a Mini Cooper that he uses frequently to a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, an Austin Princess and an MG.  He had a Jaguar XJS that is about 40 years old but only has 370km on the clock but he doesn't drive it anywhere because of the importance of low mileage.

Dr Lynn Goedhals of Bloemfontein, new District Chairman, inducted by Jane Malinsky of Bedfordview

Next it was back to lunch and the Induction.  The Toast to Rotary International was proposed by Past District Chairman Ann Roberts from Pretoria and I proposed the toast to International Inner Wheel and then off to see friends, another night and back to Johannesburg on the Sunday.

This Week

Jerry & Jean Bernardo at the Induction Dinner

Jerry Bernardo is next in the series  of long-term members talking about themselves, how and why they became Rotarians etc.  These talks are always highly entertaining so we look forward to it.

Rotary members received a regal thank you from Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, for their work in fighting polio. 

Speaking to an enthusiastic and welcoming crowd on 24 June at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, The Princess Royal addressed attendees of the 2018 Rotary International Convention.  

Since 1970, The Princess Royal has served as president of Save the Children UK, an international nongovernmental organization that focuses on health, education, protection, and disaster relief for children. 

Save the Children began pilot programs of its own to combat polio in Africa in the early 1980s. It discovered the difficulties of delivering the vaccine where it was most needed, she said.

Enter Rotary. With its “astonishing global reach,” as The Princess Royal called it, its extensive understanding of cultures and languages, and its members’ “endearing habit of leaving (their) egos at the door,” the organization ingeniously overcame obstacles that baffled others. In doing so, Rotary, along with its partners, has brought polio nearly to full global eradication. 

For this, The Princess Royal said, she was grateful.

Her Royal Highness noted that, because of the logistical difficulty of getting 1.2 million Rotarians together in one place, she thought it best to take advantage of the organization’s annual convention to say, “Thank you for all the good work you do.”

The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the lieutenant governor of Ontario and the Crown’s representative in that Canadian province, introduced The Princess Royal as someone who “personifies the Rotarian model of Service Above Self. Her whole life has been dedicated to shining a light on people and organizations who go above and beyond.”

In addition to her work with Save the Children, Dowdeswell said, The Princess Royal serves as president or patron of more than 300 volunteer, nonprofit, and military organizations. She is chancellor at several universities, as well as a Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter and, in recognition of her charity work in Scotland, the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle.

The Princess Royal is the second child and the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh. Dowdeswell noted that she is a proud wife, mother, and grandmother.

With the end of polio in sight, The Princess Royal wondered if Rotary had set its sights on another monumental global challenge. 

She advised Rotary members not to worry if it hasn’t. Given Rotary’s achievements and the respect it has earned at the highest levels of government around the world, she said, “You will not be short of suggestions of what to do next.”

Jean Bernardo's Induction as President, Griffin Shea, follow us on Twitter, an Invitation and a Rotary Day?

Social Media

As well as the Ramble we also have a Facebook page and now a Twitter Account  @JhbRotary.  

Here PP Lyn Collocott congratulates President Jean Bernardo straight after inducting her as our President for 2018/19.  Congratulations Jean.
The only worrying thing is that both of them are wearing black.  I can only put it down to the need to show off the Rotary bling......well I hope that's the reason.
When I receive the other photographs I will put them on a separate page rather than fill up this space.
It was a really pleasant evening and well run by Mike Lamb as MC.  The only real surprise was that we had Moroccan Lamb as one of the main courses and I distinctly remember President Jean saying "As long as we don't have Moroccan Lamb again."  I know it is universally popular with the club so maybe she bowed to the inevitable.
Rotary Ann Charlotte Croswell was made a Paul Harris Fellow for all the work she has done for the Club but most especially for the hard work she put in for the Bophelo Palliative Care Project.  Her husband, James, led the project but Charlotte stepped into the breach when he was away or extremely busy and without her support things would have been much more difficult.
Our new President Jean Bernardo was awarded a Sapphire Pin to her Paul Harris for her hard work with Youth over the years and for the many other things she does for Rotary....long overdue, I thought....
PJS received one for undetected crime.
Good Luck, Jean.  We are all looking forward to working with you over the next year.
We also welcomed Tracy Lavers as a new member of our club.

