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Club Elections for 2012/13 term

Club News

Rotarian Rupert Dyer (left) was elected the 2012/13 president of the Rotary Club of Lae at the annual general meeting last night. The club also elected Larry Hulo ( right) as vice president. In the middle congratulating them is current president Anthony Whitfield.

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With more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.

Copyright © 2024 Rotary Club of Lae.

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Club News

Veifa Hospital receives Water

Club News

From Lae to Bereina in Central Province is a long way. But in the city dubbed pothole capital of the world, there are some brave and kind hearted souls, who besides dodging potholes, also share in charitable causes.

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With more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.

Copyright © 2024 Rotary Club of Lae.

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Club News Fundraiser Tidings

Thanks to the following companies for their support towards the 2012 BTB

Club News

The Rotary Club of Lae Huon Gulf wishes to sincerely thank the following companies for their support towards the successful staging of the club’s 2012 Black Tie Ball held at the Lae International Hotel Saturday evening.

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With more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.

Copyright © 2024 Rotary Club of Lae.

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Club News

LAE Rotary Changeover

Club News

THE guards have changed at the Rotary Club of Lae and a new team has now taken over the running of the club for the next 12 months.

Business executive Anthony Whitfield and a team of new executives on Tuesday night took over leadership of the club from Steve McNeilly and his team.

Mr McNeilly now resumes the role of Assistant District Governor for Papua new Guinea in Rotary District 9600 which covers part of Queensland, PNG, Solomon Islands and Nauru.

Mr McNeilly congratulated the new team and assured them of his support in the challenge of delivery charity help to the community.

Mr Whitfield also heaped praise on Mr McNeilly and his outgoing executive for their untiring efforts to move the club forward.

“Being a Rotarian is a tremendous commitment on your part, and I am confident the service you give to the community through this Rotary Club will be well worth it as we achieve the goals set for this year,” said Mr Whitfield.

“ I want to acknowledge and thank members’ partners and families for the support and the sacrifice they make as well. “ Your contributions are valued equally.

“Our 2011-12 club goals are part of a wider club leadership plan developed over the past six weeks and I want to thank all those members who have dedicated their time and their skills to this task. We will review these at next weeks meeting as the budget and board matters are finalised.

“This coming Rotary year presents a unique and, for many of us, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work alongside a diverse group of people from many different organizations and countries in such a unique environment.

“ It will be busy. It will be challenging. It will also be rewarding and fun,” Mr Whitfield told his fellow Rotarians, their spouses and guests who were mostly members of the Huon Rotary Club.

He added: “The impressive level of expertise, experience, and commitment to community service will ensure we reach our goals.

“Without question, the Club needs re-vitalization. There has been an exceptional amount of work done with our website, our plans, our systems and governance behind the scenes to ensure we are well on the way to revitalizing and sustaining the Club. But we must compliment that effort with more members and improved partnerships.

“It will be the task of all of us to identify and introduce prospective Rotarians to our Club. Throughout the first quarter of the Rotary year the Club is focused on its fundraising but at the same time I challenge you all to focus on increasing our membership.”

Photos from the Rotary Club of Lae changeover Dinner can be viewed by going here.

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With more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.

Copyright © 2024 Rotary Club of Lae.

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Club News

A word of thanks from Cancer Relief Society

Club News

The Club got a nice mention in this week’s issue of the Lae Chamber of Commerce Newsletter:

 

The Society would also like to thank Anthony Whitfield and the members of the Rotary Club of Lae for their efforts in locating equipment shipped from
Rotary Australia for use in the Cancer Treatment Centre and also for their contribution in clearing the cargo through customs.

Shelley Knox
President PNG Cancer Relief Society Lae

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With more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.

Copyright © 2024 Rotary Club of Lae.

