Our guest speaker this week was George Petrou, OAM. He gave us a wonderful presentation on his book "The Art of Sacrifice". We were privileged to be able to listen to George’s interesting and inspiring stories of men and women whose service has uplifted and protected our nation, and enabling us to get an idea of the notion of sacrifice.
His beautifully written, poignant book is illustrated by many of his wonderful portrait paintings. Several members purchased George’s book, the profits of which will be donated to various veterans charities. Thank you George and wife Zed for visiting us and presenting such an outstanding book along with some inspiring tales of service and
sacrifice for us to wonder at.
A North Central Victoria Rotary Group meeting was held last week via Zoom to better understand what the different clubs in our Rotary Community prioritise. The next Zoom meeting will be held on Sunday 29 September at 5pm and a face-to-face meeting on Sunday 13 October at 10am at the Mechanics Institute to finalise the Community Groups
Growth Plan that will reflect the overall goals as discussed to date. In the meantime, Rotary members are invited to identify ways for clubs within our Community Group to work together on common issues.
As mentioned in our previous report, our District Governor, Michael Lapina, accompanied by his wife, Nina, will be our special guest at our next club meeting on Wednesday, 25 September. We very much look forward to hearing about his vision for our district this Rotary year. Partners are most welcome to come along to this very special
meeting.
Other important events for your calendar are:
● Social night and dinner on Thursday 26 September at Pat’s Rising Sun Hotel;
● Our club visioning workshop on Saturday 5 October at the Mechanics Institute and facilitated by Warwick Cavell. This strategic planning workshop starts at 9am, finishes at 2pm, and lunch will be provided (please see Cathie Miller’s ClubRunner email for more detail); and
● Car Ramble on Saturday, 19 October, starting at 9.45am in Castlemaine. Please RSVP John Cannon, jcannon50@gmail.com as soon as possible, for catering purposes. It promises to be a great day of
fellowship and picturesque central Victorian rambling.
See you at our next memorable meeting.
Co-presidents Ray Carrington and Adrian Schoo
Guest speaker George Petrou
There are a number of ways to describe sacrifice. One example is to give up
something of value for the sake of other considerations. When I think of this I think of it in relation to my own family. My family came to Australia in 1956 from Cyprus. Mum and Dad came suitcase in hand with 6 children. I was the youngest. We came with not a lot of prospects, but Mum and Dad sacrificed their home country so that we could live a better life. For me, that was one massive sacrifice.
Another interpretation of sacrifice in relation to the people featured in the book is that veterans choose to endure long separations from their families, sacrificing their health and ongoing PTSD effects and also risking losing their lives so we can be safe.
Why my personal interest in this subject? I love Australian history, and I am a big fan of reading about wonderful men and women who have achieved and done wonderful things. I think WW1 was a huge part of our history and I think it changed our psyche. We went for King and country and when we came back it was more about mates and fighting for our own identity. I loved reading the personal stories of these people and these stories had a huge impact on me.
Inspiration for any creative work arrives in a myriad of guises, some are immediate and clear, some are the culmination of chance encounters, experiences and reflection. The Art of Sacrifice came from a life changing period that brought clarity to the direction of my work and creativity. From this point, a series of events unfolded that I have often described as serendipitous – moments that had a profound impact and ultimately led to the creation of this series of portraits.
What is the Art of Sacrifice. It is a collection of 3 exhibitions that toured around
Australia. The first one was The Lost Diggers of Vignacourt. This was a collection of glass plates that was found in Vignacourt.
The second one was on our Victoria Cross recipients that toured in 2017-08.
The third was Twelve Great Australian stories that included people like Nancy Wake and Weary Dunlop.
These portraits toured the country, and I decided to add another section to the book called All Walks of Life. This was about people I have admired. Many of them are still living and their stories didn’t fit with the first 3 topics, but I wanted to include them in the book.
The book is made up of 70 portraits that I have painted, and when I first thought of this idea, I thought I could get maybe 20 descendants or authors to write little cameo stories about the subject of the portrait. As it turned out, by the time we finished collating the book, we had 60 different authors. The stories are not the history of the person but little cameo stories that were mostly unknown.
George went on to talk about some of the stories in the book and the serendipities that occurred while putting the book together.
Our club's support for Bluelight program
Dear Ray and Adrian,
I attended a Program Launch event at the Bluelight gym last Wednesday. I asked John Canon to come but he was busy. He suggested Rob Rosaia. Rob and I both attended.
It was in response to the attached invitation (below). It was low key, but with two high profile people – Mark Dreyfus (Federal Attorney General) and Lisa Chesters. It turns out that Mark Dreyfus used the occasion to announce a $10m funding for support of vulnerable youth across Australia, aimed at pre-emptive action to keep them out of the criminal justice system. Of the $10m, $2m will go to Victoria, and some of that will go to Bluelight in Victoria, including Bendigo. It seems he chose Bendigo for the announcement because the Bluelight team here has a strong program running and, I guess, because it’s a strong Labor electorate.
Given the VIPs involved, I should have told you both about it this morning. My mistake. Anyway, Rob and used the occasion to re-affirm our support for what they do.
I didn’t see any obvious media people there. Some photos were taken but they all seemed to be internal Bluelight people using phone cameras.
You will remember Lilly Brennan who we sponsored for RYPEN, and who came to our morning meeting a couple of months ago to give us some feedback. Lilly spoke at the event this morning. It was wonderful to see her do that. Not many 15 yr olds with her problems in life get to have the Attorney General and Federal Member in her audience. It reinforced to us that the work they do at Bluelight is fantastic and very worthy of our ongoing support.
Stew Annan
0474 515 412
Inner Wheel Afternoon tea
Rotarians and friends,
Please see the below invitation from Deb Reade. Feel free to pass it on to any women who may be interested in attending the afternoon tea.
Deb - 0408 996 619
Rotary Youth Sailing Challenge
The Rotary Youth Sailing Challenge set off on Saturday from North Wharf on the Schooner 'Enterprize'.
Stew was there to see two very excited girls off.
Maubisse movie night
Dear Rotarians
Please see the flyer (below) for the next Bendigo Maubisse Friendship Committee movie night coming up in October at the Star Cinema.
Proceeds raised support our ongoing Days for Girls Program in Maubisse. It is always a good relaxing night out at the Star in Eaglehawk and the reviews for this movie are very supportive.
Regards,
Tony Plant
Bendigo Maubisse Friendship Committee member and Rotary Club of Bendigo South Member
RCoBS Rotary Ramble
Please RSVP to John Cannon by Saturday October 12 - jcannon50@gmail.com
