By ERWIN CHLANDA
Remember when Rotary was seen as the reserve for stiff upper lip blokes in pinstripe suits?
Times have changed – at least in The Alice: two out of three club presidents here are now women (pictured, from left) Erika Sauzier (Mbantua) and Fran Neylon (Stuart), with Mike Smith (Alice Springs) in the minority.
Meanwhile another prominent service club worker, Probus president Enid Harland (at right in the photo below, with Denise Brooks, of the Stuart Club), received a prestigious gift usually reserved for Rotarians, the Paul Harris Fellowship. Ms Brooks presented the award at the Stuart Rotary Club’s recent handover dinner.
She outlined Ms Harland’s achievements: “Enid has been involved as a volunteer with the Prison Fellowship for something like 15 years.
“As a volunteer Enid works every Saturday and some Sundays to ensure that visitors to the prison are able to enter to see their family member and friends.
“The Prison Fellowship supports relatives and friends of the prisoners. And as the backbone of the organisation Enid does all the administration work for visitors to see their relatives in prison.
“She organises rosters of volunteers for the bus, to run family and friends to and from the prison.
“And to make it just that much more pleasant Enid makes sure there are books and toys for the children in the waiting area. Enid also ensures that the children of prisoners receive a Christmas gift through Angel Tree.
“For those visitors who may be leaving the prison distressed, Enid is a kind ear.
“She is involved in the Anglican Church where she is rostered as a greeter and prepares morning tea following the 8am service. Enid also does reading for the services.
“I am sure there are many more wonderful silent things that Enid does in this community. She epitomises ‘Service above Self’.”
Monday, November 18, 2024
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Well done, that really gets the message out that Rotary is now a dynamic organisation. The Stuart club is informal laid back with some larrikins in it but gets things done. Yes, and the larrikin element includes the femmes, and dare we say it, a certain newspaper editor is included too. From the 75 year old dinosaur.
Enid so deserves this award. It is good to know all her work is appreciated. She drives out every Saturday in all weathers and knows all the prisoners’ relatives and children’s names. She scrounges shoes from her friends to take as prisoners’ visitors have to wear shoes. Well done Enid.
Enid and Dorothy Grimm who also received the Rotary Paul Harris Award feel they are carrying on Sister Eileen Heath’s good work. Sr Eileen started the Prison Fellowship here which Dorothy Grimm runs.
Prison Fellowship started in America, is international and covers over 200 countries. There is a Prison Fellowship Australia in every state. This is the organisation to which Enid Harland belongs.
Congratulations to Enid. Well done.
However I don’t agree with with Erwin on his comments about pinstriped suits and stiff upper lips. I remember my time as an Apexian when we all considered that those Rotarians like Len Kittle, Reg Harris, Bill Westlau and many more had all the fun while we were doing the hard yakka. What times they were.