By Frank Warner
When the Rotary Club of Chadstone celebrated its Charter Night in October 1975, it was the culmination of many months of effort by the District Governor’s Special Representative, Ern Turner of the Rotary Club of Malvern. He chose Col Cameron as our first President, having been a Past President at Malvern and possessing much Rotary knowledge and experience.
Why a new club to the east of Malvern? At the time, Rotary Malvern had amongst its members many of the retail business owners around the area who met around lunchtime. In contrast the 27 new members of Rotary Chadstone, of whom only two had previous Rotary experience, preferred an evening meeting. The first eight months saw these new members get to know each other and define how they would bring ‘Service above Self’ to a growing and developing part of Melbourne’s east. The subsequent adoption of the name Chadstone/East-Malvern beyond the first ten years of Club history reflects the emerging and broader involvement in community service.
The Club continues its strong community connection through funding of bursaries to the Currajong School for over 20 years, and support of children with intellectual disability. The BusyFeet program, established by the Club in 2012, and based on the theme of ‘expanding horizons through music and dance’, has since extended its reach throughout our District and beyond. Some months ago the Club funded production of a dance video to engage all BusyFeet participants through the lockdown period.
More than three years ago we also connected with the Avalon Centre, a local organisation committed to providing support for the homeless. This continues to be another emerging and engaging relationship for our Club.
On the international front, Chadstone/East Malvern has been robust in its direction. Our present focus is on collaborating with World of Difference (a District 9800 endorsed program in Cambodia) and interstate Rotary Global Grant partners to support a range of water, sanitation and education activities in Cambodia, as well as water and sanitation improvements in Vanuatu. Our next areas of focus are Sri Lanka and Tonga, as well as a past consortium member in providing water, sanitation and hygiene support in Timor-Leste.
The Club has actively supported participants in Rotary’s Youth programs, and in particular National Youth Science Forum.
Looking forward, we have community garden projects to complete in conjunction with Council and Gardiners Creek environmental groups, and best of all, getting the Rotary team back together in person on Wednesday evenings at 6.30pm.