Papanui Rotary Club Chat Snippets
14th June 2022
John Price
We were treated to an excellent overview of the NZ Police by District Commander Superintendent John Price which included reference to the challenges greater Christchurch has faced in recent times.
A former teacher, John joined the Police in 1987. On promotion to Inspector in 1987 he returned to Christchurch which included leading the response to the earthquakes.
He served as Kapati Area Commander and then as National Manager Development at the Royal NZ Police College before returning to Christchurch in 2015 as District Commander which included leading the response to the Port Hill fires and the 2019 Mosque shootings.
In 2020 John was awarded the Officer of the NZ Order of Merit.
John began his presentation by suggesting that a key thing the Police aim to achieve is to make NZ the best place in the world for children. “Unlike the UK which has 42 Police organisations and the US 18,000, here there is only one which makes things a lot simpler and we are seen as one of the best in the world” noted John.
In NZ the Commissioner is controlled by an Act and has discretion over how it functions. There is no political interference as the Police work for the Govt which John feels is a much better system with the role of the Police being to operationalise strategy.
In Canterbury there are 30 stations, 975 sworn Police Officers plus civilian staff and in Christchurch the station also houses Fire and Ambulance which is great in emergencies.
“We manage ~600 calls a day” continued John “which means we have to choose which ones to respond to.” A significant part of their role is managing mental health issues with family violence also being large as it requires 3-4 hours to manage these callouts. They also manage ~100 people taking their lives, ~eight murders plus ~300 search & rescue callouts per year.
Policing in NZ got underway in 1829 via the activities of Sir Robert Peel who developed it as the Peace Force. “This helped NZ become one of the few places in the world where a child can offer an ice-cream to a Police Officer” smiled John.
He also noted that he spends a lot of his time discussing with his staff why we come to work based on the aim of helping people feeling safe and being safe.
This is focussed on three areas: (1) safe roads (2) safe homes and (3) safe communities with key aspects to the role of police including having to reassure, organise, control, rescue, support, and provide media briefs on top of regular duties.
John then alluded to various key activities that occurred in the previous years the response to the quakes, the Port Hills fire and the Mosque incident. “In any incident we also ensure that we support other lead agencies that are involved” noted John.
Re the Mosque incident, there were 136 victims, 51 deaths and all schools were placed in lockdown. “Our challenge was to help people feel safe during this incident by sharing the message that ‘we have got this’. The support of the media was a great help here” explained John.
As a result of the Police action which John coordinated, the entire incident took less than half an hour from alarm to apprehension. Post incident actions by everyone involved also helped get the Muslim community back quickly which helped build trust.
In conclusion John gave an example of how the Police are seen in the community by asking us what often happens when gang members are under serious threat themselves. His answer? “They call us!” he smiled.
Thursday June 16th
We will be joined this evening by Kate Imrie who spoke to us some time ago re travel options with Glovis. She will be giving us an update re how global travel changed since Covid arrived and the developing opportunities available to us now as the world increasingly opens up going forward.
Thursday June 23rd - Changeover Night!
We look forward to welcoming Stuart Batty into the role of President for the next Rotary year. Stuart will be in attendance from 5pm to 6:45 pm as he has another event to attend later in the evening so be there early to wish him well.
The evening will include presenting 4x Paul Harris awards to Club members, plus being visited by a special guest after the meal.
Please note that PH Awards will be given out before the meal which means we will be going through to access our meal at approximately 6:40 pm.
2nd reminder that you are cordially invited to the 2022 Papanui Rotary Women’s Pink Ribbon Breakfast Fundraiser
When: Saturday 18th June 2022
Time: 9.30am
Where: 17c Ramore Place, Redwood
Dress code: As pink as you wish
Time: 9.30am
Where: 17c Ramore Place, Redwood
Dress code: As pink as you wish
RSVP: datregurtha@gmail.com by 15/6/22
In Lois’s absence, and with her good wishes, hosted by Deryn and Kathy
You can donate cash, or we will have the EftPOS machine available. We’ll also have a raffle, lots of yummy food, and lots of fun and laughter.
A Letter of Thanks
Dear Grant
On behalf of the Rotary Community Breast Milk Bank Charitable Trust Inc., we would like to thank the Rotary Club of Papanui so very much for your donation.
I have finished recording our data for 2021 and we have had a record year. We have pasteurised 348.389 Litres of donor breast milk and helped over 302 families during this period.
This total included a number of twins and young mothers dealing with breast cancer. Everyone who walked through our doors last year was helped with pasteurised donor milk for their baby’s.
It is through generous donations from associated companies and organisations like yourselves that allows us to continue to support mothers and babies during the transition between leaving hospital and establishing their own supply.
Once again please pass our grateful thanks to your committee for your most generous donation to our Milk Bank.
Kind Regards
Marion Ryder
Board Secretary
Rotary Community Breast Milk Bank
Supporting the Elimination of Polio
Kathy Anderson shared the photo above of her friend who has been working with children and families receiving Polio vaccinations in Mogadishu Somalia with Unicef.
As noted by Jim at last week’s meeting, we still have a way to go to meet our target fund raising level so please consider becoming a Centurion if that is an option for you.
As an additional option targeting Polio, our Club’s new Polio Give a Little fundraiser has been set up by Gary for those club members who want to help Rotary’s international Elimination of Polio target before the end of the Rotary year.
Every year when we have our Polio Appeal we are always surprised by the number of people who have someone in the family who has suffered from polio.
A few dollars is all you need to contribute. As of Tuesday 14 June we have raised $740 of the $2000 goal via this added option. Go to …
… to make a much appreciated donation.
A key thing to do is to also share the above link with friends and family. It is easy to do and every dollar helps.
Congrat.s to Gary who came up with this great idea which is also available on our website and is making things happen.
Gary appreciates all the emails saying “good job” and “wonderful initiative” but he’d love to see some money coming in as well J.
Change of Contact Message from Tony & Cynthia Tizzard
“Our house has been sold and we will be leaving Brogar Place at the end of June.
We will, however, be vacating the house on Sunday 19th June and temporarily moving in with our daughter and her husband at the address below until our villa at Summerset Cavendish is finished in December this year.
Our address will be:
47 Grants Road, Papanui, Christchurch 8053
Our contact telephone numbers are:
Tony 021 664 801
Cynthia 021 134 7444
There is no landline connection.
Our email address remains the same:
Cheers Tony & Cynthia
A Request
Would members please bring a grocery item to Rotary this week (16th June) to be used to complete the raffle prizes for Changeover night.
Food for Thought