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UNITECH constructs new Children’s Playground

Club News

This past week the Department of Architecture and Building (DOAB) at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology held a design-build Master Class.  Master Class 2012_1, Creating a Melanesian Place for Creative Play, is an intensive, one week project in which students, faculty and local professionals designed and built a much-needed, new and safe playground on campus next to the preschool.  Eight design teams consisted of 10 to 11 Architecture students who are studying at the PNG University of Technology in their 2nd – 5th years in the program. The student teams were each responsible for designing and constructing one piece of ‘play equipment’.

This project aims to challenge the often pre-conceived notion that learning happens within the confines of the four walls of a classroom.  The program included seminars on topics such as the link of education through play, community consultations with the local preschoolers, design crits, site analysis,  and a three-day build period.  Through this process students are able to learn from real-life experiences reinforcing topics taught throughout the curriculum.  During the build process skills such as on-site problem solving, estimation, design safety, construction management, construction techniques, detailing were all built on; adding value to the students experience at Unitech.

The playground was constructed from locally available materials like timber, soil, gravel, cement, as well as recycling materials from various sources, such as old tyres, Tuffa Tanks and leftover construction materials from local construction sites.  This, in addition to the social aspects of the program, reinforces sustainable practices emphasized in the DOAB.

It is hoped that one of the outcomes of this project will be an increased community dialogue on the importance of education and alternative methods of teaching and learning.  Many of the play structures have been designed with this aspect of creating a learning environment in mind.

The project was coordinated by Mr. Chris Dobunaba, Ms. Molly Felde under the tutelage of Dr. Andrew Sariman, Course Director.  We would like to thank the following for the donations, energy, and time in supporting this program and the opportunities they have helped to create.  The Department of Architecture, led by Professor Cletus Gonduan, HOD, the faculty of the DOAB, the Unitech Projects office who has worked alongside the students and helped by providing materials, the Lae Rotary who has shown their support as well as the individual members and companies they represent.  The following companies for their support and donations in kind: Seeto Kui, ITWProline, K.K. Kingston, Timber and Forestry Training College, Dulux, Colorpak, Dunlop, Crosbies, Bridgestone, Nuigini Builders; as well as, SVS and Boinamo for providing transportation of materials to our site. Finally the students of the department for their energy as they worked until well past midnight all three nights in order to finish the playground along with the staff and faculty who voluntarily worked alongside them beyond all expectations.  The success of this project would not be possible without all of this support.

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With more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.

Copyright © 2024 Rotary Club of Lae.

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Rotarians give tourism a boost

Club News

CALOUNDRA’s tourism industry will benefit when 600 delegates travel to The Events Centre for the annual Rotary International District 9600 Conference from March 23 to 25.

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With more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.

Copyright © 2024 Rotary Club of Lae.

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Club News

PNG Forum 2011

Club News

TOP Rotarians from around Papua New Guinea have just completed a special course aimed at helping them to lead their service clubs over the next few years.

The course was led by prominent Queensland Rotarian Carolyn Krueger who is the District Governor-elect for Rotary District 9600 which covers four countries in the South Pacific area – part of south-east Queensland in Australia , Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Nauru.

Ms Krueger will step into her new role on 1st July 2011 along with new office bearers for rotary clubs all around the world.

Rotary office bearers hold office for 12 months and do the changeovers on 1st July every year.

Ms Krueger and a team of experienced Rotarians from Australia flew to Lae to conduct the course for 15 current and incoming rotary leaders from clubs throughout PNG.

She told the Post-Courier the purpose of the forum was to prepare people stepping into new roles in Rotary clubs around PNG.

“Rotary encourages people to go beyond their comfort zones and the important thing is to prepare them correctly for their new roles.

“Training, knowledge, giving them confidence in the new roles they are going to take in,” said Ms Krueger.

Ms Krueger will undertake her first official visit to Papua New Guinea in July where she will attend the most important annual fund raising event for the Rotary Club of Lae – the Black Tie Ball – on 23 July 2011.

She will also meet with leaders and members of the two Lae clubs- the rotary Club of Lae and the Huon Gulf Rotary Club.

Following the Lae event she will visit Rotarians in other clubs around PNG.

