What a great way to end this calendar year!
A Christmas Party at the Pakuranga Tennis Club with lots of fun, laughter, prizes and raffles. Christmas Colours was the theme and quite a few members really got into it making the night a wonderfully colourful occasion.
We even had some international guests to join us for the event. It was lovely that Gorel and Kjell-Ake Nilson from Sweden who were staying with Robyn and Ian Fox could come along and join in the fun. Kjell-Ake is a member of the Rotary Club of Astop in the south of Sweden and is a keen advocate and participant in Rotary’s International Student Exchange programme. In a small impromptu speech Kjell-Ake gave us a background of the couple’s involvement in the programme as well as bringing greetings from their club. I was able to reciprocate with a banner presentation and big warm welcome.
The best dressed prize on the night went to Geoff Thompson who with his garland of colour, flashing lights and Tam O Shanter with orange hair gave a pretty good impression of Rod Stewart. Fortunately, he was not tempted to burst into song!
The big “Have A Go” raffle draws were won by John Sanders $500 and Gavin Green $200. And the wonderful big hamper raffles were won by Sally Fletcher and John Richardson. Lots of spot prizes were also awarded with lucky place mat numbers being drawn by Glenice Yeoman.
Santa (aka Arnie du Toit) also paid a visit and dispensed the Secret Santa gifts to everyone. There was even a fun twist with these gifts and some had theirs swopped out with another at their table. This all added a lovely bit of chaos and laughter to the night. In fact, it was apparent that a lot of thought had gone into the OP Shop $5 selections with some quirky and interesting gifts delighting their recipients.
Steve Lines gave us an update on where he a Malcolm Pascoe are up to with their preparations for the Bangers to Bluff project. He encouraged everybody to have look at the transformed Toyota Tercel car which they had on display in the grounds of the tennis club. More on Bangers to Bluff below.
A big thank you to Glenice Yeoman and her team for organizing a wonderful fun event for the club to see out 2024. Also, a big thank you to Mike Abercrombie steering us through the night along with some great banter to add to our fun. And another big thank you to Jenny and John Richardson for making the venue available and providing great bar service and also to Jeff our caterer whose Christmas feast was delicious.
Talking about seeing out 2024 I would like to take this opportunity to wish all members and their families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you all for making Howick Rotary a great social and fun-loving club while helping make our community a better place to work and live.
Take Care and Stay Well.
Rob Mouncey
President
