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Rotary Club of Brisbane Supports Mater Family Wellbeing Service

The Club is pleased to announce a grant of $50,000 to the Mater Hospital, South Brisbane, to assist in the establishment of a service to provide perinatal mental health support to mothers, babies and the broader family network in our community.

This new service will offer a wide spectrum of programs including inpatient admissions and an outpatient clinic focussing on supporting babies and families to have the best start in life.

In recognition of the Club’s gift, the Mater will establish the Rotary Club of Brisbane – Best Start Grant to provide professional development for staff who will work in the service to further their knowledge base and expertise in infant and perinatal mental health.

The project involving renovations to an existing heritage building and a new build for inpatient admissions will commence in January, 2021.

We meet In Person

Mondays at 12:15 PM

Brisbane Club

4 Fl. 241 Adelaide St.
Brisbane, QLD 4000
Australia

We meet at the Brisbane Club on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Monday of the Month at 12:15pm for 12:45 sit down. On the 2nd and 4th Monday of the month we meet at 5:30pm at various locations in the CBD area. See the calendar for details each week.

President

Immediate Past President

Treasurer

Secretary

Rotary Foundation

Membership

Service Projects Chair

Matthew CHRISTOPHER

President Elect

Mark WILLIAMS

Executive Secretary/Director

Chi-chicheery KEISTER

Sergeant-at-Arms

Publicity Director

DIK Coordinator

Minister for Fun

Club Foundation Director

John SMERDON

Webmaster

Jake KELDER

Dr. Daniel Vankov

Dec 07, 2020 12:30 PM

Supporting Young Social Entrepreneurs Globally

Leigh Chantelle

Feb 15, 2021 12:30 PM

Cyberpsychology, Digital Wellbeing, and Digital Communication

Norm McGillivray

Mar 01, 2021 12:30 PM

Beddown: Everyone deserves a bed to sleep in.

Professor Christel Middeldorp

Mar 15, 2021 12:30 PM

Integrated Care for Children and Parents with Mental Disorders

Greg Ellevsen - RSL Queensland

Mar 29, 2021 12:30 PM

How COVID19 brought Queenslanders closer together to remember those who fought for freedom

View entire list...

Lunchtime Club Meeting
The Brisbane Club

Dec 07, 2020
12:15 PM – 1:45 PM
Lunchtime Club Meeting and RCoB AGM
The Brisbane Club

Dec 14, 2020
12:15 PM – 1:45 PM
Club Christmas Recess (No Meetings)
Dec 15, 2020 – Jan 17, 2021
Working Meeting @5:30pm
Location TBD

Jan 11, 2021
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Working Meeting @5:30
United Service Club 183 Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill QLD 4000

Jan 25, 2021
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Centenary Gala
W Brisbane The Great Room, Level 3 81 North Quay

Feb 13, 2021
6:30 PM – 11:00 PM
No Meeting - Easter Monday
Apr 05, 2021
12:15 PM – 1:45 PM
No Meeting - Anzac Day Holiday
Apr 26, 2021
12:15 PM – 1:45 PM
No Meeting - Labour Day
May 03, 2021
12:15 PM – 1:45 PM
Rotary Club of Brisbane Caloundra Charity Race Day
May 16, 2021
No Meeting - Queen's Birthday Holiday
Oct 04, 2021
12:15 PM – 1:45 PM

2018 Rotary International Women's Day Breakfast Seminar

Eddie's Van 2017-18

Rotary Club of Brisbane Supports Mater Family Wellbeing Service

This new service will offer a wide spectrum of programs including inpatient admissions and an outpatient clinic focussing on supporting babies and families to have the best start in life.

The project involving renovations to an existing heritage building and a new build for inpatient admissions will commence in January, 2021.

Rotary Club of Brisbane Launches "Sponsordea" - Kickstarter for Humanitarians

The Rotary Club of Brisbane is aiming to inject positivity into our communities by launching a new grants and support project to help budding charities, startup NGOs, and worthwhile entrepreneurs realise their dreams to bring to life ideas that will help the community.

