Experiencing The Global Reach of Rotary
The Club's members are far-travelled and
personal links are maintained with many clubs across the world.
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The Sir Thomas Brisbane Seat |
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... Conceptual Illustration |
Bhichai Rattakul was the World President of
Rotary International in 2003, when he unveiled
The Sir Thomas Brisbane Seat in the
Roma Street Parkland.
This took place at the Rotary International convention in Brisbane, Queensland,
which was attended by three Rotarians from the Largs club.
This memorial seat was commissioned by the Stones Corner Club in Brisbane
with financial support from the Rotary Club of Largs,
and became a Rotary District project.
The three Largs Rotarians were
John Hepburn, Ian MacEwan and Ken Thomas.
All three enjoyed Rotary fellowship at its best from the Stones Corner club hosts and members.
As a follow-up to that visit, the two clubs have ‘twinned’
and have been involved in joint projects in the Solomon Islands.
As for the seat, it is used by visitors to the park who are made aware of
the links with Scotland and Largs, in particular, by the symbols carved on the seat.
The photos show the Cooktown Orchid, the state flower of Queensland,
and the Thistle of Scotland with flowering shrubs from the continents of the world. |
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... And At Its Unveiling |
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Shelter
Boxes arriving in Brisbane, Australia, en
route to Gizo in the Solomon Islands. The Rotary Club
of Largs is twinned with the Rotary Club of Stones
Corner in Brisbane. After a 10-metre Tsunami, Largs and other UK clubs
funded hundreds of Shelter Boxes. |
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Babanga Island near Gizo:
kids from the school that the Stones
Corner and Largs Clubs
have supported. |
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In recent years the
Club has had international projects in Romania for the building of a
doctor and dentists' centre in the village of Ceuvas and the
refurbishment of a children's home in the town of Targu Mures. Click
here to see a
photo gallery of the Club's work in Romania. |
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The Largs Club and Rotary Foundation
The
Rotary Foundation is
Rotary International's charity. It has dispensed millions of
pounds throughout the world over many years. The most notable
endeavour has been the drive, begun in the mid 1980s, to
eliminate polio world-wide and, together with other
international agencies such as the
World Health Organisation and the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we are now
tantalisingly close to achieving that objective.
(See Rotary links concerning polio
here and
here.)
The Foundation also funds many important
educational projects, such as sponsoring a student to spend
a full academic year in a foreign university, and offering an
exchange visit lasting about a month to young people of about 25 to
35 years to a country overseas. The Foundation also offers 20
postgraduate students per year from anywhere in the world an
opportunity to study for a Masters degree in Peace and Conflict
Resolution at a selected university. Bradford is the university in
the UK which offers such a course.
The Largs Club has made a major contribution to the work of the
Foundation. We make regular and significant financial contributions,
usually under the umbrella of "Rotary Charities". Also,
Rotary District 1230, using funds
from the Clubs in the West of Scotland, contributes £2000 per year
towards the postgraduate student programme.
In recent years, we
have twice taken part in the
Group Study Exchange visit,
offering accommodation for part of their stay to a team from the
North West Territories in Australia and one from North Carolina in
the USA. These are vocational visits, and so the students have
visited establishments during their stay related to their chosen
careers, such as the Police College at Tullyallan for a policeman,
and Marks and Spencers in Greenock for a young lady working in the
retail and wholesale clothing trade in Darwin. Twice recently, the
Club has sponsored a young person to go on a reciprocal visit, and a
teacher from Largs Academy has just returned from a trip to New
South Wales in Australia.
Two members of the
Club have taken on the three-year task in recent years of District
Foundation Convenor, organising all these activities in
District 1230. These
have included a gathering in Edinburgh of all Ambassadorial Students
in the UK at the beginning of their year, a joint effort with the
two other Districts in Scotland. |
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