Next Meeting –   28th November 22 – The AGM of the Havelock North Rotary Club Charitable Trust will be held concurrently with the AGM of the Rotary Club of Havelock North Club AGM.

Rotary Bulletin – 21^st November 2022   President Brin welcomed members to the meeting – exclaiming that there was to be no Sergeant’s Session! But there would be good news stories instead.  He was delighted to see that there was now a room full of members, albeit, small in number, but good to see Rotarian Eddie Blowes was back.

GRACE – was given by John Pollard:  “For food in a world where many walk in hunger, for faith in a world where many walk in fear, for friends in a world, where many walk alone, we give you thanks.  Amen”

TWO MINUTE TALK: was given by Rotarian Gerry Townsend, who passed around a booklet of photos of the native birds, for members to share while he spoke about his favorite place to explore in Aotearoa to see nature at its’ best In Te Hauturu-or-Toi, known as Little Barrier Island in 1958-60 when he was a young school student by his father who took him to the island on 3 different occasions along with 15 of his Ardmore Teachers College fellow students.  Each visit was for a week.  The island is in the Hauraki Gulf and is New Zealand’s first Nature Reserve, home to New Zealand’s most diverse native bird and reptile communities – an impressive number of seabirds and invertebrate fauna.

Native bird life on this predator-free island is fantastic – kiwis, saddlebacks, kakapo, tui, NZ falcon, morepork, stitchbird, kokako, NZ pigeon, black petrel, kereru, Cook’s petrel, bellbirds, North Island Snipe, kingfisher, rifleman. Also, a vast array of invertebrates, plus tuatara, skinks and 12 other lizard species.   Each night after dark, the Island Ranger would take a Student Teacher and Gerry out into the bush looking for little brown kiwis to tag them, to watch their movements around the island.  They caught and tagged about 20 kiwis each night, and one night in 1958 they caught 2 pure white kiwis.  The Rangers took a photo of Gerry and his team, holding the white kiwis and sent the photos to New Zealand Newspapers, as they hadn’t been seen for over 50 years.  Hugh publicity occurred!

Six years ago they transferred 50 brown kiwis from the island down to the Mt Bruce Reserve (Masterton).  Now, 4 white kiwis have been born, as the genes have been passed on. Also, one afternoon when Gerry was out snorkeling, he saw the most amazing sight – about 30 crayfish in a group together – all part of the Marine Reserve – so Gerry couldn’t touch them!

GOOD NEWS STORIES! – In replacement of the Sergeant’s Session, members were invited to share their good news stories, however President Brin acknowledge that we may not do good news stories again – it seemed that a Sergeant’s Session was more real!

GUEST SPEAKER:    Eve Casagranda introduced fellow Rotarian Janice Feutz as the Guest Speaker to the Club, advising that she had met Janice 20 years ago at dancing lessons and the rest is history.  Janice is a great friend who put together for her father’s 80^th birthday, a lovely photo album of family photos.  Janice came to Hawkes Bay 4.5 years ago and Eve took the opportunity to show her around, and then together they joined the Havelock North Rotary Club, open to additional friendships through involvement with the Club.

Janice commented that she had found Rotary a good friendly place to enjoy.  Her parents were born in the West Coast, and her father played the bagpipes in a local band, and her mother got involved in dancing and socializing.  Later the Ashburton Pipe Band contacted her father, and convinced him to move to Ashburton to become a tutor.  Janice loved the West Coast, but the pipe band arranged for her father’s employment and a house.  The move to Ashburton was made but Janice missed the West Coast, and travelled back there every school holidays by train.  When they moved to Ashburton, her parents created two businesses, her mother providing accounting services, and her father worked in joinery and carpentry, for 15 hour days.  Several years later, the children also worked there, and when Janice was 17, her brother arrived, so she took him for a walk in Ashburton.

