Co-presidents report, 8 May 2025
A quick look back on another vibrant club meeting this week.
First of all, congratulations to Brian Hodge for rejoining our club. It’s great to have Brian and wife Jan back to help strengthen our club. We hope they enjoy their reunion with us, and we look forward to them getting involved with our activities and projects.
Our guest speaker this week was Phil Redmond, accompanied by two of his cousins, Peter and Brian Doxford. Phil presented on the impact of WW1 on Bendigo’s Doxford Family (see Jim’s notes further in this bulletin). Displaying a number of photos, diary entries, medals and other poignant family memorabilia, he showed us that the effects of war are not just limited to the battlefield, but that they go far beyond that. Profound physical and mental health issues often affect families and wider communities for a long time after a war ends.
This weeks’ board meeting was also attended by some incoming members of next year’s board. It’s reassuring and much appreciated to see the commitment of both the outgoing and incoming board members to maintain continuity of our programs and projects that serve the community at large. The board approved donations to such causes as the Blue Light One on One program, the Blue Kangaroo Kindergarten/Primary School in Uganda and our annual commitments of $3500 to Donations-In-Kind and $5000 in support of Polio Plus. More detailed information on other decisions taken at the meeting will be found on ClubRunner soon.
Kevin Reade, our Fundraising Director, and Colleen McCarthy, our Markets Coordinator, gave us two excellent reports on the results of our efforts over the Easter weekend. Financially, the contributions from the market stallholders on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, along with the proceeds of our Good Friday barbeque, were hugely successful for us. A lot of work goes into the lead-up for Easter, as well as on the weekend itself. Therefore, we thank Kevin and Colleen, along with all other club members who have made a contribution of time and effort this year, to bring about another successful staging of this major project this year. We should be proud of the contribution our club makes to the public’s enjoyment of Bendigo’s Easter festivities each year. Our efforts are recognised each year by a grateful COGB, and so earlier this week, Colleen and Rob Rosaia represented us at a celebratory function organised by the council at the Ulumbarra Theatre.
For the past several years, as arranged by Kevin, we make our barbeque available for use by the Eppalock Primary School on Easter Sunday for fundraising purposes. It’s usually very successful for the school, and again this year, we have received a nice letter and certificate of appreciation from the school principal. These are published further in this bulletin, and it’s nice to know we can help the school to provide better for their pupils and staff. Thanks go to Kevin for arranging this, and to Rob and Liz, who were able to help out on the day.
Planned working bees that we have been asked to contribute to include tidying up Comet Hill Reserve (next to Lightning Reef PS) on Saturday 24th May, and a tree-planting activity later on in July (date to be announced). Please contact Stewart to let him know if you can be of assistance at these times.
Work is well under way to finalise arrangements for our changeover on Sunday, 29th June, at Camp Getaway. It’s always a good day of fellowship, fun and renewal, so please put make sure to put the date in your diary, and we’ll launch into the new Rotary year after that.
