She took over the reigns from Derek Fox who, together with his wife, Claire (outgoing president of the Rotary Anns), and daughter, Nicola (outgoing president of Rotaract), led Boksburg Lake to great heights over the last year.
The new Rotary Anns president is Pam Daniell and the new Rotaract president is Jessica Jones.
All three the clubs are award winners in Rotary’s District 9400 (which consists of four countries and more than 80 clubs).
The Boksburg Lake Rotaract Club has been recognised as the Best Rotaract Club in Rotary District 9400 for the last three years running.
The Rotary Club itself received a District 9400 award for service excellence, while individual members received various prestigious awards.
The Anns scored even better, receiving several awards for the club’s activities, as well as for individual excellent and dedicated service above self.
Boksburg Lake Rotary is also involved with the Boksburg High School Interact Club, which is under leadership of Joseleene Makoni.
In total, 40 pairs of willing young hands from Interact enjoy working on projects to benefit those who need help or who have exceptional talents.
Recently, a second Interact Club was chartered at Woodlands International College (the charter president is Ryan Coull and the vice-president is Stacey McKeen).
As a further proof of the dedicated young blood to be found in the Boksburg Lake club, Rotarian Damian Lahoud is the District 9400 Rotaract chairman and his fiancé, Talitha Carney, is a District Rotaract representative.
Lahoud was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and spent a year in Sweden, studying applied ethics. At the last D9400 District Conference he was recognised as a Paul Harris Fellow by the District.
A Paul Harris Fellowship is one of the most sought after recognitions in Rotary all over the world.
Talitha started her Rotary career as a Rotaractor in the Boksburg Lake Rotaract Club, where she has also served as president.
Over the last year, the Boksburg Lake Club has been involved in numerous projects, such as joining forces with the Toyota Trompie 4×4 Club just before Christmas to provide an adventurous outing for the occupants of the Vita Nova Home.
This undertaking saw 34 off-road vehicles each taking a wheelchair occupant on an entertaining off-road course.
A mountain of groceries was also collected for the home.
The club also assisted the Rotary Club of Edenvale with their Tree For Joy project, at a shopping mall in Edenvale. This project resulted in 1 000 personalised Christmas gifts being collected for inhabitants of homes supported by Rotary.
The Boksburg Lake Rotaract Club also participated successfully in the D9400 project known as One Hundred Days Of Madness. This entailed each Rotaract member doing a good deed every day for 100 days.
Their imagination was the limit and innumerable needy persons were helped in this way. Some actions were planned and some were done on the spot.
The members, for example, recently embarked on an outreach to schoolchildren in Venda. Rotarians travelled with a huge load of books, sourced from Rotary’s Humanitarian Centre (ex-Texas) to distribute to learners in Venda.
Apart from these projects, Rotarians also help with many local community needs, such as providing sanitary towels for girls who would otherwise not be able to attend school.
In the meanwhile, the Boksburg Lake Rotary Anns worked enthusiastically on numerous community projects over the last 12 months.
This included staging a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party in support of Cansa.
At the moment Boksburg Lake Rotary has 13 Rotarian members, with 18 Anns and 24 young Rotaract members (six new members were recently inducted).
Those who are interested in Rotary, Rotaract or Interact activities, should contact club secretary Martin Stokes on 082 891 8180, or at martin@aircelcius.co.za.
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Family makes history by leading Boksburg Lake Rotary
