Rotary fills Narooma with music
We have a huge weekend ahead of us with the Busking Festival all Saturday plus the markets to follow on Sunday. Hopefully we are ready for it, thanks to a lot of work by the core Busking team. There is mounting excitement among those in our community who have been before and enjoyed it immensely.
Our Festival is a regional championship of the Australian National Busking Championships (ANBC) with the final in Cooma in November. It’s also one of the major events in Eurobodalla’s River of Art Festival which concludes this weekend.
On Saturday, we have 50 buskers who will perform at three or four of the 32 busker hot spots between 9 and 3. There’s a map in our two-page feature in this week’s Narooma News. Busking HQ will again be in a cabin in Easts Riverside Park, manned by our incredible admin team headed by Sandra, Lynda and John R. All buskers register there as well as volunteers; volunteers return with money and votes. John Doyle is overall site manager and chief ‘fixer’.
Narooma business owners have sponsored spots in front of their businesses while some businesses in outlying areas have spots on NATA Oval where there will also be large displays of collectors’ and new cars. A free bus with Chris on board will take people between venues. A programme showing hot spots with a busker timetable will be available online and on the day from information stalls opposite the Ice Creamery on the Flat and on NATA Oval, and from roving Busker Vote sellers wearing a Rotary vest.
Buskers are competing for $10,000 in prize money. Narooma’s five judges determine most prizes, including the $1,000 prize for the overall winner. Our judges this year are ANBC coordinator Alan Spencer, Shelby Grace, Lindsay Brown, Fiona Brown, and Ian Campbell of About Regional.
Everyone can vote for their favourite busker for the People’s Choice prize of $1,000 by buying a busker vote from our sellers for $1. The busker gets 10 cents from each $1 vote. If the purchaser writes their name on the back of each vote, they enter a lucky draw. Buskers keep any money they collect. Any profits go towards enhancing music and performance education in our area.
The Festival culminates with a free busker concert at Narooma Golf Club from 4pm followed by prize presentation (activity in HQ 3-5 is frantic, counting votes and sorting out prizes!).
Then it’s the markets on Sunday! Hope everyone is feeling fit. Then we can relax… Great work everyone.
THIS WEEK:
Our guest speaker is Angela Keogh who works as a canine behaviour consultant and professional dog (and owner!) trainer. Her subject will be ‘Real help at both ends of the leash’.
We also welcome our Narooma High student Breeanna Glass who we sponsored to the three-day Rotary Youth Programme of Enrichment (RYPEN) at Mogo. She will be talking briefly about her RYPEN experience.
The Week that Was
With both President Rod and VP Laurelle away last week, Rolf Gimmel ably chaired the meeting. Our speaker was Julie Kirk, the Regional Operations Manager for Red Cross’ Central Region. Julie explained how Red Cross supports the health and wellbeing of local communities through a range of programmes. She explained the various programmes including the Community Visitors Scheme, Learner Driver Programme, Save-a-Mate, Community Development and Emergency. Robyn Miller thanked Julie on behalf of the club.
Other news
Check your Bowels
Rotary’s annual bowel cancer awareness campaign ends soon. Age is an important factor in bowel cancer. The risk begins at age 40, doubling every five years and more rapidly as the person gets older. Bowel cancer is one of the most curable cancers if detected early. BowelCare kits cost $15 and are available from local pharmacies until the end of May.
Cinders battle for Trivia crown
On Wednesday 12 June, we ‘battle’ Moruya Rotarians for the coveted annual Cinders trophy. The trophy last year was shared between the two clubs, and is currently in Moruya’s safe keeping. This year we play on their home turf at Moruya Golf Club, commencing 6.30 for 7pm. Cost is $17 pp.
Hopefully you are coming with lots of very knowledgeable friends to make up for so many of our members who will be away. If you haven’t already done so, please fill in the attendance sheet for Cinders. We need final numbers by 5 June. Car-pooling is suggested.
Moruya Rotarians head to RI Convention
Moruya Rotarians John and Shirley Hayes will have a Moruya Rotary Club booth in the House of Friendship at the Rotary International Convention in Hamburg 1-5 June.
Shirl and John are managers of the Moruya RAWCS Sexual Health Education by Pictures Project. In February this year they travelled to Mindanao in the southern Philippines as part of joint RAWCS, Mindanao Poverty Relief Action team and Department of Education to deliver this much needed information to both female and male students. Over three weeks, Shirl, John and the team from Mindanao Poverty Relief Action team visited 14 high schools and gave three- hour lectures to over 3,000 students and staff. Teachers were concerned at the high rate of young teenage pregnancies and the lack of knowledge of sex and its outcomes.
They were so inspired by the success of this project and the positive comments they received, Shirl and John have taken a stand in the House of Friendship to talk about this project to the Convention’s 24,000 delegates.
Keep 8 August free for Bega Rotarians
Ange has organised with Bega President Margaret Taylor to have a combined meeting on 8 August, 6 for 6.30pm, at Cobargo Hotel. Ange reminds us this was initiated by the interest shown by our Club in Noel Trevaskis’ talk to us last year and the Business Breakfast Club started so successfully by Bega. We wanted to know more about the Breakfast Club so here’s our chance. Already about 15 Bega Rotarians have expressed interest in attending.