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Rotary Club of Burnie News

Rotary Tasmania Gynaecological Cancer Project

06/10/2022

Last week, several Burnie Rotarians were at a meeting in Ulverstone, where Ms Biddy Fisk, Co-Chair of Rotary Tasmania Community Care, informed us of the above-named Project.
A Tasmanian project, monies raised will go towards supporting access to vitally important clinical trials for Tasmanian women suffering from gynaecological cancer.
Clinical trials give patients the opportunity to obtain medications that they may otherwise not be able to access, and that are not always fully funded. Research shows that patients who participate in a clinical trial have improved survival.
There are 3 major focuses of this project and ways you can support it: 

1 AWARENESS PARTNER, e.g. putting our project logo/cancer ribbon on your products, or wearing our logo badge and/or beanie. (logo at right)

2 SUPPORTING PARTNER, e.g. organise an event/function to support patients in your community

3 FUNDING PARTNER, e.g. making a monetary donation (donation to RAWCS account gives tax deductibility) or holding your own fundraising event.
For more information, see Cancer Project

OR, contact: Biddy Fisk, Co-Chair | Rotary Tasmania Community Care
0419-345-835 | biddyandtom@bigpond.com

R-A-W: Rural Alive and Well

04/10/2022

Lauren Harper (seen at right with Secretary George Austin) works to promote RAW, which seeks to understand and improve the mental health of rural people, especially of farmers and farming families.
          Lauren explained that RAW is 60% government funded and also receives a good deal of corporate sponsorship.
          The RAW field staff prefer to ‘walk alongside’ rural people (not confront or arrive from behind); they find this approach is most effective in drawing out the inner thoughts of people who – by nature – tend to be reserved (‘toughing it out’). Mostly having rural backgrounds themselves, the field staff understand what it is like to live in that environment. They also undertake a series of training modules prior to being assigned to a rural area of Tasmania.
          Lauren said anyone can make a referral to RAW, if they are worried about someone: “We also accept self-referrals. To speak with us directly, call 1800 RAW TAS (i.e., 1800 729 827) – it is manned 24/7 365 days a year. In recent months, over 50% of calls have been self-referrals, which percentage is quite encouraging. Being prepared to ask for help is half-way to being healed.”

Little Penguins in Burnie

27/09/2022

Our club heard from Ms Perviz Marker, seen at right with Rot’n Paul Kearney, on Monday 26th September. Perviz arrived in Burnie in 1990; “the little penguins keep me happy here”, she said.

The Little (or Fairy) Penguin is the only species of penguin that breeds in Australia. There are dozens of colonies scattered from the NSW North Coast, south to Tasmania, and west, to an island off Fremantle. Phillip Island (Victoria) is perhaps most well-known, with over 30,000 pairs. Perviz said only around one-third of all chicks survive.

Burnie’s colony at Parsonage Point is a real tourist drawcard; the 600 penguins there drew some 11,000 visitors to see them in 2017. The Friends of Burnie Penguins, a volunteer organisation, started in 2004, runs tours at dusk every night during the six months – October to March – each year. There are 35 volunteers at present.

There is now a live, continuous YouTube video showing the insides of some burrows in the Burnie colony. See:                             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhLQp6XxWt4  

Treasurer David Bennett handed Perviz a donation from Burnie Rotary Club to aid the Friends of Burnie Penguins.

Burnie’s Kommunity Kids and Ian Edwards

13/09/2022

Ian has been the chief organiser of Kommunity Kids, an activity that helps young people living in Shorewell Park. Not only is this Burnie suburb ranked in the lowest decile on the ABS Socio-Economic Index among all 55,000 Statistical Areas (“SA”) for Australia; it has been the second lowest of all SA’s in regard to this Index.
        Ian said he began working as a special community orientated police officer in Burnie in 2008. He is now a Board Member of Burnie Community House in Shorewell Park and a member of Somerset Rotary Club. He grew up in the Blacktown area of Sydney, not the most salubrious part of that city; he reckons he was a ‘bit of a larrikin’. He readily emphasises with the Shorewell kids – something young police officers these days can fail to do, as they often lack that background.
       The Kommunity Kids program runs every Wednesday afternoon. Children and parents turn up, ride bikes on a special bike track, play football, cricket, grab a sausage or some soup.  Ian said the bike track concept came about after some kids began raising money for its construction. With intersections, a roundabout and traffic lights, kids are taught the ‘two-second’ rule (the proper distance behind the vehicle in front of you). Thus, they learn the road rules long before they step behind the wheel of a car. 
         In the beginning, Ian said there was a lot of angry behaviour in Shorewell, but he believes strongly in doing things with people, not to people. Thus, he said, find some activity that a child may find interesting and a challenge, and so build the person’s self-esteem. The Kommunity Kids playground area now has an outdoor chess table and recently, Ian saw two boys – well known for being troublesome – sitting very quietly playing chess.

Past President Themba Bulle presented Ian with a cheque for $1,500 to aid in the good work he does for the Shorewell Park community.

Helping Cancer Victims

16/08/2022

Sue Radford and Virginia Stevens have been friends for 48 years.

