Tony Tizard: My Time in Rotary
Like Gordon I will start with some personal facts and then cover my years of enjoyment in the Papanui Rotary Club.
I was born in Christchurch two & a half months premature. I weighed 3 lb and fit snuggly inside an electric jug. My early education was at St Michaels’ school and later at Waltham Primary school, followed by Christchurch West High School.
With School Certificate in hand I left school for a good job in a grocery warehouse before joining Whitcombe & Tombs (now Whitcoulls) in the Educational Book Dept. I spent the next twenty years there ending up as the National Book Manager.
I left there to join a small book wholesale business which Cynthia and I eventually purchased and set about building it up to a NZ wide company selling to bookshops, libraries and schools across the country. Over twenty years later we retired leaving my son and daughter-in-law running the business which they are still doing today.
At the time my interest in Rotary began, you were invited to join by a current member. It was the custom to have two club members visit your home and conduct an interview. My interviewers were Alan Bond and Ralph Forbes.
I was subsequently inducted into the club in September 1997. Tonight, I am dressed in the more formal attire that was expected to be worn to meetings in those days. I quickly found that developing a new business and raising a young family was taking all my time and reluctantly resigned from the club some months later.
I am pleased to say that those early months had left me wanting more so by making a few adjustments I was excited to re-join Papanui Rotary on 30th June 1998. I learned so much during my first few years and quickly came to appreciate the fellowship and commitment of the Club members all of whom were only too eager to provide me with help and advice. I was elected President for the 2004/2005 year, following the Club’s first lady President, Marie Fahey.
I vividly recall those first committee meetings. They were usually held at the appropriate Directors’ residence each month. The atmosphere was conducive to the development of many interesting projects that were discussed and planned.
In 2006/2007 I became Assistant Secretary and Bulletin editor from 2006 to 2011. From 2011 until July 2020 I have been Club Secretary. I also had the privilege of being involved with some Rotary District work.
Following the 2010/2011 Christchurch earthquakes, I acted as Administrative Secretary for the Christchurch Rotary Earthquake Charitable Trust and later also for the Rotary Neighbourhood Charitable Trust. Both these Trusts distributed many thousands of dollars to help those who suffered resulting from the ‘quakes.
Our Club has been involved in so many great projects over the years that it was difficult deciding on which of them to mention.
Here is a small selection:
- Security duty for the weekend at Papanui High School for the school’s 75th Anniversary. (Spooky walking through Huge empty, dark marquee).
- House painting at Gambia Street, Ian Place and Kaiapoi (where Arie threw a water blaster at me from the roof!)
- Christmas tree sales. When the weather was bad this was a hard way to earn a few dollars.
- Hanmer Forest Camp Abilities Trail which was opened in 2004.
- Led by club member Brian Langley, the Rotary Massed Children’s choir project raised $15,000 for Child Cancer through the sale of cd’s and tapes.
- Rotary Air Rally. Two distinguished pilots in the club, Ross Ewing and Keith Mitchell organised a rally for light aircraft using local private air strips. Club members acted as scrutineers at each strip. $2,000 was raised for the club’s Children in Need Trust.
- Overseas Service. Jim Hudson has served Rotary undertaking dentistry work in Nepal, Kenya, Mexico and Thailand while Max Wright has worked in Fiji for many tears conduction ophthalmic work. Stuart Batty continues his outstanding work for Rotary NZ World Community Service in assisting the Pacific Islands and in Tanzania.
- Speech Contests. During the 1970’s and 1980’s the club held the Murray Reid Shield Contest for secondary schools. Because of time restrictions with school curricula, this was eventually amended to the Junior Speech contest by club member Alan Bond where local primary and intermediate schools now participate.
- Peer Support. The club has for many years sponsored the growth of the Peer Support programme at Papanui High School where senior school pupils attend a camp and learn how best to help and support first year pupils. Each senior pupil is then teamed up with a junior from day one of that pupil’s secondary schooling.
- Gift Wrapping. For the past 10 years the club has organised this project for other local community groups and has been responsible for distributing over $120,000 to them.
- Trailer raffle. This annual fundraiser is contributing well over $20,000 each year to chosen charities and community groups.
- Rotary Youth Exchange. The club has supported this excellent programme over many years. They have both selected and sent students overseas and hosted many students from around the world.
My son spent a year in Germany with this scheme and we have hosted two students: one from Belgium and one from Germany. We have also had the pleasure of hosting a couple from Croatia during the Rotary Friendship Exchange.
Some of the memorable District Conferences Cynthia and I have attended 9include”
- Nelson, where we travelled to and from in the Lamb and Hayward seniors bus and withstood many inquisitive stares on the journey!
- Akaroa where we dressed as characters from Hallo! Hallo!
- Christchurch St Andrews College where Jim Hudson gave the most memorable rendition of addressing the haggis. Such was his enthusiasm that when wielding the sword to top the thistle his mighty swing saw him slice through part of the stage curtaining!
I found that by participating in committee work, and also attending Board meetings as Secretary, my self-confidence grew and I learnt not to be afraid of public speaking. Of course I still get quite nervous but good preparation helps to overcome this.
Papanui Rotary has enabled me to build and continue to enjoy the fellowship and friendship of so many committed and interesting people. These lasting relationships are, for me, one of the two cornerstones of my Rotary experience. The other is working for and in the community both local and overseas.
I really appreciate drawing on the experience of our older club members who have worked so hard for the club over many years. Their value to the club is worth so much to us. When we couple this with the energy and enthusiasm of the younger members’ we have the ingredients for a great club with exciting times to look forward to.
With respect to the future, I feel that we must continue to foster friendships by working together and using our combined skills and ideas to develop projects that assist both local and international communities. Do this and we have a bright future ahead.
We will all get the best from our Rotary membership in direct relationship to the effort we put in and I leave you with this following thought:
“Effort in equals satisfaction out.”