Sending healing thoughts and best wishes to those members – or their partners – not feeling the best this week. Please don’t worry about tasks you may feel you have indicated you wish to be involved in. Your first task is to rest, take care of yourself. We will miss you at the meetings and/or events but we want you to focus on feeling better. Wishing you all a speedy recovery. We especially think of VP Jenny as she enters hospital this week for her surgery and wish her well and a stress-free recovery.

What an amazing week it has been.

• Tuesday – Birthing Kits Foundation Australia (BKFA) Assembly stage 1 – all members present at the meeting eagerly participated in the folding of the plastic sheets before placing them into the plastic bags for completion on Saturday. Special thanks to those who came early, shared their expertise with others, and packed the bags ready for the Saturday experience. Thanks to John for the great photography, shared to Facebook, which attracted more public to attend the event on Saturday
• NB – what did we do with the extra 3 bags left at the end of the night??? – thanks for the suggestions of how to discover the bags with 2 sheets in them – the next morning, my 2 grandsons and I weighed all 800 bags - the plastic bag weighed 2 gm and the plastic sheet 58gm – so if the package weighed more than 60gm, we checked the contents – one grandson noted some packages were also thicker so these were weighed first. All up the exercise took just on 1 hour, we did not stop at just finding 3 extra sheets, but weighed them all – and discovered 4 more, making 7 in total – great math lesson in everyday life – the boys were so pleased they could be involved in solving a Rotary mystery
• On Saturday we had 58 attend the RCMB Community activity of completing 1000 Birthing kits at White Park Community Centre. A truly amazing event.
  • We had representatives from 6 Rotary Clubs register/attend (Murray Bridge, Mobilong, Tailem Bend, Mt Barker, St Peters, Edwardstown), Adelaide Hills Inner Wheel, Murray Bridge CWA, U3A, and the Sunshiners from the Soldiers Memorial Hospital – 10 Community Groups in total.
  • 18 attendees had no affiliation with any Community Group/Service Club and 14 did not register – just turned up to help on the day
  • The 10^th and final box was sealed at 2.58pm to huge hurrahs from all
  • Huge thanks to all members and partners who helped before, during and after the event
    • Sue and members of the International Committee for organising the event
    • Sam and Liz at the Registration Desk and all the IT used
    • Sandy, Lyn and Marg for their demonstrations and quality control measures and keeping the supplies up to the volunteers throughout the afternoon
    • Marg and Jacquie for the afternoon Tea presentation – the cups of coffee were appreciated
    • John for his amazing photography – on both occasions – great to have the record of the event to share at the Information Showcase event in February
    • Stephen, Sam, Sandy and Lyn for squeezing 100 kits into each of the 10 boxes
    • Gordon, Sabine, Bev, Tracey, and Rosemary McCulloch who packed and sealed the kits, sharing fellowship at a range of tables throughout the venue
    • All those who provided foods for the afternoon tea
    • I do hope I have not missed anyone
• Sunday – Sam coordinated a Bunnings BBQ to raise the final $$$ for the Birthing Kit Activity. The weather was warm, and the customer flow was slow at times, but the day stands us in good stead with Bunnings for future opportunities

The Public Image group has seen first-hand, the power of our Social Media pages – encouraging the public to attend the Birthing Kit event – how can we use it to be even more powerful to attract new volunteers? Several members are looking into this and we would appreciate any of your ideas – chat to Robin, John, Caitlyn, Penny or myself if you have any ideas

Up-coming events to keep in your plans for January

• Monday 19^th January – MBHS BBQ – for the cast and crew of their 2026 Musical Theatre production
• Tuesday 20^th January – Youth Homeless Project – Headspace speaker Nina D’Alton

Looking forward to seeing you all this week 

Roxanne

PUT US IN YOUR DIARY - FEB 15^TH

End Trachoma

Australia is the only developed country in the world with Trachoma.

Trachoma is a bacterial infection caused by Chlamydia Trachomatis. The infection results in scarring under the eyelid causing the lid to turn in, scratching the cornea and long term blindness. 

End Trachoma programme initiated by the Rotary Club of Melbourne in 2016, Sandy Fulcher is the project manager. 

Murray Bridge Rotary Club recently donated $1000 to the programme. This donation enabled the supply of kits containing face washers, toothbrush and paste, shampoo and conditioner, comb, bandaids and deodorant all contained in a hand made bag. 

The aim is to improve facial cleanliness and hygiene. 

9000 kits have been distributed to the NT and WA to Aboriginal communities. Trachoma rates have dropped from 12 percent to 5 percent in Alice Springs. 

Monies have been distributed to Minyeri, 240kms SE of Katherine, Yirrkala, SE Arnhem Land and Bonya NT located off the Plenty Highway. 

Inner Wheel Australia Tour of Centre for Cancer Biology

Monday 12^th January 2026

On International Inner Wheel Day (Monday 12^th January) I joined Merilyn Schultz – as a guest of the Inner Wheel Club of the Adelaide Hills - on a tour of the Cord Blood Research Laboratory in the Uni SA Bradley Building on North Terrace Adelaide. Our tour guide was Professor Richard D’Andrea and the morning speakers were Sheree Bailey and researcher Bhumika Tirthani. Our club has supported this research with donations to Inner Wheel in the past.

The National Project for Inner Wheel Australia focuses on supporting Cord Blood Research. This initiative, ongoing for over two decades, aims to fund vital medical research that explores the use of cord blood and placental tissue to treat various conditions and improve lives. The work of Professor Richard D’Andrea et al, at the University of South Australia seeks to improve the success of adoptive immunotherapy for childhood Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. A successful outcome of this project would extend the use of Umbilical Cord Blood for immunotherapy and provide safer treatment options for childhood cancers.

After the visual presentations, we were given a guided tour of the very impressive laboratories in which the research is undertaken.

Lunch followed with great food, interesting and inspiring fellowship with like-minded individuals. 

Thank you Merilyn for inviting me to be your guest

Roxanne, President

To Book https://www.trybooking.com/DINOT

Please contact Julieanne if any of these dates interest you.

Last year was a great day out!

What inspired you to join Rotary? 
And how has it changed your life?

These and other questions are answered by our members

Behind every Rotarian is a unique story of purpose, passion, and personal growth. For some, it was the desire to make a tangible difference in their local community. For others, it was the chance to connect with like-minded people and be part of something larger than themselves.

CLICK HERE to read responses from several members of the Rotary Club of Murray Bridge

Visit https://www.l2p.org.au/news-and-events/ for more information

CALENDAR WINNERS 

13^th January

 

Value	No.	Winner	Location	Sold By
Zoo Tickets	264	Joy Chavelier	Strathalbyn	Strath Darts
$50	297	Tracey Long	Murray Bridge	Tracey Long

 

Expression of Interest

Potential Rotary Group Friendship Exchange – India D3000 

In early 2024, members from our District (9510) arranged an inbound and outbound Group Friendship Exchange (GFE) with Rotary members from Southeast India District 3000.

We have been approached again by District 3000 to consider establishing a GFE in 2026 – 27 or 2028.

Before preparing any plans for such an exchange we need to establish who in our district 9510 is interested and would like to be involved. 

We are now seeking expressions of interest from D9510 members for an outbound GFE traveling to India and/or hosting an inbound GFE from India. Club Presidents and Club Secretaries could you please share this notice with all club members.

What’s next

• Establish a list of interested Rotary members.

• Hold a briefing session and determine if a GFE with India D3000 is viable 

Please register your Expression of Interest. 

• This is an exciting opportunity to engage with Rotary colleagues in and from India, please provide your Name,  Email and mobile phone details to Adrian Roach, RC Flagstaff Hill, ajrmakeitso@gmail.com or phone/SMS 0409 330 803 by Sunday 31 January 2026.