AFTER an action-packed year, Empangeni Rotary Club has inducted its new president for the 2014/2015 term.
At a well-attended function held at the Empangeni Country Club on Tuesday evening, outgoing President Glynn Harboth left some big shoes for inductee Christo van Heerden to fill.
Reporting on the past 12 months, Harboth highlighted a number of projects the hard-working team undertook.
They include:
• Madiba Day – assisting with the DICE ‘Hang Out with Madiba’ clothes collection
• Mafika Crèche – water tank installed and Christmas party hosted
• Santa Shoe Box campaign – filled 36 boxes via Interact Club at St Catherine’s
• Thuthukani School – helped as independent examiners
• Child Welfare –food collection at 5-Ways Mall with Interact
• Izulu Orphan Projects – R600 000 raised for computer centre
• Bicycle project – two containers of bicycles received for assembly and distribution
• Wheelchair distribution – with Canadian Rotarian support
• Linen distribution – worth R15 000 from Bayshore Inn
• Swimathon – R20 000 raised with St Catherine’s Early Act Club for global polio eradication
• Rotary Health Days – hosted at Mpoyeni Tribal Court
• ‘Warrior Princess’ support – special desk made for pupil with no arms, and computer donated
• Mandela evening – fund-raiser with Verne Harris for three beneficiary organisations
Honours roll
Paul Harris Fellowship awards were made to a number of Rotarians and community members who have served their fellow man ‘beyond the call of duty’:
• Jane Ashburner of Zululand Hospice, for her compassion to terminal patients and their families
• Rob Shepherd, a philanthropist who has built crèches, schools, churches and community centres in deep rural areas
• Barbara Robarts, a Rotarian ‘foot soldier’ expert in finding and meeting community needs
• Rotarian Andrew Killick, who each year sacrifices his annual leave for the ‘Connection Ride’ to Cape Town and his involvement in wheelchair procurement, as well as being project manager for the administration of matching grant funding
• Rose Cyrus was acclaimed ‘Rotarian of the Year’.
