Rotaract-Milpera calendars now only a GOLD COIN DONATION

Great news... own one of the wonderfully vibrant Rotaract-Milpera calendars for only a...
GOLD COIN DONATION.

All proceeds from the calendar project will be donated to the HEAL (Home of Expressive Arts in Learning) program at Milpera State High School - a program that uses art and music to help Milpera's refugee students, many of whom are from war-torn countries and have lost one or both of their parents, to deal with their trauma and grief so that they can improve their English and continue their education in mainstream schools.

To order a calendar, download the order form here, or email rotaractswb@hotmail.com.

For more information or to preview the artworks go to http://www.rotaract-milpera.blogspot.com/.

Welcome to 2009

Hi everyone and welcome to 2009!

The Board has met for the first time in this second half of the Rotary year, we are very excited about some proposed changes to the running of the club. All will be revealed at tomorrow night's Aussie Day BBQ meeting!

We're meeting at 7pm at Suz's house (please send an email to rotaractswb@hotmail.com or contact a club member via email/Facebook/mobile if you don't have the address) to plan the next six months and perhaps play a few board games.

Sharyn has done a fantastic job of putting up date claimers on the right hand side of the blog. These show some of the different events and speakers that are upcoming, please have a look and book these into your diary now. Our first guest speaker will be from "Over the Moon" - you might remember that we used our Sargeant's Fines to buy and donate Christmas presents for people staying at their women's refuge shelter.

Other speakers we're hoping will visit us include The Greyhound Adoption Program and Anna Keenan from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (Anna has previously spoken to us about climate change), . We're also hoping to have a few "vocational tours" including to the XXXX Brewery, to a fire station and to a coal mine!

See you tomorrow night! XD

Rotaract-Milpera Calendar Project

For the past few months the Rotaract Club of South-West Brisbane has been working with Milpera State High School and local artists to create a unique 2009 calendar to raise money for the HEAL (Home of Expressive Arts in Learning) program at Milpera.

Many Milpera students are from war-torn countries and have lost one or both of their parents. This program uses art and music to help these students deal with their trauma and grief so that they can improve their English and continue their education in mainstream schools.

For $10 you can own this unique calendar featuring the artworks of talented local artists.

For more information please visit www.rotaract-milpera.blogspot.com

Click here to download an order form.

September/October update

It's been awhile since the blog has been updated!

Club

• A big thank you to Merril who has taken over the treasurer position!
• Tonight (Wed Oct 29) we are having a movie night in the auditorium - the featured movie is The Black Balloon
• Our club turns one year old on Sunday, November 9th so we will have a birthday party at the Sherwood Aboretum to celebrate - starting from 1pm
• The club Chrissy party will be dinner and drinks at The Ox (Oxley pub) on Friday, 5th December - this replaces the meeting on Wednesday, 3rd Dec.

Community

• We recently had Jen West from the Zonta Club of Brisbane as a guest speaker - Jen talked about some of the projects that her club has undertaken both large and small
• Anti-graffiti has been continuing - we have one more session on the last Sunday in Nov (30th) before wrapping up for the year - please think about joining our squad of anti-graffiti heroes, even if you only come once every 3 months it will make a big difference!
• The Sherwood Street Festival is on Friday, 28th November - we will be selling bubbles again as well as cleaning up in order to raise funds for a community charity
• The next day (Saturday, 29th Nov) we are meeting at 10 at the Level 2 foyer of the Mater Children's Hospital so that we can decorate the Seven South ward for Christmas

Calendar project

• Emily's idea of producing a calendar featuring the work of local artists is gathering momentum - we are now at the stage of sourcing sponsorship and artwork
• The money raised from this calendar will go towards the HEAL (Home of Expressive Arts in Learning) program at Milpera State High School - this program uses art and music to help these students deal with their trauma and grief
• We will sell these calendars for $10 each at the Sherwood Street Festival, in local art galleries and through our own personal and professional networks
• Local businesses can buy advertising space in the calendar for a cost of $200

