Our President writes...

Dear fellow Rotarians and Friends.

Update on our major Mega Raffle Fundraising sales. At the time of writing, we have sold approximately 75% of tickets. Thanks once again to all the volunteers who have been manning the stand in locations such as The Canopy, Woollies Lane Cove, The Plaza in Lane Cove, the new Aquatic Pool Centre and at Riverview Deli, York’s Corner. This coming Saturday we are in for a new experience, selling raffle tickets as well as manning a BBQ at Henley Community Centre, Hunters Hill. This is on the occasion of a ‘Fancy Flee Market’ organized by Hunters Hill Council with all profits going to Sydney Community Centre.

Also, I'd like to remind everyone to tell your friends and family that they can purchase tickets online or bid for the signed Swans Guernsey or the Sherrin football at the website https://lanecoverotaryfair.org/

Click here to go there right now.

STEPHANIE HEIGHES, NTA EAST INDONESIA AID
On Wednesday 28 October, Lane Cove Rotarians and friends of the club experienced a most enjoyable evening at the Kirribilli club’s Watergrill Restaurant. Our Club has been a supporter of NTA; more specifically Nusa Tenggara Timor under the leadership of PP Chris Curtis for many years. We are continuing our support of NTT this year under project manager PP Roger Wescombe. Stephanie Heighes, Operations manager, NTA East Indonesian Aid, gave us a comprehensive presentation of NTA’s activity in the region. Past and present assistance with locals has been diverse in matters of Agriculture, Water & Sanitation and Education. In recent times they have also implemented a weaving -project, empowering women in Flores to produce a variety of weaved products all made with natural dyes they can sell to visitors or to city stores. Peter Stanton, International Director, West Pennant Hills & Cherrybrook Rotary Club joined our online meeting on invitation from Roger Wescombe. The outcome is that Peter’s Club has approved a contribution of $3K to join our club in this year’s NTT project; which with our $3K and the District matching Grant will make it a $12K project. Congratulations to all involved, especially Peter and Roger.

“PROJECT IRON BOOMERANG” BY GUEST SPEAKER MR PETER FEROS
Our guest speaker this week presented an intriguing topic “Project Iron Boomerang”. It is a $100 billion project first conceived in 2013 by Shane Condon CEO of East-Est Line Park Pty Ltd., building a 3300-kilometre rail line linking the raw material of coking coal and iron ore across the country. The project envisages building 5 state of the art steel mills in Bowen Qld near coking coal and another 5 in Newman WA, near Iron Ore. These state-of-the-art steel mills require only 1/10 of labour due to a high degree of automation and will therefore be cost effective on the international steel market. Coking Coal and Limestone will be shipped West from Bowen Qld, returning East from Newman WA with Iron Ore shipment, thus fully utilising the railways capacity in both directions. Processed steel will be shipped abroad from Port Headland WA and from Abbott Point Qld. At this point Asian steel mills have committed to the projects 5 steel mills in both locations. Providing funding can be put in place; the project has the possibility to come to fruition in the very near future.
 

Silvio Gmur
President 2020/21, Lane Cove Rotary Club

Do you know any Sydney Swans footy fans?

While our raffle tickets continue to sell well, our silent auction has stalled at the bargain prices shown above. If you know anyone who might be interested in bidding on these items, then please email them the link below. Assuming these people are fans, what better way to receive their prize/s by having them personally presented to you on the 12th December by Swans legend Jude Bolton.

The link is: https://lanecoverotaryfair.org/?page_id=457

Received with thanks...

Mark Anderson, Senior Coordinator – Fund Development The Rotary Foundation writes:

Dear President Silvio,

On behalf of The Rotary Foundation and the End Polio Now program, we want to say THANK YOU to your club for the support that you gave on Friday 23 October for the Train Ride to End Polio. The day started at 4.15am at Cronulla railway station with six Rotarians joining us for the first leg of our journey and concluded 11.10pm at Tallawong Road station.

Three Rotarians completed 100% of the journey, that being Dave Anderson and myself from the Rotary Club of Beecroft D9685 and Jo Perrin from the Rotary Club of Camden D9675. This was a truly multi-district event with over 100 Rotarians from over 40 different clubs joining in at some stage during the day.

Donations on the day totalled $53,774, with more to come. There were other Train Rides to End Polio in Brisbane, Perth, Auckland and Wellington.

Please convey our thanks to your club members for their support both financially and in person.

Yours in Rotary Service,

Mark Anderson

and finally...