At our changeover on Monday, 1 July, I will become an ordinary member of our Rotary Club, i.e. I will not be holding any official Rotary office. Much as I enjoy being part of the Rotary family, I have been sitting at a Rotary Board table once a month, apart from December & January each year, for 13 years.
Looking through the history of our club, there are some Secretaries and Treasurers who have sat for a much longer time in these roles and I take my hat off to them.
I have been involved with the Rotary family since 1969 when my late husband, Mike, became a member of the Northcote Rotary Club on the North Shore of Auckland, at the age of 29. It was an active club which met on a Monday evening and we enjoyed the friendship of the members. Upon moving to Darwin in 1972, Mike again was approached to join one of the local clubs and again, they met on a Monday night, and seemed to be busy. I can remember taking our very young children to see ‘Daddy’ running a chocolate wheel at the local A&P show.
Fast forward to 1992 when at the local bridge club we met Dave Smith, a former member of our club, who had the Rotary honour of bringing the most members into Rotary. He persuaded Mike to join the Eastern Hutt club and we were back in the Rotary family again, something we never regretted.
It was in a discussion with Colin Alford in late 2004 that I mentioned I missed the Rotary family and he suggested I should join our club. On 7 February 2005 (Mike would have been 65 that day), I was admitted to the Club and so my journey with Rotary commenced. Four years later, I was inducted as President of the Club and subsequently became Club Secretary in 2011/12.
Judy with Doug, Jaye and Don (on her right), and Jan and
Colin, at the Rotary International Convention, Salt Lake City, 2007
I will continue to enjoy being a member and supporting the work of our great club but now will have more time to enjoy my retirement by tending to my garden, getting out on the bowling greens, and catching up on some of the unfinished projects that are sitting in my cupboards, as well as enjoying time with family and friends.
