Newsletter for the Rotary Club of Western Endeavour - Issue No.: 1116 Issue Date: 21 Apr, 2024

The District 9455 Changeover dinner held at the WA Golf Club was attended by 160 Rotarians, family and friends.  A fantastic turnout and a great venue.  The highlight of the evening for me (apart from the food of course) was the presentation to Bruce Dufty of his 4th Paul Harris recognition, making his a 3 sapphire Paul Harris.  An indication on the night of Bruce’s commitment to the new RI President Ian Risely’s theme, Rotary Making a Difference, was his swapping his steak for my fish when he heard me complain about getting fish again.  I had it at our club changeover and Brendan was on the other side of the table so I couldn’t acquire some of his beautiful looking braised pork shoulder.  Thanks Bruce for your selfless service.

Award recipients for this year were:

Communications Award; Rotary Club of Scarborough

Best Attendance at District Conference; Ballajura – Malaga

Highest Contribution to the Rotary Foundation; Rotary Club of Freshwater Bay

Best Club of the Year; Rotary Club of Kalamunda

Most Improved Club membership; Rotary Club of Mt Lawley

Indigenous Service Award; Rotary Club of Karrinyup (Ear bus)

Rotarian of the Year; Rebecca Tolstoy; Rotary Club of Perth

Highest Contribution to Australian Rotary Health; Rotary Club of Belmont

Another lovely part of the night was when we were all encouraged to take a potted native plant home to add to our garden.  Ian Riseley has challenged every Rotary club to make a difference by planting a tree for each of its members between the start of the Rotary year on 1 July and Earth Day on 22 April 2018. “It is my hope that the result of that effort will be far greater than the environmental benefit that those 1.2 million new trees will bring,” Riseley said. “I believe the greater result will be a Rotary that recognizes our responsibility not only to the people on our planet, but to the planet itself.

That leads nicely into tree planting this year at Quairading.  The dates are Friday 28th, Saturday 29th and coming home Sunday 30th of July.  Judy is adding this as an event, so make sure you register or apologise.  The weather over the past few days has been good training.