Immediate Past President hosted a great night of giving
Monday 18 May 2015 was not an ordinary day for the tribe called the Rotary Club of Crows Nest.  We did not have our traditional lunchtime meeting at the pub, but instead we had an evening meeting for what we call our “Giving Night”.
 
The Giving Night is a relatively new tradition, started in the past five years. We invite our Rotarians and their partners together with representatives of charitable organisations selected by the Immediate Past President, in this case Bruce de Graaf.  We break bread together and we hand over sizeable amounts of money to allow the charities to continue to make a difference to their clients.
 
  It is also a well known fact that the Crowie Rotary team are at the top of their game in respect of cooking sausages. We cook for MasterChef winners as is evident from the photo below.  
   
   
 
Our attendance at BBQ’s does three very important things.  It does much to raise funds for our club so that we can do what we do; it allows us to hoist our banners high and be visible in the community; it also gives our members an opportunity to showcase their culinary skills in a fun filled environment with other Rotarians. A big thank you to our long time friends at Bunnings, Patti and the team for their support…I’d like to think it is a mutually beneficial relationship, let’s face it we are able to attract MasterChef winners to Bunnings – enough said.
 
In the Fundraising department we do OK and throughout the year we disburse funds to The Rotary Foundation; to RYLA; to MUNA and RYPEN.  This is all done on the fly… but it is at the end of the year that the rubber hits the road for our club.
 
This year we met at Arabiatta, a restaurant next to the pub for our Giving Night.  We had the upstairs area and - together with our 50+ guests - we experienced the many fascinating flavours of our host Ray and his team.  "No-one went home hungry", Bruce tipped.
 
President Swapna welcomed everyone and then handed over the proceedings to Bruce.  There were rare moments of mirth, but the real reason we were there was to support the charities, some of whom are in our backyard and also those that continue to make such a profound difference in the world.
 
Our guests were supported thus:
  • AFAP (Tiffiny’s workplace) - $5k for a water project
  • ROMAC - $4k to Philip Smith and Ron Delezio
  • Butterfly Foundation - $1500. Soon to become our newest Corporate Member
  • McGrath Foundation - $1500. Based in Chandos Street, we can do more things with them as well.
  • Operation Cleft - $1500. Cleft palate surgery in Bangladesh.
  • TAD - Technical Aid for the Disabled) - $1500.
  • Days For Girls - $500. We gave them $5334 previously to give them a kick start.
  • ShelterBox - $1500 from us to Eric and Ivy Warth (badgemaker and engraver extraordinaire). They wanted to support the earthquake effort in Nepal.
  • Destiny Rescue - $1500. Saving young sex slave victims in Asia.
  • Phoenix House - $2k. Our first Corporate member and a sentimental and deserving favourite.
  • Naremburn School - $2k worth of $20 IGA cards. Many thanks to IGA for the initial $2k.
  • RYPEN - $540. Sponsorship for 2 young people from the Blue Mountains to attend RYPEN.
It was a wonderful night with lots of interaction, banter, mirth and that word – fellowship.
 
Bruce added "It makes me proud to be able to cook the best sausages on the planet….thank you to all the members of my tribe. I love youse all.
 
"Crowie Rotary – getting sh it done. Woohoo".