This Week
Our speaker is Griffin Shea, an American journalist who settled in Johannesburg and introduces us to the world of Underground Booksellers.

"Bridge Books is a unique bookstore in downtown Johannesburg. We believe in supporting African writers and in finding as many ways of getting books into the hands of as many readers as possible.

So we work with other booksellers across downtown Johannesburg, acting as a go-between for publishers in South Africa and smaller retailers who might not have access to new books. Check out our blog page for maps on how to find sellers on the street and stories about some of the vendors.

At our store in City Central, the new space at 85 Commissioner Street (corner Harrison), anyone can walk in and buy new and second-hand books, with an emphasis on African writers but with international titles too.

We're also busy setting up the African Book Trust, a non-profit that gives African books to libraries and schools across South Africa. If you're a librarian, school teacher, or community group and you'd like to see how you can get books (for free, we'll even send them to you), please get in touch. If you're a reader and you'd like to know how to get our books through your local library, we can help with that too.

We also hosting book events, writing workshops and other fun stuff for word nerds like us. ."

Invitation

The following invitation was sent to our Facebook page by the Rotary Club of Morningside.

Escape the winter blues for an evening and join us for "A Good Laugh" with Joe Parker and the Rotary Club of Morningside at Montecasino. 

 
Joe Parker, and guests Dan Frigolette (USA), Martin Jonas, and Kedibone Mulaudzi.
 
Show info:
Date:                    10th July
Doors open:         18:00
Show:                   19:30
Price:                    R160 
 
 
Benefiting:
Social Development Projects: Diepsloot Cricket Club and Rotary, Youth and Professional Development. 

Why and how to host a Rotary Day

In an effort to increase membership and highlight Rotary’s inspiring work, RI President Barry Rassin is urging clubs and districts to organize fun, informal community events called Rotary Days.

"Rotary Days events will offer you the chance to have an impact in your community, build long-term partnerships, increase interest in membership, and improve Rotary’s image," Rassin said.

Any club, big or small, can host a Rotary Day. Neighboring clubs can pool their resources and co-host an event, and entire districts can come together for a large-scale Rotary Day.

Tips for planning a Rotary Day:

• Consider including a hands-on service project as part of the event to let visitors see for themselves how Rotary benefits the community.
• Feature guests that appeal to a non-Rotary audience. Consider young leaders, inspirational speakers, celebrities, musicians, or other public figures.
• If the event will offer food, keep it simple — for example, a self-service buffet rather than a formal, sit-down meal.
• Advocate on local issues related to Rotary’s areas of focus by calling attention to challenges that affect people in your area.
• If you charge admission, keep prices low. Ask local businesses to sponsor your event.
• Welcome families and make the event enjoyable for them.
• Present Rotary as an appealing opportunity for potential members to make new friends, exchange ideas, and take action to improve their community and the world. Avoid using Rotary jargon or referring to club traditions.
• Highlight the work of local Rotarians, Rotaractors, Interactors, Rotary Community Corps members, and other community members who do extraordinary humanitarian work.
• Recognize non-Rotary community members who demonstrate Rotary’s service ideals.
• Sponsor an event with a partner organization to show that, by working together, we make a deeper and more lasting impact on communities.
• Ask local news media to cover the event.
• Collect participants’ contact information, and invite them to future club events.
• Partner with local civic groups, service organizations or local businesses.

During and after your event, post photos and videos with the hashtag #RotaryDay to social media. We’ll collect photos of Rotary Day events around the world and show them at the 2019 Rotary International Convention in Hamburg, Germany. Some may also appear in Rotary media throughout the year.

"Imagine the collective impact we can have if all 35,000 Rotary, 10,000 Rotaract, and 22,000 Interact clubs engage their neighbors, friends, young people, and organizations," Rassin said.

Discon...See the Separate Page...a Winner and a Nomad Club.

Discon
I have established a Discon Page with a full report from Jean Bernardo plus pictures.  Many thanks, Jean, for submitting this.

