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Sargent Les opened the meeting and asked everyone to stand up and kiss each other which was hilarious! No photos taken! He then welcomed our guests from Vinnies: Shamus Sushamus, Alain Pitot, Anthony Walsh, Haley Mills, Peter Ryan and it was lovely to have a visit from our past Member of Calpac, Garry Pash. Peter Asher is celebrating his birthday on 18th June, 21 again!!! International Toast Dr Pete Harding raised a toast to the Rotary Club of Paris Academies. The original St Vincent de Paul’s hometown still exists in southern France, however with a population of 40, no active Rotary Club could be found. The Founder of St Vincent’s de Paul Society was Frederic Ozanam, a French catholic. A scholar lawyer journalist and equal rights advocate, born in 1813 in a family with 14 children and one of only 3 to reach adulthood; educated at the Sorbonne and died aged 40 from consumption. If he was alive today, apart from being 212 yrs old, he would be a member of the Rotary Club of Paris Academies in district 1670. It has 38 members including artists, professors, the President of the Sorbonne and a former Inspector General of Libraries in Paris! They meet on a Monday for lunch at the oldest restaurant in Paris, Le Procope, which was established in 1686, a nice little 5 star affair with an associated museum in the restaurant, proudly displaying Napolean’s hat and the last letter Marie Antoinette wrote before she lost her head! Apart from eating well, major activities include Annual Classical Music Concert 3,000 Euros and the restoration of paintings and drawings at the Museum de Jean Moulin, one of the leaders of the French Resistance. Rotary Foundation Exchange students (last year from Japan and Canada) took part in their annual foodbank drive. They usually have 2 or 3 visiting Rotarians at their meetings. The restaurant and University are in the Saint-Germain-de-Pres district, the birthplace café culture and Bohemian intellectualism. As Voltaire, a frequent diner here, once wrote “God gave us the Gift of Life; it is up to us to give ourselves the Gift of Living well”. During our meal a Video showing sleep-outs, from the Vinnies CEO, was shown. General Meeting - Conducted by Clive Seymour Members were asked to vote with regards to the proposed increase in annual membership dues by $30 to $380 pa – this was carried unanimously. It was also agreed to increase our weekly dinner meeting cost from $33 to $35 – also carried unanimously. Our Guest speakers from St Vincent de Paul: Alan Pitoit told us a little about Vinnies and made mention of a future Pope Greig Lee- Archer  . He then showed a video about Vinnies history. It was started in Paris to help the poor, and he made comment that it is a bit like why Rotary started way back over 100 years ago too. It started in Australia in 1854 and now gives a helping hand to over 200,000 people in QLD each year to those who are doing it tough. Peter Ryan spoke about the Sunshine Coast housing issue and Vinnies presence in our area and explained how they support people in need. The Sleep out helps raise funds for the homeless and is the only place in Australia where it is on the beach! That’s a bonus for sure. Our own member, Les Pontin, who has been participating in this fund raiser for several years now, was presented with a badge for raising $10k, congratulations Les! Anthony Walsh spoke about a 5 year project to provide housing by building 500 homes by the end of this period. Funds raised from the Vinnies sleep out goes towards this goal. Haley Mill’s expertise and passion is fundraising! She spoke about how she goes about this and also what those funds are used for – essentials including Food, Clothing, Housing, Medical Assistance, Kitchen equipment and furniture and not forgetting Fuel for those who live in their car? There are 50 volunteers doing the Vinnies sleepout this year, raising around $50k. Peter Hovey asked how Vinnies choose to help people. Alan Pitoit said they do not judge anyone and do some check and balances for each individual and do everything they can to keep people in their own home which is their priority. Les thanked all the speakers for their informative presentations. Member’s/Director’s Moments Ross Harrison shared with the club a letter of appreciation from Mr Nemrod Dulay the teacher in charge of the Day Care centre in the Philippines that we sponsored with the installation of a kitchen and toilet, as it went a long way to providing the score he received in a recent evaluation. He said the centre has increased from 15 children to 30 because of what we did. Peter Hovey said that our Vocational Excellence Awards evening on 24th July is looking good, with 4 nominees participating. Eve appealed to all members to register for meetings on time. Win mentioned next week’s speaker is Amy Agius from Life Flight. Sargent fine session - Les fined each table with a difficult question, I don’t think any table got their question right! Raffle was drawn with many happy winners – chocolates never go astray! |
