February has been a really good month! Aside from being World Understanding Month, we also celebrated the 107th anniversary of Rotary International. The Rota-ract Club of City of Gosnells had its second anniversary on the 8th of February 2012, and our spon-soring club, The Rotary Club of Gosnells had it 52nd anniversary on the same day.
March looks to be just as busy. The club is looking forward to the Rotary Conference & Youth Con-ference to be held on 16 – 18th of March in Kalgoorlie. We will also be celebrating the World Rota-ract week starting on the 13th of March, to the 18th of March.
Our club had 5 members, (3 par-ticipants and 2 facilitates) attend the RYLA Program in February. I was fortunate enough to be part of this camp on the Rotary Com-mittee. I have seen the 3 partici-pants grow as leaders on this camp; they have made me proud to say that I am a Rotarac-tor and their friend. I also would like to thank Aaron and Anthea for taking the time to be Facilita-tors on this camp.
I would also like to thank all the members of the club for their dedication in getting new mem-bers & visitors along to meetings. Watch this space as we will be
having some new member in-ductions in the upcoming months.
In this past two months Tom Hunter and I have been work-ing hard to get our club incor-porated. I would like to thank Tom for all the hard work he has put into this because with-out him we would not have progressed this far.
I would also like to thank our beautiful Editor, Emma McLerie for all the hard work she has put into getting the bulletin up and running again.
Now it gives me great pleasure to announce that I am the DRRE (District Rotaract Repre-sentative Elect) for 2012/13. I am so looking forward to get-ting stuck into making this dis-trict one of the best districts in Australia.
A word from our President
The Rotaract Club of City of Gosnells Presents….
Issue 2 March 2012
The Gossip
Dates to remember
4th March—General Meet-ing @ Laura’s house
15th March— Worlds Greatest Shave
16th—18th March—Youth Conference
1st April—Next meeting
14—15th April - Relay for Life
28th April—Amanda Young Ball
29th April—5th Sunday Social @ The Balmoral
What’s the Goss?
Monthly Theme 2-3
Foto Bombs 4-5
Trip to Tassie 7
Upcoming Events
8
Member Profile 9
RYLA Review 10
Club Summary 12
March—Literacy Month where 93% of the population can read and write.
Globally, literacy rates are on the rise; up 2.3% in the past 10 years, and 10.6% in the past 20 years. While women still lag behind – representing 64% of illiterate adults—they have made significant gains over time. Since 1985, the female adult literacy rate has risen 15%, which is about double the growth of the male literacy rate.
From the above facts, there is a clear direction for us when planning our ser-vice projects and so I encourage every Rotaractor to brainstorm about ideas on some meaningful projects. In the name of Rotary & Rotaract we can make a difference.
For more information on this study please go to www.uis.unesco.org
Literacy is a skill that can be acquired by individuals, through education one can become literate, through literacy comes knowledge and with knowledge an indi-vidual can bring in wealth for their self and their family.
The United Nations Educational, Scien-tific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Institute of Statistics reported the follow-ing findings from the latest data taken in 2009.
Literacy is a cornerstone of human de-velopment and economic growth, yet according to the latest data (2009), some 793 million adults -- two thirds of them women -- still lack basic reading and writing skills.
Included in that figure are 127 million youth, aged 15 to 24, who will be hobbled in their ability to contribute to the long-term economic and social development of their families and
1.0communities.
The region of South and West Asia is home to more than one half of the global illiterate population (51.8%), while sub-Saharan Africa represents 21.4%.
However, rates can vary widely across countries in a region. In Mali, for exam-ple, merely 26% of the population is liter-ate in contrast to Equatorial Guinea
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The Rotary Club of Hannans
Annual Literacy Project The club aim is to reach within and em-brace humanity through literacy and it’s great to be able to give the children these books. The smiles on the children's faces say it all as they come up to re-ceive them.
The children really appreciate their books. East Kalgoorlie Primary School is a predominately indigenous community and has a lot of disadvantaged children and it's great to have this focus on liter-acy and getting books into homes.
