Last night, we had a terrific meeting - our annual Vocational Excellence Awards night, where our vocational service committee presented awards to four worthy local recipients - the Co-ordinator is Calpac member, Peter Hovey.

Sergeant Peter Asher opened the meeting in the usual way and handed over to President David, who welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Rotarian Bronwynne Bates proposed the international toast to our own Rotary club, Rotary Club of Caloundra Pacific!
For our guests, Bronwynne outlined some of the things that we do, namely, the ROMAC trivia night, cleanup Australia day, rice for Cambodia, our Philippine school project, Christmas boxes that we donate to the needy, our Broadway in the Hanger fundraiser, the Umoja orphanage in Kenya, RYDA - our year 10 students driver awareness training program, our National Youth Science Forum, Youth Exchange Students programme, our annual Golf Day Tournament, Christmas Trailer Raffle, Bunnings Barbeques, all of which help us support DV safe phones, Steps Pathway, Care Flight, and Angel Flight, to name a few.

Following dinner and fellowship Rotarian Barbara, our chairman of the vocational service committee, spoke briefly about this committee and what they do.

Peter Hovey introduced the 4 awardees, nominated for an award -

Our first awardee was Bryan Elivira.
Bryan works for Best Practice Eyecare in Caloundra. Rotarian Barbara Bailey spoke on the nomination of Bryan, and that he has been an employee for a very long-time. He's very kind and considerate and Barbara had pleasure in nominating him. Dr. Michael Karper, his employer, spoke about Bryan's work; his attitude is always service above self. He has integrity and always tries to do the best job at all times. He has is caring for all.  And…. Michael gets positive feedback every day. 

Next awardee was Toni Bonney, from Meals on Wheels.
Rotarian, Les Pontin introduced Toni. He commended her on her dedication and commitment to her position;  she works six days a week and arrives in the early hours and finishes late in the day.  She supervises and oversees an essential commodity in the Caloundra area, which includes volunteer drivers and kitchen staff, and the maintenance of quality of the meals for over 400 per day.  Her supervisor, Sandra Jacobs, also spoke about Toni's commitment to her work, putting in the long hours and always being friendly to all who come into contact with her.

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Our third nominee was Caity O'Keefe.
Rotarian Bruce was pleased to nominate Caity and spoke on her nomination, saying that Caity had liaised with the Rotary Club organisers of our RYDA program at the Sunshine Coast Turf Club for several years now, and has always provided excellent service to them in their efforts to save young lives on the road. As our “go to” person, she has made our job of running a significant program much easier. She has calmly sorted out any problems. Our three day managers and our RYDA coordinator,  all agree she is a worthy nominee. Unfortunately, Caity's supervisor, Andrew Smith couldn't be with us tonight, but Neville Woodforth, our Calpac members who is a key organiser, spoke highly of Caity's work ethics and her assistance to our club.

Our fourth and final nominee is Izzii Whetton (with the blond hair) , is proposed by Suzanne Lee-Archer, who is unable to be with us tonight, so Graeme Bowden stepped up instead. Graeme spoke highly of Izzii in her role at the Top of the Coast Hair Salon. Graeme spoke of her professional approach to her work and that she is always very friendly and this was reinforced by Amanda Leavy, her employer.  Amnda said that Izzii is a very special person indeed - she is always kind and positive and is very pleased to see that Izzii got this award.

Peter Hovey then thanked all the recipients, their sponsors and employers.
He thanked the awardees for their wonderful approach and dedication to their vocation.

Next to our sergeant, Peter Asher managed to extract money from everyone.

The raffle was drawn and won and there were quite a few happy faces.
Sargent Peter closed the meeting on a very happy note after a wonderful night.

Next week we have Kendall Hatcher giving us an update of what's happening in Caloundra -