Unite for Good is the call to action for the Rotary Club of Glen Innes which recently celebrated its 85th Birthday and 2025 Changeover Dinner at the Glen Innes and Districts Services Club. Club President Tim Clifford welcomed members and guests including District Governor George Bruce and Glen Innes Severn Council Mayor Margot Davis.
It was an evening of highlights. First, Tim delivered the President’s Report which was comprehensive and a powerful record of the amount of good which Rotary generates. Through Rotary Australia World Community Services (RAWCS) Rotary delivers humanitarian, development and disaster relief here in Australia and overseas. For example, the Glen Innes Club distributed $25,000 worth of RAWCS Drought Gift Cards, which aid the community and in turn local businesses.
The Club also supports young people in a number of practical ways: through the Youth Citizenship Awards; the RYAG Sheep program at Walcha – a leading program for students in Years 9 to 11 who are interested in the sheep industry; by supporting the Glen Innes High School Dance Team, and encouraging young people to get involved in STEM fields with the Science and Engineering Challenge.
Rotary is very active: for example, Rotary hosted a RAWCS funded Free Community Evening; distributed Winter Aid Gift Bags, and made a donation to Minerama. Rotarians BBQ skills are legendary and were on show during the year participating in the barbecue at the Community Christmas Carols and at the Glen Innes High School P&C barbecue.
Members were on hand too for the Men’s Health Education Rural Van – the MHERV initiative. The van visited Glen Innes and Deepwater, offering free health tests such as blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar tests – very luckily for four or five men, who were sent to hospital as soon as they were tested!
With so much going on throughout the year, it is hard to believe that this Club membership is quite small. It certainly has been punching above its weight!
Nowhere does Glen Innes Rotary demonstrate this better than its longstanding work in Indonesia, through the Priscilla Hall Foundation and other projects, such as supporting Days for Girls which aims to eliminate the stigma and limitations associated with menstruation, and welcoming an exchange student to Glen Innes.
The Priscilla Hall Foundation was set up by Don and Frances Hall and family as a dynamic memorial to their beloved daughter who in 1968 was tragically killed in a plane accident in Indonesia where she lived and worked. She was 36. To honour the memory of Priscilla and her great interest in assisting disadvantaged children, this fund was set up to help underprivileged children in Indonesia which, with the support of Glen Innes Rotary, it has done ever since.
This leads us to another highlight of the evening: Rotary’s District Governor presented Don Hall with the Rotary Club of Glen Innes Certificate of Recognition. Don joined Rotary on 28 June 1965. The Certificate of Recognition was for Don’s nearly six decades commitment to Rotary and its values of ‘Service Above Self, fellowship and community service’. Don was described as “an inspiration to generations of Rotarians” and his contributions “have made a lasting impact – not only within [the] club but across the wider community”. Don’s wife Frances was also acknowledged for her lifetime of support which included being President of the Glen Innes Inner Wheel Club, which was established as an affiliated women’s organisation at a time when membership of Rotary was limited to men. Those days are long gone.
These days gender is not an issue and anyone can become a member of Rotary. In fact Rotary is keen to welcome new members and perhaps you have been thinking about it. If so, Tim says “feel free to join us” on Monday evenings at Glen Innes and District Services Club Remembrance Room at 6:00pm for a 6:30 pm start. If you have any questions, contact Tim Clifford on 0438 858 642.
