New Member's Induction

Over the past four weeks the Rotary Club of Mornington has had a very special and significant series of new member’s inducted into our ranks. And last week we were very privileged to once again have two new members join our club. As has been the case over the past few weeks our President, Ross Kilborn, who is now becoming very adept with the ceremony, welcomed Peter Huels and Pam Hall as our latest inductee’s. Well done to Peter and Pam and your energy and expertise skills should prove to be a valuable member of our club. Congratulations on your Induction.

 Our new Club Inductee's , Peter Huels and Pam Hall  with Club President Ross Kilborn

 

 

Guest Speaker's

 

Last week our Guest Speaker was Ms Lee Midson, the owner of Mornington Travel. Lee was also accompanied by John Watson who presented and adjunct to Lee’s presentation. Lee has spent some 20 years years within the travel agent sphere and she comes with wealth of knowledge and experience.  With Lee and her team there passion for travel and specifically there attention to detail in providing their clients with the highest level of service was very evident throughout her presentation. Mornington Travel prides itself on personal customer service, as Lee stated “ We offer the highest level of customer service, unbiased advice and support in planning your leisure or business travel". Throughout Lee’s presentation she provided a full range of services that the agency offer’s their clients, some of which are, but not limited to include, domestic and International accommodation, Sports packages, river Cruising Flights, Ski Packages, Diving Package’s and Ocean Cruises.  Lee emphasised that focus for their clients was to tailor a travel experience that was more then just a trip overseas, but a specifically designed encounter that meet their needs and desires. One of the interesting aspect’s of travel recently has been the increase in the “ adrenaline / high action " type experience and also the trend for more small group, boutique travel events catering for up to max of 20 people.  For the upcoming travel / holiday season in 2020, some of the more desired destinations include Japan, Scandinavia, Cyprus, Morocco and Malta.

 

The second segment in Lee’s presentation was to introduce John Watson who presented a very unique travel encounter.  John has spent some 40yrs in the local Mornington area as a School Teacher. After such a long career John was looking for “ a completely different sea change ", so to speak, and found this thru what he called “ a life changing experience” in Africa.  John’s sojourn saw him visiting the Shamwarri Private Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa, but not as a photo-snapping tourist but as a volunteer working within the Park. John’s presentation and the day to day exposure and experiences he enlightened us to was amazing.

Working within the park in the valuable and truly important area of assisting the Rangers in the rehabilitation of wildlife, supporting the very poor and truly underprivileged local villagers and specifically the young children orphaned by AIDS was very moving.  John has to some degree entrenched himself in this “ vocation “ and has over the past 6 to 7 years escorted, on an annual basis, teams of up to a dozen mature aged students to become “ vacation volunteer workers”. In such a short period John himself has already amassed 13 visits to Shamwarri and from the energy and passion he displayed in his presentation it was very evident that he has “ found his vocation “ and will see many more trips to this amazing location. Well done John for your dedication in helping to preserve the dwindling wildlife of Africa and the associated work within the local native villages.

 

Guest Speakers , John Watson,(centre) Lee Midson on the right and Rotary Guest  Ms Arlen Lucas.

The Big Clean Out  !!

Thanks to the Brave Souls 'who dared to enter into the depths of the  " unknown container" last week and volunteer there time to conduct another much needed clean up and re-arrangement of our clubs storage container. Well done to John Parkinson , Ian Horton and Peter Jay, hope you din't find to many spiders or the odd Yowie  !!

Community Christmas Hamper - Packaging Event.

After a long and very successful Community Christmas Hamper Project it was time to put together all the food and presents for those in our community that need a bit of cheer and happiness to help make their Christmas a bit more enjoyable.  Well done to Dennis Corke and Peter Huels for helping in the packing and collation of the Christmas Hampers.