Bally Barker Blog

Hats for the homeless is an organisation run by Uniting volunteers, who have knitted a variety of Beenies, scarves and mittens. The Rotary club of Balgowlah is proud to join forces with One Meal Northern Beaches to distribute these wonderful hats to locals who are sleeping rough or in need.   Kim Williams volunteer One Meal, Paul Apps Balgowlah Rotary and Roger Gray President Balgowlah Rotary. Chris Lake One Meal Northern Beaches, Roger Gray President Balgowlah Rotary and Paul Apps Balgowlah Rotary Kim Williams One Meal Northern Beaches with the variety of hand knitted hats If anyone would like more information about Hats for the Homeless, please contact Susan Russell on 0439 320 347. Thanks to John O'Brien for pictures and story

Balgowlah Rotary Changeover Night. Outgoing President Rick Van Brugge summed up the work done by Balgowlah Rotary Club members in 2022-23 and welcomed in the incoming Presidents Roger Gray and Dr Diana Hart OAM. Roger will be president from July to December, Diana will be be from Jan - June 2024. Roger, Diana and Rick Rick has been Club President for the last two years and all appreciated the fine effort he has done and the great work that the club has continued to do. An info pack has been put together detailing the various activities that have been undertaken by each of the separate committees thru the course of the year under quite difficult circumstances – it talks very much to what we have achieved during the year – and I think all members should rightly feel proud of what we have collectively done   Rick welcomed members, partners and guests including our Assistant District Governor, and from StreetWork, Dalwood Spilstead, Lifeline NB and Community NB.

One June 6, 2023, Thomas Shanahan gave a highly informative talk on scam awareness to club members and guests. Thomas was accompanied by Maggie, his Mum who was a member of the club before moving out of the area.   Thomas Shanahan Thomas worked for the professional association for Australia’s technology sector for more than 5 years, specialising in media and community engagement around technology and teaching people how to boost their online security. He holds Microsoft certifications in Cybersecurity advocacy and has presented to community groups using resources from the eSafety Commissioner, along with speaking at national and international events.   Many scams are getting harder to recognise, the techniques often used are very advanced or sophisticated and people find it hard to understand or pick that they were not genuine. Thomas started with some examples of genuine and scam text messages and how to pick the difference. If no action is required (e