Page 10 - Rotary Matters - January 2021

Rotary Club of Goolwa and the Environment

In 2017, World President Ian Riseley, urged all clubs to give consideration to the environment, by planting a
tree for every Rotarian and being involved in other projects that contribute to environmental sustainability.

For more than 25 years the Goolwa club has had an environmental focus, assisting with the planting of
thousands of trees in the area and engaging in roadside and riverside “clean ups.”

In 2017 a multi-media educational display was created by our club to draw attention to the serious world
pollution problem, focusing on plastic waste and reducing this waste in our daily lives.
Subsequently this was widely presented in our district, at ten schools, council and other functions by
invitation, and Rotary occasions including the District Conference.

In early January 2019 the shopping bag project was launched. At first the cloth bags, to be used instead of
one-use plastic bags for fruit and vegetables, were made by Rotarians and stencilled with
“Rotary Club of Goolwa”.

The demand for these bags, on a self-serve stand in the Mall (courtesy of the owner) led us to seek
ready-made bags. We now purchase them online, with a variation in price, resulting in a profit on each
$2 bag of 60c-$1 per bag.

This little project helps reduce the amount of plastic pollution, projects the club name into the community
and puts money into our environmental account for future projects. The graphic pictures featured on the
stand highlight the effect of plastic pollution on wildlife and the ocean.

If any other club would like to know more about these projects our club would be very pleased to share
details.

Wendy Lippett

Satellite club on Kangaroo Island

RC Glenelg is planning to establish a Satellite club on KI. The RC Kangaroo Island folded and transferred
its charter to the E club of Great South Oz (now D9510 online) in 2015. Glenelg has been a leading club
assisting with the bushfire recovery project on the island.

A group of Rotarians visited the island in late November and despite the trauma of rebuilding lives after the
bushfires, managed to gain 6 expressions of interest. The club also committed to donate $65,000 to rebuild
the kitchen for the Western Districts sports complex.

The group’s visit coincided with a visit of the One and All
training ship and a function tied in with this,
generated over a hundred people in attendance.

The group learnt a lot from a series of meetings with
community leaders which will enable follow ups to occur.

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