October is Rotary's Economic and Community Development Month
President's Message
It is hard to describe the impact Tristan Knowles' presentation had on everyone at last week's meeting. Inspirational, heartfelt, brave, uplifting, determined are just a few of the words that come to mind. Thank you, Di Reid, for inviting Tristan to address our Club meeting.
We wish Mal and Thelma Bracken a happy retirement from Rotary and the very best for the years ahead. Last week's meeting was officially Mal's last with the Club; however, we will invite Mal & Thelma to a more formal farewell in the coming weeks.
Thank you to all who volunteered for The Charles Hotel Jag the Joker and Bunnings BBQ this past week. All our fund-raising activities are enjoying tremendous success to the benefit of our nominated charitable organisations. Our donations program has now been finalised for the year ahead, thanks to healthy discussion at club meetings. Members will receive updates as the year progresses.
Just when we thought we could take a breath, the next Bunning's BBQ is on Sunday, 5 October at Kembla Grange. If you can spare a few hours to help out, it would be much appreciated. The roster is kept up to date in Club Runner if you wish to see available time slots.
This week's meeting is a Club Business meeting, an open discussion of the Club's administration, challenges, successes, activities and events. Please feel free to raise any matter you wish to discuss. I look forward to seeing you all there.
The meeting was opened by Sergeant John Erickson at 6:15pm, welcoming guest Ruth Beach and speaker Tristan Knowles.
The Reflection was provided by Ken Potter, on taking stock of life and no longer being 2.4 metres tall and bulletproof. That attitude almost killed Ken in a car accident once upon a time; but life comes full circle. The RYDA program allows Ken to help save young people from their own exuberance on the road.
The International toast was to the Rotary Club of Hong Kong, whose influence was such that Michael Crowley, on a Group Study exchange, was upgraded to Business Class when leaving Hong Kong.
Mal Bracken intimated his intention to resign from our Club due to his health challenges. President Phil acknowledged this regrettable situation and invited Mal to join us in a couple of weeks for a more formal farewell.
Dennis announced there will be some extra prizes this week at the Charles to acknowledge the financial support of patrons.
Bunnings BBQ's - next is SUNDAY 5 OCTOBER and extra staffing will be required.
The Rotary Walk against Domestic Violence is coming up at Stuart Park and Rotarians are requested to wear their purple theme t-shirts.
The board has agreed to keep Our Community Project on the donations list. It has also decided not to continue with the Indigenous Health Scholarship; funds are to be redistributed to a broader range of recipients. 15% of donations are to go to an "on demand" fund to be distributed as needed.
Reminder about the film screening of The Travellers at the Gala on Thursday 2 October, in support of End Polio Now.
Di Reid introduced Tristan Knowles, our guest speaker. Tristan had an active childhood and a dream to Captain Hawthorne, but at age 9, pain in his left leg turned out to be cancer. The leg was amputated and chemo commenced, which all happened quickly, he said. Tristan was really sick with the chemo and even managed to get chicken pox at a critical time in his treatment, resulting in some more time in hospital. He achieved the 5 year milestone with no recurrence of cancer, but then it came back - in his lungs, this time. He was told this comes with a 50/50 chance of survival. Actually, he discovered later, the chance of survival is about 10%. This led to his fascination with the power of the mind.
Having survived the lung cancer, Tristan was a bit rudderless for awhile. At 15, he discovered his love for wheelchair basketball, which he describes as basketball in Dodgem cars. Liberated by uncovering his leg and allowing people to see his limb, he says he would not change any part of his life. He is committed to living his life for the young cancer patients who did not make it.
Tristan had the chance to go to Athens for the Paralympics and he committed to do the training, whatever it took. He was also studying at University of Wollongong. After the Canadian team beat Australia in the finals, he committed to go to the next Olympics. A number of the team went to train in Europe and they then won 3 gold medals between 2008-2014.
He is now 42, has played in 6 Olympics and is the Australian Team Captain. Tristan's reflections on his life so far: Love, Help, No promises, Perseverance, Adversity, Goal setting, Hard Yakka, All or nothing, The Journey, and Second Chances (response to adversity).
Questions from members to Tristan: Have you considered speaking to school students? about the wheelchair he plays in, which weighs 11.5 kg and is made from Titanium. Retirement from the game? Tristan tried taking 10 weeks off to reflect but missed his training and went back. He has also been involved with the local team, the Roller Hawks, 7 times champions. Tristan has also been awarded the OAM, in 2009.
Michael Crowley thanked Tristan.
Wine raffle winners were KevinWanambiro and John Erickson, who gavehis wine toTristan.
The Sergeant's session included fines for missing name tags and there were atrocious jokes told. President Phil thanked guest Ruth and Tristan.
In Canberra, Spring is synonymous with Floriade and Floriade is synonymous with Canberra. After having done a tour of the central western NSW gardens (a special mention to the Japanese garden in Cowra), I concluded my travels in Canberra. The weather was fantastic (cool and crisp overnight and warm during the day) and this was conducive to a wonderful display. Purples, pinks, yellows, reds, whites ... all the traditional colours were on display plus many more. Did I have a favourite? No, I loved them all. Well worth a visit and a bonus were the golden canola fields which contrasted spectacularly with adjoining green pastures,
Rotary is also a constant at Floriade, with the fundraising gnome-painting and the merry little creatures populating the lawns. Clearly, the donated defibrillator is also a Rotary initiative.
