Is there a partner out there for Alex? Have you been Scammed alert, The written word

Lilly House - Monday Morning working Bee

On Monday morning a small team of club members will be helping with some furniture assembly and donations.

The beneficiary of this attention will be Jo Higgins and her amazing team of volunteers at Lilly house, home for disadvantaged mums and children, who spoke to the club a few weeks back.

A certain treasurer could not help on reflect on a previous furniture assembly task at The IFYS Young Parents centre by an certain engineer who had some difficulty with following instructions.

Is this a man thing, or age related?

Fingers crossed for better result this time.

RYDA - can you spare a few hours - you may save a life?

On 23rd April the club is invited to chaperone high school kids to facilitate one day of road safety awareness that is saving lives, amputations and tragedies on the Sunshine Coast. Did you know that you are 5 times more likely to be involved in an accident on the Sunshine Coast if you are a young driver?

This program, originally started by Rotarians, and now delivered around the region discusses and improves driver awareness, road safety and has a demonstrable impact on young driver behaviour.

Here's a call to arms from our President Elect..

Fellow Rotarians,

As mentioned last week we are rostered on to manage RYDA at Nambour Showgrounds on 23^rd April 2024. I was going to be absent but for reasons that shall remain private this is no longer the case, and so I will be the Day manager for the day.

"Big Deal" I hear you say, and you are right .....I cannot do RYDA on my own! I need 6 volunteers who can give their time between 8.30am and 2 pm on the day to chaperone kids from one venue to the next. That's all there is to it. YouMUST have a current Blue Card.

If you don't please let me know and we will see if we can get you one before the event.

I need another 3 volunteers and 1 reserve in case someone calls in sick on the day. Please let me know if you can help out as it will be very embarrassing for the club if we need to ask other Rotary clubs to help us out.

One item of regular feedback in the recent survey was that we need more projects - well, here is your chance! If you wonder if RYDA really makes a difference just look at the PDF attached.

I look forward to your replies.

Regards

Geoff East

geoffndi@gmail.com

Win-Win for Rotary and AMPOL..is there a message there for Alex?

JoAnne spoke on the benefits of partnership at her Rotary minute on Wednesday. The relationship with the business started small, with a cookery book publication during COVID and has now blossomed into a permanent win-win arrangement for Rotary, the business and the community.

It beggars the question...is there some business on the Coast that wants to do good in the community, improve its relationship, and where Rotary and Rotarians can provide that bridge between business and community?

The business concerned (AMPOL) now has a direct channel to community matters through the Manly Rotary club, where AMPOL supports the Many Rotary Youth and community programs.

The community now has some certainty over the programs that Rotary delivers and Rotary does what is does best....“making a difference”.... to lives in the community.

A very thoughtful Rotary minute. Thank you JoAnne.

Garden Makeover anyone?

Corporate member extraordinaire and IFYS program manager Tanya, has received a request from the IFYS Fostercare group. So a call has gone out out to your club to help the amazing IFYS Fostercare team.

You have probably seen their Superman images around the coast. No doubting that foster carers are superheroes. Here's the message..

"One of our general foster carers in need of a garden tidy up. She has been caring for a couple of years now and done a great job in supporting some complex Intensive Foster Care placements.

She is a single carer and late last year injured her leg which resulted in her having limited physical capacity for months. Her garden is one area that has suffered, and we would love the opportunity to assist in bringing it back to life and taking one concern away from her so she can focus on the little people in her care."

President Tony is on to this. So stay tuned.

Memories - don’t lose them, write them down

Our guest speaker and guests on Wednesday was Pam Wood local author and friends June and Donna, who spoke about their involvement with Sunshine Coast libraries and the written word and the impact it can have on folks. The writers group met at the Woombye Bowls during COVID attracting a diverse group of professionals, then an anthology by the University of the 3rd age in Hervey Bay inspired Pam to produce a collection from her group here on the Sunshine Coast.

Along the way the benefits in friendship, fellowship, encouragement and support helped bond the group and gave direction and purpose. The mental health benefits were clear.

The group are now looking for financial support to publish the anthology, and received feedback from the club on several avenues that might support this project.

Thank you Pam for an interesting talk.

Pride of Workmanship - dateclaimer

Our Pride of Workmanship evening is coming up soon, so if you know of a Sunhine Coast business who might want to reward an employee with some recognition for their services, or have an employee in mind yourself, have a chat with Mike and find out what its all about.

Have you been scammed yet?

Statistics say that its only a matter of time.

So do yourself a favour and check out our upcoming speaker, from the Office of Fair Trading who will talk to the club about the various ways and means that folks are being scammed and what you can do to protect yourself.

If you think it can't happen to me, well you need to know that it happens to folks every day who thought the same thing.

Would you recognise a scam webpage if you saw it?
Where do scams contact you...and its not on your computer screen?
When are you going to receive that gold bar from that Nigerian Prince?
Want answers? then roll up meeting on April 17th.

Swim News - Scott and Dean step up to help

The hunt for Swim sponsors for Inclusive Kids programs is on and we were delighted to welcome back past sponsors Structures, AKA Scott Brimelow, Past President of the club who stepped up to the mark again (Thank you Scott) and Cricks VW AKA Dean Stuart (thank you Dean). Dean has been a great supporter of Inclusive Kids and Alex Rotary Kombi Shows in the past.

Their support is all the more welcome, because it gives Inclusive Kids and Alex Rotary a bit of a lift to know that there are businesses out their who appreciate what the volunteers are doing in the community.

In late news there was a surprising offer of sponsorship from an organisation who spoke at the club recently. Check out next weeks newsletter.

Do you recognise this location?..The Aussies are coming. Put out posters.

BIG thanks to those members who are putting out the A4 posters into the community.

Next week "The Aussies"championship is on when 6,000 swimmers will visit the coast..so for every poster you place that leads to a registration means an $60 donation to Inclusive Kids...isn't that worth it?

This poster was spotted on the coast...do you know where (clue. Not massage parlour..I looked)

Neighbours Aid calls out to Alex Rotary

The folks at Neighbours Aid had a surplus of "as new" crutches, so they called out to Alex Rotary to see if we could use them....

President Tony checked in with the folks at RARE and now we have a bunch (is that the collective noun?) of crutches ready for donation when we next visit RARE and send them off to folks in need.

Thank you Neighbours Aid for thinking of Alex Rotary.

Lily House comes to visit

Lilly House comes to say hello, and an unintended (but nice) consequence

Jo Higgins was our speaker on Wednesday. Jo is from Lilly House on the coast, a house that is home to vulnerable and at risk young women and their children. It relies entirely on volunteers like Jo and community groups to provide a home environment where women and children feel safe and nurtured.

It is a unique place, more than a shelter, but a home with caring and teaching a large part of the Lilly Home culture.

Jo related some stories of of incredible disadvantage that some of our young women on the coast are facing from birth, right through their upbringing.

Jo read out a letter from one of her past residents who spoke of losing her mother at a very young age, and "survived" is probably the best word, to describe her upbringing such that now she has a career a young family of her own.

The most harrowing part of Jo's story was the terrible effects that drugs are having on our disadvantaged kids on the Coast.

Lilly's house can accommodate a handful of young mums, and do a great job in turning lives around. Unfortunately they have no government funding and rely on community support and volunteers like Jo.

If you can help have a look at their website. Lilly House.org

..and in an after breakfast chat Ray found out that Jo needed a bit of a hand with assembling some furniture for the house. Delighted to see that a number of our members have volunteered their services.

Stay tuned for more information on how Alex Rotary is helping the community.