Last Week
It was billed as a Business Meeting but turned out to be more of a Discon and Arts Festival discussion.

Costa Qually....but it's the wrong glass.

The Club was awarded a pair of wine goblets at Discon for tying with the largest group who had traveled the greatest distance.  At the subsequent braai the group from Rosebank decided to raffle them at the next meeting for the Rotary Foundation.....and the winner was!

This Week
What can I say about the Induction Dinner on Friday evening when President Lyn Collocott hands over the reins to Jean Bernardo?

• there is no Friday lunchtime meeting at Wanderers
• a big thank you to Lyn from all of us for taking the helm this Rotary Year and making it a success.
• and our best wishes to Jean for the coming year.  We are sure it will be a great success.

We will all have a great time on Friday night.

Spread out across thousands of square miles in the eastern states of Australia, Rotarians fire up laptops, tablets, and smartphones and log on to weekly club meetings from their RVs using a teleconferencing app. Members map routes for the jamborees, service projects, and fundraising they plan to do with their club and with the clubs they’ll visit on their journeys.

Campers roll with Rotary: Every day, about 135,000 recreational vehicles roll down Australia’s highways. For Rotarians who have answered the call of the open road, the vagabond nature of an RV lifestyle can conflict with the duties of traditional clubs. For them, the Rotary E-Club of Australia Nomads, a concept hatched in mid-2014 by members of the Rotary Club of Jindalee in Queensland, builds connections for service and fellowship.

Rotary E-Club of Australia Nomads:  Chartered: 2015 Original membership: 26 Membership: 40  

After the death of his wife in 2011, “I decided to buy a large touring RV,” a 22-footer, says Wayne Kemmis, a past president of two Rotary clubs in New South Wales. As he pondered whether Rotary could fit into his new lifestyle, a notice in Rotary Down Under magazine about a new club caught his eye, and Kemmis signed on as a charter member of the E-Club of Australia Nomads. (The group stresses that members need not be Australian, just driven to service; one member of the Nomads is an American.) “Most members spend a fair amount of time traveling,” notes Kemmis, a retired newspaper manager.

Geoff St Clair, past president of a club in Lockyer Valley, Queensland, had left Rotary to take up the traveling life when the new club came along. “I was a Rotarian for seven years but left for four years until returning with the Nomads in June 2014, when it was a satellite club,” he says. He rejoined Rotary with his wife, Lorelle, a new recruit, because “the club would allow you to continue traveling but still uphold the ideals of Rotary.” For several months each year, the retired educators roam Australia in their 19-foot trailer with their dog, Josie, a Maltese mix.

Wherever the club members may be, a constant is the Wednesday evening session to chart progress on trips and projects. “The theme of our meetings is having fun,” says Kemmis. “Members come online with their glass of wine or other beverage. They wear casual clothing. Two members usually come in their pajamas. There are no dress regulations.” 

St Clair notes the challenges of developing service opportunities for people who may reside hundreds or thousands of miles from one another. Other obstacles are maintaining a sense of togetherness across distance and teaching computer skills to older members, he says.

Twice-annual musters, some lasting a week, kindle conviviality and rev up good deeds: During their most recent social gathering over four days at Bribie Island, Queensland, club members planted more than 400 trees to stabilize dunes. 

The Nomads adapt their fundraising to their lifestyle. Many club members do crafts such as knitting and crocheting on the road, and when the club holds gatherings, they set up a booth and sell items to the public. And every March they hold a crafts exposition with workshops, speakers, and shopping. The proceeds from these efforts benefit various charities, such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Lending manpower to Rotary-sponsored fun runs, concerts, regattas, and festivals across eastern Australia is the peripatetic club’s hallmark. Last September, it assisted the Rotary Club of Carindale with the Brisbane billycart championships. (The event, with engineless carts racing downhill, is similar to soapbox derby's) 

“Clubs appreciate us as we often assist them in their projects,” says St Clair, harking to the club motto, Helping Hands Across the Land.

Discon Feedback, and how Rotary helps Refugees...there are a lot in South Africa!

