Awapuni Rotary - catering for and meeting the needs of Rotarians and their communities

Awapuni Rotarians and RIYE student Jil enjoying their evening meeting.

PDG Rodney Wong and Angela, Acting President Ash Dahya and Erica of Awapuni Rotary have been known to Denise and I for several years.  I have also always known Awapuni Rotary as the Club that provides us with delicious lunch boxes every year at the District Training Assembly in Palmerston North.  So I felt very comfortable meeting their Club last week with AG Christine Jones.

I had also heard of their collaboration with Foxton Rotary where a skilled Awapuni Rotarian, Venkatesh Kannan, helped light up the Foxton water tower.  Have a look next time you pass by Foxton at night as it is spectacular.

Awapuni Rotary is a relatively small Club that is able to achieve great things.  They can cater for 200 people at the District Training Assembly, they can even cater for 600 people at the Awesome Awapuni free community day - and no doubt they could cater for even more. 

Food seems to be a bit of a theme as they are also great supporters of the Plant to Plate programme and gave a significant donation to that organisation when I visited.  Some of their members are heavily involved. Through this programme they support gardening and cooking in local primary schools, providing students with skills that will last a lifetime.   

But more than that, Awapuni Rotarians are engaged in many projects.  They support Canteen and mentor young people from ages 13 to 23 who have dealt with cancer, holding weekly meetings, helping them write CVs and similar, entertaining them and supporting both the young people and their families.  And Awapuni Rotarians are supporters of all Rotary youth programmes as well.

Forward looking, they are also considering how they may be able to help immigrants, who are often highly skilled, into appropriate employment. Well done Awapuni Rotary!