By: President Mark Wallis,
Barry, Blair, Martin, Richard & Richards wife, Julie attended the District Conference, starting with the “kick off” dinner on Friday night along with 380 other fellow Rotarians. We were honored to hear the founder of “Street Side Medics”, Dr Daniel Nour, gave us a talk about this amazing cause he set up & as a result was named the Young Australian of the Year for 2022. Street Side Medics, is a “GP led, mobile medical service dedicated to those experiencing homelessness & hardship” staffed entirely by volunteers utilizing a fully equipped mobile medical van. His talk was inspirational & will stay with me for a very long time.
Saturday was the conference proper & what a day it was, full of incredible presentations by celebrities along with every day people & Rotarians. A talk by a ROMAC recipient born with severe physical injuries in Fiji, now an Australian resident working with ROMAC & her life has had a 360 degree turnaround, a most wonderful young woman. We had a talk about Rotaract from Rotaractors & an update on the Youth Exchange program (coming back in Jan 2023 all things being equal).
We had a talk from Professor Ron Rapee AO about mental health in society, a topic very near & dear to me. Zone 8, RI Director RID, Jessie Hartman on Rotary International & Rotary going forward. Numerous other amazing presentations, too many to list here but I’m so glad I attended. Next years conference will be held in Cowra, March 17th – 19th, 2023, I really hope you will seriously consider coming along!
Regards
Mark