The school has a valued partnership with the Rotary Club of Hannans and are grateful for their support.
AG Linda McLerie
Rotary Club of Hannans
Christmas comes early for the children of the East Kalgoorlie Primary School when the Rotary Club of Hannans presented each child in the school with a book in early December each year.
Improving literacy worldwide is a major goal for Rotary and the Rotary Club of Hannans has been sharing the gift of reading with the primary school since 1997.
Literacy is of great importance to Rotary. This year will be the fifteenth year of giv-ing books to the children in the school. Over the past decade and a half we have given close to 1,500 books and the children love receiving them.
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‘The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go’
- Dr Seuss. ‘I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!’
FOTO BOMB FEBRUARY
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FOTO BOMB FEBRUARY
The Rotaract Club of City of Gosnells will be holding a General Meeting in which all members are invited and encouraged to attend.
The meeting will be held on Sunday 4th March 2012 at Laura’s house. The meeting will start at 7pm sharp but feel free to call around from 5.30pm and have a BBQ dinner. BYO meat & please bring a salad to share.
The purpose of the General Meeting is to undertake a vote on the implementation of the Constitution and By Laws. Make sure your vote counts and we will see you there!!!
General Meeting Announcement
Worlds Greatest Shave—Tenille Fricker
Anyone is welcome to bid. They can either email me at [email protected] or write to me on Facebook (only the highest bidder at 8pm Sunday March 11 will be required to pay in their funds).
Otherwise please go to http:my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/mslsdoestheshave to donate.
All donations, large and small, are greatly appreciated.
Tenille
xxx
I will be shaving my head on Thursday March 15 at Murdoch Law School sometime after 10.30 am. All are welcome to come down and watch. A num-ber of other students will also be shaving and colouring their hair. We will also be selling chin bis-cuits for $2 with all money going directly to the Leukaemia Foun-dation.
I am hoping to raise as much money as possible. So far a lot of people have shown interest in donating but getting people to follow through has been difficult. One of the ideas I’ve had is to auction off the right to shave my head. The highest bidder so far is one of my friends, John. He has bid $50.
I'm being brave !
I'm raising money to support
blood cancer patients and to fund vital research.
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Don’t forget your bathers & towel as we plan to crank the sauna!!!
During my trip to Hobart I was lucky enough to randomly meet up with a Sullivan Cove Rotarian with whom I was able to discuss some of the clubs charities and project.
What really interested me was the club com-mitment and involvement with disadvan-taged youths in the Tasmanian area. A few years ago they initiated a project called ‘Relink through the Street Work Program’ where they encourage youths off the street with activities.
I have included some of the tips he has given me that worked for their project and could help us with our future projects.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink, but you can make it very thirsty.
We found what the young people wanted to do, through sitting down and chatting with them over a bite to eat.
Provide activities they want to do Such as Footy, Cricket, Fishing, Golf........as an alter-native to drinking and using drugs.
Get in step with the young people - Under-stand where they have come from, their backgrounds issues and why they do the things they do, why they have trouble trust-ing people, why they were violent and why they hung around shopping centres.
Make them part of the program – Give them
ownership—They set the rules, we just facili-tated things and guided them through the process. It was their program, and be-cause they enjoyed it so much and there was a team ethic and they didn't want to lose that. They felt that they belonged to
something important for the first time and they could help each other. This was one of the first times they felt good about them-selves, about what they were achieving and they belonged to a team.
Suggest - don’t shove They had been kicked, punched, put down and they didn't want any more of that treatment. We only picked Coaches and Staff that were positive people and were encouraging, built self es-teem, looked at their positive aspects. We didn't want any negativity.
Give them more than they bargained
for Add to the programs with extras like their own team song, their own jumper, a BBQ at the end of the game, their photos in the pa-per, special games with High Profile AFL play-ers attending, presentation of certificates, having someone to talk to after a game, get-ting their work orders or arrest warrants dealt with, without the threat of arrest on game days, getting them into courses, getting them part time work, giving them responsibility and trust, getting them to talk to Rotary and other service clubs with a free lunch and getting dressed up in smart clothes, having them MC special events, involving them in planning meetings and having an equal say.............
