Bally Barker Blog

Today, Roger Gray and Michael Mead visited the facilities of One Meal Northern Beaches in Brookvale. $1,000 of the money collected from Rotary Balgowlah Flood relief appeal held at Stockland Balgowlah was given to OneMeal, since demand has notably increased due to the recent flooding on the Northern Beaches. From the OneMeal Website We met the Kim Williams who runs the 100 percent volunteer-based food relief charity that has a delivery program providing fresh fruit and veggie hampers, pre-cooked hot or frozen meals, meat, bread pantry staples and personal care packs to people referred by local service agencies and community agencies. One Meal also offer a free community dinner on at Gilbert Park, Manly on Sunday evenings and Beverly Job Park, Narraweena on Thursday afternoons. Packed bags- Ready for delivery Kim Williams               Frozen meals When we visited, all of the people working at the Brookvale facility  arrive each day at 7am (including 2 high scho

Tonight, Michael Brent was inducted into the club. He was proposed as a member by Lindy Myers. Lindy presents Michael with a Rotary Pin Michael lives in Seaforth and his background is in finance, risk management and continuous improvement with over 35 years of experience both in Australia & overseas.   He has a finance degree from UNE, is a fellow of the Institute of Charted Accountants, and a graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors. (So, all you people with self-managed super funds may get a head up!) While his preferred interests are Services and Communications, he is happy to contribute wherever he can be of use. Michael is a director of Sir Eric Woodward Memorial School Assn since 1995 (a special educational school for Children with disabilities and provides distance learning). Michael has also been a director of Sunnyfield since 2019. Members were present for Michael's induction at the club and via ZOOM All members present congra

Helping where we can: On March 7, all club members voted (remotely) that $2,000.00 be donated to the RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service) fund that was set up for the devastating floods is SE Queensland and the Northern Rivers district of NSW. (A further $1000.00 was contributed to the RAWCS fund for the appalling human suffering that is emerging in Ukraine) Then on Tuesday, March 8, an exceptional, sustained heavy rain burst and thunderstorm struck over the Northern Beaches and extensive flood damage resulted - our Northern Beaches also needed help in addition to the developing worsening flood situation along towns the Nepean/ Hawkesbury River Valley.     Flooding in the Northern Beaches. (Pictures – Daily mail) A small working group was set up to see if we could now help closer to home. A flurry of emails, texts and phone calls transpired and once permission to have a collection in Stockland Mall at Balgowlah was given - displays, materials and e

A special meeting via ZOOM was held tonight. Our Guest was Hon Brad Hazzard MP, who is a senior Cabinet Minister in the NSW Government and has been the Minister for Health and Medical Research. He gave a short precis of his career then outlined the unprecedented challenges that he and other Health Ministers in all states have and continue to deal with over the last two years due to the Covid 19 pandemic.   He answered many questions from the audience and highlighted the urgent need for a booster Covid vaccination.   Brad is a local having attended Manly West Public school followed by Manly Boys High School (when it was boys-only), then Macquarie University. He started his professional life as a science teacher at North Sydney Boys’ High School, then later studied law at the University of NSW and was admitted as a solicitor in 1977. He also holds a Master of Laws from the University of Sydney. Brad has been a member of the NSW Liberal Party since 1983; in that