We greeted the visitors at Sturt Reserve on Sunday 17th March and then met at the Murray Bridge Golf Club for a late morning tea/early lunch provided by the hosts. We thank the Golf Club for their hospitality. Our visitors were then taken on a tour of the Railway Cottages (thanks to Ken Wells) and the Roundhouse (thanks to RCMB volunteers) for a brief overview of the history of our Rural City. The rest of the afternoon and evening were free.
On Monday 18th, our guests were welcomed to the Rural City of Murray Bridge by Mayor Brenton Lewis. Following this, they were taken to Monarto Zoo for a “behind the scenes” look at our open range zoo and also observe the many projects taken on by our Rotary Club. Our thanks to the staff at Monarto Zoo for providing the guided tour behind the scenes and the great commentary on the Zoo Loop bus.
A shared evening meal with our visitors and hosts was held at the home of Jack and Jill Reddin. A beautiful setting outdoors overlooking the swamps and River Murray. Thanks to Jack and Jill and host families for providing a typical Aussie style bbq, plus the entrée of Seafood Chowder in a crusted roll.
Our visitors were taken on their first vocational visits to various locations on Tuesday morning –
Melissa – Housing SA with Wendy Gaborit,
Lisa – Insurance with Simon Sickerdick,
Ashley – Equine Dentistry with Jack Reddin and Nick, visiting Equine Dentist,
Cutter – Rural City of Murray Bridge and Rob Walters,
Susanne – Tailem Bend Community Centre, with CEO Tammy Shepherd.
Meanwhile at the Golf Club, our Club members were busy setting up for the GSE Inter-City Dinner that night. 87 Rotarians, partners and visitors from 7 Clubs attended our dinner, where we celebrated not only the GSE visitors, but our Club’s 3,300th meeting and Bruce and Ruth Frazer’s 70th wedding anniversary. It was a lot to pack in to our evening’s program, but we managed it very successfully. Our thanks to the Golf Club staff for providing an excellent two course, alternate drop meal, our Club members who helped in so many different ways, Kevin Prosser and Marg Whitehead for providing an overview of our Rotary Club’s activities over 65 years in less than 10 minutes, to Robin for being MC for the evening and to our GSE visitors for giving us a wonderful insight to their home state of Missouri.
Wednesday saw our visitors enjoying their second vocational experience.
Cutter - environmental tour of Morphett Reserve at Woods Point, Pangarinda Arboretum at Wellington and Tolderol Bird Sanctuary at Langhorne Creek with Jack Reddin, Peter Phillips and Rob Walters
Melissa and Susanne – Resthaven with Marg Whitehead
Ashley – SA Dental Service with Lesley Murray
Lisa – Rural City of Murray Bridge
All our visitors and some hosts enjoyed a late lunch at Lake Breeze Winery. President David and Petrina provided valuable vocational information for Cutter Gale over dinner at their home, whilst Ron and Sabine entertained our GSE guests and hosts to a Pool Party and pizzas that evening,
Our final day on Thursday saw our GSE guests and hosts enjoy a delightful cruise and lunch on the Captain Proud. This allowed our guests to just sit back and enjoy our Murray River and the scenery. Thanks to Sue Foster for hosting a gathering of guests and host families at her home on Thursday evening. The weather was perfect and our guests were treated to a wonderful array of Australian cuisine, including mulloway, Coorong mullet, kangaroo, camel, goat and crocodile tastings., followed by pavlova and fruit salad.
Our visitors departed on Friday morning, 22nd March to spend a couple of days of rest and recreation at Glenelg.
Our thanks go to the members of our International and Vocational committees who helped in a variety of ways. It was a great team effort. Thanks also go to Dave Mellen, who offered words of wisdom from his hospital bed, when Robin and I were preparing the program late in 2018.
Our guests thoroughly enjoyed the experiences we had to offer them. We believe we had the right balance of vocational and cultural experiences for our guests from Missouri.
Many thanks to Robin for his “behind the scenes” work in coordinating the program, the Inter-City dinner and bookings on line. His communication to all concerned in the management of this project was continuous and everybody involved knew what was happening every day.
Our Club has proved once again, that we can coordinate “an event” and do it extraordinarily well.
Jenny Phillips, International Director Robin LeGallez, Vocational Director
