It's hard to believe that we are already getting ready to close for Christmas, but we haven't seen each other for months! On the 16th of December, we are having our Christmas breakup party at Holm Park. Our new caterers have prepared a wonderful traditional Christmas dinner menu and if their last two meeting meals are anything to go by, I am there with Christmas Bells on!
I cannot say that we have done anything outstanding so far, except update the club constitution and bylaws, introduce some cool online tech for the Board to communicate, have our Public Image Director (Sam) get a swathe of publicity for Rotary in the local paper, support some local businesses, knock out a great End Trachoma project, have a club plan for guidance (the President's Plan), get a Saturday morning coffee club going, have some terrific speakers at the meetings, experience a progressive dinner while staying home, start work with ESRAG, the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group and some serious behind the scenes work on Rotary training and development.
While many members "didn't do tech" and have been absent over the Zoom "Era", it is my wish for Christmas that all our members put their best foot forward and be an active member of the club. Rotary is about engagement, learning and teaching. Being mentors in business and in life. Building each other up so we can take on the world. Being guardians of our community, both locally and internationally and using our skills and contacts to make a difference. Alone we can do little, together we can change the world.
The collection of donations to the Rotary Berwick & District Benevolent Society's 2020 Christmas Collection began on Tuesday 1st December.
The Rotary Berwick & District Benevolent Society is a registered charity with Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status. A charity with DGR status can receive tax deductible gifts. The RBD Benevolent Society is also recognised as a project of the Rotary Club of Berwick.
Every year the 'Society' organises a collection of non-perishable food items and toys from local Secondary Schools and Supermarkets. In collaboration with Casey North Community Information Support Service (CNCISS), the donated items are then packed into Christmas hampers to be distributed to those in need within the local community.
Nossal High School pupils with their full Collection Cage
The first collection of items was made at Nossal High School, where a full Collection Cage of donated items reflected the generous nature of the school community. Considering that the pupils were in the middle of exams and that students and staff were variously onsite or offsite, this was particularly pleasing.
The second collection was made at the Berwick Market Square Shopping Centre outside Woolworth, where the Collection Cage was full of a diverse range of items donated to those in need.
A third generous collection was then made from Haileybury College on Friday 4th December. Further collections will be made from the remaining five Secondary schools next week. The donated items will be greatly appreciated by the recipients, making their Christmas so much happier.
Thank you to the Rotarians who assisted with the collection and to everyone who donated items.
District 9820 is offering financial support to all Rotary Clubs to enable them to upgrade the Rotary signs around their locality and thereby ensure compliance with current Rotary branding guidelines. They offer a reimbursement of $150, provided the D9820 Public Image group confirm the sign's compliance.
Inspection of the two current Rotary Club of Berwick signs at the East and West ends of High Street in Berwick, revealed that the signs were jaded and the Rotary logos were well out-of-date. They were certainly non-compliant with current requirements.
After checking with the City of Casey on the correct protocols to follow to replace the signs, several updates were produced for consideration. The Club's Public Image Committee members were given the opportunity to comment on the various versions.
The final version was submitted to District 9820 Public Image Group who confirmed its compliance, but suggested a minor adjustment to the wording. This suggestion was implemented and a proof was produced by Peter Stilburn at EZ Print for final approval.
On receiving final Club approval, two new metal signs with the same dimensions as the present signs, were produced. These were displayed at the Club meeting on 2nd December before being passed on to the City of Casey for installation. The latest advice is that they will be installed at 8:00 am on Tuesday 8th December. We will collect the old signs as momentos.
Next time you pass by the town signage displays in High Street, look out for our flash new Rotary signs
Thank you to District 9820 for providing the financial incentive and to all those who contributed to the design of the final product.
The Centurion Club has long been a part of the Rotary Club of Berwick’s giving program to the Rotary Foundation. For $100 per year you too can be part of this global world. Our all-time club giving comes to an impressive $340,021.
Currently we have 34 Rotarian donors. 14 of those donate directly with Rotary International. If you haven’t contributed for some time, now is the time to get back on board.
