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History LOOKING BACK - THE STORY OF OUR CLUB 1968 - 1993 Few Rotary clubs in the world have had a more dramatic entry into the world wide fellowship of Rotary than the Rotary Club of Lower Blue Mountains. It was a baptism of fire -literally. Formed as the Rotary Club of Blaxland-Springwood in 1968 with the Rotary Club of Windsor as sponsor, its territory had been surveyed in the previous year at the request of District Governor Gordon Harman by the Rotary Club of Penrith which felt, at the time, that the area was not quite ready to support a Rotary club. (The Penrith club probably reached this conclusion because the full potential resulting from the newly enacted residential qualifications had not been fully appreciated.) The organisation meeting as the Provisional Rotary Club of Blaxland-Springwood, convened by District Governor John Moon, was held at Cheppy's Restaurant on Wednesday, October 23, The following office bearers were elected: In those days the vice president was also club service director and president elect; and the office of youth director was quite a number of years in the future. The Club was officially admitted to Rotary International on November 2, 1968 with 30 charter members. Arrangements had been made for the charter meeting to be held at Springwood Civic Centre on December 6, but disastrous bushfires on November 28, which destroyed more than 80 houses in the area, led to the Civic Centre being taken over by Civil Defence, Red Cross, Police and service personnel, so the venue was changed - without a hitch and at very short notice - to St. Mary's Memorial Hall, where the District Governor, John Moon, officially presented the charter. This was a massive task for the Rotary Club of Windsor as they refused any help from the new club because of the fires; but everyone who had planned to attend was present - just short of 300 visitors representing 43 clubs. PP Geoff Moses of the Rotary Club of Windsor was the DG's special representative in the formation of the new club and has been held in affectionate regard by our members throughout the years. Not only did the visiting club members bring their banners, they brought cheques for hundreds of dollars for bushfire relief; and the amount donated on the night was supplemented by much more that poured in over the next few weeks from Rotary and Inner Wheel clubs from every state in Australia. Individually, Rotarians performed magnificently during the fires and in the demanding days that followed. Individual help included transport, firefighting, mopping up, demolition, rebuilding and provision of clothing, food, accommodation, furniture, etc. The club supplied a stovette for each of the 40 temporary dwellings, contributed towards the cost of a refrigerator for each dwelling, gave $300 to each of the five Volunteer Bush Fire Brigades, gave $600 towards St. Davids Church of England Rebuilding Fund and supplied toys and Christmas cakes to fire victims. Secretary Les Paterson served on the deputy-Mayor's Relief Fund which met on over twenty full days, considered more than 300 claims and distributed in excess of $200,000. Most of the first six months of the club's existence was occupied in relief work. However, many more projects were completed, including the supply of an Ultrasonic Nebulizer for a desperately ill Springwood girl and the donation of an electric wheelchair to the Spastic Centre of N.S.W. Tremendous changes occur in 25 years and only three of the charter members remain: Bill Peard, Frank Totenhofer and Les Paterson. (Another of our current members, Paul Henningham, assisted District Governor John Moon at our organisation meeting and was present at the Charter Night representing the Rotary Club of Newtown, joining our club some 15 months later.) In these 25 years, 183 members have enjoyed the fellowship and shared in the work load. It is interesting to note that our dinner fee at Cheppy's was $1.60 of which 15 cents went to club funds. The end of the first term of eight months saw the club drop to its lowest level of membership with 26 members at the end of the year but this was corrected in the following year with a gain of six new members. We have had three venues for our meetings, beginning with Cheppy's, moving to Glenbrook Bowling Club in 1970, to Springwood Golf Club in August, 1972 and back to Glenbrook Bowling Club in 1981. In our first two years all members subscribed to the official magazine of Rotary International, The Rotarian, and from the second year all members also became subscribers to Rotary Down Under by resolution of the club. This practice continued until 1978 when Rotary Down Under became the official magazine for this region. The club has given sound support to The Rotary Foundation and is proud of its 19 Paul Harris Fellows; in order of award: Les Paterson, Rob Murray, Paul Henningham, Keith Morton, Adrian Knox, Cam Ashelford, Russ Nyman, David Brown, John Leard, Henk Bleeker, Russ Nyman, Ern Britten, Bill Peard, Frank Totenhofer, Doug Stewart, Bob Aitken, Leon Smith, Klaus Fegebank and Graham White. John Leard and Klaus Fegebank, nonRotarians, were named Paul Harris Fellows in recognition of their services to the community. For his work for The Rotary Foundation at club and district level, where he served for five years as Rotary Foundation Promotion Chairman, PP Les Paterson was awarded a Citation for Meritorious Service in 1974 and the first Distinguished Service Award to come to Australia (one of only 12 awarded worldwide) in 1976. During the 25 years of its existence the club has done much to make our immediate district a better place in which to live and has also assisted in projects outside our immediate district and at international level. It is impossible, in the space available, to list all of these but some outstanding ones are worthy of mention. The happpy facilities at Blue Gum Lodge was funded by proceeds from our first Arts and Crafts show and two very successful "white elephant" sales many years ago. A great record of service has been built since 1978. The club hosted what was possibly the Rotary district's biggest assembly with over 400 incoming officers attending. We presented a complete set of night landing lights to Careflight and regularly support special appeals by community organisations in the mountains. Each year drivers are supplied for The Red Shield Appeal and three of our members have served as District Chairmen. Bus seats have been provided at 14 strategic locations in the area and special telephones have been purchased and presented to residents with impaired hearing. Two black-topped baseball courts and a play wall were built in St. John's Road by the members' own efforts. For 20 years we supported the Lower Blue Mountains Garden Club in conducting the magnificent Spring Flower Show and for the past 22 years have supplied loads of split firewood for elderly people in our area. Rotarian Garry Jones has turned the club's firewood service into a valuable profit making activity, whilst still providing a vital service to the elderly and needy. In recent years, the Rotary Club of Lower Blue Mountains (the name was officially changed in 1984 - to take in all parts of out club's area) has supported a wide range of Rotary youth programs, developed a popular playground facility for children in Glenbrook, provided a flagpole and barbecues for Glenbrook village park, sponsored a series of vocational awards to recognise the service of outstanding contributors to the local business community, and provided unstinting support for the annual Glenbrook Village Fair. The year 1993 to mark its 25th anniversary, our club has planned some spectacular projects - a recreation area for the disabled, a Monster Australia Day Street Party in Glenbrook, and special activities for senior citizens. With thanks to our first club historian Les Paterson and assistance Paul Henningham and Bob Aitken. In this year of our clubs first change over of the new millenium perhaps some budding club histrorian would like to bring up to date our story from 1993 till 2001? Len Cusack PRESIDENT 2001 - 2002
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