The conference that was....
Posted by Gabby Knaepple
On Friday 31 March, 19 Rotarians and partners converged on Geelong for the annual district 9810 conference. It was held in the convention centre at Cunningham pier on Corio Bay.
In the afternoon, the conference was opened by Mike Brady (of Up there Cazaly fame) and he still has a great voice!!. We heard from lawyer Julian Burnside about the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru. Next was Euan Ferguson who was the retired head of the CFA. He spoke about the supportive role of service/community organisations in the aftermath of major fire events.
In the evening, we enjoyed a lovely meal at an Italian restaurant across the road from the beach.
On Saturday, we heard from Dr Laura Hart who is working on 2 projects funded by Australian Rotary Health. The project Laura spoke about was the Teen Mental Health First Aid Program which is based at the University of Melbourne. It is being run in partnership with Mental Health First Aid and is a new evidence based training program for students in Years 10 to 12. The program trains them to learn how to assist peers who are developing a mental health problem or who are experiencing a mental health crisis. Mikaela Stafrace is the CEO of Kidney Health Australia and she spoke about the Big Red Kidney Bus - sponsored by the RC of Croydon - it is a mobile dialysis unit.
We then heard from Dr Deidre Anderson who spoke about risky drinking in young people. Rotarian Leon Moore introduced us to LAARFS - a group of singers recovering from illness such as strokes etc. PDG Noel Trevaskis spoke about engaging with the community. Emma Dorn, a medical student from Deakin University, spoke to us about the Global Health Group. They raise money for areas where there is health inequity. We heard from Hugh Van Cuylenburg about resilience and mental health.
The Gala dinner was held on Saturday evening and the theme was somewhere in the world. We went as Wallies - of course Wally was everywhere and managed to do some photobombing much to our delight!!. There were many creative outfits as you will see from the photos below. The winners were RC of Croydon who were dressed up as Jellyfish!
On Sunday we had a range of speakers talking about Interact, Rotaract, Earlyact, Youth Exchange and the Four Way speaking comp. Marcus Akuhata-Brown from New Zealand spoke to us about his work with young at risk people. We heard from Mike Rolls who is a survivor of a life threatening infection that led to the amputation of his legs. He recently represented Australia in the world disabled golf championships. He is a champion of Interplast.
Next years conference will be held on 2 to 4 March 2017 and will be in Bendigo.
Some photos of the Gala Dinner:
The Wallies
The Rotary Club of Emerald
Jellyfish from the RC of Croydon