On Wednesday 7 March 2018, another enlightening International Women’s Day Breakfast was held at the spectacular Mornington Racecourse with over 300 attending. Once again the weather was perfect, the breakfast delicious and the speakers inspirational. The project is a collaborative effort by Frankston North Rotary and the Frankston, Peninsula 2.0 and Mount Eliza Rotary clubs. The MC was Georgia Symmons.
One clear message delivered by both speakers was the importance of encouraging women to reach their full economic potential, now and in generations to come.
The first speaker, Kristen Hilton, grew up as one of five girls in country Victoria before moving to Melbourne to complete a Law/Arts degree at Melbourne University. She worked in corporate law as an industrial relations lawyer before pursuing a career in social justice and human rights. Kristen is a Churchill Fellow and in 2007 spent time in Geneva, South Africa and the USA investigating the right to adequate housing.
In 2016 Kristen was appointed as Victoria’s Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner. Her role is to promote and protect human rights and equality across the state and lead the Commission’s work in creating a rights respecting culture within organisations, governments and communities. Kristen is the Chair of the expert panel in both the Fire Services review and Victoria Police review.
The second speaker, Sally Hines, is the Chief Operating Officer of The Big Issue and Homes for Homes. The Big Issue is an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting and creating work opportunities for homeless, marginalised and disadvantaged people. It well-known for The Big Issue magazine: a fortnightly, independent publication sold on the streets by vendors, who buy copies for $3.50 and sell them for $7, keeping the difference. Homes for Homes is a new initiative of The Big Issue that will help raise an ongoing supply of new funding for social and affordable houses.
Sally started her career in employment services, community development, youth mental health and health. She has held various strategic, service delivery and operational management positions, including experience in establishing new not-for-profit businesses across Australia in diverse communities.

On Thursday 22 March and Friday 23 March 2018, students from Elisabeth Murdoch College attended their Debutante Ball at the New Peninsula Centre, Mount Martha. And what a wonderful success both nights were! The venue was great, the dancing superb, due to the expertise of dance teachers Terry and Michelle from Marshere in Cranbourne, and all this was made possible due to the efforts of the Frankston North Rotary Club, who managed the planning and organisation of this successful event, along with facing many challenges.
There were around 700 attended over the two nights, and 52 debutante couples were presented. It was an amazing event and provided many great memories! Proud mums and dads watched as their wonderfully dressed sons and daughters completed their fantastic dance routine on each night.
This group starred on the Friday night.

Donations in Kind is a major recycling operation run by volunteers who coordinate, assess and package materials to be sent free throughout the world to people in need. Thousands of voluntary hours are spent each year to run this operation. It is Rotary Australia’s largest ongoing project and the West Footscray Store is the largest in Victoria. Equipment that no longer meets Australian standards for a number of reasons is collected by Rotary and then shipped in containers overseas to where it is needed most.

For a number of years, Frankston North Rotary has been working in partnership with Peninsula Health to identify hospital equipment that is recyclable and in good working condition, to provide short-term storage and to coordinate the transport to the Donations in Kind store in Footscray. The equipment is then load into shipping containers and sent to the countries of need, such as Africa, Kenya, Nepal, Indonesia, Timor, Philippines and Sri Lanka, where it is received by a Rotary Club or other creditable agency for distribution.

Donations in Kind is really about the fact that in western countries we have a lot of equipment that becomes redundant, but such equipment doesn’t even exist in other countries because of their impoverished state. Frankston North Rotary will continue to support the Donations in Kind program, along with other cluster clubs. The club also sponsored racking in the store at a cost of $450.

Frankston North Rotary has been running a Computer for Communities Program over the past 3 years. Data centres, which update their computer hardware every 3 years, donate their replaced equipment to the club. These computers are then allocated within the local Frankston North communities according to need. This means that local schools can have greater access to computers, enhancing programs that would otherwise be delayed or could not go ahead. It also gives Frankston North Rotary the opportunity to promote literacy and numeracy: key activities in giving back to the community.

The club has worked with St John’s Primary School to supply around 40 personal computers that were allocated to various educational programs. These included use in the library as a research tool for projects across all grades, and in the junior school where introductory activities on using computers are offered from prep to Year 1.

Monterey Secondary College Senior Study Hall

The club has also worked with Monterey Secondary College on the new Senior Student Study Hall. The club provided 10 personal computers, giving students the opportunity to research assignments individually and collectively. The hall has desks and leisure furniture plus online internet access to help students with their various VCE assignments. The senior students are responsible for the new study hall environment, and the facility serves to encourage them to take responsibility for their learning outcomes.