Te Atatu Rotary Club: The First Decade
After this phenomenal start to the new Club work continued in the Four Avenues of Service with several regular events occuring:
Club Service:
- A range of great speakers were organized
- Several fellowship events occured annually and progressive dinners were a highlight.
- The Club Bulletin was produced weekly – one page in those days as it was printed and posted
Community:
- The annual Rutherford bursary was given out each year – although the name of the recipient wasn’t always noted in the minutes!
- Helping with the two annual blood bank collections
- An annual children’s Christmas Party
- Supporting kids to holiday camps
- Donations to various local groups and charities
- Ongoing repairs to the Town Clock (there were some major issues in the time keeping of it and the mechanism was replaced at least twice in the following years!)
- Most years saw an International Youth Exchange student hosted by the Club
International:
- Several overseas projects were undertaken
Vocational:
- There was a strong relationship with Rutherford College and help was given with career guidance activities
- The Vocational team also organized club trips – such as the one to the new Huntly Power Station with a joint meeting with the Huntly Rotary Club
The Sunshine Fund:
- This is funded by our members through the Sergeant’s fines at our weekly meetings with money going to those in the community in need of a helping hand. Each year small donations were made to various individuals.
Fundraising – or where the money came from to undertake the programs:
- For a number of years an annual Mardi Gras Ball was held in the Te Atatu North Community Hall
- The Club undertook one or two Fairs
- Wine and cheese evenings
- Golf tournaments
President: Bruce Coker
Rotary Theme: Bridge the Gaps
- 15/4/70 A meeting was held in the Rutherford High School Library and The Rotary Club of Te Atatu began
- 22/4/70 First Directors meeting
- 29/4/70 First Regular Meeting
- 25/5/70 Officially admitted into Rotary International
- 29/7/70 Charter night
The idea of this web site history was to produce one “highlight project” for each year. But this idea came unstuck in the first year. There was just so much enthusiam and so many projects! So following are a few of the hightlights. It was a very busy year…
- The Rutherford Bursary was established – and 2 bursaries awarded
- A tropical piano was donated to Bong Song Hospital in South Vietnam
- A motorcycle was donated to the British Soloman Islands for use by the Soloman Island Social Worker. This was a joint Te Atatu/Orewa Rotary project
- A late model reconditioned Gestetner copier was donated to Hango College in Tonga
- Garden tools were sent to St Andrew’s College in Nukualoafa
- Two local families were helped from the Sunshine fund. One, a mother with two pre-school children, was given a week’s holiday in a motel in Paihia; the other, suffering from financial hardship, had her month’s power bill paid
- First blood bank in Te Atatu. 111 pints donated
- Lynn Brownlees was sponsored to RYLA
- The Charter year project – the Te Atatu Town Centre Clock – was installed
On the right is the official map showing the original boundary areas of The Rotary Club of Te Atatu
President: Graham Laird
Rotary Theme: Good Will Begins With You
- Hand tools for carving bowls and other artifacts were donated to a community workshop on Mitiaro Island in the Cook Islands. A joint Waiuku/South Auckland/Te Atatu Rotary project. This was the start of a relationship with the island lasting several years
- Reading books were sent to the District School on the remote island of Cikobia in Fiji. A joint Te Atatu/New Lynn Rotary project
- A fireproof safe was sent to the New Guinea Christian Leaders’ Training College at Mt Haden
- Hosted a GSE exchange group from Finland.
- Hosted our first exchange student – and sent one of ours to Australia
- Te Atatu/Henderson/New Lynn Rotary Clubs presented a cheque for $820 to The Rotary Foundation
- Te Atatu/Henderson/New Lynn Rotary Clubs raised funds for the Child Research Foundation
- Donations were made to the Te Atatu Play Centre, Holy Family Youth Group and Arahi District Girl Guides
- Sponsored 2 boys to the YMCA Holiday camp
President: Tom Pearce
Rotary Theme: Let’s Take a New Look and Act
- A rescue craft donated to the Taikata Sailing Club
- Two families in need were helped with donations
- Mats donated to the Te Atatu Judo Club
- Help given to Te Atatu’s new Family Planning Clinic
- Four children sponsored to the YMCA and YWCA holiday camps
- Two students sponsored to RYLA
- 140 trees planted – supplied by the Waitemata Council nurseries – on the verges in Te Atatu
- Defensive Driving course held
A gift to the Rotary Club
of Te Atatu. From the Island
People of Mitiaro
Feb 1973?
