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23 members and 3 guests enjoyed our breakfast meeting last Thursday. IPP Robyn stood in for President Hugh who had pressing work commitments and was unable to attend. The meeting commenced with an update from Chilean Exchange Student Isi, followed by club notices, an update from the Stonefields Residents Association and our Guest Speaker.  Isi Ravanal - RYE Student:Isi is now the last exchange student in the District, as Covid19 has severely disrupted this year's programme for many students. Isi gave a big thumbs up to the recent South Island tour which took the group "almost everywhere". She made some good friends and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Isi has now finished school and before she departs NZL, she has some local activities planned and she has also recently helped with the Salvation Army Food Bank packing project. If any members have any exciting outings planned over the next few weeks that you think may interest Isi, please contact IPP Robyn. Club Notices: - A reminder to all members that the GI Food Bank collection project is scheduled for Dec 12th at New World, Lunn Ave. Penny is still looking for a few more volunteers to ensure that the day is completely staffed.
- The 15th of December will be the last Salvation Army Foodbank packing day - volunteers please contact IPP Robyn.
- The year's last two meetings will be held 3rd and 10th of December. Excellent speakers are scheduled, (see story below), and RSVP's are required. Remember on Dec 10th to bring a suitable, (dry goods), donation to the Foodbank supported by our guest speaker.
 Paul Van Dorsten:One of the contacts made by our membership team at the recent Stonefields Family Day was Paul Van Dorsten. Paul who is the Chair of the Stonefields Residents Association, was subsequently invited to breakfast last week and presented a brief overview to the attendees on activities undertaken by the association. There are currently 6,000 residents in Stonefields and this number will grow to 8,000 when all the building is finished. One of their major projects will be the building of a community hall and planning is well down the track.  Guest Speaker - Dennis Millard:Dennis is a member of the Rotary Club of Auckland East and he is also the Chair of "Trees for Survival", (TFS), a Rotary founded programme. Dennis started with TFS just two weeks before lockdown so it has been a challenging 9 months as he has come to terms with the operation. TFS was established 25 years ago and since then, with the help of participating schools, have planted in excess of 1.5 million trees in the Region.. The programme is primarily focused on Environmental Restoration and Education, both classroom and practical". Funding for TFS comes from; Rotary, Charitable Trusts, Individual Donor's, Small Businesses, Schools and Auckland City Council. There are currently 98 schools in Auckland participating and the Rotary Club of St. Johns has been a supporter for many years. We are looking forward to remaining involved and particularly if local opportunities can be found, although it is acknowledged that finding suitable planting areas is not without challenges. |
Hopefully you convinced him to change clubs John!
Great to see members who often struggle to get to breakfast meetings, making two in the month.
My that breakfast looks great.
An excellent job on the Attendance Desk today Alan - thanks
Meeting Responsibilities - Making our meetings and meeting-space welcoming each week requires background work aka Meeting Responsibilities. If you are assigned a Meeting Responsibility and are not sure what this entails - please ask your Rotary Buddy, or click onto this helpful 
Members Murray, Prabha and Robyn; and Isi (Inbound Rotary Youth Exchange Student from Chile) enjoyed a solid morning of work, helping out at the Salvation Army Foodbank (Manukau) last Tuesday. This is an ongoing project headed by Peter Ross, and many Rotary Clubs have been rotating through rostered 'help' days. This week we enjoyed the company of Rotarians from RC's of Newmarket and Half Moon Bay.
Murray was kept busy organising boxes and restocking shelves, while we girls blitzed the re-bagging of huge sacks of flour, rice and semolina into smaller more manageable packages. We were driven hard by Mr Ross (D9920 Special Programme Events Leaders Chair) who kept us going with the promise of a lovely lunch, supplied by Sally Army staff as a Christmas thank you for the awesome work Rotarians are doing at the Centre. 