KINGSTON BEACH FUN RUN AND WALK 2013 "Bring the Kids!" The Rotary Club of Kingston is holding the Kingston Beach Fun Run and Walk on Sunday 26th May 2013. The Rotary Club thanks Gatorade and Hartz for their ongoing support of the event. The Rotary Club of Kingston is urging locals to lace up their running shoes and bring the kids. The 5 kilometre run or walk event will commence at 9:00 am from the Kingborough Sports Centre and finish on Kingston Beach. The Club is especially keen to promote the Fun Run as a "kid friendly" event and get entries from many schools in the district. The school with the highest participation will win $500 towards the purchase of school equipment. Pre race day registrations ($20 for adults, $10 for children, and $40 a family) can be completed online Here or at the Kingborough Sports Centre. Runners and Walkers can also sign up on the day from 7:30am onwards. Any enquiries about the event can be made to David Moore on 0437 849 470 or email to funrun@rotaryclubofkingston.org There will be plenty of prizes on offer, so get ready for some fun and fitness on May 26th. and take part in this great annual Kingborough event.  SUNDAY MARKET EXPLORE THE IRON POT. Book Now!Most Southern Tasmanians have only seen from a distance, the iconic Iron Pot at the mouth of the River Derwent. Many may have also viewed the lighthouse on the TV whilst watching the annual Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race’s final leg.
On Saturday 20th October, The Rotary Club of Kingston, in conjunction with Pennicott’s Wilderness Journeys is offering a rare opportunity to experience a one hour cruise across to the historic Iron Pot and travel around Betsey Island in Pennicott’s world class yellow boats. These vessels, which provide a thrilling experience in themselves, have all round viewing to take in the unforgettable coastal wilderness.
The boat trips will depart from Dru Point, Margate at 9:00am, noon and 3:00pm and the cost will be $40 per adult, $25 per child (16 and under) and a 10% discount for a family consisting of at least one adult and more than one child.
The trip will include a commentary on the history of the Iron Pot and a close look at the flora and fauna on and around the Iron Pot and Betsey Island.
Rotarian Rob Pennicott said “The Iron Pot Lighthouse is an important part of maritime history being the second oldest light house in Australia. It goes back to when it was first lit in 1833 to welcome sailors to the mouth of the Derwent River. In 1884 (demolished in 1921) there was a Gothic style house, with leadlight windows, built on the island, which looked at total at odds with such dramatic wilderness.” he said.
The Rotary Club of Kingston is pleased to offer this unique opportunity to the community with all the profits from the trips going to Rotary youth projects.
Bookings can be made on 03 6234 4270.
KINGSTON BEACH FUN RUN & WALKOver 500 runners and walkers turned out for the 10th Rotary Club of Kingston 5 km. Gatorade and Hartz Fun Run on Sunday. There was plenty of drizzle around before sunrise when the hardy Rotarians were setting up Kingston Beach for the finish of the run. By the start time of 9:00am the weather improved considerably and the calm conditions made it very comfortable for the conscientious competitors.  Francesca Smith broke through for her maiden win in the women’s section after having finished third and second in the previous two Kingston Fun Runs. Her time was 18:41 beat young athlete Grace Rowe Smith (19:04) and consistent fun runner Andrea Marquardt (19:13).
Five of the six placegetters were from the Sandy Bay Harriers Club (celebrating its 85th year) with Grant Page being from the Northern Suburbs Club. Kingston Rotary President Else Phillips said she was very pleased to see the large turnout for the Fun Run and especially pleased with the increasing numbers of children participating each year. Else said it is truly a great community event for Kingborough with the volunteers not only coming from the Rotary Club but also the local SES, Fire Brigade, Scouts, Sailing and Surf Lifesaving Clubs. The Rotary Club would also like to recognise the assistance of Tasmania Police. The local businesses were very generous and supportive with donations of prizes, including about 280 spot prizes. President Else said it was great to see such community spirit at the finish line on Kingston Beach with so people mingling and talking to each other. It is hoped that the event will have raised about $6,500 which will go towards Rotary Projects, including the provision of $30,000 of Adult Outdoor Fitness Equipment in the Kingston Beach area, in partnership with the Kingborough Council.ROTARY AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT SCHOOL IN FIJI
At the request of the principal, the main focus of the 2011 project was to develop the vocational trade learning area.
The Rotary volunteer project team sourced and shipped lathes donated by Kingston High School, and purchased, in Fiji, both a wood and a metal drop saw from $1000 donated by the Rotary Club of Kingston.