2020 has been a year like no other. We’re all doing it tough. But between the hardship, people have picked each other up and soldiered on. There are some great projects that have started across Australia that are uplifting our communities. Driven by young millennials with big hearts and seasoned campaigners with young hearts - new ideas from startup charities seem to be popping up everywhere. And while they come with the best intentions, some might struggle to realise their potential. The Rotary Club of Brisbane introduces - Sponsordea: a platform to open applications for Ideas for Humanity

Rotary Club of Brisbane President, Dan Adler, said “It’s all about great ideas for products and services that help people, the environment, anything and everything is eligible for assistance. If you’ve got one that could help your community and the people in it, by all means, get on the website and apply for a grant today. Whether you’re making soup for the homeless in your family kitchen or creating a plant nursery in your garage and brightening up your neighbourhood. Whatever your idea, if it’s a keeper, check out our website and get amongst it. Together we can make the world a better place.”

Rotary Club of Brisbane supports Food and Nutrition security through Indigenous Chicken keeping in Papua New Guinea

The Rotary Club of Brisbane (RCOB) has been supporting the Kyeema Foundation, a Brisbane-based not-for-profit organization, in the breeding and conservation of indigenous village chickens in Papua New Guinea (PNG) since 2018. The project involves the upskilling of local farmers, providing support for the growing of indigenous chickens by way of peer training activities. Five breeding and training centers (two funded by RCoB, one of which was also supported by a District Grant from The Rotary Foundation and District 9600) and two coral gardening trials have been established in Central and Morobe provinces as part of the overall program to ensure sustainable village poultry keeping techniques and conservation of indigenous chickens.

This is a Conversation Starter

Mental health issues and related illnesses have come to the fore in recent times, globally and in Australia, with the government determining that almost half of all Australians aged 16 to 85 years (7.3 million people) will experience mental illness at some point in their life.

As per Beyond Blue, over 75% of mental health issues occur before the age of 25, with suicide being the largest loss of life of young people in Australia. This has led to organizations such as the This is a Conversation Starter (TIACS) a social enterprise with a goal to change the mental health services landscape, making it accessible and affordable and in doing so, reduce the number of suicides in Australia.

Welcome Back, James!

James Peterson is the dynamic and impressive CEO of a dynamic and impressive young charity called breakingFree which visits high schools throughout Australia, delivering a free mental health and personal development program, which consists of 2 presentations delivered on separate days to groups of grade 10, 11 and 12 students, teaching them practical ways to best look after their mental health.

The Rotary Club of Brisbane has been supporting breakingFree since 2019 and it was great to have James drop in at yesterday's meeting to give the club an update of how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting both schools and his charity. James reported that the biggest problem COVID-19 brings for students is the sheer uncertainty. It is hard to manage your life when on top of a new kind of external assessment this year they need to worry about whether there will even be final exams and if there will be any opportunities for them to pursue in 2021. In many students this just increases the anxiety of an already anxious time.

2019-2020 Rotary Year - Disrupted but Still Effective

Projects ‘Interruptus yet Effective’ seems to have defined this Rotary year.

My diary tells me we were permitted just seven person-to-person meetings from December 16 until the close in the year. Notwithstanding, our Club was able to continue with its long heritage of participating and giving.

As a club we continued to punch well-above our numbers, participation levels, and average age. No matter ‘Projects Interruptus’ for the second half of the year, we strengthened projects from 2018 & 2019 (Kyeema, Outback Futures, Downs & West Community Outreach, Drought Appeals, Breaking Free, and Youngcare) with financial aid by standing on the shoulders of past RCoB Presidents and Members.

Rotarians Bend Backs for Donations in Kind

Donations in Kind is a program by which Rotary receives hospital and school equipment, books and much more that is being upgraded within our schools and hospitals and then sends them by container to our near neighbours in PNG, the Solomons and other Pacific Islands Timor L'este and sometimes as far as India. It is dependent on community-minded staff in schools, hospitals and other organisations who alert Rotarians to the fact that there is still-useful equipment that is to be sent to the dump. Rotarians then donate their time to collect and transport the material to the DIK warehouse in Kingston and later to pack it into containers to be sent to destinations that need it. Donations in Kind in Queensland was originally a project of the Rotary Club of Brisbane but has now expanded across the whole state and is managed under the umbrella of Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS).

The Rotary Club of Brisbane has appointed Rtn Paul Choy as their Donations In Kind convenor in recognition of the importance of the Donations In Kind Programme has in the activities of Rotary in Australia and the Rotary Club of Brisbane in particular. Paul has been in the job for barely 2 months and already we have been busy.

Paul Choy (far Right) and Keith Watts (back to camera) loading a container for PNG on 9th March.

