Last Wednesday evening our club hosted a very special event, that being our annual Youth Night.  This involved a number of invited schools, within our local area, all of which were represented by teachers and students who participated in the Schools Showcase.

 

The overarching theme of the night was “Lift the Lid “, which centred on the concerning issue of Mental Health targeting the adolescent and young adults of our society.

 

The evening commenced with a musical presentation from some dozen members of the Mornington Park Primary School Band. The school has a very active band consisting of some 60 students. We were accorded three short pieces of music from the String ensemble and their performance was a delight to watch and listen to.

 

Our host for the evening, John Renowden, provided us with a brief overview of the concept and the history of “ Lift the Lid “ focusing primarily on Mental health which was conceived within the Rotary Club of Mornington some 40 years ago, and is now Australian Rotary Health. 

 

Our local schools, for the evening Showcase, were represented by The Mornington Park PS, Mornington Secondary College and the Mornington PS, Vale St.

 

 

Prior to the Schools Presentations the audience was afforded a very special presentation from Miss Hanna Swinnerton, on the subject of Bullying. As you may remember Hanna, at last week’s Club Meeting, spoke on this subject about her personal exposure to this insidious social affliction. Hanna’s presentation was very well received and posed a striking message in that “bullying is totally unacceptable and warrants no place on our society”.

 

 

Our first guest school for the evening, was the MPS, Vale St which was represented by Layla, Emma and Jamila delivering a wonderfully constructed visual display and informative talk about the ever increasing problem of  “The Decline of Bees”. Their presentation was well researched and the message was very clear in that we all must work together to preserve our environment and especially our flora so as to provide Bees with an ongoing and abundant source of flowers and pollen.

 

Our next presenter was Lily from the Mornington Park PS who spoke about the need to reduce the use and subsequent disposal of Plastic Straws.  Lily, accompanied by her Father, has been for some weeks, actively canvassing the local café’s and eating establishments in Mornington both appealing and pointing out the very real and devastating effects these products have on our environment and especially our Marine Life.  

 

Lily’s presentation was very innovative and it took the form of ‘ an interview “ whereby our host, John ,  posed a number of questions to which Lily responses were very detailed and informative.  Lily’s concern and subsequent  “ real time efforts” to educate and hopefully rid us of this environmental problem displays a very vibrant and respectful attitude to our natural environment. Well done Lily. 

 

Our final presentation for the evening was twofold from Connor and Angus from the MSC.  Both of these young men have recently retuned from International Cultural travels within the Asia Pacific Region.  Their presentations were combination of verbal and interactive slide show’s.  Angus travelled to Japan whilst Conner spent his time in Indonesia.  Both students passed on their experiences within the placement of schools in their host countries, of which they informed us of the “ different classroom and social environments “as opposed to our Aussie ethos. Both students also acquainted us as to the many cultural and historical sites they visited in their host country, from a very moving experience at the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb memorial gardens, to speaking at the Yogyajarta Islamic University in front of a very large student audience.  It was very evident from their presentations that this International Cultural experience has had a very positive and constructive effect on the way they now view peoples and their beliefs from overseas countries. The MSC and both Angus and Connor’s family should be justifiably proud of their achievements in representing their school and displaying the mature qualities of the youth of our country.

 

To finish off the evening the Rotary Club of Mornington bestowed Citizenship Certificates to Lily Marx from the Mornington Park PS, Layla Purcell from the Mornington PS, Vale St and to Connor Algie and Angus O’Shea from the Mornington Secondary College. These awards are presented in recognition of the active participation and support the recipients perform within their socialistic and community environment. Well done to all recipients.

 

A special thanks goes to the teachers who accompanied the students at our Showcase evening:  Bev Dadds from Mornington Park PS, Lindsay Lockart and Kellie Salmon from Mornington PS Vale St and Linda Stanton from Mornington Secondary College. The Rotary Club of Mornington extends a very big thank you for your ongoing support in this event.