Governor commends club
Rotary District Governor Lynne Westland who is a member of the Casey Rotary Club, recently made an official visit to the Drouin Club.
She was accompanied by her husband Trevor, also a Rotarian, and assistant governor Carol Crewe a member of the Hazelwood Club.
Chairman of the meeting was Drouin’s president Sharryn Marshall. The Rotary District covers 50 clubs in the area from the Mornington Peninsula to East Gippsland, and includes a new e-club – the Rotary Club of Latitude 38 – which “meets” by internet and email.
Mrs. Westland joined the Berwick Club in 1999, and was instrumental in establishing the Casey Club in 2012.
She has held many offices at club level, and has occupied several committee positions in the Rotary district, and now is district governor for 2016/17. She led a group study exchange tem to Denmark in 2005. In professional life, she is a funeral director, and serves as a Justice of the Peace and a Bail Justice.
Mrs. Westland outlined to members and their guests several of the current initiatives of Rotary International worldwide. She spoke of Rotary’s slogan for the year – “Rotary Serving Humanity”, and said that there was a great opportunity to improve the lives of a large number of people in need.
As an example of Rotary’s humanitarian programs, she instanced the “eradicate polio” project which had commenced in the 1980s when very large numbers of children each day were being diagnosed with polio.
The project is an initiative of the Rotary Foundation – Rotary’s charitable arm. Mrs. Westland said that, as a result of the program, the incidence of polio in developing countries had fallen dramatically – to a mere 17 known cases last year. It is hoped that this scourge might be brought to an end worldwide this year – the centenary year of the Rotary Foundation.
Having met with club officers before the meeting, she complimented the Drouin club on the breadth of its community projects, including the motorfest, swap meet, monthly markets, and others, and remarked that the club seemed to have a “get on with it” attitude.
Trevor Westland spoke of his “District Governor’s partner’s project”, which is to further the “Wheelchairs For Kids” program – under which about 3000 wheelchairs each year (costing $200 each) are distributed mainly in the Asia and Pacific regions, and recently extended to West Africa.