They jointly formed Flickering Memories in 2014 to mark the passing of their mothers; one from Ovarian Cancer and one from Breast Cancer. The high tea in 2014,  attended by 100 people; raised around $5,000 towards helping the McGrath Foundation and Ovarian Cancer Australia. Last year, 380 men and women attended over two days and raised $28,000. In all, $100,000 has been raised in eight years.

See https://www.facebook.com/groups/360207381123566/

At right: Sue and Virginia with Burnie Rotarian Leanne Cullen

Sue said:

— We create “Bags of Hope” to support patients at Burnie Cancer Clinic and Hobart and Launceston Gynaecological Clinics. The bags may contain blankets, colouring-in supplies, water bottles, and food or petrol vouchers.

— This year, the Cancer Clinic asked us to produce emergency packs to aid cancer patients who ‘live rough’, but who still have to face having treatment. We produced 20 packs, plus 20 more for later use.

— After Palliative Care asked us,  we made 100 bags to hold syringe driver kits for use throughout Tasmania [A ‘syringe driver’ provides a continuous, subcutaneous infusion of pain relief medication].

— We support Women Can, which conducts research on all women’s gynaeco-logical cancers.

Thus, we are able to support every Tasmanian who is diagnosed with cancer.

– “We don’t say NO” –

 

A Men’s Table to START in Burnie

03/08/2022

On April 12, Burnie Rotary Club posted a news story on this website about the introduction of Men’s Tables in Tasmania. The Rotary Club is now pleased to announce: a Men’s Table will start in Burnie on Tuesday 13th September at The Beach Hotel

The organiser, Ben Hughes, welcomes men to come along to this event and find out what happens at a Men’s Table and why. Ben says:         

“The Men’s Table is a national organisation to get men listening, talking, supporting and being supported. Come and have a proper chat over a meal. We have 66 Tables nationally, 4 in Launceston and now we are starting one in Burnie.”

Book here:  https://events.humanitix.com/burnie-men-s-table-entree-tues13thsept

The cost ($30) covers a meal and a drink. There are no ongoing fees or membership costs. 

For more information please contact Ben Hughes at ben.hughes@themenstable.org or call 0424 99 33 66

The Ellis Richmond Sustainability story

05/07/2022

Jessica Richmond and Lindsay Ellis are partners in Ellis Richmond Management and Sustainability Consulting firm based in Burnie. Jessica explained that Sustainability affects all businesses.  “At ER, we follow the Greenhouse Gas Standards to calculate your emissions.”  Those standards divide emissions into Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions.

Scope 1 emissions arise from sources that are directly  controlled by your company, e.g., from combustion of fuel in vehicles that your company owns.         

Scope 2 emissions arise indirectly from the generation of the energy you buy from a utility provider.

Scope 3 emissions are tricky! They cover all the emissions your company is responsible for outside of its own walls – from the goods you purchase to the disposal of the products you sell! These emissions often account for a huge amount of a company’s overall emissions!

“At ER, we assist companies to properly identify and track their Scope 3 emissions.”

Jessica also explained the concept of Carbon Offsets – a government incentive to encourage people to reduce emissions. For instance, if farmer A stops carbon going into the atmosphere by using a special method, farmer A can register that project and method and they will get a certain quantity of credits which farmer A can sell.

“ER can help you work out what method may be best.”

$2k donation to Burnie Life Saving Club

31/05/2022

President Themba presented a cheque for $2,000 to Haydon Smith of the Burnie Surf Lifesaving Club, saying that this was the outcome of a presentation to the Rotary Club in March by Stuart Payne (President of Surf Life Saving Tasmania) and Shane Askew (President of Burnie Surf Lifesaving Club).

Haydon thanked the club and said this money would mean the Surf Club is close to being able to purchase a new IRB (Inflated Rescue Boat) to replace their very old boat. These days, an IRB costs around $19,000 – without the motor!

Nina Huang – New Member

24/05/2022

Nina came to Western Australia from Taiwan* in 2010 for a working holiday. She was paid only $40 per day, but she enjoyed what Australia has to offer, so in 2013-14, she entered Wollongong University and specialised in pure mathematics.

*   Taiwan is “a small island – half the area of Tasmania, but with a population close to that of the whole of Australia.”

In 2016, Nina began working for Entura, a company owned by Hydro Tasmania [company sales pitch: “We own. We operate. We consult.”]

In 2017, Nina became a Project Analyst and since 2020 has been Entura’s Delivery Controller. “I’m one person and I want to keep a Team of One!” she said. In this job she oversees the work output of 200 employees – the hours they work and the outputs arising from those hours (to answer queries such as ‘is this work ‘billable’ to a customer or not’?)

To do this, Nina makes use of 1109 data tables with over 12,000 columns and 1.2 trillion cells of data.

Q: Are the Taiwanese worried that what is happening in Ukraine might also happen to them?  

A: “Life goes on as normal in Taiwan.” Two-year universal military service exists for 18-year old males and repeats of this training for 1~2 weeks each year are the norm.