International

• Our new members Valmor and Marcelo have spoken to the club about their idea for a joint district/club project to buildan English education and training school in Brazil - we will be discussing this idea further and will present it to the district as a possible district international project
• Amanda had an idea to organise a ‘walk-a-thon’ to raise awareness for the plight
  of refugees who have to walk considerable distances to find safety from violence and
  persecution - the club has tentatively booked this in for April/May next year

Professional Development

• Michelle McDowall of TickTax gave a presentation to the club on individual tax returns
• Our system of a rotating chair, introduced in July, appears to be working well and it allows all members to experience how to lead and run a meeting

Looking Forward

We had an enjoyable meeting on Wednesday night although due to a few apologies (it's assignment crunch time!) we decided not to have club committees but instead talk about projects as a group.

Community Service

* Amanda has to confirm but we have set a tentative date of Nov 22nd to decorate the Children's Surgical Ward for Christmas. It will only take us a few hours at the moment but it will definitely make a different for the children who have to spend time there in the leadup to and over Chrissy.

* The Sherwood Christmas Festival is the week after on Friday 28 November! This is one of our major fundraisers so it'd be great to have all hands on deck! The money this year will probably go to Brisbane Youth Service which works with homeless young people and young families. The festival is a lot of fun and may or may not include a tub of ice-cream and several spoons ;)

* Emily has floated the idea of developing a calendar to raise money for the local community. At this stage members have suggested donating raised funds to the Milpera art and music therapeutic program for refugee students.

* Jen West from Zonta is coming on October 15 to talk to us about their club's work with the Murri Sisters's Safety House.

* Anti-Graffiti will be cancelled in November and December due to other projects in November and the silly season in December! So please consider coming to the ones on the last Sundays of September and October as they will be our last anti-graffiti mornings this year.


International Service
* Jenna finished her bike ride from Bundaberg to Brisbane and she and her two friends raised well over $750 for Polio Plus! Look out for a blog post soon about the ride. Well done Jenna! You're a star :D

* Richard told us that he actually grew up in Malawi in central Africa and he has connections to an orphanage there. He raised the idea of the club fundraising for the orphange there which we all thought was a fantastic idea. We even floated the idea of putting together a trip to visit and do some hands-on work!

* And our friends Valmor and Marcelo from Brazil told us that their club in Brazil is interested in putting together some sort of joint project and everyone at the meeting was very excited about this possibility!

* Emily has been in touch with Ailsa Hay who works in RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service) to talk about opportunities for Rotaractors to join in overseas volunteer work (like my trip to Daru, PNG last year) - people should talk to Emily if interested.

* Meryll let us know that the Rotaract Club of South Brisbane is co-ordinating a collection for the Uplift Project which co-ordinates the collection and donation of second-hand bras for women in Fiji, PNG and the Cook Islands. Second-hand bras don't attract import duty and give women access to a necessary and expensive item. Women often suffer from a fungal infection due to the tropical climate and lack of support. Bring along any second-hand bras you can collect to Meryll who will pass them on to South Brisbane.


Professional Development

* Michelle McDowall of TickTax Australia will be presenting a mini-seminar at the next club meeting (Wed 1 Oct) on tax preparation and services. Michelle is a CPA Accountant and Past President of the Rotary Club of Sumner Park. If you have any specific questions you'd like answered on tax please email Cat at catherinemcdowall [at] hotmail [dot] com who will forward your questions on to Michelle.

* Our recruiting stand at the Engineers expo at UQ was a great success so Anthony and Sharon will co-ordinate setting up similar stands at a UQ market day. Thanks guys!

Club Service

* It's just under two months until our first birthday - everyone's keen to have a barbeque and drinks to celebrate!

* On the last Wednesday in October we will have a club movie night in the auditorium.

* Our Chrissy party will be on Friday 5 December, replacing the meeting on Wednesday 3 December. We will probably be going out to the Steak House at the Regatta for dinner and drinks.

Until next time!