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Rotary Club of Monash Community Projects in 2008

Two major projects to assist the Victorian Community were conducted by the Club through 2008. These are discussed below.

MONASH HELP FOR FOODBOWL FARMERS

While life in the city is not easy, farmers in the nation’s food-bowl, the Murray Darling Basin, are facing their third year of no autumn rainfall. The drought has been unrelenting for over nine years. Farm outputs have dropped, and daily cash flows disappeared. Soil moisture is so low that it will take several years of good rains to get farms back into productivity.

Two Rotary Clubs in the City of Monash have seen the human suffering this is causing, and are doing practical things to help in the Shire of Moira and particularly around Nathalia, where families are really struggling hard to make ends meet even with Government support.

The Rotary Clubs of Monash and Wheelers Hill make twice yearly trips to Nathalia with materials they have collected from the community, schools, businesses and suppliers, and deliver them to the Nathalia Country Women’s Association (CWA).

Monash collects household and personal cleaning products, toothpastes and soaps. Maureen McGowan of Nathalia CWA said: “these things really help families who are in need or are sick. Their budgets are stretched to put food on the table, and anything that helps to maintain hygiene is very welcome. It brings a tear to our eye to see how thankful people are when they get these things. You can see that life is tough for them.”

Wheelers Hill has helped with toys at special times like Christmas. Maureen says “Last year we were able to get something to all the kids and parents we identified as those who would have missed out. It was a special effort and could not have been done without the help of the Rotary Clubs from the City of Monash”.

It is a similar story in North-Western Victoria where late autumn rains are needed for sowing wheat and cereals. Some farmers have borrowed yet again for another year to sow dry crops in the hope of rain, and so our tables can be supplied with food.

Rotary Clubs in Monash are also piloting a scholarship scheme to support students to attend agricultural colleges. Monash Rotary’s Graham Shaw said,” New ways of farming are being developed and taught in college to adapt to climate change. These new farmers will come from farming families, but many cannot afford to go to college. Distances for travel from farm to college are large, and fuel costs and family budgets make this prohibitive.

The first four scholarships totalling $9000 have been let to students at Longerenong College in the Wimmera.

College Principal Gavin Drew said: “These students already work two jobs to support themselves through and study. The support has made a difference and hopefully will ensure that people with the drive and desire will get into farming and take us to a new way of doing things, instead of dropping by the wayside.”

The Rotary Club of Monash hopes that the scholarship scheme will expand. Shaw says “They are a way to make a lasting difference, not just a short term fix, to the way we grow and get food into the future”

The scholarships are set up as a charitable trust and open to public contributions.

Rotary Clubs work to look after people in our city but also the wider community. At this time, growers in our food-bowl need help, and these are two programs that are making a timely and hopefully a lasting difference.


Anzac Ceremony for Schools

       

On Tuesday 22nd April the Rotary Club of Mulgrave conducted the inaugural ‘ANZAC Ceremony for Schools’ at the Cenotaph in Central Reserve on the corner of Springvale & Waverley roads with 640 students and teachers attending. Dignitaries from both houses of State Parliament as well as the deputy Speaker of Federal Parliament along with local government, Rotary and the RSL were present. The event went without a hitch, and was an outstanding success. A very moving address targeted at the young audience was given by Colonel John Coulson RFD ED (Ret’d.), in which he asked them to look at the ANZAC excursion through the eyes of a 19 year old  soldier.

Response from the schools attending was very positive with a number reporting back that their children were enthralled – some voting it the best “excursion” they had been on. Observers saw the positive impact of John’s address on the assembled children. At this time it should be noted that despite the number in attendance there was virtually no rubbish on the site when we came to clean-up, which speaks volumes about the standards being taught our children in local schools.

It was pleasing to see so many of our local parliamentary representatives there from both sides of politics. We often get the impression that Parliament – especially Question Time is “war games”. The truth is that although they have different political perspectives on how to achieve it, by and large our political leaders are there because they believe they can contribute to the betterment of our community, and the things that unite us as a Nation are greater than those that divide us politically. This was especially evident at this ANZAC celebration and is perhaps the greatest epitaph to those who have defended our liberty in the Gallipoli and other campaigns.

This result was as an outcome of about 6 months pre-planning and was greatly assisted by a number of contributors, both with funds and in-kind that greatly reduced the organizational effort and financial cost to the Club for which we owe them a vote of thanks.

First and foremost was the Waverley RSL Sub-Branch Inc. through its president, Neil Slaughter. They provided the wreaths, printing of programmes and substantial funds which essentially covered the cost of the coaches. They were also instrumental in our finding Col. John Coulson for the ANZAC address and Mal Carlson as M.C. for the ceremony.

Second was Crown Coaches whose great “Rotary price” meant the financial burden was significantly less than we had forecast. They also provided onsite coordination resulting in the arrival and departure of the children going without a hitch. Thanks to Adrian Nye & Brian Woodward.

The Office of Maxine Morand MP, through Andrew Kaighin, provided very practical assistance in matters relating to protocol and Maxine herself made a significant cash donation.

The administration of the City of Monash put in a lot of effort to clean up the site – especially after the storm damage to trees in the reserve. In addition agreement has been reached for a programme to further improve the vista around the Cenotaph for future years events. Our thanks to Peter Aumann for their cooperation.

Coates Hire, through Mark Rich (GM Southern Region), provided 100m of pedestrian barricade for the cost of transport so we could meet the standard of isolation from Springvale Road as suggested by Glen Waverley Police (Snr Sgt Graham Ross & Sgt Adrian Stafferton) who provided sound advice on crowd control.

St John’s Ambulance provided on site support at no charge.

The Australian Army provided a Catafalque Party of seven personnel from the Signals Unit at Watsonia Barracks, and the Royal Australian Navy provided the full band from HMAS Cerberus. They displayed the calibre of the young men & women who offer themselves for service to the Nation.

A special thanks is due to those members and their wives who assisted with the tasks on the day. We also had great support from members of the Rotary Club of Mount Waverley.

This was truly a “whole of community” project.

One pleasing outcome was the amount of publicity that we were able to generate in the local press, particularly the Monash Journal in which we had multi-column spreads in three issues.