When the new Mudgee Rotary Club president Tim Bickford wants a sounding board on Rotary matters, he won’t have to look outside the family.
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Mr Bickford was sworn in as the 2015/16 Mudgee Rotary president at the club’s annual general meeting on Friday evening.
Among the guests was his brother, Michael, who will lead the Murrumburrah-Harden Rotary Club in the coming year.
Tim Bickford said the pair - possibly the first brothers to simultaneously lead their respective Rotary Clubs - are continuing a long family connection with Rotary.
Their grandfather was a Rotarian in Sydney and later in Kiama for more than 40 years.
Mr Bickford has been a Rotarian for 16 years and his brother Michael for four, making a total of 60 years of family service to the organisation.
“We grew up hearing all about Rotary when we would visit and getting dragged about to all sorts of functions,” Mr Bickford said.
“It comes with a bit of a pedigree, I guess.”
Mr Bickford said his goal as Mudgee Rotary president would be to encourage younger people to join the organisation.
“The things we do now will ensure the long-term future of Rotary,” Mr Bickford said.
“We need to promote the club as something that people want to become part of.”
Mr Bickford said Rotarians were able to apply this year’s Rotary International theme, “Be A Gift To the World” at club, district and international level.
Members gave the gift of their time, knowledge and talent to improve lives and communities across the globe - including their local communities, he said.
He said one of the best examples was the Christmas Carols in the Park, where Mudgee’s two Rotary Clubs banded together with other community groups to provide an outstanding evening for the community.
Outgoing president Jan O’Brien reported that the club had donated more than $42,000 to local, national and international projects in the past year.
Highlights included a $5000 donation to help Western Care Lodge extend accommodation for regional patients undergoing cancer treatment in Orange; assisting with the construction of an isolation ward for children affected by Ebola in Sierra Leone; and an $8000 donation to help Mudgee PCYC install a new security system. With the assistance of donations from the public, Mudgee Rotary donated $10,000 to Shelterbox, which will provide shelter and essential equipment to 100 people affected by the earthquakes in Nepal. Another $1000 donation provided a Shelterbox for Vanuatu in the wake of the cyclones earlier this year.
The club also provided books for newborn babies at Mudgee Hospital, sponsored students to attend the Western Plains Science and Engineering Challenge and Engineers Australia’s Honeywell School of Engineering, and supported the newly formed Cudgegong Mathematics Club, as well as giving to Rotary youth and health projects. Members also assisted Meals on Wheels and visited Kanandah and Pioneer House for morning and afternoon teas and barbecues with residents.
A major fundraiser again this year has been the monthly movies at the Mudgee Town Hall Theatre, in partnership with the Mudgee Sunrise Rotary Club and Mid-Western Regional Council.
“Without our ongoing partnership with Mid-Western Regional Council and the Rotary Club of Mudgee Sunrise in the provision of the movies each month, I’m sure our task would be a lot harder,” Mrs O’Brien said.
“We do appreciate the partnership, not only from a financial point of view, but also because of the friendships and community involvement we share.”