Photo Albums

The Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment (RYPEN) in Rotary International District 9800 is a Youth Leadership conference for young people who are between 15 and 17 AND are year 9, 10 and 11 students. The conference is a weekend long camp designed at developing young people’s potential through a mixture of lecture style sessions and adventure-based learning.

President of Rotary International, Ian Riseley has set a challenge for every Rotarian worldwide to plant a tree by 30th April, 2018. (1.2million Rotarians in over 200 clubs worldwide) – That a lot of trees. With the help of Liesl Pacher the Ranger Team Leader (Horticulture) I Albert Park & Westgate Park, our club can fulfil our part of this pledge.

With help from the Walking Group of our Past President Max Sherlock, we donated and transported valuable medical equipment to a remote village in Peru.

IMPACT - Bags of Love packing day Our members were involved again this year at Impact for Women's annual Christmas Bags of Love packing day. Here are the important stats & facts of the day: 367 volunteers [who actually signed in so we think there were more] who helped set up, pack, deliver and clean up of which 56 were children and several were boys and girls in blue (both in and out of uniform) 800 Bags of Love packed more than 3000 children's gifts packed to help Santa a massive heap of 'House' boxes full of gifts for refuges to distribute to the women they're caring for as they see fit $1000 grant given to each refuge which they will use to create play areas for children; holiday excursions for the kids to the movies, zoo, etc; and more many, many, MANY people who donated gifts and money to make this year's Xmas Bags of Love packing day such an outstanding success

Nourish - Building Community Spirit

Our biannual Japanese Cultural Afternoon was held at the Glen Eira Town Hall. This year all proceeds went to the children of Fukushima affected by the disaster. Compered by media personality Yumi Stynes, this year's afternoon attracted nearly 400 people to enjoy: official opening by the Consul General of Japan monochrome ink brush painting by Seifu Sandaiji koto played by Saori Sandaiji Yukari Edge Choir Tako Drums by Huntingdale Primary School Kendo Martial Arts Murasaki No Kai Folk Dance, and Tea Ceremony, Bonsai, Handcrafts, Calligraphy, Flower Arrangements, Origami, and Kimono Demonstration.

A great Rotary tradition is the exchange of Rotary Club banners. Some clubs will hang them around their meeting venues or at their meal tables. We now have too many to be able to put up on the wall every week, so instead have gone online! This gallery features many of the banners we have exchanged with Rotary Clubs around the world.

After hosting Failyne in Melbourne in 2012 when she was 4 to undergo life-saving surgery through ROMAC (Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children), our Club President Alan Samuel and wife Diane visited Failyne and her family in her village to see how she his living now.

Welcome to our new President Joan Luscak. Thank you and well done to our outgoing president Larry Blode.

Agata Kmiecik is our club's Youth Exchange student from Poland in 2012-13. She is attending local Glen Eira College. Throughout her year with us, Agata lives with Rotarians and friends of our club, immersing herself into local life.

Our 2nd Annual Wonder Woman Celebration was a happy occasion. We had some fantastic finalists and our winner for 2017 is Pitsa Binnion, Primcipal of McKinnon Secondary College.

A snapshot of some of the interesting things we did this year.

Inducting new member Carla Ortiz

The Rotary Club of Glen Eira has recently coordinated a successful visit of a Student Delegation from the City of Ogaki in Japan. Ogaki and Glen Eira have a sister city relationship, as does Ogaki West Rotary with Glen Eira Rotary. The Club’s involvement followed a request made by the Ogaki International Exchange Association, during a visit by 3 club members to Ogaki’s Anniversary celebrations and Festival in May this year. The Association was keen to send 9 Ogaki Junior High School students for a 6-day visit to Glen Eira to share the school and home life of similar level Australian students. We were able to interest and involve Glen Eira City Council and the Glen Eira Secondary College to host the students on school days and to select families prepared to accommodate the visitors during their stay. Huge thanks to the Council, Glen Eira Secondary College and especially the host families for their wonderful efforts to ensure that our visitors all had memorable experiences.

The Rotary Club of Glen Eira built a fence around the playground at St Mary's Anglican Church, Caulfield with the help of St Mary's Parishioners and funding from a Rotary District 9800 grant.

Following the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004 which killed 283,000 and displaced millions, the Rotary Club of Glen Eira made a Soup Calendar with photos of our members and soup recipes provided by them. At the time, we also had regular Soup Sunday's where members would join together for some fun and fellowship. Here are photos from the 2006 Calendar.

Our Club's Honorary Member and Paul Harris Fellow Yoshiko Stynes has just returned from Japan where she presented our club's donation of 200,000 yen to the Rotary Club of Namie, Fukushima. This donation was a result of a number of fundraising initiatives, including our Japanese Cultural Day, and ink artist Ms. Seifu Sandaiji who helped by donating money from the sale of her art work, to raise funds following the tsunami, earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster near Fukushima in 2011. The donation was to support the R/C of Namie after the Earthquake, Tsunami & Nuclear disasters, and the donation would go to Namie Machi, the town which suffered the most. R/C of Glen Eira held a Japan Festival in Melbourne in November last year, & collected the donation from the event. As Yoshiko handed the donation, Dr. Shigetomi thanked & commented “Your kind thoughts are very much appreciated by us all. We will do our best to try to come back to our normal life & activities.“

Rotary in Action

We sponsored Amanda Ortiz who went to Finland

Katandra School is a Government Special Education setting exclusively for primary aged students, who have an intellectual disability. A team of dedicated professionals provide a unique learning environment that promotes success, friendship and a sense of belonging for all students. Following an introduction by the City of Glen Eira sustainability department, our Rotary Club became involved with the school. After a number of meetings with the school principal Bruce McPhate, we began the process of improving the planting gardens at the school.