“We have 1.2 million Rotarians, over 543 districts and it all changes on the 1st of July.

“So the forum here has been to train, to teach and then to discuss other information these incoming presidents of rotary clubs in Papua New Guinea need to know.

Ms Krueger also expressed her delight at the extent of the work being done by Rotary Clubs in PNG.

“ Before I came up here I thought the role of our clubs here was to open up donations in kind containers (DIKs) and it wasn’t until today ( Saturday) when each of the presidents got up and spoke about the work, the projects, the fund raising that each of the clubs have done up here that 12 months ago it was so much more beyond my expectations.

“I am very proud of the achievements and the interactions that the PNG clubs have with the mainland clubs in Queensland,” Ms Krueger said.

Ms Krueger was asked about her main message to clubs in Rotary District 9600 which she will now lead over the course of the next year starting 1st July 2011.

She replied: “ I think the whole under writing thing with Rotary is that so many of us in business reach a stage in business that we feel that we want to put something back. Rotary gives a very ethical basis of being able to do that because to become part of the Rotary family there are certain undertakings that business people do need to vow and promise and that is high ethical standards in both their personal lives and their business lives. So to me my goals are then for those people who are at the stage of giving back that they get a great deal of satisfaction from doing that – they form new friendships, new fellowships and at the same time have an awful lot of fun doing it.”

Photos from the PNG Forum weekend can be viewed by going here.

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With more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.

Copyright © 2024 Rotary Club of Lae.

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Club News

Four new members join the Lae Club

Club News

The Club inducted four new members last night and welcomed them into the fellowship of Rotary International.

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With more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.

Copyright © 2024 Rotary Club of Lae.

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Farewell to a Great Rotarian

Club News

There is not one project delivered by the Rotary Club of Lae to any organization or community in Lae or the Morobe Province that does not bear the fingerprints of Ross Humphries.

There is also no wheel chair nor any pair of clutches delivered to the needy that does not have the footprints of Ross Humphries.

He has been at the forefront of all decisions to donate, build and deliver services to those who needed help most throughout Lae and the Morobe Province or beyond the borders of Morobe.

When time came to deliver donations in kind donated by Rotary Clubs from Australia or overseas he was always at the forefront unpacking, assembling and delivering.

If it is to the Angau Memorial Hospital he would do it all by himself. That in a nutshell is the story of Ross Humphries – a man so committed to the cause of helping the underprivileged grassroots communities that one could say his life was cut out to be just that and nothing else. An icon he is and a shinning star of the Rotary movement across the entire world – not just in Papua New Guinea.

He is an Australian by birth who grew up in New Zealand, married a New Zealand girl he met while both were in their teens and spent more than half adult life in Lae. In the city riddled with potholes, the Rotary Club of Lae bid farewell to a fellow Rotarian Ross Humphries- to say thank you to him for the distinguished services he had rendered to the club over his more than 30 plus years with the club and for everything he did to promote the cause of rotary.

He has in fact been a Rotarian for 40 years both here and in New Zealand. The story of Ross Humphries is a long story. It is an interesting story about a unique man, a gentleman and a true giver of humanity. Christmas is at hand and some people might call him Santa Claus but Santa comes once every year whereas Ross Humphries visited the needy everyday over the past 30 plus years while working and living in Lae.

He was born in Delegate in New South Wales in Australia , a very small town in bushland on the NSW-Victoria border. His father was a gold miner. The family- mother, twin brothers and a sister- lived in a tin hut made from opened -up tar drums and a dirt floor.

Just like “Old Salt Bush Bill”.

When the war broke out in 1939, his father joined the Australian Army and moved his family from Delegate to Sydney. In 1946, straight after the end of the war, his father couldn’t find work in Sydney so moved to Wellington, New Zealand as the New Zealand Government had started a building boom to employ the returning soldiers.

The family travelled it New Zealand on board a Hudder Parker Line ship named the Wanganella. During the war, the Wanganella was a converted hospital ship and now converted back to a passenger ship. This was the very first trip after being converted back.

