It has been a busy week. On Friday night Dave Wylie and I went to a dinner at Waipuna where the featured speaker was Ian Riseley who is the current Rotary International President. Ian and his wife Juliet were in New Zealand to attend the South Pacific President Elects Training weekend that Dave will tell you about. As you can see from his profile he is Australian and he even tried to convince us that he supports the Black Caps because they are the only team who plays within the spirit of cricket. I'm not sure we were convinced. He is a very entertaining speaker and gave us a few laughs as well as some food for thought. In particular he pointed out that the polio campaign is getting close to success however he cautioned about letting up on the eradication program. The virus can be so virulent that in a very short space of time there would be 100s of thousands of cases annually and he reminded us of the iron lungs that many of us remember from our youth.

 

The Brit and Euro classic car show at Lloyd Elsmore Park on Sunday was a huge event with 850 cars on display and was attended by 10s of thousands. A big thank you to all who contributed especially Geoff Thompson who made our club participation happen. We took over $1,000 selling sausages and onions and drinks. The club canopy made sure the public knew who we were. Well done John Osborne! David Owen did a tremendous job promoting Shelter Box. He put up the tent and spoke with passers by a couple of whom offered to fund some boxes. John and Dorothy Osborne then followed up that effort by going out on Sunday night and putting up all the "Howick Fun Run" billboards. Truly service before self. Thank you.

 

This Tuesday is an introduction to "behind the scenes at Howick Historical Village" before our visit the following week. It is bound to be interesting and a good night to invite family and friends.