Swan Rotary meets on Mondays at 7th Avenue Bar & Restaurant, 75 Helena Street, Midland.
Please be there by 6:15PM, the meeting starts at 6:45PM.
Club President Allan Ramsay
Club Secretary Maureen Houlihan
General Enquiries info@swanrotary.org.au
Future Club Nights
Monday, 19 May - Projects Night
Monday, 26 May - TBA
Monday, 2 June - Public Holiday - No Meeting
Swan Rotary Meeting - 12 May 2025,
7th Avenue Bar and Restaurant
President Elect Graham opened the meeting with a toast to Australia.
A very warm welcome to Swan Rotary members, as well as guests John and Kathy Brown, Fred's partner Robyn Hasson, and guest speaker, David Siddall from Swim Vietnam.
Apologies; David U, Allan, Rachel and Aubrey.
Secretary Report - Maureen
Nothing to report.
Treasurer Report - Betty
Nothing to report, but Liebherr will be taking place on Wednesday, with a larger than usual cohort, 150 but it will be at the new Bushmead Road Site. Thanks to Maureen for jumping in to help.
Markets - Bill
The markets are a little further away, next one being 25/5. - will discuss further at the next meeting.
On Mothers day the club worked with Lizzy on a marshalling job for Mothers Day walk. Thanks to Fred, Bill, Maureen , Graham and Shelly for their assistance at the event, and for being there at 545am.
David Siddall - Swim Vietnam
Swim Vietnam was started in 2008, in the first swim season they taught 300 children to Swim!
Vietnam has a coast line over 3,000km long, with over 2,000 rivers, an abundance of flooded rice fields, extreme tides, monsoons and flash flooding. Swim Vietnam is an organisation that operates in Hoi An, Vietnam.
It provides free swimming lessons to children, which helps to prevent drownings. Many parents in Hoi An, cannot swim meaning that they are unable to teach their children to swim. Children are often left unsupervised, as both parents usually work, swimming and Water Safety Education is limited, with a significant shortage of Swim Teachers.
Vietnamese Ministry of Health official figures indicate that approximately 2,000 children drown each year – that’s more than 5 every day, UNICEF has described drowning in Vietnam as “The Silent Epidemic”.
To start swimming lessons, Swim Vietnam were able to convince a few local hotels to allow access to guest swimming pools. In 2008, Swim Vietnam taught 300 children to swim. In 2009, Through generous donations Swim Vietnam were able to build their first in ground swimming pool, providing a safe, controlled environment for children to learn to swim.
In addition to survival Swimming Lessons for the children of Hoi An, Swim Vietnam also run Swim Teacher Training courses. All Swim Teachers are trained to international standards, adopting AUSTSWIM’s teaching methodology translating many of the course materials into Vietnamese.
During Covid, Swim Vietnam were unable to operate. However, in 2022 they recommenced, running programs in April to November 202, 2023, 2024 and are set to run again in 2025.
The cost per student to learn to swim is $40AUD, providing 15 lessons over 5 weeks.
•A rural school of up to 100 children can be taught to swim for AU$3,000
•$3,000 provides a teacher training course for up to 30 new swim teachers
•$12,500 will buy an above ground swimming pool
•$15,000 supports a swim program in a rural area
Chase the Joker - David C
David Siddall selected Ian's ticket with about 41 Cards remaining, unfortunately it was the 8 of Heart.
Fines - Graham
Graham - Getting the wrong salad
Betty - Upside down badge, international sign for distress
Mary - Reusing the BBQ trays
Maureen - Taking a pack of biscuits for snacks at the Mothers Day walk
Fred - Pretty in Pink (hat)
Bill - Putting Shelly and Graham far away from the loo on the Mothers Day walk
Graham - Saw something in the sky on Sunday morning
All the football supporters whose team didn't win.
Eagles, Collingwood, and Carlton
Manny - Welcome Back, you were missed at Liebherr last week
Ian - Praying for rain
David Siddall - Born in Surry but struggled with the Glaswegian accent.
Self fines -
Sue - tried to recruit David our guest, but sadly he has retired from Rotary
Mary - Her granddaughter bought her herself a car for her 16th, she had been saving since she was 12, but is yet to do get her license.
Closure
Graham thanked all those members who attended tonight, next week we will be a projects night, with a board meeting beforehand.
John Brown closed the meeting with the Rotary Charge.
If you want something submitted in the Newsletter, you can Email David at davidcharlescumming@gmail.com
