David and Richard started off by giving a quick recap on Lifting the Lid. Next we had Hamish and Ella speak about their experiences with Rotaract and Interact respectively. Lastly Port Nicholson returning member Jo stepped in and gave a fantastic abridged new member talk.
David and Richard started off by giving a quick recap on Lifting the Lid. Lifting the Lid was an initiative that enables schools to get counselling sessions to high-school students to prevent youth suicide. It is now expanding to the mental health of young people more generally. The committee has now formalised documentation for participating schools and has four signed up already. The response from schools has been great so far and the committee see potential for this to move to more schools potentially including Intermediates. There was great interest from club members and discussion about if this project could be supported by the club auction in future.
Next we had Hamish and Ella speak about their experiences with Rotaract and Interact respectively. Hamish shared that the Rotaract club has been struggling with membership since COVID -19 but still has a core of young professionals who have been part of the club for a while. The Rotaract club is still on the lookout for projects so get in touch if you think you have something they might want to be involved in.
Ella spoke about the positive impact Interact has had on her life so far and how it has helped her in her University studies.
Lastly as the District Governor was not able to make it Port Nicholson returning member Jo stepped in and gave a fantastic abridged new member talk. This reporter is not nearly as funny so the summary will not be as entertaining as the presentation was. Jo grew up in Belmont and trained as an occupational therapist. Sha has four (tall) children which she described as being like ‘standing in a forest.’ She also shared with us her story of finding her birth family who live in the United States.
Finally the very apt parting thought was a lyric from the very best genre of music,
“Every storm runs, runs out of rain
Just like every dark night turns into day.”
Many thanks to all our speakers for an informative and entertaining meeting.