Interact/Nowra/Wollongong Central

It has been another week filled with Rotary activities – I am declaring May my official Rotary month since I will have attended over 15 Rotary related events by the end of the month. Tuesday night I went with the UOW Rotaract president Emily to talk to the Kiera High School inductees to the Interact club at a club meeting of their sponsor club the Rotary of Wollongong. Emily and I spoke about the opportunities that are available to young people through the Rotary including Interact, Rotary Youth Exchange, RYLA, RYPEN, Rotaract, and of course the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship program.

Wednesday I got on the train for a 90 minute train ride down to Nowra to speak at the Nowra Rotary Club. Last week I looked up information on the Rotary District 9710 just to the south of Wollongong as a possible place to attend some Rotary meetings. I emailed a few of the clubs located on train stops and got an immediate response from the Nowra club. Max, the incoming club President, and Colton, the club secretary, organized picking me up from the train station and putting up for the evening with club member, Kevin and his wife Katherine. The speech went well and staying with Kevin and Katherine was a great experience. Kevin has been in the Australian navy for over 30 years and they have lived and traveled all over the world. It was wonderful hearing all their travel tales. They also have 3 grown sons, one of which is named Jamie.

Friday night I spoke at the Wollongong Central club. It was a rather small club but they seem to be quite active in Rotary activities as well as in their contributions to the Rotary Foundation. I was impressed with the number of members from this club that are Paul Harris Fellows. Dot and Bob, club members, invited to their home Saturday evening for dinner with a previous Ambassadorial scholar Jess from Ireland. Jess was studying at the UOW last year and has stayed to complete her studies.