Carterton Rotary connecting its community

Carterton Courthouse 1884 which
is to become a community hub.

Denise and I started the first of our Wairarapa visits yesterday at the Rotary Club of Carterton.  AG Kevin Conroy has scheduled all of our visits to projects, Board meetings and Clubs. Kevin is also Carterton Rotary's Secretary and was on the attendance desk last night as well.  What would we do without people like Kevin in our Rotary Clubs?

Carterton Rotary is connected to District activities though the likes of Kevin, Pat Smith on the Matched Student Exchange Committee and PDG Alistair Orsborn and former AGs such as Nicky and Joyce and people like Barbara Durbin. These connections bring added vitality and knowledge to Clubs like Carterton.

President John Skene and other Rotarians demonstrated visually their connection with their local community when they showed us the work they are doing to restore the historic 1884 Carterton Courthouse.  The Courthouse will become a community hub, complete with commercial kitchen, to host all sorts of community activities.  This project struck a chord with me as I have been speaking about Rotary providing for social cohesion in our communities.

Carterton Rotarians also reminded us that they picked up 96 boxes of books from our own Club of Tawa for their book fair in Carterton in July - a great example of cooperation between Clubs.  And Karori Rotarians come across each year to help them with the Carterton Christmas parade.

Rod O'Leary and President John Skene  with the RYDA
Gold Award for Community Collaboration
presented to Carterton Rotary.

Carterton Rotary is busy throughout the year with many other projects, such as the foodbank collection, landscaping, dictionaries in schools, a school garden project, and a speech competition.  One way in which they fundraise is by assisting with parking at the Harvest Festival, Wings over Wairarapa, A & P Shoe and the Stonehenge concerts - as well as raffles.

Carterton Rotary supports the Rotary Foundation as a Centurion Club with an average donation of NZ$100 per member, while also supporting Emergency Response Kits, ShelterBoxes and other worthy causes.

With a population of only 8,000 people, Carterton is fortunate indeed to be served by such an active and generous Rotary Club.