The team has also up-dated the school’s computer lab by installing forty one computers donated by The Mercury Newspaper. The school’s sewing machines were upgraded, with forty sewing machines donated by Eddy’s Sewing Centre in Hobart.
A significant amount of science equipment was donated by the Tasmanian E-school, to the Science Department at the Fiji school.
Kingston High, St Aloysius, and Bridgewater High Schools provided boxes of sports and school uniforms for the Fijian students and Kingston High also donated a large number of items for the catering and food kitchens.
Kingston Rotarian Veena Tilley (ex Vice Principal of Kingston High) and her team, which included her husband (Denys) started work in mid 2010 to raise funds to purchase a forty foot container to transport all the equipment to Fiji. Transport costs were met by the Rotary District in Tasmania.
Prior to the machinery and computers being shipped, Rotarian Terry Lobban checked it out to ensure that it was in good working condition.
Earlier in the year, the Drasa School was successful in securing a grant to construct an additional room, paint all rooms and tile the woodwork room. This was a wonderful basis for the Rotary team to then set up the workshops with machines.
Rotarian John Stuart, from the Rotary Club of Devonport not only advised on the setting up of the machines, but also spent quite some time providing training to the teachers on the use of the machines, particularly stressing the importance of health and safety. John also repaired and made operational, some of the old machines that had been left idle in the school workshop previously.
The school is in a low socio economic area of Fiji, which previously had very poor educational facilities, but thanks to the ongoing support of Rotarian Veena and her team, the school is much admired in Fiji in what it offers the local community.
 ROTARY LONG TIME SUPPORTER OF KINGSTON FIRE BRIGADE President Else Phillips presented Brigade Chief Faron Wall with a cheque for $1,500 to assist the Brigade to purchase equipment and also conduct training for their junior members. The Rotary Club has been supporting the Kingston Brigade for nearly 30 years. The relationship was originally set up by Past President Ted Plaister, who is also a Life Member of the Kingston Brigade (service from 1972-1991). Brigade Chief Faron addressed the Rotarians gathered and said that Ted was the 3rd Officer and his Trainer when he joined the service as a very young person. Faron said the Brigade had success at the Tasmanian Fire Fighting Championships and represented Tasmania well at the Australian titles in Port Macquarie. He also said their numbers had increased during the year and the Kingston Brigade was in a strong position, with over 30 members, to ensure the Kingston area would be protected from fires over the summer. “A DAY ON THE BEACH” PLANS IN FULL SWING Plans are well underway for next years “A Day on the Beach” to be held on Thursday 26th January at Kingston Beach.
The committee, chaired by Stuart Harris, Operations Manager Megan Albion and representatives from the Rotary Club of Kingston and the Kingborough Lions Club are hoping to repeat last year’s successful event which attracted around 10,000 people. It was not only the biggest community event held in Kingborough for the year but was also the most attended event held on Australia Day in Southern Tasmania.
The format of the event will be similar to previous years, starting off with an Egg and Bacon breakfast, organised by LJ Hooker, Kingston starting at 8:00am. The Rotary and Lions Clubs will cook up a Big Aussie BBQ from 10:00am.
An organised family walk of the Alum Cliffs Track will be conducted mid morning.
On the beach there will be plenty of “Come and Try” sports for kids, sand castle competitions, treasure hunts and displays by local sporting, dancing and exercise groups.
Included in the “in water events” will be blow up “thong” races; Sea Scout races; chances to try out sailing organised by the Kingston Beach Sailing Club, and “Iron Kids” novelty races.
On the stage there will be opportunities for local artists to showcase their talents and the Committee would like to hear from Kingborough residents who “fit the bill” (please ring Stuart on 0400 244 111).
This is an important and popular community event and the committee would like to hear from sporting organisations, community clubs or local businesses (through sponsorship or providing prizes) that wish to contribute to the success of the day. ROTARY CLUB OF KINGSTON CELEBRATES 40 YEARS The Rotary Club of Kingston recently held a Dinner at the Southern Lights Reception Centre to celebrate 40 years of service to the community. The Club was chartered on the 27th November 1971.
The function was attended by 117 people and guests included members of Clubs that the Rotary Club of Kingston has sponsored - the Rotary Clubs of D’Entrecasteaux, Huon Valley and the Men’s and Ladies Probus Clubs of Kingston. The Keynote Speaker was the Honourable Lara Giddings (Premier of Tasmania)
The gathering was also addressed by Past President Gerry Verdouw who is the only remaining “Charter Member” in the Club and he spoke about the contribution the Club had made to the Kingborough community.
