A small, quality group of 21 members and 2 guests, enjoyed this meeting, chaired admirably by IPP Peter Buchanan, in President Allan's absence. Peter reminded us that our next two breakfast meetings will feature students we have recently sponsored as part of our youth development focus. First up on the 16th of May will be the students who attended the last Science Forum and then on the 23rd of May we will hear from the St. Johns sponsored RYPEN participants. Please be sure to turn up to hear about these students experiences as well as to show our support.
Spotted in the corner of the room was the Trophy won last week by our superb debating team. Being such a sought after and attractive Trophy, if we do not remove it from the Golf Club its very likely to go walkabout. If our three debating team members can arrange for this to be secured asap it would be much appreciated.
Our guest speaker was Vijay Paranjape, who is the IPP of the Rotary Club of Thane, and he is also a friend of Ainie's, via a very interesting and a somewhat complicated set of circumstances! Thane is located near Mumbai in the North Western area of India, is a hub for manufacturing industries and has its own language of Marathi. The Rotary Club of Thane was the first chartered in this area of India, some 62 years ago.
Vijay walked us through a list of projects that his club is currently involved with which included; providing clean drinking water, employment opportunities, literacy, control of various disease's, building schools and installing toilets in schools in the area. The club has a large group of influential and community leaders that allows them to tackle some amazing and very valuable projects. Thanks for arranging the visit Ainie - an excellent speaker.