Hello lovelies,
It’s been an extraordinary few weeks for the Rotary Club of Brisbane. The Monthly Evening Social on 3 March at Friday’s Riverside was another great night—huge thanks to the Friday’s staff, who always make us feel welcome. Miss S Murphy bravely presented her EarlyAct proposal for Petrie Terrace State School. She was a little shy, but the team loved her idea and the effort made. We also welcomed Kelly Bartle from Port Moresby Rotary and Peter Pelapa, introduced by Dickson Ken. We’ll soon be sharing a story about Kelly Bartle’s insights into her club’s work in PNG and plans for collaboration.
At last week’s Club Lunch Meeting on 17 March, we heard from Emily Skilbeck, founder of REACH Siem Reap, and Sokun Song, REACH’s family assistance manager. It was Sokun’s first time speaking publicly, and she did a fantastic job sharing very openly and movingly about her life in Cambodia. Emily and Sokun were joined by Immediate Past District Governor Paul Roger and the always fabulous Sue Roger (in St Patrick's Day green), along with Ian Haylor, past president of Dalby Rotary and a REACH board member. REACH is doing incredible work breaking the cycle of poverty through education and family support. You can read more about their work at reachsiemreap.org. We’ll also be sharing more on how we can support REACH in the coming weeks—if anyone in the club fancies cycling, their Ride to REACH fundraiser might be calling your name: reachsiemreap.org/ride-to-reach. 
Some great news—we have a stack of member applications to process at our upcoming board meeting. This is a huge positive step for the club.
I also want to acknowledge our members who haven’t been able to make it to meetings recently—we miss you and hope to see you soon.
This Monday’s meeting is set to be a good one. Our own member Celia Grenning is speaking, we’ve got guests registered who are interested in Rotary membership, Rotarians visiting from abroad and visitors from Briz Pride Rotary Club. If you’re coming along, the club needs some help with set-up and running the meeting. Please let me know if you can lend a hand.
Finally, thank you all. It’s been a wild ride lately, but the Rotary Club of Brisbane is in great shape, and that’s because of our amazing members. See you Monday.
Angela Murphy
Rotary Club of Brisbane President 2024-25