Other speakers on the night were Past President Michael Whitehouse (member for 37 years) and Tony Field who was a member during the 1980’s. Tony’s role during that time was “Sargent at Arms” and he conducted the weekly fines sessions. His fines were always delivered by way of poetry and were often very colourful.
The longest serving member of the Club (Gerry Verdouw) then joined with the newest member (Samantha Scarlett) to cut the 40th Anniversary birthday cake. WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT !!! Kingston Rotarian Rob Pennicott along with his Operations Manager, Mick Souter and Cinematographer Zorro Gamamik travelled into Sydney’s Darling Harbour recently to complete their history making circumference of Australia in their two 5.4 metre Naiad Rib dinghies, to raise funds to eradicate polio.
After more than three months at sea and 20,000 kilometres, the trio are the first to circumnavigate Australia and Tasmania in an outboard-driven boat.
The final week of the trip has been a family affair, with Robert’s daughter Mia (12) and son Noah (10) joining him from Hobart to Sydney. “It’s been fantastic to have Mia and Noah with me for the last week. I’ve really missed them these last couple of months,” Robert said.
Since leaving Hobart they travelled along the east coast of Tasmania to Flinders Island. There is no doubt that from the footage that Zorro took that Tasmania’s coastline mixes it with the best of any coastline in Australia for sheer ruggedness, beauty and variation.
Once they left Flinders Islands they came across hundreds of playful dolphins, and thousands of albatross which were in a feeding frenzy. That same day they passed Gabo Island, which was the first contact with mainland Australia, and onto Eden (NSW), which meant they had travelled in three states in the one day.
Ulladulla was the penultimate port they visited before travelling onto Darling Harbour in Sydney. They certainly pushed the boats (sometimes through 40 knot winds and rain squalls) over the last five days of travel to ensure the trip to Sydney came around as quickly as possible.
They received a champagne welcome in Darling Harbour by Kingston Rotarian John “Jaws” Peterson (the unofficial mayor of Bruny), his wife Maria and Tasmanian Rotary District Governor, Peter Murfett as well as other Rotarians and media representatives.
The dinghies held up well apart from some fractures in the flat bottoms. The impact on landing on the water after coming off a wave could have been lessened if they had a V shape bottom. This would have enabled the boats to cut through the water on landing. For small boats they carried quite a lot of weight on them with twin 60 h.p. motors, usually two people as well as 10 containers of fuel.
Robert and his crew have been raising money for conservation and to help Rotary eradicate Polio from the world. Bill Gates has pledged $355 million if Rotary can raise $200 million by 30th June. They are currently $15 million short of this goal. The $555 million total is anticipated to lead to the worldwide eradication of polio, with just $10 vaccinating 17 children against the disease.
Australia has been Polio-free since 2000, but there are still thousands of Australians living with the effects of the disease today. “There are just 4 countries to go in our efforts to eradicate the disease. Through the hard work of Rotary, there is just that final 1% left. We really need everyone to get behind this so we can finish the job. We’re not asking for much - just $10 makes a big difference,” Robert said.
Rotary in Australia has been a big contributor to Rob’s achievement by “throwing out the welcome mat” to Rob and his crew; organizing secure berthing for the boats; as well as providing transport of fuel and arranging accommodation in the stopover ports. This has all been organized by Rotary in Tasmania. Many of the stops also included an evening function with Rob as guest speaker.
On Saturday, 24th September there will be a Celebratory Dinner, to honour Rob, Mick and Zorro’s accomplishment, to be held at the at the Wrest Point Casino. The cost will be $60 per head for a two course meal (including two bottles of wine on each table).
Tickets can be purchased from Pennicott’s Wilderness Journeys, Dockhead Building, Franklin Wharf.
Rob’s intended itinerary over the next few days – plenty of media interviews (including Sunrise) sit back and relax, turn his focus back on his business (Pennicott’s Wilderness Journeys) and spend some time with his kids for the final week of the school holidays.  Mick will miss the celebratory drink of whiskey that he had on arriving at every new port. He may even become a teetotaller.
Zorro will spend the next few weeks editing his 100 days of video footage. The Rotary Club of Kingston would like to thank the Kingborough Chronicle for being so supportive of Rob, Mick and Zorro’s circumference of Australia to raise funds to eradicate polio. |