RCoB Sponsors Educational Materials for Timor-Leste

Veteran's Care volunteers distribute kits 4 kids sponsored by the Rotary Club of Brisbane to students in Timor-Leste

A group of Australian veterans recently conducted an 11 day Veteran Health program distributing 2,000 Kits 4 Kids in remote rural areas of Timor Leste. The program also involved a range of physical activities involving daily walks, some cycling, stretching and discussions on a range of physical activity options suitable for veterans. It also included inputs on nutrition, nurture of the mind, the soul and relationships, as well as developing a future life purpose.

Kits 4 Kids is a collaboration between the Rotary Club of Townsville and the Veterans Care Association based in Brisbane. Old Army buddies Bruce Scott from Rotary in Townsville and Gary Stone from Veterans Care Association arranged for the participants in the Timor Awakening rehabilitation programme to pack and deliver, in person to each child, a small education kit . The kits themselves are organised by the Rotary Club of Townsville and the costs are covered by various sponsors. The Rotary Club of Brisbane is proud to be the sponsor of a delivery of 2000 kits in September 2018.

RCoB Sends Drought Aid to Longreach

Shoppers at the MacArthur Central shopping centre in the Brisbane CBD might have been a little surprised to see people wearing Rotary aprons and carrying collection tins on the 3 days from the 17th to the 19th of October. These normally mild-mannered and retiring Rotarians from the Brisbane Club were moved by the scale and severity of the drought across Queensland and NSW to ask shoppers for donations for the Western Queensland Drought Appeal.

John Smerdon and Cameron Gibson on the job at the booth.

Over the three days, in excess of $1150 was collected. This was added to cash donations from members and the total raised will be matched 2:1 from the Rotary Club of Brisbane's charitable foundation and donated to the Western Queensland Drought Appeal. Funds donated to the Western Queensland Drought Appeal are loaded onto pre-paid debit cards or vouchers and distributed directly to landholders in western Queensland, for them to spend on personal needs in their local communities. This keeps the money in the region, allows landholders to choose how they spend the money, and gives local businesses a boost with the extra trade. In this case funds will be distributed near Longreach, one of the many areas that has not had a break from the recent rains in eastern Queensland and NSW.

RCoB helps Red Frogs Help Students

Red Frogs is a support network for young people, aiming to provide safety responses, referrals to professional services, education and alternative event programming. Each year 24 tonne of ‘Allen’s Red Frogs’ (provided by Nestle), are used as an ice breaker to connect Red Frog volunteers with 1.43 million people (predominately youth & young adults) in environments such as Schoolies, Universities, Festivals, Schools, Skate Parks and Sports Events.

The Rotary Club Of Brisbane became a major partner of the Red Frogs program in September 2017 with a commitment of $50,000 across two Rotary years.

Rural Endoscopy Training Makes a Difference

Endoscopy training of rural GPs at the Princess Alexandra Hospital is already starting to make a difference to rural Queenslanders. The project was initially the brainchild of RCoB's Professor Gerald Holtmann who also happens to be the Director of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Dr Jennifer Wharton from Thursday Island at the PAH Rural Endoscopy Training Centre observed by Prof Gerald Holtmann, Director of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, PAH and Dr Derek Holroyd from Proserpine.

Gerald was concerned about the amount of travel required of rural patients who generally need to travel hundreds of km to regional centres for endoscopic examinations. This is not a problem that can be solved simply by spending money to locate equipment in far-flung locations. Trained personnel need to be on-hand to perform the procedures, and they just are not available in rural areas. Gerald brought a proposal for the training of rural generalists in endoscopic procedures to his Rotary Club, who agreed to seed-fund a start-up project to the tune of $20,000 in collaboration with the Princess Alexandra Foundation and Queensland Health.

In a time of social upheaval, where should America go?

Chicago Rotarian Xavier Ramey says the key to creating an equitable society is understanding where we’ve been.

Help on wheels

Maternal health projects give Rotary clubs in Uganda a sense of purpose during COVID-19 restrictions

Rotarians pledge to restore the monarch butterfly’s disappearing habitat

Seventy-five percent of the world’s plant species are dependent on pollinators, such as the monarch, to survive

History: A Home for Headquarters

The idea that Rotary should own its headquarters dates back at least to the 1920 convention, when RI President Albert Adams said that he hoped to someday see the headquarters in a beautiful building of Rotary’s own.

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