The Rotary Club of Murray Bridge gathers at the Bridgeport Hotel 2 Bridge St, Murray Bridge on Tuesday evenings. Fellowship from 6.00pm with Dinner starting at 6.15pm. Apologies or guests to be notified to Jacquie Best by 12pm Monday. 0409 377 343
When speakers are unavailable, we try to give members a slightly different experience - last Tuesday we took the opportunity to have a Club Debrief on the 3 very large events of the previous week - The Aged & Carers Expo, the Bremer Valley Art Trail Tea Rooms at Callington and the Hamlin Fistula High Tea at the Uniting Church. Not only did John, Sue and I provide a debrief of the events. We also took the opportunity to have each speaker video taped so those not present could hear of the event. At the end of the presentations, Rotarians were asked to provide feedback on each of the events. The overwhelming comment was to avoid having so many Service Projects conducted in such a short time. This will be considered by Directors for future planning. All other feedback comments will be passed onto the event coordinators to consider for future events or events of a similar nature.
A huge shoutout to Robin for the video set up. If you want to view the presentations, please see the links below. We understand there is a lot to do to increase the professionalism of the videos, but we would be keen to hear your feedback on the concept of being able to get Club information out to more members in this way.
If you, personally, were moved by the information presented by speakers at the Hamlin Fistula Foundation High Tea and would like to do more, consider undertaking the Hamlin Barefoot Walk in September - use the link https://www.hamlin.org.au/walk to:
Walk 25 km - the average distance a woman walks to reach medical care in rural Ethiopia
Raise $1500 - the cost of one Fistula rep[air surgery at one of Hamlin’s 6 hospitals
Change a woman’s life - restore the health and dignity of a woman suffering from obstetric fistula
Or chat to me and we could set up a Club page
Great news to see the Rotary Club of Murray Bridge being acknowledged in the latest edition of ‘SA Move’ - page 75 (formerly SA Motor) as a 2025 RAA Grassroots Giving Recipient - Well done Simon in successfully applying for a grant for the up-coming Calperum Youth Environmental camp
I would like to acknowledge the great range of Service Projects our Club has on offer for our members to serve the wider community, locally, nationally and internationally. In the first 2 months of the new Rotary Year we have undertaken 5 Community Service events, 2 Bunnings Fund raisers and 6 members have undertaken training to upskill for new events (and I have probably forgotten 1 or 2) as well as a range of on-going projects that are continuing every week. Coordinators of these events are reminded to complete the post event Service Project Report Form so details can be recorded in our Club Goals section of My Rotary.
This afternoon, Sunday, President-Elect Simon and I will be attending our first G7 meeting (of the 2025-26 Rotary year) to discuss progress on current regional programmes (currently RORP project) and what new projects we are looking to consider in the coming Rotary year.
A reminder to all members of the short Club Assembly meeting that will be held as part of this Tuesday’s dinner meeting. This is to ratify the 2025/2026 Club levy of fees. We need to have this ratification undertaken at a Club Assembly meeting by the end of August to meet the Club By-laws. It will be a very short meeting to consider the vote - not discussions - and then we will be able to move into Caitlin’s Quiz night fully acknowledging we may have quite a few guests with us on Tuesday.
Looking forward to another great week, remembering ‘Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success’(acknowledge Henry Ford)
Roxanne
Quiz Night!!!!
Expect the unexpected on 26th August
Bring a guest to garner bonus points!
Rotary Does Make A Difference
Olivia and Ashleigh are the 2 young children of farmers in Jabuk, about 40 minutes past Tailem Bend on the road to Sydney. Mum and Dad (Nerissa and Brenton Forster) were really struggling to see light at the end of the tunnel. The Drought hit their farm hard and they were desperate to survive. We received these thank you cards by Snail Mail last week – what a delightful surprise.
Rotary and our partners at Farmers Relief Agency delivered 11 Tonne of Hay direct to the Forster’s farm in July. This was a life saver for their entire family. Olivia and Ashleigh now see smiles on mum and dad’s faces for the first time in ages; not to mention the very happy sheep and cows on their farm. They bound out of bed now with renewed hope!
