Junior Mayor City of Kingston - Mon 24 Nov 2008

On Monday 24 November, Rotary Club Moorleigh Moorabbin had their youngest guest speaker. Tahryn Mant, 11, a Year 6 student from the Dingley Village School gave us her presentation on 'The Journey so Far as the Junior Mayor of the City of Kingston'.

Tahryn talked about the process of the Junior Mayor competition and how she was selected out of 24 other local primary school students for a two minute speech she gave on saving water, saving the environment and the need of an active sports program for schools to combat child obesity.

Aust medical team conducting diabetes awareness in B’ville

SMALL medical team from Australia, headed by a doctor from Royal Melbourne Hospital Dr Janine Rowse and medical nurse Becky Houghton, are in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville campaigning and educating people on the dangers of diabetes.

Dr Rowse said diabetes was an illness that could pose a severe threat to the people of Bougainville if nothing was done to prevent it. She was in Bougainville early this year and saw many diabetes patients having their legs amputated at the Buka hospital and decided to do something about it.When she returned to Australia, Dr Rowse decided to make a trip to Bougainville to carry out awareness campaigns on how best people could improve their health.

“Before we came to Bougainville, we did a small survey and found out that one out of every 10 adults is suffering from diabetes and that is alarming,” she said.

She added 97% of the population did not know much about the illness.

She said their purpose was to educate and inform the people about the disease.

Dr Rowse said the major contributing factor to diabetes was unhealthy diet such as eating and drinking too much processed food like sweet biscuits and carbonated drinks that contained a high level of sugar.

The team has been in the region for two weeks now and is mainly conducting awareness among school children, public servants and those in the private sector.

Ms Houghton, who is a registered nurse with a masters degree at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, said people living in urban areas and cities had a high risk of contracting diabetes.

She said there were other complications that diabetes could cause by affecting other organs.Ms Houghton added the only way to prevent it was to have a balanced diet and regular physical exercise.

Yusi Liu, Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar

We had the pleasure of hearing Yusi Liu's presentation on Monday 16th November. You can read more about Yusi on: http://www.rotary9810.org/content/161/Scholars---Yusi-Liu.html

Go Kart Racing on Monday 10 November 2008

Spellathon

Congratulations to Yvonne Beadle who was the inspiration and the co-ordinator behind the Spellathon for the Bentleigh West Primary School.

PP BOB BURY:23rd February 1942 – 6th October 2008

It is with great sadness that we bid farewell to our friend and fellow Rotarian, Bob Bury. In February, Bob was diagnosed with having malignant brain tumours, which resulted in him losing his fight for life a few months later and he will be greatly missed by us all.

It was an eclectic group of about 300-400 people who gathered together with the Bury family at St Paul’s Church in Jasper Road, Bentleigh, at 11.30 am on Monday 13th October to remember and celebrate the life of our friend Bob. Friends and colleagues were there from all walks of life and representing the many organizations in which Bob was involved, including Rotary, Inner Wheel, Marriott Support Services, the Banking and Golfing Fraternity and the Freemasonry. The flag was flying at half mast at the Glen Eira City Town Hall and we’d like to think that was in recognition of Bob’s service to the community in his role of Mayor in 2003-2004.

Father Michael Sierajowski officiated and what a lovely, caring and friendly man of the church he was. He was able to get the Bury family to rise above their grief and laugh together prior to the commencement of the Mass and he stood beside Marney with a smile and words of support as she bravely welcomed everybody. Father Michael then led us all through the happy and sad moments of the service in a warm, personal and compassionate manner.

The five grandchildren each lit a memorial candle and friends and family placed symbols on Bob’s coffin representing aspects of his life, including a photo of him looking resplendent in his Mayoral robes, his Essendon footy scarf, and I was honoured to place Bob’s well worn Rotary cap and his Paul Harris ‘gong’, together with some chocolate to take with him to the pearly gates. Fellow RCMM Rotarian Sven Johansen was one of the stalwart and stoic pallbearers.

Bob’s eldest Granddaugher, Jacinta, read aloud a letter she had written to her Pop and there wasn’t a dry eye in the church when she had finished. Eulogies were given by Bob’s daughter Caroline, Barry Roberts, Ken Dowling, and Peter Lewis and a letter that his son Michel had composed was read on his behalf. Prayers for the Faithful were said by other family members and then a photo presentation was made which reflected on the life and times of Bob, especially with his soul mate Marney and his beloved family.

Bob had been a Rotarian for 24 years which began in June 1984, when he was a Charter Member of the original Rotary Club of Moorleigh and was President in 1989-1990. He was again elected to this office for the Rotary year of 2007-2008 but due to his ill health, was unable to continue actively in this role in the second six months. A Paul Harris Fellow was awarded to Bob in the Rotary year of 1993-1994 and at Change Over this year, the Club presented Bob with a PHF sapphire.

Bob’s membership in the world-wide fellowship of Rotary was one that he cherished and was committed to serving for and with. He was an active Club member and over the years took on many Committee responsibilities and participated in a great number of the events and happenings. Bob’s Rotary Identification number will always be 892240.

Bobs final resting place is now in the Cheltenham Cemetery and before we said our final goodbye, red and black balloons were released by the children to the cheer of Go Bombers! Bob would have liked that. Marney had about 100 people back at her house later and it made a happy closing to a very emotional day for us all.

Rest in peace, dear friend.

PP Sheila Ward

Philip in Denmark

A photo of Philip with former exchange student Anne, her sister Louise andparents Jørgen & Annette.

The Petersen family have changed their name back to Løvendahl which is an old family name.

Philip spent a most enjoyable weekend with them in September.