Thibodaux Rotary Club – Australian Team Group Study Exchange
The Rotary GSE (Group Study Exchange) Australian Team visited the Thibodaux Rotary Club on Tuesday, March 18, 2014. The Vocational Training Team members were selected for a four week trip to study Agriculture and Aquaculture in Louisiana in the March-April 2014 timeframe.
Tamara Campbell (second from left) is a Senior Forester with the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Forestry from Wauchope, NSW in Australia. Tamara has been in forestry for 15 years. Her job is rewarding in that there is variety in her day to day activities. She can start the day working on a bridge installation in her district and end her day after getting called to help fight forest fires in another location. Tamara is very proud of the products which are made from her district’s timber which include lumber, furniture and flooring.
Paul Arnott (left) is Senior Farmer Manager from the University of New England (UNE) in Armidale NSW. Paul is part of the technical staff at UNE as the Manager of Armidale Rural Properties. Paul, his wife and two children like to go camping along the lakes and rivers in his area. It is common to see a platypus out swimming in the water during their camping trips. Paul’s daughter participates on the local swim team and enjoys shopping like any other teenager. Paul’s son is active in soccer and recently scored 4 goals in one game. Paul also enjoys do-it-yourself remodeling on his home. He recently completed remodeling his kitchen.
Michelle Webb (second from right) is an Agricultural High School Teacher who is also a farmer / grazer from Coonabarabran, NSW. Michelle grew up on a farm with cattle and sheep which is now managed by her brother. In her current role, Michelle teaches high school students in agriculture and raises open range pigs. Michelle enjoys teaching because most of her classes are held outdoors. Being outdoors enables her students to experience real world lessons in agriculture.
Cameron Wood (right) is a farmer/ grazer/ wool classer from Uralla, NSW. Cameron is active in charities ranging from head shaving to sponsor education for African children to paddling down lengths of local rivers to raise money. Cameron also likes to play sports including cricket, rugby and soccer. The main business for his farm raises sheep and sells the wool to clothiers in Italy for making high quality suits.
Lindsay Wilkin (center) who is the GSE Australian Team Leader is a farmer/grazer from Coonabarabran, NSW. Lindsay raises beef cattle and has been a Rotarian of many years with his wife and two daughters. Lindsay’s wife is active in district politics. As the GSE Team leader, Lindsay Wilkin, and the team will be looking at many different aspects of the agriculture and aquaculture industries in the Louisiana area.
GSE Australian Team – Thibodaux Rotary Club
Dear Rotary Members:
At next Tuesday’s meeting, we will welcome the GSE Australian Team. The team will make a presentation at our meeting. Please see attached picture of the team. On Monday, the Golden Meadow Club tours the team down the bayou and the Lockport Club has a dinner that evening for the hosts and team. On Tuesday, the team tours John Deer in the morning and has a historical presentation in the afternoon. On Wednesday morning, they depart for Houma.
Team Leader: Lindsay Wilkin: A farmer/grazier from Coonabarabran NSW….A Rotarian of many years….former GSE Team Leader.
Team Members:
Cameron Wood: Non Rotarian; farmer/grazier/wool classer…. from Uralla NSW
Michelle Webb: Non Rotarian; Agricultural High School Teacher also a farmer / grazier….. from Coonabarabran NSW
Tamara Campbell: Non Rotarian; Senior Forester with the NSW Department of Forestry….from Wauchope NSW
Paul Arnott: Non Rotarian: Senior Farmer Manager University of New England…..from Armidale NSW
Thanks to the host families: Bobby and Leslie Marcello, Vera and Seth Holloway, Hugh and Tonya Caffery and Skip and Sandy Holloway.
Thanks!
Sandy (District 6200 Area 4 GSE Coordinator)
Sandy Holloway
BCA Director
985.414.3131
sholloway@bcacharter.org
Tom Acosta – Rotary District 6200 Governor
Tom Acosta – District Governor
Rotary District 6200 Governor, Tom Acosta, made his official visit to the Thibodaux Rotary Club on September 17, 2013.
As part of his term as Rotary District Governor, Acosta will visit the 49 Rotary Clubs throughout Southeast Louisiana from Grand Isle to Lake Charles.
Acosta noted that the roughly 2,400 members of District 6200 are part of 537 Rotary Districts across the globe with 1.2 million Rotarians worldwide. Rotary is an organization primarily devoted to service of others, and Acosta said that members are called upon to not only be Rotarians but to do something with their membership. Acosta thanked members of the Thibodaux Rotary Club for their commitment to Rotary. Thibodaux’s commitment is displayed with involvement in Earlyact, Youthact, Interact, Rotaract clubs, as well as the Thibodaux Thesaurus Project. The Thibodaux Rotary Club embraces the spirit of the 2013-2014 Rotary theme, “Engage Rotary, Change Lives”
Tom has been a member of the Port Allen Rotary Club since September, 1988. A multiple Paul Harris Fellow, Tom served as Club President, was Rotarian of the Year and Assistant District Governor.