Janice later went to teachers’ college where she was introduced to a farmer, and wondered who would want to live on a farm?  However she was eventually taken to the farm – a sheep and craft farm which she thoroughly enjoyed while she was there.  At this point her father had decided to learn to fly, and gained his PPL (Private Pilot’s License).  It wasn’t long before he had clocked up 600 hours of flying, spending time in the sky, rather than on the coast.  Janice was regularly with him, loving the flying and having no fear at all – trusting her Dad. Living on the farm was enjoyable, and she managed the farm accounts, while her husband was an entrepreneurial farmer, providing irrigation of water to cropping endeavors, thanks to the National Government at the time providing the encouragement.

Given her joy of flying, and having gained her own pilot’s license, Larry, her husband suggested they should buy a plane, and bought the oldest flying Cherokee in New Zealand, and a 4 seater.  Flying trips were short but it works for Larry, however two weeks later, in a simple car accident, Larry was killed, and Janice couldn’t move – her focus on grieving and the opportunities she needed for her family.  She employed a manager for the farm and took her children on overseas trips, later she became a football (soccer) coach and began to enjoy her life again.  When the Government changed, she lost the farm and the airplane, and had to establish a new beginning. She moved back to Ashburton, noting there was a lot of sadness there too, many of them being farmers who were depressed due to the economy.   Janice then moved to Blenheim and became manager of rural properties.   It was great to be able to continue to fly – doing cross country flights – not aerobatics.  She taught her children speech and drama, which was difficult, but each of them passed their exams.  Blenheim was difficult, but she managed to get work with the Regional Development Agency, once the children grew up and left home. 

Following that, Janice went to Wellington to study Business Management, becoming a Business Advisor, also offering people the service of looking after their businesses to enable them to have a holiday.  People were so grateful, and she was invited to Fiji to assist businesses over there in the same manner. It was here that Janice met up with a couple of people who said she was in the wrong place and needed to go to a big city like New York!  However she decided to go to Wellington to work for 3 years.  Janice met a friend there who invited her to go to China for a Degree in Business Education, as part of her business career.  Having had a meeting with business representatives, her impression of China business interpretation was that sharing business skills was too cautious.  It was an enjoyable time and friends were amazing, but time was not wasted but she had to come back to Wellington.  Once in Wellington, her daughter rang and told her to go to Hawkes Bay – get out of wet and windy Wellington.  She also told her to give up working!  It amazed her she was prepared to do what her children wanted her to do, but she is now looking forward to meeting business orientated organisations, and to assist where she could, and have fun.

Rotarian Max Patmoy thanked Janice for a very enjoyable evening and indicated he was flabbergasted with her story, and where she has been and having a wonderful life.  Now she was in Hawkes Bay, he was looking forward to hearing of more of her adventures.

PROJECTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Raffle Sales this week –   Jessica advised that the raffle is going well with 50 books sold on Friday, and 88 sold on Saturday.  It has been an excellent result, and further support would be needed this week.
• Christmas Puddings – There is a need to order 2 more puddings, but the committee is happy to order 5.
• Christmas Party Plans are going well
• AGM Next week.
• Board Meeting & Barbeque At Brin and Mandy’s on 22 January 2023 at 11.30am. Casual dress.
• Youth Committee Emma McLean’s application has been accepted.  Also seeking applications for nest year for RYLA.
• Planting at St Georges, Charlie is still involved.
• Hospice Planting – Charlie is also working on the project.
• Eyes for Africa – A proposal to donate funds to ‘give a little page’ to build a small eye clinic in Africa is approved.
• Joy to the World – Peter Mayne advised of a Christmas Concert to be held by the Choir “Fours Company” will be held at the St Luke’s Anglican Church, Havelock North, at 7.30 pm on Friday  9 December 2022. And the Trinity Methodist Church, Clive Square, Napier on Saturday 10^th September at 7.30pm

PARTING THOUGHT from John Pollard:    “The greatest advantage of speaking the truth is that you don’t have to remember what you said”

Sue Forde

Bulletin Editor.