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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-05-07 Daily Xml
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ROTARY CLUB OF ST PETERS

Ms CICCARELLO (Norwood) (15:37): Today I would like to speak about one of the Rotary clubs in my electorate which recently achieved an important milestone. We all know that Rotary has an outstanding worldwide reputation in carrying out a remarkable variety of humanitarian and educational activities. Currently, Rotary boasts 1.2 million members around the world who belong to 29,000 Rotary clubs.

On 29 April 1958, the Rotary Club of St Peters was granted its charter. Fifty years later, to the very day, I was privileged to attend the club's 50th birthday celebrations. The history of the Rotary Club of St Peters over the past half century is quite fascinating and a proud testament to the extraordinary level of service that it has provided to the community.

I must confess that I was amused when I read some of the items discussed at the first ever assembly meeting some 50 years ago, especially the suggestion that wives be prevailed upon to assist with a basket supper. I am not sure whether that would curry much favour these days, but even then their commitment to helping those in need was unswerving.

The first community effort ever of the Rotary Club was to assist the Spastic Children's Welfare Association which raised £148—quite fantastic for that time. I am not sure what that would be worth in today's money but I am sure it would be more than 10 times the value. This was achieved by holding a cabaret night, a cards night, a sportsmen's night and a picture evening. Perhaps some of us should contact the Rotary Club to get a copy of their fundraising policy, because it is quite effective.

The major fundraising activity for the Rotary club is the volunteer-run Rummage Shop which operates from Wednesday to Friday from 10am to 3pm and Saturday from 9am to midday in a shop at the rear of the Marden Shopping Centre. This rummage shop has consistently managed to achieve takings in excess of $65,000 a year and, over the past 14 years of operation, it has achieved in excess of $1 million. Donations of goods are most gratefully accepted and I encourage everyone to contact them if they have unwanted goods. I can say that I have spent many happy hours rummaging around in the shop and I have found a lot of interesting knick-knacks, particularly some books which I have been able to enjoy.

The Rotary club's other major fundraising activity is its annual jumble sale which is held on the first Saturday in March of each year and which has been operating for the last 48 years at Stepney. This too raises an enormous amount of funds as evidenced by this year's takings of $16,300. The theme for all the fundraising activities undertaken by the club can best be summed up as community, youth, vocational and international.

It is under this umbrella that the club distributes its money across a wide range of local and international projects. There are far too many for me to mention here but, just as a snapshot last year, a few of the projects it supported were: building a school on Tanna Island, Vanuatu; donating $25,000 towards youth opportunities and $3,200 to the St Peters Childcare Centre; sponsoring vocational and music awards; and providing ongoing support to many local community organisations such as Meals on Wheels, the Norwood Christmas pageant and the Hackney Mission. The very professional booklet presented at the dinner last year highlights the hundreds of projects that the club has been involved in.

I understand that the club will be concentrating even more on local projects in the future and I am delighted that the community will benefit from the club's dedication and hard work. The Rotary Club of St Peters has been a most effective contributor to human and community needs both locally and internationally over the last 50 years.

My heartfelt thanks go to everyone who has played a role in making the club the organisation it is today: to the president, Dick Hissey, and the secretary, Phil Smith, and to the many men and women who have given their time so selflessly to this fantastic organisation. Well done and congratulations again on the 50th birthday! It was delightful to see that some of the members who attended the dinner last Tuesday night—I will not mention all their names—had been attending the Rotary club meetings for the whole 50 years. So congratulations to them and their dedication to the community.

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