Brenton & Nerissa’s farm is one of 245 Farms to receive Rotary fodder so far!
On Average – we’ve delivered about 10 Tonne of fodder per farm
We’ve delivered to farms from : Eyre Peninsula through to the Mid-North region; Flinders Ranges; Riverland; Murraylands; Murray Mallee; Cooke Plains; South East and across the Adelaide Hills
Some farms get 700kg Bales of first grade hay; Some get 1 Tonne Bags of high nutrient; high protein Sheep Pellets perfect for mummy sheep and separate pellets for their cuddly lambies!
We’re directly aware of 5 Farmers Lives we’ve saved now … just by turning up! Our caring truckies (farmers also themselves) often stick around for a chat AND of course provide a delivery of HOPE in the form of fodder.
AS I TYPE …
2 more Triple Deck truck loads of Hay are on the way over the Nullabor, carrying 192 bales weighing 134 Tonne. 2 more will come the following week.
By Friday 29th August, a further 18 Farms will have received hay deliveries, taking our total farms helped to 263.
Our aim continues to focus on delivering responsible volumes of fodder to each Farm to get them through the 5 months ahead, until local hay supplies have either grown in their own fields, or become available again in the local fodder stores at affordable prices.
BEES say thank you as well!
Now you’re scratching your head aren’t you!! Why bees!?
Our South Australian Bee Keepers have being doing it tough as well. No flowering crops such as fields of yellow canolla, means not only are their bees not producing honey, the bees themselves don’t have food to eat to survive.
Bee keepers have been needing to also FEED their hives to keep them alive.
We are very thankful for a set of $500 AMPOL fuel cards supplied by the Rotary Club of Sydney!! Yes … Sydney!! These cards have enabled us to activate Bee Keepers and other local community members to be Hay Delivery agents, keeping them busy and drastically improving their mental health. Other similar locals in the community benefit from this local Rotary project in similar ways. It’s a huge, well coordinated effort to do our best to reach into all sorts of nooks and crannies across South Australia. Beyond Olivia and Ashleigh’s thank you cards, Rotary receives so many messages of thanks for ‘turning up’ … for stopping to chat … for on the side hugs and showing our local community cares.
SPECIAL THANK YOU to our partners at Farmers Relief Agencydoing the really hard work (Michael and Martin are also Rotarians based in Victoria) … but also to our lead truckies Matt and Tim Eckert & family – plus their entire team at Mentara Park Farmsat Meningie. In fact, the passion that these 2 Brothers and their family have to work with FRA & Rotary is to be commended.
It’s more than just delivering fodder!
FUN FACTS Matt Eckert (pictured below at rear with Rotarians Bill Marles and Michelle Tink) has himself driven to and from Western Australia 4 Times so far for Rotary. Each trip is about 2,800km over and 2,800km back. So Matt alone has covered 22,400km in the last 2 or so months.
Just his truck alone has brought in 270 Tonne of Hay.
DON’T BE FOOLED BY THE GREEN DROUGHT !! You may have driven around the hills and Adelaide surrounds and seen green fields everywhere.
GREEN DROUGHT– is where the fields look pretty, but in fact because the rain came so late, the COLD days and nights mean that if a crop has germinated, it’s growing very slowly.
It’s likely to be November / December before harvest can occur.
Many fields you’re seeing could be just grass or weeds coming through.
Or the crops are simply so small, they have not nutritional value, even if the farmers allow their livestock into the paddocks to graze.
MUCH of our Community do not realise there are many country zones in particular through the Riverland; Murraylands and Mid-North who have NOTreceived robust rainfalls.
A lady on a farm 20 minutes south of Berri telephoned us last week to say their farm has only received 22mm of rain since June!
VISIT & PROMOTE :our Project Page please. We update it all the time with our latest deliveries. Have a look at some of the Town Names we’ve been to – Dig out Google Maps for a bit of fun to see how far and wide Rotary has gone.
ASK :your friends to consider making a Tax Deductible donation please. Every Dollar we raise goes to buying the fodder! PIRSA (Govt of SA) are currently still funding our Transport Costs.
The Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation is a charity dedicated to eradicating obstetric fistula, a preventable childbirth injury that leaves women incontinent and isolated
Just imagine…
💔 Enduring days of agonizing obstructed labor 💔 Delivering a stillborn baby and sustaining a horrific childbirth injury 💔 Leaking urine uncontrollably because of your injury 💔 Walking barefoot for 15 miles over difficult terrain to receive medical care 💔 Feeling immense physical and emotional pain 💔 Often doing all the above alone.
This is the reality for many Ethiopian women living in rural communities across the country.
The International Committee of our Club was keen to help. They organised a High Tea at the Uniting Church Hall on Sunday 17th August, with a view to raise sufficient funds to assist as many women in Ethiopia as possible. Those unable to attend, donated directly to the Foundation through the website: https://catherinehamlin.org/about/about-us/ or donated to the club through Rotarian contacts.
Marg Whitehead outlined the geographic location and size of Ethiopia as well as providing many statistics, many of which are variable. Following, Marg introduced Dr Graeme.
Approx 3.4m births per year (11,000 per day)
Birth rate is 32 per 1000 (Aust 11.6 per 1000)
Mortality is decreasing from 957 / 100,000 in 2000 to 267 / 100,000 in 2024 (Aust 2.4 / 100,000)
1 Doctor per 5,843 people
1 Nurse per 1000
1 Midwife per 4340
Dr Graeme Nicholson then addressed the meeting. Graeme was a Murray Bridge GP for many years and known to many present. His message to us all related to the tyrany of distance in an underdeveloped country, along with the fact that girls are giving birth before their bodies have developed sufficiently. This is a cultural issue which will improve with education which is being provided by the Hamlin Fistula Foundation.
A glass of bubbles on arrival and a sumptuous range of foods served throughout the afternoon added to the event. A very successful raffle was organized to further increase the finances, hopefully allowing more women to have the life saving surgery.
SALA Art Tearooms at Callington
As the poster advertising the event states: Cold and Wet outside? Warm and Welcoming Inside!
Those who ventured to the Callington Memorial Hall on Saturday 16th August stepped in from the winter chill and enjoyed:
A vibrant SALA exhibition by the Bremer Valley Artists
A pop-up artisan market full of unique, handmade creations
Freshly baked scones, jam and whipped cream served with hot tea/coffee with a Devonshire Tea served in the tearooms created by the rotary Club of Murray Bridge
A large group of Rotarians arrived just after 9-00am and began by setting up the Tearoom with beautiful lace tablecloths, layered with embroidered overlays - reminding us of older times when crafts such as embroidery or fabric painting were common. The final result was a beautifully set up room that was inviting those visiting the artists to stop for a while and enjoy each other’s company over a scone with jam and cream and a hot cuppa - with real china teapots.
Several Rotarians used the opportunity to brush up on their Food hygiene and food prep skills as part of their Food Supervisors Training. Another great opportunity provided by Rotary for its members
Freshly baked scones were coming out of the oven throughout the day and were very popular - especially the Gluten Free varieties - some visitors purchasing these scones to take home with them
While our Rotarians prepared lots of baked goods for the Trading Table, we were also assisted with the variety and volumes of goods from the families and friends of the Callington Primary School. The school will be the beneficiaries of the funds from the day when they travel to the City in December to spend the day at the Semaphore Carousel and the beach. The Caramel chocolate slice was so popular, it sold out in the first 2 hours.
The next planned event for Callington Tearooms will be in October.
CALENDAR WINNERS
19th August
Value
No.
Winner
Location
Sold By
$100
542
Debra Nance
Murray Bridge
Rotary
$50
176
Leanne Lubcke
Murray Bridge
K Prosser
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
Ron Jericho
August 21
Gordon Schultz
August 26
Spouse Birthdays
Jillian Reddin
August 1
Teatu
August 8
Mark Fanning
August 19
Dianne Wickes
August 20
Alicia Walker
August 24
Anniversaries
Jack Reddin
Jillian Reddin
August 18
Jenny Phillips
Peter Phillips
August 24
Join Date
Roxanne Rowland
August 19, 2014
11 years
Penny Heighes
August 20, 2024
1 year
To ensure delivery of emails, please add mailservice@clubrunner.ca to your safe senders list or address book