By Anthea McCormick and
tips provided by Kim Smith
Trip to Tassie — Anthea McCormick
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Dig out the best of your purple garb - March is National Epilepsy Awareness Month. Marked by a huge range of community activities, media campaigns and events, the month culminates on Purple Day on 26th March. Be part of the movement and help spread the word by wearing purple on March 26th.
Did you know March is National Epilepsy Awareness Month?
The 25th of February saw the running of the Annual Bowl-A-Thon for the Rotaract Club of City of Gosnells.
The BBQ was fired up, friends were gathered and vic-tory was in the air. Bowling was the game and fund-raising was the aim!
It was wonderful to see so many friends of the club come down and support us in this event. I was over the moon to see fellow Rotaractor's from both districts to-gether as well as Rotarians, RYLA friends & family members. We are very fortunate to have your support.
A massive thank you to Aaron & everyone who helped make this day such a suc-cess. As I’m sure you are aware, proceeds of the day went to Amaroo Village. Amaroo Village is a retirement home and the money raised will go towards funding a gardening patch were residents can get outdoors and keep physically & men-tally healthy.
Emma McLerie
Event Review—The Bowl-A-Thon
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Name: Simone Amy Joyce
AKA: Simmy, Monie, Moe
Current Role held: Member, First Lady
Member Since: June, 2011
1. What did you want to be when you were
little? A highflying artist like Leonardo Da Vinci! But I soon realized that you don’t get really fa-mous until you’ve been dead for awhile.
2. What’s the next planned event you're looking to in your life? I’m really looking for-ward to Relay for Life this April. I did the event when I was in high school and I enjoyed myself so much that I can’t wait to do it again. Also knowing that I’m doing it with some awesome people and all the mischief we’re going to get up to would make anyone excited! I’ve had a few people suffer with cancer, some have lost their fight and others are still fighting. I want to show my respect and support for them.
3. What word describes you best? Creative
4. If you were invisible, where would you
go? I would like to go and spy on god. Since he so fond on spying on me, and the rest of the world, I’d like to see what he gets up to!
5. What is your favourite food? Chocolate! Its orgasmic! My second love is Italian cuisine; since I’m part Italian I’ve always had pasta, roasts, meat, garlic and then more garlic. I’m a proud Italian that has converted Johan to love garlic too!
6. If you could meet anyone, living or dead,
who would you meet & why? Leonardo Da Vinci, he was and still is one of the biggest gen-iuses. I would love to be taught a few things by him!
7. What is your favourite thing about Rota-
ract? The people, everyone is great. From Handicamp and RYLA my bond with most of you have strengthened, you all enrich my life.
8. What is your greatest accomplishment? I think starting off 2012 is my greatest achieve-
ment;; I’ve started to turn my life around. Start-ing to feel myself again, which I have really felt for such a long time.
9. Tell us something about yourself not many
people would know? Earlier this year I was diag-nosed with Depression. I’ve had lots of blood tests and ultrasounds; the doctor came back and told me I have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), which has contributed, to my De-pression amongst other things. Polycystic Ovar-ian Syndrome is a complex disorder, basically is a condition in which there is an imbalance of a woman's female sex hormones. This causes a whole lot of problems with your body, which is why its called a ‘syndrome’ not a disease or dis-order as there is such a wide spectrum of symp-toms PCOS causes. Surprisingly 1 in every 8 women have this Syndrome, its one of the most under publicised health issues in Australia. Sometime in the future, I would like to change that. Although I have support from my friends and family (those that I have told), there is not much support from the wider community.
10. What words of wisdom or inspirational mes-
sage would you like to leave us with? ……. I’ve struggled with Depression for quite a few years, I only admitted to myself last year that I needed to get help. My message is don’t suffer in si-lence. Once you admit to yourself that you need help and seek it, your life will change for the better. The hardest thing is to take the first step, but know that you can do it. I’ve a living example of that. I know I’ve only started the road to recovery, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Introducing …. Stunning Simone!!!
