05 May 2023

Visitors : Ray Freeman (Lynda’s Guest), Leah Nesbit (Guest of Dan Allan Gordon), Bill Holland and Ray

Guest Speaker: Dan Allan Gordon and Diamond

President Lynda:  Welcomed all

 

 Birthdays of members and partners

Les Geraghty – 10^th of May

Barry Fredhiem – 13^th of May

Adrian Pohio 17^th of May

 

15^th of May – Shiv Thammalla – 36 years

 

Rotary Years in May 2023.

Viv Dykes – 3 years

Bryan Winters – 3 years

Barry Fredhiem – 5 years

Raymond Scott – 15 years

Ross Brown – 21 years

Glenn Dougal – 18 years

 

 

Bill Holland is planning a 10 day visit to Japan which will be very similar to past visits.

It will be for 10 days, probably starting on about Tuesday 19 March in time for the famous cherry blossom season.

Bill will be hosting an information evening at 5:15pm Thursday 25 May at a location yet to be determined.

If you are interested, please email Bill at bill.holland@hobec.co.nz to confirm you are interested and whether you will be able to attend the information evening.

Numbers will be strictly limited so please confirm to Bill (even if you have already spoken to him).

 

Treasured Art (May 17^th - 20^th 2023): Its ready to go. Members are encouraged to promote the event. Close to 100 have registered, however 200 mark is the sweet spot. More the merrier.

Thank you all for putting the hands up for helping with Treasured art. The roster is sent by Wayne. If you see the gaps, you are welcome to put your hand up and help out in this great event.

 

Social event (June 15^th 2023): At the 16^th Avenue theatre, Appleton’s lady’s potto race which is a hilarious comedy based on a story of 5 ladies seeking gender parity in small town in Australia.   Please email Rhonda for more info and bookings.

 

Changeover (8^th of July): Evening function, 1830 hours kickoff, $85 per person. Please come along and note your interest with Ray Scott.

 

Collection for Alzheimer’s Tauranga on the 26^th of May. Please put your hands up to help out with Neil.

 

Whiskey Night (19^th of July). It’s a legacy event by Dave woodhouse who sadly passed away last year. It’s a biannual event. Dave had asked John and Wayne to continue the event. Please come along and pay tribute to our great member.

 

Lisa introduced the speakers Dan and Diamond from Graeme Dingle foundation.

 

 

 

Dan initiated his address with acknowledging Larissa’s tough journey and her spirit. She is doing as good with her life as anybody can including securing an acting scholarship in the USA and will be going over there in a few weeks. The scholarship does not cover the travel cost and hence Larissa has organized a movie night. Dan urged members to support her in this cause as much as they can.

 

Dan then talked about Graeme Dingle foundation:

Graeme always had a vision to develop the project K targeted for the youth. He had already started outdoor pursuit centre however he had to make a choice between outdoor pursuit centre and Project K. He chose to move ahead with Project K 28 years ago. Eventually the foundation developed 4 school-based programmes programs and supports 3,800 kids in Western Bay of Plenty, equating to 180,000 attendance hours.

The Programmes are:

 

Stars (Started in 2017): School peer mentoring programme with 139 mentors supporting all the year 9 students. Currently serving 600 kids in that programme. Delivers sessions on digital citizenship, mental toughness, resilience, and stress management.

 

Project K (Started in 2009): The flagship programme has 3 components. 3-week wilderness experience, residential community challenge where kids give back to the community and then they have a mentor for 12 months. The programme targets year 10 low self-efficacy youth. Dan pointed towards a photo of 5 young kids who went through Project K and highlighted their achievements.

He also shared the photos of Ayla who is a Project K coordinator and Jess who is a winner of the Prime ministers’ award. Leah (Guest) also delivers career navigator and Project K in Te Puke.

 

 

Career Navigator: Targeting low self-efficacy young people from year 11-13 and its about reconnecting them to schools and give them tools and skills to excel. It is provided through mentors from business community.

 

Mind: Youth targeting programme designed to prevent youth from reoffending. We deliver 72.2 percent reduction in reoffending which is twice the national average. We also deliver a sibling programme called Kiwitahi so that these very young men do not become young offenders.

