Visit by District Governor

Hi to all the friends and members of Macquarie Park Rotary,

I hope you are enjoying our winter weather and keeping rugged up. There is talk that the weather will soon start warming up. I'm not convinced..

Last week's meeting was indeed a special event, with our guests District Governor George Papallo, his wife Cathie and Assistant Governor Raylene Jarvis. Vogue cafe is a great place for breakfast, but it can be hard to find for new visitors, as we found out last week!

The photo shows Cathie, George, Raylene and yours truly.

DG George addressed our meeting and enthused us with more details about next year's conference in Canberra between 17th to 20th March. Ray Martin will be the host, and one of the guest speakers will be David Lamott, a 2008 Rotary World Peace Fellow. David is a writer, singer, songwriter and humanitarian (sounds like our very own Roseanne Gallo!). David will explain how the award from Rotary has enabled him to continue his work in third world countries.

The flagship event of the conference will be the opportunity to attend dinner in the Great Hall of Parliament House, with keynote speaker Jack Thompson. A very Australian evening indeed.

Cathie Papallo also addressed our club. Traditionally partners of District Governors support a charity during their year. Cathie has chosen to support the Stillbirth Foundation, a support group for parents of stillborn children, started by Emma McLeod. Money raised by the Foundation is being used to research the causes of stillbirths, and they have had some promising results so far.

Our guest speaker on Tuesday will be Liam Darmody, from Macquarie University, an aspiring young leader and delegate to the inagural One Young World Summit held in London earlier this year.

See you all Tuesday,

Ross