Tom Acosta is a native of West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. Tom earned his BA in History at Rice University and was commissioned through Army ROTC. After earning his law degree from LSU, Tom served on active duty in Germany before returning home to practice law. He joined the Louisiana Army National Guard, and has been an attorney in Port Allen since 1986.
Flip Out Over Uganda’s Hope Refuge Orphanage School | BCA’s Early Act Club
October 5, 2012
The Early Act Club is pleased to announce our first service project of the year. Our project is titled, “Flip Out Over Uganda’s Hope Refuge Orphanage School!” This is an international project that our club will take part in for the purpose of providing flip flops to the Hope Refuge Orphanage School in Uganda.
If you choose to participate, you may donate any new flip flops from now until October 31. Although we ask the flip flops to be new, you may prefer to purchase less expensive pairs, which we recommend. Stores such as Wal-Mart, Fred’s, and Family Dollar usually have inexpensive flip flops. Mrs. Sandy Holloway, our director, will travel to Uganda in January and bring all the collected flip flops to the orphanage.
We would like to inform you of the tentative service projects that we have planned for this year. The projects are as follows:
September/October – Flip Flop Collection for Uganda Orphanage
November/December – Thibodaux Toy Drive Collection
January – Collection of Items for Children’s Hospital
February – Valentine Cards for Heart Patients at TRMC
March – Mardi Gras Bead Drive for Granier Industries
April/May – Hope for Animals Collection
As always, thank you for your support. With your help, we can truly live up to our motto, “Come to Learn. Learn to Serve.”
Thank you,
Mrs. Tabor, Ms. Prejean, Mrs. Bryan
Early Act Sponsors
BCA’s Early Act club is sponsored by the Thibodaux Rotary Club.
Thibodaux Rotary Club | District 6200 Governor, Mark LaCour
July 24, 2012
District Governor’s Visit
By: Rita Dickie
District Governor, Mark LaCour was present at our meeting on Tuesday to do his annual visit. Also present was Mark Lee, and Badi. Assistant District Governors.
Governor LaCour commented that he was a snake catcher in his early days. He said that the Good Ship Rotary was an inspiration to make his community a better place and that was why he joined Rotary. We should use our membership in Rotary to build friendships and net working to help others out when they are in need.
Women were allowed to join Rotary in 1987. This has allowed Rotary to increase it’s membership.
Governor LaCour has endorsed CHOICES. This is a program to help children to stay in school. TACO Bell has agreed to fund the program with a grant of $50,000. Keeping children in school helps everyone in the community and he feels that this would be a good “hands on” project for Rotary Clubs in our district. The program is put on by business people and not the school personnel. 12 lessons in the program.
He gave out pins to the membership with the motto for the year “Peace through Service” Individuals have to have lower needs taken care of before higher needs. We need to spread good will throughout the world to promote peace. Continue reading
Vocational Training Teams Give Kids An Edge
By Dan Nixon
Rotary International News — 2 June 2011
Vocational training teams from Rustenburg, South Africa (District 9400), and Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA (District 7980), have discovered that their communities share surprisingly similar challenges when it comes to early childhood education.
“Both areas face similar hardships of poverty, disintegrating families, poor health, and low parental and childhood literacy,” says Barbara Welles-Nystrom, associate professor of early childhood education at Fairfield University in Connecticut, who led the U.S. team’s visit to South Africa in January. The South African team traveled to the United States in March.
The teams of early childhood educators, both sponsored by Future Vision pilot districts, learned firsthand about the challenges of teaching young children in rural villages near Rustenburg and in urban Bridgeport, and shared best practices in areas including preschool curriculum, facilities, and community support. Funded by a US$35,625 Rotary Foundation Global Grant, the project will also include online teacher training. It supports the basic education and literacy area of focus.
The U.S. team visited seven preschools run by the Royal Bafokeng Institute, which was established by the Royal Bafokeng Nation to support early childhood education in its ethnic homeland.
“With our South African colleagues, we had many exchanges of ideas [on] how to develop better leadership and management of early childhood education programs that will benefit children and their families, including children at risk, so that all children will be better prepared for formal education,” says Welles-Nystrom, a member of the Rotary Club of Fairfield, outside Bridgeport. “We have learned about the challenges facing our colleagues in respect to HIV/AIDS and the difficult situations regarding substandard housing and hygiene, as well as the general poverty of families in the area.”
Your Voice, Your Solution For Promoting Rotary
Rotary International News — 3 June 2011
You have been named the new public relations committee chair for your club. At the 2011 RI Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, you attended several workshops, including “Making Public Relations Grants Work for You: A PR Grants Clinic” and “Using Social Media to Promote Rotary.” Your head is swimming with new ideas.
Where do you start? What is some of the best advice you gleaned from the convention for promoting Rotary?
Rotary International’s monthly problem-solving forum asks Rotarians for their strategies to address the challenges they deal with every day. Please use the comments section below to share your solutions to this month’s problem. Comments may be used in abbreviated form in other RI publications, including the Rotary E-Learning Center.