 

Kiwican: Developed by Dan initially, it became part of the foundation. A per Massey university research, Kiwi can is one of the best initiatives ever introduced to New Zealand school. It teaches kids emotional intelligence and has a community service element to it. If provided with funds we can run Kiwican for 110,000 kids every year. Currently it serves 3,000 tamariki in Western Bay of Plenty each week.

 

Dan gave an example of a girl who was bullied a lot in one of the schools. She left and returned a year later. In the meanwhile, Kiwican has conducted session for the kids at the school. When this young girl retuned, she said that bullies are not bullies anymore they are more like friends. It also has benefits with school attendance numbers.

 

For every dollar spent invested in these programmes, $7.80 is pumped into New Zealand economy.

 

He then introduced members to Diamond who had taken part in Kiwican and also project K.

 

Diamond, a Te Puke resident for more than 10 years shared her experience with Kiwican once a week. She learned about respect and resilience and received support for building communication skills, increase confidence and positive behavior. She recalled it being a fun and playing games while building essential skills. She expressed her gratitude for being able to experience Kiwican as well as Project K. She recalled project K was a transforming experience that made positive changes for her social life and enabled her to achieve her career aspirations. She also credited the initiative for delivering results for Rangatahi in terms of building confidence and achieve goals. She reflected upon her relationship with the mentor and described it as enjoyable and having a feeling of having someone there when she needed it the most.

 

Diamond wishes to achieve her goal of becoming a successful architect and compete her bachelor’s degree when she is 21. She also aspires to become a inspirational role model for people young students. She is now in year eleven and has achieved merit in mathematics and excellence in English.  She has also formed positive bonds with other project K students and enjoys her new social bonds.

Diamond then emotionally addressed Dan as Koro Dan and thinks of Dan as a family member. She hoped for others be fortunate enough to experience the same experience because it was lifechanging experience for her.

 

Speaker thanks: Chris Rapson emphatically thanked Dan for his consistent effort to support the community. He also emphasized on Diamond’s journey and appreciated her efforts to become a strong young person who wishes to move forward with enthusiasm.

 

Sargent Session: Wayne Shadbolt

Announcement – Friday fives happening in 2 weeks’ time.

 

Sargent session was based on exploring  some member’s activity today and what they did on this day in the past (Name dichotomy). For example, Lynda after trying to retire five times (Current) has now found love and her passion (in the past).

Simon apparently is an active member with the learning journeys and on the beard of Sunrise rotary club, but he was also a professional footballer who played for New Castle. He also has a website called Simon loves Pandas.

Les is semi-retired from Harcourts. The man with a permanent smile and turn his hand to anything. Despite recently falling into writing, wining local play write competition.

James Ross: A strong background in realty after a career in travel in tourism. But James in another life was a British naval officer who carried out magnetic surveys in arctic and Antarctic.

Dan: A man we look up to for his passion for the work he does for Graeme Dingle foundations. In the past life Dan ran a hostel ran a hostel names “Just the duck’s nuts”. On the side he also is on TikTok with a name “Dan Allan gaming TikTok”.

Pat Taylor: Our assistant district governor, QSM, JP and former motel owner. Go to guy for support and information. In the past life he is a retired university president. He is also appeared as uncredited as a slave in the doctor who series. Pat Taylor has also a ship named after him, sailing under the flag of Mexico.

 

Artificial intelligence (AI) poem about sunrise rotary club:

 

There was once a club called sunrise.

That was full of good people and wise.

They meet every week to serve and speak,

 And to share delicious meat pies.

They had members from all walks of life, from teachers, lawyers to a midwife.

They worked on projects to help and connect,

And to make the world better and bright.

But they also know how to have fun,

They enjoyed games, the parties, and puns.

They laugh and they joked, and they danced, and they uncloaked.

They never miss out on all the suns.

If you are looking for a place to belong,

Where you can go and be good and be strong,

Come join the sunrise, you will be in for a surprise,

And you will find yourself singing a song.

 

Raffle Winner: Ticket 49. Shiv Thammalla, 3 years in the making.

 

Risk is what you get when you don’t know what to do: Warren Buffet.