Huge thank you to Clive, Gerry, Donna & Chris who switched off holiday mode for an hour to unload a trailer and ute full of school books at RARE. The donor came from Bald Hills - St Paul's Anglican College - and the contents will be very useful for schools in PNG, Fiji, East Timor and other places. 120 archive boxes (3 pallets full) plus 20+ smaller boxes & plastic containers etc.. We return on 23rd January to start sorting and packing again at RARE.

Our last month for 2024 has been very full, and Lyn Packer represented the club at the District 9620 Youth Exchange Orientation Day, where our outbound student, Clancey Smith was presented with her blazer. Clancey is still navigating the Visa application with Czech authorities, but all being well she departs on 19th January. Several members hosted students on Friday 13th after taking them on a day trip to Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah).

The Christmas Party at the Bowls Club on Macleay Island was good, despite the inclement weather - thanks Tracey for organising. The christmas Lottery was drawn at the party - see the next screen for details of winning tickets. Photos in Photo Gallery shortly.

RARE is finished for 2024, and will reconvene on Thursday 23rd January - thanks to members who came to unload chairs on Monday & Tuesday this week.

Merry Christmas to all and all the best for a wonderful, productive, fun filled 2025 at Rotary Club of Cleveland.

 The Cleveland Rotary annual charity golf day, our 23rd consecutive event,  has again been a great success thanks to the wonderful support of our generous corporate sponsors, individual participants, the Reland Bay Golf Club team and the tireless efforts of members of Cleveland Rotary.

 The sun shone, the storm clouds kept their distance (!!), the beer was cold and the array of prizes was excellent. The golf was, largely, forgettable - but no-one seemed to care! 

 Thanks to the generous financial support of so many local businesses and individuals, the nominated local charities Redlands Mater Hospital Auxiliary, the Redland Foundation, and Rotary's campaign against Domestic Violence, will benefit to the tune of almost $29,000!    As with all of Rotary's efforts in your local community, ALL profits will be distributed since there are no overheads of administration costs. To learn more about Rotary, check out this link:   https://www.rotary.org/en/about-rotary

 Cleveland Rotary's sincere thanks goes to all who supported this event with sponsorship, donations, raffle tickets and participation.   We will be doing it all again on 17 October 2025 so please mark your calendar.

 Ian Neil    PHF;  PP.   On behalf of all the Cleveland Rotary team.

Christmas time is coming up very fast, and there are many in our community who are in need of that little bit of extra support at this time. Robert Wesener is co-ordinating the collection of goods for STAR Secret Santa Project this year. See the list on the next screen for suitable items to be included. Catherine Williams will be collecting our donations on December 10th, so please get your shopping done soon, and add a few items to the collection.

First National, Cleveland,  were the winning team of our 24th Annual Charity Golf Day, held at Redland Bay Golf Club on Friday 1st November. What a wonderful day - perfect golfing weather, 18 teams all giving of their generosity and time to support the local community. Local organisations such as the Mater Hospital Redland Auxiliary, Redland Community Centre and the Redland Foundation, with an emphasis on these organisations support for victims of Domestic & family violence are the beneficiaries of the Golf Day. At the event, many of the players also supported our other major fundraiser - the Christmas Lottery - which is supporting agencies in the Redlands who provide support for the homeless. The champions are all those players and sponsors - we thank you so much, without your support we cannot help the community. Check out our Photo Gallery for more photos from the Golf Day.

Huge thanks Richo and staff at Chop'N'Chill, Raby Bay, for a fabulous night last night. Tony Ooi, master event organiser - you created a fantastic social evening for us all. The ambience, the food, the wines were excellent, the service outstanding. Voted by all as the best event we have had for many years.

The International Committee worked hard for weeks, and the event was a great success. Information about malaria and the new vaccine being worked on at Griffith University by Dr. Danielle Stanisivic outlined for our guests the reason for our event. Entertainment by poet Peter Morley and local singer Liam Waldock, with delicious food provided by many volunteers, made for a lovely afternoon at the Lions Hall in Cleveland. Emcee Lorraine Furness did a wonderful job keeping the momentum going with lots of time to share some chatter and a few laughs together. Thanks to all involved - too many to mention individuals as I don't wish to miss anyone out. More photos in the Photo Gallery.

Last Tuesday night Mayor Jos Mitchell made her official visit to our Club, and told us a little about herself, her family, career and some projects that the Council is working on. We look forward to seeing more of you in the future Mayor Jos.  Pres. Clive had the great pleasure of presenting his first PHF to PP Hugh Dickson. It was wonderful to have Hugh and Sandy join us for this occasion, giving us the opportunity to say thanks for their support of the club, and catching up with old friends. PP Shirley showed a brief Powerpoint outlining the tremendous work being done in the last 3 months in particular at RARE - 
Rotary Australia Repurposing Equipment. A heartfelt thanks to the Rotary Club of Cleveland for their support of RARE since it moved to Alexandra Hills - both regular and occasional volunteers. See next screen for links to files, read the details - some of them are mind-blowing.

We talk a lot about the work done at RARE - Rotary Australia Repurposing Equipment. On Saturday a container arrived in a village in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, organised by Dickson Ken through RARE Northern Region. Pictured are 100's of boxes of books being unloaded to help the local village children have a chance at an education. At RARE we are currenly short of good quality children's books - Primary School aged reading books and non-fiction (information) books. If you can help with donations please collect them and give them to Shirley so that they can be packed into boxes for future deliveries. The smiles on the faces make it worthwhile, and they haven't even opened the boxes yet!!!

Many of us were privilieged to hear Dr. Danielle Stanisic of Griffith University speak about the research being undertaken to produce a vaccine for malaria.

We all know of the work done by RAM with impregnated mosquito nets etc., but the work to produce a vaccine rivals the work many years ago to develop the vaccine for polio. Can we, Rotary, with the help of these Griffith University scientists do for the millions dying of malaria what we have done (and almost completed) for polio? One statististic stood out for me - 1 child dies from malaria every minute across the world!!!

Check out the attached documents.

2024_Malaria_Vaccine_Project_Brochure_Rotary.pdf

MVP_Newsletter_2nd_Edition_2024_1.pdf

And don't forget to book for the high Tea on October 12th to raise funds for RAM High_Tea_Flier_final_2.pdf

Members volunteer each Thursday morning and regular Saturday mornings to sort, pack and ship containers of repurposed medical and educational equipment and supplies.

The first major project of the Rotary Club of Cleveland, started in 1968 to save farm machinery from rusting away in the paddocks. Founder and Charter member Norm Dean built up the Museum to the world class facility it is today. Passed to the community in 1972, the Museum is now over 50 years old and thriving.