Giving works because Rotary works. We are proud that 90.8 percent of donations go straight to supporting our service projects. Our 35,000 clubs carry out sustainable humanitarian service projects. Using donations like yours, we’ve wiped out 99 percent of all polio cases. Your donations train future peacemakers, support clean water, and strengthen local economies.
There are two ways of giving, which are:
Log in at https://my.rotary.org/en/. Enrol in Rotary’s recurring giving program, Rotary Direct, which makes giving easy, fast, and secure. You can schedule a monthly, quarterly, or annual donation that empowers Rotarians to change lives in communities around the world
Money that is donated is available (and multiplied) to come back to us via Global and District Grants. Recent examples of these grants include the provision of Blaze Aid trailers and the COVID-19 ventilators and beds for Intensive Care in New Jersey.
This is our own charity so it is well worth supporting.
A recent email to the Club explains PP Ricardo Balancy's irregular attendance and period of absence from Rotary activities over the past few months.
Things have been hectic at the ATO since Ricardo returned to work in June and working from home only made it easier for him to work long hours, often until 10pm. However, he finished work at the ATO on Friday 27th November and he is now a free man. Ricardo is on leave for a month and will officially resign from the ATO in the first week of January.
If he thought he would then be putting his feet up for a while, he was wrong! His new grandson (Elijah Frankie Ricardo Andre Balancy-Corallo) had other ideas and decided to arrive some 5 weeks early!! His daughter was due to give birth on 31st December, but Elijah clearly thought it best to make the most of his grandpa’s free time!
Elijah Frankie Ricardo Andre Balancy-Corallo
While mother and baby are being cared for (pampered) by staff at the St John of God Hospital in Geelong, and doing very well, Ricardo and Lisemay are staying close by to support. They are also busy helping to put the final touches to their daughter’s Drysdale home, to welcome Elijah.
Ricardo looks forward to resuming regular attendance and engagement with the Club soon.
Congratulations to Ricardo and Lisemay, and also to the proud parents of Elijah.
As my commitment to work with local charities to support the community and exploring how Rotary can assist, I contacted and offered my assistance to a local charity (BK2Basics) that I’ve supported in various ways over the last year or two. I could never actually go down to help in person, since I’ve been working full time and therefore unable to have time off to do this. So when my current job gave me a rostered day off, I jumped at the chance to assist BK2Basics for a day and see how it all works.
BK2Basics can be found in Vesper Driver Narre Warren and is currently restricted (Lockdown 4) to 3 volunteers per day. Not only do the volunteers need to fill up and put out food throughout the opening times, they also need to ask the public coming in if they require fresh milk, yoghurt and beef ravioli (which was the special for that day), clean any spills, but also keep an eye on people not taking more than the limits allowed.
Upon arrival I was temperature checked and immediately required to apply hand sanitiser and then put gloves on. I then assisted in working through all the fresh vegetables and fruit that had been donated, to place them out on shelves in small crates and throw out anything that was not suitable for consumption. There wasn’t much that had been donated that morning and the ladies I met, Tracey, Rene and Sharon, told me it was going to be a very quiet day, as there just wasn’t enough food available for the people expected to come in.
They then showed me boxes and boxes of multi-coloured chocolate-coated little buttons that needed to be transferred into sandwich bags for the public to pick one bag up. I can tell you that each sandwich bag took about 3 coffee cups worth of these chocolate buttons. Furthermore, one box of these contained about 24 sandwich bags and you had to take care not to spill them out when closing the zip bags.
Just before 10am, the first person was waiting outside the roller door wanting to be temperature checked, ID card checked and recorded. The charity has had to create a ID card for everyone with a photo to stop people coming in multiple times and double or triple dipping and to ensure everyone has a chance to receive and pick food items they need.
What I witnessed was that for the first hour, all people that came through were Seniors, who were very friendly and very appreciative of the assistance that they were receiving. The rest of the time the people coming in were of various ages and included quite a few immigrants as well. The volunteers were friendly and helpful to everyone that came in and it made me feel great that I could be a small part of the day to assist them where I could.
