Papanui Rotary Club Chat 16 Feb 2021 (Feb 15, 2021)

Burwood SU BBQ

BBQ at Burwood Spinal Unit

Deryn

Last Thursday evening 26 of our members and spouses enjoyed a lovely barbeque meal, on a beautiful warm evening, as guests of the staff and patients of the Burwood Spinal Unit.

We were welcomed by Liz Oliver, Service Manager of the Unit, along with Wayne Ramsay, Accommodation Officer, his wife, Polly, Hans Wouters, CEO of NZ Spinal Trust and some patients.

Some of the proceeds from our Trailer Raffle in 2018 were donated towards the barbeque area that was planned to be developed in the grounds of Burwood Hospital. It was finally fully completed this year at a total cost of around $25,000, of which we gave $7,100.

HRS Contractors donated the concrete and labour for the concrete pad and the balance came from a large bequeath by Cyril Smith. A plaque proudly sits beside the area acknowledging Papanui Rotary Club’s involvement.

Liz told us how much the patients and their families enjoy the area as it is good therapy for them to socialise away from the hospital wards; somewhere they can see as a ‘normal space’.

Liz presented President Janice with a certificate acknowledging Papanui Rotary involvement and offered heartfelt thanks from all the staff and patients and invited us to visit anytime.

S&K Workshops

Skills & Knowledge Workshops

“Get those arms up”

This event was hosted by the Papanui Rotary Community Committee as a respond to ideas for fund raising. Around eleven club members participated one way or another plus we had 4-5 attendees from other clubs.

It was quite different from the traditional raffles/collecting donations for other agencies as members were sharing their skills and knowledge with other members, engaging and interacting across a wide range of topics including Wills & Power of Attorney, Skills for Young Parenting/Babies, Grief Counselling & Depression, Exercises for Mature People, Facebook for Beginners and Great Presentations.

Another activity from the exercise workshop

We raised $318.30 being $33 from the café with the balance coming from the workshop donations. This was delivered to Treasurer Deryn on Saturday straight after the event.

The organising committee also contributed hours of their time in preparation as well as managing the food/café catering costs. A special thanks to Denis for helping with setting up and to Papanui High School for allowing us to use their facility.

The committee received excellent feedback from attendees including the following:

Hi Lois

I really want to thank you for your presentation yesterday. It has filled in many knowledge gaps for me and spurred me to action. I’m also thrilled to be able to use the example of the Knowledge and Skills workshop approach to Vocational Service with my District Amalgamation Focus Group.

Many thanks:

Valda

Riccarton Rotary Club

Both Liz and Simon turned up to take photos at different times so we can expect some excellent marketing material from these members.

Kate Smart

Community Committee, Papanui Rotary

Snippets

In November last year Gary asked for volunteers to join a special section of the club to assemble some wooden footstools as a fundraiser. The club’s Wooden Footstool Assembly Section (WOOFTAS) so far is Gary Denhard, Rob Thomson, Max Wright, Keith Mitchell & Evan Thomson (non-building overseeing consultant).

On Thursday Evan Thomson and Gary inspected the first prototype foot stool made for us by the Kaiapoi Menz Shed. It is a beautiful piece of solid rimu furniture as shown above.

The dark stool at the back of the first photo is the original rimu footstool built by Gary 62 years ago.

International Dinner – Partners Night

A 2^nd reminder that this is being held on the 25th of February at the Netherland Society Clubrooms, 637 Marshlands Road.

The meal, catered by Deborah Gill-Smith, starts at 6.30 pm at a cost of $30 pp for a two course dinner. Drinks BYO.

The speaker is Nicole Macaballug, the Honorary Vice-Consul of the Consulate of the Philippines in Christchurch / South Island.

Numbers to be confirmed by Thursday 18th February

The President’s Blurb

It has been a great week during which the club has been active on a number of activities.

The BBQ at the Burwood Spinal Unit was a lovely night. Not a breath of wind, great food and great company. We had some of the staff of Burwood Spinal Unit led by Liz Oliver and Wayne present plus had some patients and Hans Wouters representing the NZ Spinal Trust.

Liz and Hans both had some nice words to say about Papanui Rotary's contribution to the BBQ shelter and presented the club with a certificate. A plaque acknowledging our contribution as also been placed on site.

The community workshops while lightly attended seemed to go very well. I have seen a number of emails praising the speakers for the quality of the presentations. Thank you to Lois and her team.

This week we have Sam Clark our RYLA student coming to speak to us. Sam and other RYLA students want to stay connected to Rotary so the club development team will be looking at how we can make that work.

The SPPEDS conference is approaching fast 5-7 March providing delegates will be allowed to travel. I will put a board around this Thursday looking for volunteers for the marshal duties and assistance with catering.

The following weekend is the weekend with the Canterbury University emerging student leaders at Hanmer Springs Forest Camp. The date has shifted forward a week because of a double booking at the camp. We will need 10-12 Rotarians/partners for the Saturday/Sunday to assist with supervision and catering. If you are interested see Arie or Janice or Nick.

My thanks to all those volunteering to help with the various projects.

See you on Thursday.

Cheers

Janice

Thought for the Week

“Submitted by Janice”