Entertaining speech: NSW Governor Marie Bashir addresses the Katoomba Rotary 75th anniversary dinner last week.
Katoomba Rotary Club celebrated 75 years of working in the community at a gala dinner attended by NSW Governor Marie Bashir last week.
Hosted by the Carrington Hotel, the night was a reflection of the club’s vital work in the community with all funds raised going to the Nepean Medical Research Foundation (NMRF).
Professor Bashir congratulated Katoomba Rotary on its impressive milestone during her keynote address as she told club members in the room that “lives are being saved because of your vision, your incredible generosity of spirit, not just by raising funds, [but] by looking over the community in so many ways”.
“Those hallmarks of compassion, integrity, they’re wonderful and they’re built into, I like to think, into what we call the Australian spirit and the common good.”
Professor Bashir’s address gave an insight into the role of a diplomat as she explored her work with international university students and encounters with powerful foreign dignitaries.
She applied Rotary values to Australia’s need to deal with its neighbours on friendly terms.
“It pays Australians to be clever, to be diplomatic, to be able to work collaboratively and, of course, Rotary epitomises all of that,” said Professor Bashir.
Katoomba Rotary president George Bubalo thanked the Governor for her speech before a $10,000 cheque was handed to NMRF president Brad Turnbull. The funds — along with those raised on the night — will be used to assist in the purchase of an advanced piece of medical research equipment for Nepean Hospital.
The $57,000 Bone Densi/ometer will be a vital tool in bone and soft tissue research that will be of benefit particularly to the elderly.
Former NMRF president Gwen McMaster-Fay acknowledged the work of Katoomba Rotary, not only in supporting the organisation, but over its entire existence.
“To have succeeded in achieving 75 years, one must acknowledge not only those here this evening but those many people who in the past who established, maintained and continued this excellent service club,” said Mrs McMaster-Fay.