On the eve of arriving into Wellington Harbour, the 19th January 1947, the Wanganella hit Barrett’s Reef and very nearly sunk. Ross’s father was already in  New Zealand as he had gone there some months earlier to build a house and find employment. When he arrived on the morning of the 20 th Jan to greet his wife and family, he was told of the news that the Wanganella had hit a reef and was sinking.
One can imagine what he went through for the next few hours because of all the rumours that were flying around.

Ross and the family were taken off in the very first rescue vessel. The scenes were very much like what was seen in the movie, The Titanic. All very vivid still in his memory.

Ross started school and played rugby at age seven. Went to high school where he first met his future wife Margaret (she was just 15, he was 16). He represented his school in rugby and in athletics. He was also on the school council and was the school prefect. When he left High School, he took up an apprenticeship in metal trades and finished as the top apprentice in the whole of New Zealand in 1962.
He won a twelve month study and travel Bursary and spent the next year overseas.
He returned and married Margaret in 1964. Three years later they had a son Michael and then a daughter Derryn.

They were the owners and operated a small contracting business in New Zealand but because of the continuous cold weather, they decided to sell up and shift to a warmer climate. That was when the family decided on Papua New Guinea and if they didn’t like it, they would shift down to Australia.

The Humprhies family gave themselves 12 months to decide whether they like living in Papua New Guinea or not- if not then they move down under to Australia. Thirty two years later and they were still here. Before they left NZ, Ross was involved with the St. Phillips Scout Group, Community School Committees and Friends of The Harvey Home (Handicapped Children).

He was a foundation member of the Rotary Club of Stokes Valley, a president and was given an Honorary membership when he left for PNG in 1978. On arrival in PNG, he joined the Rotary Club of Boroko and when they moved to Lae in 1980, joined the Rotary Club Of Lae.

Since being in Lae, he has been on the Management Board of the Lae International High School, Rotary Club of Lae and the PNG Cancer Relief Society. He was invited to be a member of the very first Angau Hospital Board of Management, served as the Deputy Chairman and then as the Chairman for the next ten years.
His involvement with Angau Hospital dates back to when he first arrived in Lae, 30 years ago.

With the help of Rotary, Angau Hospital and the New Zealand High Commission, he was the prime mover in the construction of a much needed duplex to house the staff from the Cancer Treatment Centre. Again with the help of Rotary in Lae, a Rotary Club in Canada, plus many business houses and individuals in Lae, he raised enough funds to build two Children’s Wards at Angau Hospital which were named as the Ross Humphries Wing.

His involvement in the PNG Cancer Relief Society goes back more than twenty years. He has been their president for more than ten years and just recently has handed over the president’s role to Terry Furphy of the IPI Group of Companies.
With his connections in Australia, Ross was able to help purchase a much needed Energy Source for the old Cobalt machine used in the treatment of Cancer. He organised and transported the radio active source from Nadzab to Lae and helped with the installation. The Source was flown up to PNG free of charge by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in Australia.

He wrote to the then Foreign Minister of Australia, Alexander Downer to see if AusAID would fund a feasibility study on Cancer and treatment in PNG. They did this and their findings and recommendations were adopted by the PNG Department of  Health. Their report was called “The Hidden Burden”.

Ross was involved with the White Water Rafting Accident on the Watut River where three Israeli’s were drowned. He helped in the recovery and was personally thanked by the Israeli Ambassador when he came up to PNG.

He has also been thanked by an Under Secretary of Defence for his role in the recovery after an American Team were involved in a Helicopter accident into the sea just north of Lae.

During his years in Rotary in PNG, he has been the Deputy District Governor responsible for Rotary in PNG and the Solomon Islands. He signed the initiation papers to start the building of the Kokoda Hospital, he supplied all the steel for both the Hospital and the War Museum. Ross worked on site during the course of the construction and was there to sign on behalf of Rotary International, the official transfer papers handing over the Rotary built Hospital to the Oro Provincial Government. The then Prime Minister from Australia, Paul Keating was there to do the official handing over.