Last Week
A large club compliment was at Discon, the Annual Rotary Conference in the Kruger National Park and those of us who didn't go had an enjoyable lunch in the Chariots Bar at Wanderers Club.  Nothing to report there as we just had a nice time.
Whilst writing this the Discon contingent are driving back so there is nothing to report on that either.  Let's have some music instead.

This Week

It's a Business Meeting which probably means that it is a report back on Discon and no doubt there will be something about the Arts Festival. It's only a week to go for Jean Bernardo's Induction as President at the Bryanston Country Club so make sure that you have booked!

Diversity in Rotary is important and here is an attempt to educate Rotarians in one aspect of it.

.

The statistics are staggering. More than 28,000 people are uprooted from their homes each day as a result of war, oppression, and poverty. That’s nearly 20 people per minute.

The Rotaract Club of Nakivale, Uganda, helps provide refugees with sugar, soap, and clothes. 

 By the end of 2016, an unprecedented 65.6 million people, from West Africa to South Asia, have been forcibly displaced, making it the world’s worst migrant crisis in history. 

The wave of migrants and refugees has overwhelmed the international community, putting a particular strain on neighboring countries and Europe. Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees with nearly 3 million. Pakistan is second. Germany is the only high-income country in the top ten host nations, with about 700,000 refugees and asylum-seekers. 

The seven-year war in Syria has been the been the biggest driver of the refugee crisis, with millions fleeing the country since the conflict began in 2011.

A shockingly high percent of the world’s displaced are children. More than half the refugees are under age 18. 

Rotary clubs are doing their part to help alleviate the global refugee crisis with projects that help bring water and health care to refugee camps, funds for families to move to safer countries, and more. Over the last several years, clubs and districts have used roughly $3 million of global grant funds toward refugee-related projects. 

On World Refugee Day, held every year on 20 June, people worldwide salute the strength, courage, and contributions of refugees who abandon their homes in a desperate search for safety. 

Here’s a sample of how Rotary members have changed the lives of thousands of refugees: 

• In Nova Scotia, Canada, the Rotary Club of Amherst brought two families from war-torn Syria to their country, where the refugees are starting a new life. The club galvanized other community groups to help the families assimilate with the town and culture. The Rotary Club of Merritt, British Columbia, also pooled resources to bring a family from Syria to Canada. 

• The Rotaract Club of Nakivale, Uganda, is raising funds to help residents of a huge refugee settlement start their own businesses. The club, based inside the settlement, also provided refugees with sugar, soap, and clothes. 

• Rotary member Pia Skarabis-Querfeld, a physician in Germany, built a network of volunteer doctors to help thousands of refugees that have streamed into Berlin, Germany. In 2015, during the peak of the refugee influx into Germany, her nonprofit, Medizin Hilft, had more than 100 volunteers at its clinic. Her club, the Rotary Club of Berlin-Teirgarten, sponsored a Rotary global grant of $160,000 to fund the project through March 2018. Also in Germany, the Rotary Club of Lemgo-Sternberg, provided resources to train 60 volunteers to teach German to about 600 refugees. 

• Rotary Districts 2452 in Lebanon and 6560 in Indiana, USA, helped provide lifesaving heart surgeries for 32 Lebanese children and 10 Syrian refugee children. The district used a $185,000 global grant to fund the procedures. 

• The Rotary Club of Kigali-Virunga, Rwanda, collaborated with members from the Rotary Club of Dortmund, Germany, to provide wells to a refugee camp in Gahara Sector, Rwanda.

• Rotary members in Seoul, Korea, and Taipei, Taiwan, are using an $89,000 global grant to provide ear, nose, and throat diagnostic equipment for the Raphael Clinic in Seoul to treat North Korean refugees. 

Melodene Stonestreet, a Chariot Ride and Rotary at the Commonwealth Games on Australia's Gold Coast.

Last Week

Pam Donaldson had to go to a funeral so we still know little about her but Melodene Stonestreet stepped into the breech and told us lots of funny stories about herself as a medical student and subsequently studying physiotherapy.  I don't think she ever did any work at university.
We ha such a good laugh at her study career that we never heard about work or Rotary so I suppose we will have to have Part 2 at some stage.