President: Don Page
Rotary Theme: A Time for Action
- Donation to the Western Districts Ambulance appeal
- Sponsored 14 children to attend the Arapohure holiday camp
- Sponsored 3 children to the YMCA holiday camp
- Placing a local boy on “Spirit of Adventure”
- Providing funds for a Te Atatu Guide to attend an international assembly in Japan
- Provision of nurses’ text books to the Queen Salote Medical School in Tonga
- Helping Rutherford students with vocational choices
- Purchase of equipment for the physically handicapped class at Henderson South School
- Sponsorship of the “Te Atatu Community Service Hall Society Inc”
- Joint Club project to provide an air conditioning unit to a hospital in Fiji
President: John Brewer
Rotary Theme: Renew the Spirit of Rotary
- Beach Avenue beach resanding started.
In the 60’s the Te Atatu Boating Club formed with members lauching their boats through the mangroves. Efforts were made to reclaim some of the tidal area and a rudementary lauching area was created. Our Club became involved in this and delivered a fair amount of soil and sand and in 1976 built a retaining wall. All this was prior to the Te Atatu Yacht Club’s existing Club House being built in 1984.
- Te Atatu Girl Guides donation
- Donation of text books to Avele College in Apia
- Childrens’ Christmas Party
- Donation to the Darwin fund
President: Alistair Morton
Rotary Theme: To Dignify the Human Being
- Provision of a Misting Machine (to water plants) to Avele College in Apia
- 9 children sent to summer holiday camp
- Soil for Bridge Avenue project
- $200 donation to the IHC Mt Albert Pool Fund
- Donation to Muscular Distrophy Association for a wheelchair purchase
- Book donation to Yashawa District School in Fiji
- Donation to the Te Atatu Scout Group
- Donation to Telethon
President: Ken Pittman
Rotary Theme: I Believe in Rotary
- Involvement in the Te Atatu Junior Citizens Week
- Erection of a retaining wall at the Bridge Avenue Beach project
- Childrens’ Christmas Party
- Sponsoring 10 children to the Arapohui Camp
- More books, sports gear and jerseys to Yashawas District School in Fiji
- Purchasing a Peanut Machine (for treating peanuts) for a group in Fiji
President: Warren Mee
Rotary Theme: Serve to Unite Mankind
- Hosted 19 students from Whangaroa College for a 5 day visit whilst they carried out organized work places in the city to better prepare them for job decision making
- 100 school leaver handbooks were purchased by the Club and given to school leavers at Massey and Rutherford
Community help to two families in need - Extra sand to the Bridge Avenue beach project
As the Community Director said in Club minutes “I am pleased to report the recent efforts in ‘topping up’ the beach with six metres of sand have resulted in one having a firm footing for some thirty yards or so before falling knee deep in mud”
- A water project on Mitiaro Island – pipes, pump, diesel motor. Also paints, hammers and sporting equipment were sent to the island
President: Jim Wakeling
Rotary Theme: Reach Out
- Presentation to IHC of a mini bus
- Christmas party for the children in the area
- A wheel chair ramp built for a local resident
President: Graeme Douglas
Rotary Theme: Let Service Light the Way
- Established the 10th Anniversay Bursary Fund for a 2nd year Tertiary Student
- Continuation of existing projects: Blood bank collections, house to house appeals, raised money for Rutherford’s new Gymnasium, planted a few trees…
- Donation to the Fiji Disaster – a major earthquake