Throughout his life with Rotary in Lae Ross Humphries has opened many health centres and school libraries in both the Oro and Morobe Provinces. When flood waters washed away a large part of the Butibum Settlement, he built a health centre from a shipping container and delivered it to the new Tent City at Taraka. The community used this health centre for many years afterwards.

In 2001 when the luxury ship the QE2 arrived in Lae, Ross met some Rotarians onboard and took them for a tour around Lae and naturally showed them Angau Hospital. Three months after they had returned to the United Kingdom, he receive a fax from one of the group wanting to know if she could raise some funds for Angau.

Ross agreed and Mrs. Audrey Gough raised around English pounds 25,000. Ross said that he could double that amount through Rotary Special Grants which turned her amount to over Pounds 50,000. When this was converted to PNG Kina it was worth K256,000. A quarter of a million! New equipment was purchased and then donated to the Accident and Emergency Department at Angau Hospital.

Ross and his recently departed wife Margaret have fostered PNG Children, paid for their education and taken them down to Australia for holidays. They have managed to send young heart patients down to Australia for life saving heart operations. He has also taken young Cancer patients to Camp Quality in Australia to attend Camp Quality Australia, attend their week- long camp with other young people that also suffer from that dreaded disease, Cancer.

Ross believes in the Rotary motto “Service Above Self”. As you will see, Ross’s commitment in helping others and humanity at large has covered a period of over 45 years. Although the majority of his community service has been to the Papua New Guinean community (where he has lived for 31 years), he has left an indelible mark on humanity with his compassion and energy in helping others who cannot help themselves.

Although he was involved in aiding major disaster relief (Rabaul Volcano,Aitape Tsunami and Earthquake victims), his on-going commitment to work tirelessly at ground level with providing essential health or educational support to people in areas that need it most is where his heart is at.

Ross has always lent a hand where it needed to be lent and has diligently fundraised and generated awareness for causes which seem to be forgotten by others. He has joined (and been asked to join) numerous boards so he can give more back to the community.

His compassion to serve his fellow man drives him to extend himself beyond the expected. Anyone can say they belong to a club or an organisation but it is the effort, determination and vision to see a better world for the disadvantaged which fuels his passion.

He is associated with Rotary, Cancer Relief and other community organizations in an effort to leverage their positions within the community to highlight causes which are often voiceless on their own. He has been an active member of Rotary (a voluntary organisation) close to 40 years which makes him one of the longest serving Rotarians in Papua New Guinea.

Not that long service should be any criteria for any kind of recognition, but during this period of time he has held the highest position in Rotary in PNG and President on three (3) separate occasions and has been honoured by Rotary International as a Paul Harris Fellow; twice (which is quite rare in Rotary), for services to the community and world understanding. The Paul Harris Fellow is an award which is given in appreciation of tangible and significant assistance for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among people of the world. It is without a doubt the pinnacle of Rotary’s awards and is only ever awarded to very special people who make substantial contributions.

His commitment to contributing to his community has led to his involvement with Angau Hospital in Lae, Papua New Guinea 20 years ago and he was part of the very first management board for Angau Hospital, building wards and much needed hospital buildings and equipment. Through Rotary and the hospital he has been involved with the PNG Cancer Relief Society and is one of their longest serving members. He has been the National President of the Society for the past 10 years.

In recognition of his commitment to helping others he has received various acknowledgments from the governments of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand and personally thanked by the Government of Israel (for his individual help with victims of a tragic white water rafting disaster) and the United States Department of Defense (for on-going assistance to American Service men and women). The late Bill Skate CMG MP, as well, has honoured Ross personally with a Silver Bird of Paradise in recognition of his community work in Papua New Guinea.

The service that he has given to the community of Papua New Guinea is totally voluntary.

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With more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.

Copyright © 2024 Rotary Club of Lae.