Despite our depleted numbers owing to the Arts Festival we had three visitors.
Visiting Rotarians Shatu Garba and Rosinnah Dlamini from the Rotary Club of Greenwich in England as well as Zimbabwean Simbah Mutasa who is working in Johannesburg.

Simbah Mutasa

Rtns Rosinnah Dlamini & Shatu Garba

Our thanks to all who did such sterling work at the Rotary Arts Festival.  It's all over now and despite everyone pulling their weight most of the burden rested upon the shoulders of Jean Bernardo and Joan Sainsbury.  As helpers we haven't had to cope with the frustrations, disappointments and physical tiredness resulting from the huge number of hours that they have put in.  We mustn't forget the artists who provided workshops and the Rotary Anns who coordinated the food for the launch and stepped into the breach where necessary.  Finally the members of the Arts Festival Committee without whom many things that are unseen would just not have happened.

This Week
A mighty contingent from our club is off to Discon in the Kruger National Park.  God speed and don't be eaten by anything larger than a mosquito...and look out for them too.

Those of us who are left holding the fort will have a social meeting in Chariots at Wanderers.  It will be at the usual time and we will eat off the menu.  These social meetings are a pleasant interlude so do come along.  Also keep a lookout for anyone trying to visit us.....I will mention it to reception when I arrive.

Make sure that you have booked with Les Short for the Induction Dinner at Bryanston Country Club on the 29th June!  Then there will be a whole new Rotary Year before us with Jean Bernardo at the helm.

ROTARIANS KEEP THE VILLAGE MOVING

Rotarians from District 9640 and beyond capitalised on the XXI Commonwealth Games to build Rotary’s public profile and raise over $200,000 through taking up housekeeping services at the Games Village. 
A total of 180 housekeeping attendants were mustered from the Rotary clubs of CurrumbinCoolangatta-Tweed, Gold Coast, Parkwood, Runaway Bay, Surfers Sunrise, Summerland Sunrise, Warwick Sunrise, Toowoomba North and Sunnybank Hills. Volunteers from several charity and church groups also came on board, to form 22 teams comprised of five members in each.
 Church groups from the Pacific Islander communities of Brisbane and the Gold Coast provided a large number of the volunteers. All were required to undertake rigorous accreditation and training beforehand, as many had no prior experience whatsoever in the hospitality sector. 
Finding people available was a challenge in itself, as many were committed elsewhere or scheduled to be away from the Coast. However, all was achieved within less than three months from the opportunity presenting itself to the opening ceremony, due to the determination and hard work of those involved in recruiting, management and administration. PDG John Wigley and Bill Dagg, who had assisted with a similar effort at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, flew up to support the effort. 
Recent Gold Coast City Councillor Margaret Grummitt acted as District 9640 Commonwealth Games Coordinator. When the Games launched, Rotarians were hard at work behind the scenes for a gruelling, but rewarding effort.
 “I stripped bed linen the first couple of days,” Darrell Brown said. “Other days I made beds non-stop, or made up linen packs. Day 10, I was a toilet and bathroom cleaner. Everyone would do their housekeeping shifts and go back to their normal jobs, working late into the night. We pulled together with great camaraderie. The atmosphere in the village was electric – it really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” 
At the end of the Games, Paul Lovett, CEO of Incognitus, the housekeeping company that oversaw operations, presented a cheque for $222,720 to assistant governor David Baguley, who coordinated the volunteer workforce. 
“Paul praised the team and commented that we were the best housekeepers he had ever had,” Darrell said.
 The hard-earned funds will be split between a variety of worthy causes, including, but not limited to: • Providing crisis care and support to families of patients in intensive care at Gold Coast University Hospital; 
• The Rotary Club of Surfers Sunrise’s project making wheelchairs for children in undeveloped countries out of discarded bicycles; 
• Australian Rotary Health PhD Scholarships in mental illness; 
• The Rotary-backed Malaria Vaccine Project, developed at the Gold Coast’s Griffith University. 

