With people away and not well we were a smallish group at our last dinner meeting. I am sure that we all hope that those suffering poor health are travelling well on their journey for treatment and recovery
Our guest speaker for the night was Kelvin Ricketts from the Life Education Trust Counties Manukau. The club has had an association with the Life Education Trust and its mascot Harold a number of years ago. Indeed, the Trust was one of the main benefactors of the Yacht regatta for some time.
Kelvin presented an update of the trust’s activities along with some impressive statistics. It delivers its programmes to over 225000 children each year and involves over 300 volunteer trustees. In an average year it visits over 1400 schools and teaches more than 25000 lessons. The programme strands include Food and Nutrition, Human Biology, Relationships and Communities, Identity and Resilience and Substances. The overall goal is for children to become proud of their identity and confident in who they are.
Life Education’s success lies in Local Trusts each ensuring their local community needs are met. Trusts across the country own and operate more than 40 mobile classrooms and employ a team of educators who are specialists in teaching health. Trustees raise the $4.5M needed each year to subsidize the cost to schools by 80%. Keeping user-pays to a minimum ensures that no child misses out. Each local trust is registered charity and all funds raised in the region are used in the area.
Kelvins presentation was a great reminder of the amazing work that Life Education does across New Zealand. As with all charities they are looking for funding and assistance including looking for volunteer trustees. Perhaps we should consider how to assist some local schools that would like to utilize Harold’s services to achieve better outcomes for kids in our community.
Kelvin was ably hosted and thanked by Carole Ansley and we now have our own Harold soft toy to mark the occasion.
Our one minutes speakers included David Teape promoting a Rotary Dine Out event to be held on Easter Sunday (see later) and Mike gave us a brief update on the Bangers to Bluff team (in addition to guiding us through the evenings events).
The raffle results were:
Have A Go – 1st Gavin Green, 2nd Geoff Thompson. New World Vouchers – Ian Fox and David Fels.
Our next guest speaker on the 29th April is Steve Chaney District 9920’s Rotary Foundation Chair who will be giving us an overview of the great work that it does internationally and locally as well as telling us about how we can access and donate funds.
Take Care and Stay Well,
Rob Mouncey
President