At lunch time I went out and got us all coffee and some nibbles to snack on as there really is no downtime, so someone is usually leaving to go grab some coffees while the rest of them are doing other things. They did tell me that lots of coffee drop offs would be very helpful and appreciative to them 😊.
At about 1pm Tracey (who was in charge for the day) called and spoke to the owner of the Charity explaining that there simply wasn’t enough food, so we would have to close for the day. Before we did though, we cleaned everywhere and ensured that anything requiring refrigeration was placed in the chill room and that signs were placed outside to indicate that 'The Pantry' was closed. Messages were also put up on Facebook and Instagram to let everyone who follows them know of the development of the day.
From what I saw, they need assistance in tranferring bigger quantities in small manageable bags, they also need donations of fresh food, gloves, masks, containers. They prepare and deliver meals to the city for the homeless that are now housed in hotels because of COVID-19 and they also offer food on Wednesday evenings from their own house (they had to stop at Hampton Park due to restrictions).
Extra Pallet Shelving would be very helpful in the warehouse next to the Pantry, to be able to lift pallets from the floor and allow easier access to items that need to be transferred, or just grabbed to place onto shelves in the Pantry. They do not receive any government help or funding and could do with more pallet shelving for the warehouse next to the pantry for the stock of donations that they already have.
I believe last week they spent $1,500 on plastic containers alone, to place prepared meals in for the delivery to homeless in Hotels and of course they cannot be re-used. This means each week they are looking at a similar expenses, as the need for prepared meals becomes bigger as the weeks go on, especially during this Lockdown where more people have lost jobs or shifts and can't afford to put food on their tables.
My question to all Rotarians – How can you assist me to assist this awesome Charity, which started out of their own garage and is now receiving many more referrals since moving into their donated warehouse?
Do you know a supplier of Gloves, Hand Sanitiser, Fresh Vegetables and Fruit, Milk, Frozen Meals and even bunches of flowers or pot plants (they offer this to ladies that come in and the ladies that work there, feel they need an extra ‘pick me up’ to take home with them)?
Cash Donations are needed to assist to cover electricity costs for running the chill room, petrol costs for delivery to the city, as well as picking up donated food from surrounding suburbs, extra food and other items to be able to prepare the meals that they donate.
Do you know any Managers from your local Woollies, Coles, Aldi etc that you think would commit to donating food on a regularly basis? If you can email me (cherylzuhlsdorff@hotmail.com) and let me know who to contact or who you have contacted that I can follow up with to see where or how they can help, it would be greatly appreciated.
I am also trying to think of ways/events/trivia nights or such to raise funds for this charity, so any assistance with that would be appreciated as well.
Going forward (as per my roster allows me), I will be working/assisting one day a week and I will offer additional help over the weekends, if required.
The Centurion Club has long been a part of the Rotary Club of Berwick’s giving program to the Rotary Foundation. For $100 per year you too can be part of this global world. Our all-time club giving comes to an impressive $340,021. 
As my commitment to work with local charities to support the community and exploring how Rotary can assist, I contacted and offered my assistance to a local charity (BK2Basics) that I’ve supported in various ways over the last year or two. I could never actually go down to help in person, since I’ve been working full time and therefore unable to have time off to do this. So when my current job gave me a rostered day off, I jumped at the chance to assist BK2Basics for a day and see how it all works.
Just before 10am, the first person was waiting outside the roller door wanting to be temperature checked, ID card checked and recorded. The charity has had to create a ID card for everyone with a photo to stop people coming in multiple times and double or triple dipping and to ensure everyone has a chance to receive and pick food items they need.
They do not receive any government help or funding and could do with more pallet shelving for the warehouse next to the pantry for the stock of donations that they already have. 
My question to all Rotarians – How can you assist me to assist this awesome Charity, which started out of their own garage and is now receiving many more referrals since moving into their donated warehouse?