James Croswell, Rotary Arts Festival, Pam Donaldson and Voz Box..We could use it in South Africa.

Last Week
A surprising number of Rotarians present despite some being on duty at the Rotary Arts Festival.
James Croswell gave us an interesting talk about himself.  He really made me think of the luck of youth probably because we were innocent of the consequences or just took more risks.
His visit to Morocco on the spur of the moments on a South African passport sans visa really took the cake and how he managed to get out of the country "Thanks to a girl I met at Club Med..." who chatted up the official at the airport in Marrakesh so that he could just pick up his passport and jump on the plane is typical.

Thank James for such an interesting talk.  You have also done some amazing civil engineering projects but we forgot those!

We also had a couple of visitors who had attended the Arts Festival and decided to come and see what we got up to.  Alice Yang and Mike Maclachlan.

We look forward to seeing them again.








The Rotary Arts Festival Official Opening had taken place the evening before at Rosebank Mall and I have just under 150 photos of the event, many of them pictures of pictures.
I will sift through them in due course and send them to the individuals I recognise!

Because the exhibition is spread over two floors and quite spread out it was difficult to see how many were there.

President Lyn Collocott addresses us at the opening

Jean Bernardo and Joan Sainsbury.  The two Rotarians who have worked very hard at putting the exhibition together.  Jean as chairman of the Arts Festival Committee and Joan organising the artists.
The late change of venue was a huge problem for them and they miraculously pulled it off.

Thembi Ndlovu busy processing a sale

This Week
Pam Donaldson will be the next in our Rotarian chat series.
She is very elusive and I couldn't find a photograph of her anywhere so you will have to put up with Korky the Cat limbering up for the World Cup instead. instead.

We will rectify the omission this Friday.

As a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Ecuador seven years ago, Mary Elizabeth McCulloch volunteered at an orphanage that was home to both adults and children with disabilities. 

She noticed that those who had trouble speaking – mainly because of cerebral palsy – were seated alone by the windows, and for the most part no one communicated with them. 

Today, at age 26, McCulloch is founder and CEO of ProjectVive, a social enterprise company that has developed a low-cost device called the Voz Box, which allows people who have difficulty speaking to express themselves. The product launches this year in the United States and Ecuador.

Q: What did your experience in the orphanage inspire you to do?

A: After I returned to the United States and started at Penn State (graduating in 2016 with a degree in biomedical engineering), I began working on a low-cost speech generation device that would work in low-income and resource-constrained settings. I worked on it all through college, on evenings and weekends. Along the way, people joined my team, ProjectVive, to develop the Voz Box.

Q: How does the technology work? 

A: Our technology is for people with low motor control, who can’t tap a finger on an iPad or keyboard. We have different interfaces: a glove that works when someone flexes a finger; a watch that senses motion so the wearer can raise their arm to click; or glasses that detect blinking. These work with an application called CoughDrop AAC, which has grids of letters, words, and icons the user “points to” with the interface devices. Our devices can also control other applications, so the user can go to YouTube or Facebook, chat with friends, or look for jobs. 

Q: Who will this technology help?

A: Worldwide, there are 4.6 million people who can’t speak because of ALS or cerebral palsy. Too many people think that if they can’t contribute, it’s because they have nothing to contribute. But these disabilities aren’t reflections of cognitive ability or potential. We are empowering people with disabilities by giving them a voice and the ability to live out their life goals. 

Q: What would the world look like if people with disabilities had a bigger role? 

A: There are a lot of big societal problems facing the world today, and this is an untapped population of global problem solvers. Research shows that someone who has experienced adversity is more apt to make decisions to help others, to have empathy and sympathy. They are natural problem solvers. 

Q: When will the product be available?

A: The launches are in May in the United States and in June in Ecuador. We won’t be exporting from the United States; we are helping local people make and maintain the devices, and training users’ family members and caretakers to take care of them. And we’ll make sure the devices are in the users’ indigenous language, as well as Spanish and English. We are looking for our next pilot countries to launch ProjectVive and give more people with disabilities a voice.