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Guests: Tom Kearney and Pat Miller, (guest speakers), Marea Goodwin-McKay (guest of Kathy), FiBe, (Guest of Buddy)
Visiting Rotarians: Allan Gillingham – Otumoetai, Alan Hitchcock, Stephen Lange- Tauranga Te Papa, Sue Boyne -Tauranga, Bronwyn Carter, Murray Marshall - Omokoroa, Chris Keightly – Katikati.
Good morning and welcome from President Shiv.
Notices & Announcements
Eyes for Africa – the collection has started. Shiv has already received used glasses for this project. Keep bringing along any discards each Friday to be sent to the Eye Care for Africa clinic for reuse.
Guest Speakers – Rosalie gave an intro and a bit of background from a story she wrote in 2022, about a drowning of Moturiki, and the coroners finding, mentioning the lack of a floatation device which might have aided a rescue attempt. Installation of Public Rescue Equipment (PRE) could be a solution.
In January 2018 a member of Pat Miller’s whanua, (McGoo) drowned while swimming at Cable Bay (in Doubtless Bay). Pat Discovered that in Hawaii soft rescue devices where available - she installed five of these around the local community. Pat was then invited to be a volunteer spreading the word about the PREs - there were many examples of how the equipment had been deployed to save lives.
Tom Kearney, Surf Life Saving’s National Coastal Safety Manager, tells us that in Tauranga, we have the third highest rate of drownings per year. We are a drowning black spot with a unique coastline of 15 to 16 kilometres of beach, which is only patrolled in certain areas.
In 2022 a report to TCC identified 45 sites for PREs around Tauranga - TCC suggested a phased rollout in lots of 10 and ranked the 45 sites in terms of visitation. Some thought the roll out could be accelerated with Rotary involvement.
The proposal for Rotary to fund the installation of devices, which would then be gifted to the council generated much discussion and no small level of enthusiasm. Watch this space.
Sergeant Session
Pat Taylor with more chocolate, and some difficult heads and tails quiz questions. Surely the capital of Alaska would be Anchorage! No, it’s Juneau you know. Next, you’ll be telling me Kansas City ain’t in Kansas. Andrew Knowles knew all the answers though. Very clever man that Andy.
Raffle : Dean Thompson, won the wine, and on-gifted it to guest speaker Pat Miller. A nice gesture given Pat had driven all the way down from Northland.
Parting Thought from Jim Rickard:
“As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I can't remember the other two.'
