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Meetings

Thursday 6.30pm for 7pm at Victoria Golf Club in Park Road Cheltenham.

President’s Blog

Hear from our President, Denise Grocke

Upcoming Events

14 September – Little Miss Sunshine at Beaumaris Theatre

2 October – Charity Mah-Jong Day at Brighton Bowls Club

Links

Connect with Rotary

Key Projects

Community

Our community efforts continue to focus on funding worthwhile charitable organisations that provide direct support for those in need. Two projects headline our current endeavours.

Beaumaris Rotary helps fund the meal service provided by Matt’s Place. This is a weekly meal service for those doing it tough, served at St Matthew’s church, in Cheltenham.  Last Christmas with the help of a Rotary District 9810 grant, we were able to fund the provision of 180 Christmas Hampers for their clients and some much-needed kitchen equipment.  We were also hands on, helping to pack the hampers.  More recently Matt’s Place’s parent organisation Bayside Community Care asked for our help in sourcing non perishable food items for their food bank.  Club members responded and we have been able to make a worthwhile contribution. 

Impact is a wholly volunteer run charity operating in the area of Family, Domestic and Relationship Violence and Abuse.  Since they moved their operating base to Sandringham, we have built our relationship with them.  Specifically, Impact provides practical support for women and families escaping domestic violence.  As well as helping to fund items for their “Bags of Love”, members volunteer for warehouse packing days and delivery runs.

Other Projects that have been completed or planned for 2023/24 include:

  • Funding for Sandringham Hospital to assist with the purchase of equipment for their day surgery facility.
  • Further support of Bayside Council’s Urban Forest initiative through selective planting sessions.
  • Manpower support for Cheltenham Community Centre’s Children’s Festival in October.
  • Providing management help and manpower to support the annual Concourse Classic Car Show.
  • Non perishable food collections outside local supermarkets.

Youth

The most significant program currently supported by the Rotary Club of Beaumaris is the Zero School Dropouts program at the Beaumaris Secondary College, through the CHOICES program.  The program has allowed some of their highly disengaged students in Year 9 and Year 10 to find meaning in their school attendance and a sense of hope for their future. It has allowed them to have a safe space where they could share their feelings and their stories of significant past events that have impacted on their lives. This helps them feel heard and acknowledged. It is our hope that we can grow this project in the future and extend it to other schools.

Other programs supported by the club include:

Mock Job Interviews – several Year 10 students are interviewed by Beaumaris Rotarians to help them gain skills to prepare for future employment.

Interact (Beaumaris Secondary College) – A program to foster the development of leadership skills and responsible citizenship for secondary school students. It also aims to promote world understanding and peace through the international organisation of service and social clubs. Interact clubs are usually sponsored and mentored by Rotary Clubs but are self-governing and self-supporting.

Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) – a 6-day intensive leadership training course for community minded young people aged 18 to 30. 
Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment (RYPEN) – a 2.5 day residential experience, where participants are involved in a variety of sessions, workshops and activities, which provide an opportunity for them to develop personally, challenge themselves, build friendships with like-minded people, and build life skills.
National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) to be held in Canberra in January 2024. The NYSF helps students moving into Year 12, who wish to follow careers in science, engineering, and technology by introducing them to research and researchers, by encouraging the achievement of excellence in all their undertakings, and by helping to develop their communication and interpersonal skills.

International

International Service is one of Rotary’s Avenues of Service, which form the foundation of Club activity. Issues such as literacy, hunger, malaria, disease and access to clean water affect us all. Through International Service, Rotarians lead the way in needy communities to find solutions to these global concerns.

For many years the Rotary Club of Beaumaris has supported these areas of international focus with activities on the Indonesian island of Sabu (see Sabu Island Story). This year we will complete furnishing of three student hostels and will fund the replacement of a water tank destroyed in last year’s Cyclone Seroja.

We contribute both funds and donations to The Highlands Foundation.  This organisation aims to build and strengthen maternal and child health care services in PNG.

The country has an infant mortality rate of 35.9 per1000 (Australia 2.8 per 1000) and a maternal mortality rate of 215 per 100,000 (Australia 5 per 100,000).  The Highlands Foundation is our President’s chosen charity for 2023/2024.

Among other activities, we will also contribute to the rebuilding of a school on Qamea Island in Fiji which was destroyed by a cyclone in 2016. The project is being led by the Rotary Club of neighbouring Taveuni Island.