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For those who do know about RYLA or Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, it's a 7 day long program for 18 - 28 year olds, it aims to chal-lenge individuals while providing unique op-portunities for developing leadership skills, public speaking, team building and a place where you get to meet amazing people.
The seminar program has a strong focus on personal and leadership development. It assisted us to become aware of our own strengths and weaknesses, to understand the basics of leadership and to apply this knowledge to develop our leadership capabilities.
For me personally, the course really challenged me to look deep with in myself, to truly study what are my core personal values and also what I want out of life. What I discovered was I have natural leadership capabilities. It wasn’t me who identified this, but my peers. They gave me the opportunities and confidence to help lead a team to accomplish tasks of which I’m proud of, and for that thank you. It goes with out saying that one cannot lead others without people to follow you, fortu-nately throughout the whole camp any single participant who stepped up was supported by some of the most remarkable and inspiring young people, who’s atti-tude made the job of leading a group so much easier.
These are the sort of results you get when you put a remarkable group of young people together inside the confines of the "RYLA bubble". The positivity and atti-tudes radiating from the participants confirms that our future is in safe hands with these leaders of tomorrow.
A primary component of RYLA is small groups, it’s where our 38 participants were broken up into 5 teams, but by day 7 we were undoubtedly 5 families. Literally to the point where my team were calling our Fac's (Facilitators) “Mum and Dad”, now as you can image this followed on to many other jokes, specifically centered around our existence, of which I couldn't possibly repeat here.
These small groups provided a platform for us to get to know each other in a deeper and more personal way, all while being in a comfortable private setting. Strangers quickly became friends and peoples deepest secrets were revealed to the group in a supportive and friendly atmosphere, putting participants and Fac’s at ease with them selves and others, which ultimately gave a massive boost to their confidence and attitudes.
The RYLA Experience 2012—Bryn Butler
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Immediately after RYLA some fellow Rotaractors and I raced back to Perth for our meeting at The Rotaract Club of the City of Gosnells. There Matt French and I made our case known to our club as to why we should be the next Vice President/President. I think it’s safe to say what Matt and I learnt on RYLA will play a phe-nomenal role in how we choose to tackle the responsibilities of holding the office of VP/President, and that’s just one of the examples of how RYLA is already chang-ing my life for the better.
RYLA is known for giving participants an epiphany like realisation about what they want from life, I learn that I wanted to direct my time more towards what I’m pas-sionate about, to do more in the community, to live a happier life, but ultimately to chase my dreams.
I am confident that what I took away after that week in February has prepared me for a lot of life’s curve balls, or at the very least tackling my personal goals.
It is a real task to attempt to summaries such an experience, I remember reading a quote someone made in regards to their RYLA adventure which sums it up per-fectly: “Can’t be described or understood – only experienced”.
I and 37 other friends of mine would not have been able to have this once in a life time adventure if it wasn’t for the selfless efforts of many teams of special people working together to see the betterment of the life’s of young people.
Unfortunately, I can’t thank everyone in depth here in this article, but you know who you are and how much you helped change our life’s, thank you so very much.
Bryn Butler
RYLA Graduate 2012
The RYLA Experience 2012 cont…..
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The Rotaract Club of
City of Gosnells The Rotaract Club of City of Gosnells was chartered on the 8th of February 2010. The club has roughly 25 members aged between 18-30 years, who together participate in a number of projects stretching from assisting the local community, Australia and the World. And the best thing is…….
We have fun doing it!!!
Meeting Information When: 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month Meeting Time: 6pm arrival for 6.30pm start Location: CY O'Connor Village Pub 625 Warton Rd, Piara Waters
Club President: Johan Maasdam
The Rotaract Club of
City of Gosnells
Do you have something you would like included in the bulletin? Maybe you have some suggestions or ideas?
Email me at [email protected] before the 22nd of the month to make the cut off for the following month’s edition.
Emma xxx
From the editor
C H E C K U S O U T O N L I N E—www.gosnellsrotaract.org
What is R.I.F.J.A.M?
http://rifjam.org/
