It was great to get together again for our first meeting in a while, and especially to welcome Gary Rushworth formally as our newest member.
Gary presented his “Own Job Talk” as an Applied Biologist, Senior Scientist working for ECcan, in control of Surface Water Quality (Freshwater) – in his own words, “what he does which allows him to be a Brewer”. which was most enlightening.
His job is to give advice – not make decisions, to Councillors and those who are responsible for catchments external – Public Health, TDC, etc. He also covers Consents (planning process) for farmers, summer bathing programme, weekly water sampling from Mid-November – early March covering 52 freshwater sites (18 Lakes, 34 Rivers), 46 Coastal sites – 3 in Timaru, uploading weekly results to LAWA. (Land air water Aotearoa.) He certainly is kept busy and its most important that this work is monitored in order that we can all enjoy our summer.
He is passionate about keeping people & dogs safe.
On another note, we wished Ian Gray safe travels as he leaves to join wife Cheryl in Perth initially for a holiday, then on to Christchurch where he starts his new job early in the New Year.
Jenny Ensor & Lance Wensley shared their photos with us from the recent “Cycle Tour” to Dunedin, completing the new cycleway to Port Chalmers, across on the ferry and return to Dunedin via Portobello. Sounded like a lot of fun, and planning has already started for the next one to Lake Hood in the New Year.
Jess Hewitson gave an update on the “Xmas Angels” project – please let her know if you can contribute in any way, donations are required by the end of the month.
Jess is also organising the 'Thaplung Women, Children’s, and Community Health Project, Nepal' that she and Julie Dockrill, assisted by another Midwife Tina Hewitt, will be embarking on in early 2024, to Nepal. Funding assistance is still being sought for this project, once again, if you are able to assist, please notify Jess. Some funding has been received via a District Grant, which is very much appreciated.
The Hot Dog Van will be in action at the CAMS Classic Motorcycle event at Levels Raceway, 24,25 & 26th November, then again at the Rose Festival, Sunday 3rd December. If you can assist for a couple of hours, please let Jess Hewitson know, there are still a few gaps on the roster.
Thank you to those of you who have indicated availability for Marshalling or Health & Safety on Sunday 3rd Dec for the Santa Parade, if you haven’t already been contacted, but would like to volunteer your services in any way on the day, please let me know - it certainly will be appreciated as it will be a very busy day for club members.
The Santa Parade is a combined Community Voluntary event organized by the two Lions clubs and the two Rotary clubs in Timaru.
Our next scheduled meeting was to be 28th November, but we have now scheduled a “club night” for this next Tuesday, 21st November to start planning for next year. We won’t be formally booking a meal for everyone, you can decide if you wish to order a meal or not, and we plan to start our business around 6:30pm. If you can make it, I would love to see you there as I would really appreciate your input.
I attended President-Elect Rotary training weekend in Christchurch last weekend, it was great to meet and network with some new faces and share our ideas and plans together, at the same time catching up on the progress on Regionalisation etc, and looking forward to sharing the vision Dave McKissock has for his year as District Governor from July 2024.
Xmas Dinner is booked for 5th December at Austins92, Temuka. – Lionel will be taking numbers, please let him know if you plan to attend.
Once again, thank you to those who are willing to be involved and put their hands up to help make a difference and aid our community, some of our members will be in action on Monday evening, helping the Timaru Suburban Lions club with their “Toot for Tucker” food collection – don’t forget to leave your food contributions at your gate for us to pick-up.
