Saw this after the meeting at Yarra Valley Water and had to post it.
Posts Tagged ‘Yarra Valley Water’
Something to Remember
Posted in Government, tagged proverb, quote, Yarra Valley Water on March 21, 2011| 1 Comment »
Use your imagination…
Posted in Art & Culture, Club Visit, Disaster, Food, tagged Box Hill Central, Diamond Creek Police, Doncare Community Services, Forest Hill, Heide Gallery of Modern Art, Manningham, Manningham City Council, NADRASCA, Templestowe, Victorian Police Dog Squad, Yarra Valley Water on March 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Well, I don’t think I’ll be able to upload photos onto the blog for about a week, unfortunately so you’ll just have to follow the title’s advice for a bit while I describe these adventures down under.
Our GSE team had an extremely busy time last week trying to keep up with these Australian Rotarians, let me tell ya! We’ve hardly had enough time to mention all of the incredible vocational visits and cultural experiences we’ve shared. I can’t express enough the gratitude our team feels with regard to all the hard work and planning that District 9810 members have put into this jam-packed program. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!
Very briefly, I’ll try to give you a picture of what last week was like (in hopes that my teammates will add pictures if they are able, hint HINT!!! 😉 ). Members of the Rotary Clubs of Manningham, Box Hill Central, Templestowe, and Forest Hill organized and escorted us to some incredibly educational activities. I’ve visited places, chatted with people, and been privy to information that I haven’t even seen/heard in my own home town. The following are pieces not mentioned in our blog until now…
Monday March 14: Great presentation by Sergeant of Police at Diamond Creek, Wayne Spence, on separation of responsibilities among different branches of emergency response groups. When in doubt, don’t dial 911 here. Try 000 instead!!! 🙂
Wednesday March 16: Manningham City Council Members treated us to morning tea and a few presentations about the responsibilities of Australian government (commonwealth, state, and local), local water concerns, and the fire department. We even posed with the Mayor of Manningham under a pic of Queen Elizabeth II!… Then we went off to visit the dogs at the Victorian Police Dog Squad facility where Matt Steele introduced us to his partner in fighting crime, his trusty sidekick, Nat the Rottweiler…Next off to Heide Gallery for a scrumptious lunch and a bit of culture with some modern art…And last, but certainly not least, a visit to Doncare: a nonprofit dedicated to helping the community in any way it can (after school activities for students, supplemental aid for pensioners, counseling, social support for seniors, and so much more). Thanks to Doreen Stoves and her staff for all they do!
That Wednesday night we gave our first presentation on Australian soil. The first of four Cluster meetings was a great time and the 180-some Rotarian guests were so supportive of our Group Study Exchange program. Thanks to all who attended to make it such a special evening!
Thursday March 17: Our individual vocational days. I visited Strathewen Primary School which had been burnt down in the Black Saturday Fires of 2009, but is now fully functioning and thriving even in spite of so much hardship. I will write more about the fun day I had with students and staff there when (or shall I say, if) I have more time. 🙂
Friday March 18: Off to the farm, the NADRASCA farm, that is. Thanks to Raeoni Turner for showing us around the farm where several developmentally disabled adults come to work and socialize under the NADRASCA group’s guidance. Raeoni also took us to the more industrial site where individuals are full or part-time employees working on packaging, labeling, recycling, or assembling various products for about 200 different companies. The folks at NADRASCA help these sweet and hard-working people gain independence and earn a living for themselves…Afterwords we had another delectable lunch (I think the Rotarians are trying to fatten us up or something!!!) at David Bremner’s house (of Forest Hill) where we received our first Australian banners!! Yay!!! Now we’ll have some to take back to our sponsoring clubs back home. :)…The last stop on Friday was at the Yarra Valley Water (where we encountered some rather green people…literally). Tony Kelly and his staff enlightened us about the infrastructure behind turning on the faucet.
Well now, I’ve only skimmed the surface on these activities, but I wanted to acknowledge all the fantastic and informative visits we had last week. I have tons of photos, but can’t post them right now. It’s a bit like Tantalus and water…ok, that may be an exaggeration. 😉
A new week has begun and there will most definitely be more blogs to look forward to…
Rotary D5240 GSE to Melbourne 