August: Bendigo Foodshare winter Food Drive- look for collection bins at your local supermarket
23rd August - RC Bendigo 100 year Anniversary Gala Dinner. See flyer below
31st August - Federation Picnic BBQ Marong
1st October - Club visit by new District Governor Peter Shepheard. More info below.
5th October - Save the date! Annual RCOBS Mystery Tour. Details to come.
19th - 23rd March 2026 Barham weekend. Phone 5453 2553 to book a site/cabin and say you are from Rotary.
2026 dates for your diary.
2026 Multi District Impact Summit will be held from 27–29 March 2026 in the beautiful regional city of Horsham.https://rotarydistrict9800.org.au/stories/dge-peter-2026-multi-district-conference
2026 Rotary International Convention
13-17 June 2026, Taipei, Taiwan https://convention.rotary.org/en-us/
Welcome to Issue 7 (2025-26) of our weekly bulletin. Find out about our upcoming events, our guest speakers, what we covered during the last meeting and more!
Can't make our meeting in person please join us via Zoom:
Opportunities to volunteer -for non-Rotarian friends and volunteers:
* Upcoming BBQs - Contact Kevin - 0428 996 619
Meeting Roster
Week 3
20-Aug
27-Aug
3-Sept
10-Sept
Speaker
Leigh McKinnon – Golden Dragon Museum
Chinese Legacy including the Toi Shan story
Erika Salathiel
Aspire – La Trobe
Brad Scott
Transmutation, Robe
Carol McKinstry
Deputy Dean – Latrobe University
Meeting Location
Peppergreen Farm
Peppergreen Farm
Peppergreen Farm
Peppergreen Farm
Chair
Doug Lougoon
Kevin Dobson
Doug Lougoon
Linda Barrow
Computer
Cathie Miller
Toni Carrington
Cathie Miller
Allie Lyall
Set-Up 6.45am & pack up
Kevin Dobson
Stew Annan
John Cannon
Toni Carrington
Welcome, raffle & roaming microphone
Judy Miatke
Kevin Reade
Jim Rolfe
Madeleine Schoo
Co-President's report
Co-Presidents Report for 13th August 2025
Federation picnic coming up on the 31st August, volunteers are needed to run BBQ. Please let Kevin Reade know of your availability.
Kevin is also making enquiries about running another BBQ at Swap Meet this year.
Stew needs help with the fruit pick up from Coles - especially for the next two weeks. If no-one can help him out, we will have to cancel it for the next 2 weeks.
Cathie visited Leonie Weregoda this week and presented her with a gift to thank her for supporting our Treasurer. It has been very much appreciated.
John Harkin and Paul Kirkpatrick have joined Toni Carrington on the Welfare committee
Blue Light are continuing to support our Rotary Youth activities. They have students for upcoming RYPEN and the sailing programs.
As our speaker had to cancel at the last minute, Allie read some Australian poetry and Paul Kirkpatrick gave us an insight into his recent cycling trip around Albania and Slovenia.
Could members have a 5 min talk ready about any subject or an update on something they have delivered in the past. When we have gaps in the program, we can use these opportunities to get to know each other a little bit more.
It was great to have Mark Weregoda join us on zoom this morning. Our thoughts are with both you and Leonie.
Bendigo Business excellence Award Night
On Thursday night Be.Bendigo celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the BBEA (Bendigo Business Excellence Awards) at the Red Energy Arena. Our Club started these awards with the first gala event held in October 1994. John Cannon was the first chair of the organising committee and Gerard House was the final chair.
During the evening there was memorabilia and video showing the history of the event. Hayley Tibbett (Be.Bendigo CEO) acknowledged where the awards started and the growth over the years. From 6 categories at the beginning, the awards have grown to 20 categories this year. Bruce Roberts (host for the evening) also acknowledged the Club as he also hosted during some of the years our Club ran the event.
Our Club sponsored 2 tickets for Peppergreen Farm as they were nominated for the Diverse and Inclusive Workplace Award. They had 2 of their participants join them for the event. Even though they didn’t win their category. Emma and Kyle thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Daniel was very grateful for our Club giving these two the opportunity to experience the event.
Allie and Cathie.
Bendigo Sandhurst members at Be.Bendigo 30th Anniversary Bendigo Business Excellence Awards. Type caption here
Memorabilia- showing one of the early major sponsors (NRMA)
Nominated for the Diverse and Inclusive Workplace Award, Peppergreen Farm was represented by Daniel, Theresa, Emma and Kyle. Our Club sponsored 2 tickets for Peppergreen Farm.
Rotary Delivers Warmth to Winter Shelter On Friday, members of our club teamed up with RC Bendigo for a firewood cutting and transport working bee in support of the Bendigo Winter Night Shelter.
With plenty of teamwork and muscle power, logs from Camp Getaway were sawed, stacked, and loaded over three busy hours.
By day’s end, trailers of firewood were delivered to Koolamurt Scout Camp—ready to bring warmth and comfort to those who need it most this winter.
Postcards from Rotarians.
A massive Boab tree; but where am I?
Rotary Words of Wisdom
Ten English Gramma Rules
1 Avoid Alliteration. Always.
2 Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3 Avoid clichés like the plague; they’re old hat.
4 Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
5 Be more or less specific.
6 Writers should never generalise.
Seven: be consistent.
8 Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
9 Who needs rhetorical questions?
10 Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
(Allie Lyall)
Tickets can be booked at this link. You can purchase individual tickets or get a 10% discount by booking a table of 10 for your club.
