14 & 15 Nov Swap Meet RSVP to Kevin for the roster
19 November - Echuca Shop Local Night (see information below)
20 November - FoodShare golf day
6 December - Bendigo Sandhurst RC Christmas Lunch at 12.30pm
16-18 April 2027 - Multi-District Conference in Warrnambool
27 - 31 May 2027 - Rotary Barham Weekend, Barham Caravan Park. See Kevin Reade for more details.
Welcome to Issue 17 (2026-27) 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:
No Club meeting last week due to the Bendigo Cup holiday. It’s somewhat amazing to me that a horse race becomes a reason for a public holiday. But why not, it creates a buzz and an opportunity for our hard-working community to take a break.
Next Wednesday, we kick-off again with a very special meeting. District Governor, Graeme Hope, will visit the club. It’s an opportunity to meet Graeme and here about how things are going across the District, including the upcoming changes associated with Regionalisation.
The 2026 Bendigo region Foundation Dinner was held on Tuesday evening at the Bendigo Club, hosted by the Rotary Club of Bendigo. Foundation’s focus during October has been about polio. This culminated with World Polio day on Oct 24th. Consequently, the theme of the Foundation Dinner was Rotary’s ongoing project to eradicate polio. District Foundation Chair, Julie Mason was the keynote speaker. Julie spoke about the history of the fight against polio, the challenges will still face to keep it under control and eventually to fully eradicate it. Funds raised from the dinner went towards this effort.
The ’Eagle’, (commonly known Rob Rosaia) landed in spectacular fashion at Lightning Reef Primary School last Tuesday to deliver another load of fresh fruit from Coles. We haven’t missed a single week this year thanks to our dedicated group of fruit deliverers – Rob, Chris, Ted, Liz, Toni C and Ray. Well done team.
Whilst on the subject of Lightning Reef Primary School, the re-invigorated gardening project is progressing very well. Rain last weekend has sparked the young seedlings into a growth spurt. The dedicated group of Karen kids from the English as Second Language class bring great enthusiasm, matched only by their teacher Anna. Here’s a photo from this week’s session.
Big news. There was a very important birthday in the Club last week (24th Oct). Happy birthday Pat Sheehan. Pat doesn’t get to meetings very often these days, but he is a stalwart of the Club, having joined in 1988. Well done Pat.
The Energy Breakthrough competition About - Energy Breakthrough finals are being held in Maryborough 18th to 20th November. Volunteers from Rotary Club of Bendigo South will assist the program. Our members can also assist. If you are keen to be involved, please contact Gary Pinner (RC of Bendigo South).
As Stew wrote in his report last week, it was a great pleasure to go with Ray and Toni to deliver a boot load of knitting wool and doll/toy stuffing to Janet Thomson. Janet was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation for creating knitted dolls and other toys as part of the knitting project.
The latest FoodShare news (see https://bendigofoodshare.org.au/) includes an opportunity to serve on its board (EOI by 31 October).
As done in previous years, we aim to provide relief again over the festive season. Details will follow. In the meantime, FoodShare is thanking the local Rotary Clubs for this support.
The 2025-26 Annual Report has just been released and FoodShare thanks everyone who contributed to another successful year. The report can be found at:
