Oh what a night! A Rotarian’s dream - a room full of young people, laughter, chatter and excitement - it was, of course, the Brian Hanlon Speech Award night.
We had four contestants from Howick College who all stood and introduced their family and friends who had come to support them. Mitchell Meredith, Ava Walden, Nikita Keeling and Honey Waiwai.
It was a great pleasure to welcome Michelle Innes, Brian Hanlon’s daughter, and two Howick College English Teachers - Ann Botha and Kirsten McKeown. A special welcome, as always, was for Heather Savory, Meryl Monk, Robin Fox and Ann Nicholls.
Upon completion of the welcome and introductions Carole thanked Glenice for the wonderful day out she had organised the day trip to the Chelsea Sugar Works at Birkenhead. A most beautiful spot to have an excellent lunch followed by a very interesting tour of the works. There was a ship at the dock unloading (which takes 5 days) for which Chelsea has to pay, before delivery, 20 - 30 million dollars depending on the price of the product at the time of shipping.
After dinner it was time for the speeches.
The four wide-ranging topics were:
Honey “Comfort is not your Destination”.
Ava “Peer Pressure”
Nikita “Is Temu Ethical?”
Mitchell “Factory Farming”
The speeches were all excellent and the judges ( Glenice Yeoman, Malcolm Pascoe and Carole Ansley) were amazed at the talent of these young people. (Wish school had taught that kind of confidence and skill when I went).
In 4th place was Mitchell, in 3rd place was Ava, in 2nd place was Nikita and the winner was Honey. Michelle presented the vouchers and the trophy to the contestants and flowers to Ann and Kirsten. Flowers were also given to her with our thanks for her continuing support of the awards.
A special “thank you” needs to go to Barry Nichols for his excellent organisation of the Awards.
This was then followed by our usual meeting procedures. We had four 1 minute speeches: Glenice Yeoman reminded us about the Howick Fair on Friday night and invited Rotarians to turn up at the BBQ we are running outside Barton and Thompson’s Real Estate from 4p.m. Onwards.
David Teague mentioned the successful Dine Out that was held at the Good Home and invited members to attend future dinners.
Malcolm Pascoe spoke about the email he had received from Somerville Rotary inviting us to hear their Guest Speaker, Dr. Dhananjay Keskar, a Business Executive, on 20th November. For further details please contact Malcolm.
Our 4th 1 minute speaker was Dave Wylie who spoke regarding the Christmas Lunch Box appeal through All Saints Church. I understand that the Church is hoping to do 300 boxes this year which equates to 200 families. They are surprised at the number of families needing more boxes than last year and have put this down to families living together to save costs. They are hoping to keep the cost of the boxes at $70 per box which is the same as last year but it might mean that there will be a little bit less in each box. Any contribution from Rotary members will be very much appreciated. Please let John Sanders know how much you wish to donate. The RCoH Community Trust will match member donations up to $200 per member.
The raffle winners were: New World Voucher Raffle. Carole Ansley and Mike Stanghan. Geoff Thompson and Pat Abercrombie won the ‘Have A Go” Raffle.
Our Acting Sergeant for the night, Steve Lines, did his usual sterling job in fining us for “perceived” misdemeanors.
Speaking of the Acting Sergeant - Steve - you did an amazing job of running what was a very difficult meeting to keep on track and on time and ensure that everyone had a great time. Thanks so much.
Can’t think of anything else.
Regards,
Carole Ansley
President Elect
