On Monday 9th May, our guest speaker was Claire Bibby; President of Glenside Progressive Association. Clair explained the history of Halfway House and how Glenside, a reserve of about 12 hectares was established when purchased by the Wellington City Council in 1951 with money paid in compensation by Victoria University for encroaching on the Wellington Town Belt. The historic Halfway House is also located here. Claire explains outlines the important conservation work undertak

At our meeting on 9th May we welcomed Ellie Haydon as a new member of the club. Ellie has been a friend of the club for some time and has support many of the clubs programs such as Toot-For Tucker, Childrens Day, and charity collections and she decided it was now time to get fully involved in the club. Club President William Nobelene welcomes Ellie Haydon as a new member of the club

On Monday ,14th of February 2022 the club held its first meeting for the year. Our guest speaker was Dulce Piacentini Service Manager at the Citizens Advice Bureau in Johnsonville. Dulcie spoke about the important work that the Citizens Advice Bureau provides as well as proving an interesting overview of her early life in Brazil and her role representing the United Nations in New Zealand.

At the Club BBQ on 30 January 2022, Neil Haydon was presented with a Paul Harris Fellow award, for his service to Johnsonville Rotary, the community and Rotary International. Club President William Nobelen oversaw the presentation and Past President Judith Gallocher made the actual presentation, to a surprised and delighted Neil Haydon, who was lost for words.

The club kicked off the new year with a BBQ at the Ohariu Valley Golf Club. Club Services Director; Alex Giorgades booked a beautiful sunny summers day for the event and also cooked a traditional South African style BBQ for members and their families to enjoy.

Unfortunately due to recent changes to COVID 19 Red Traffic Light requirements, the March 2022 event has had to be postponed. As we were expecting up to 500 people to attend it is not possible to run the event with the attendee limit of just 100 people. Also many of the childrens events cannot be run as originally planned with the restrictions in place. As there is high uncertainty over when COVID restrictions will be lifted, we have had to make the difficult decision to post

On 6th December, members of Johnsonville Rotary assisted the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET); one of the premier professional engineering bodies in hosting a fun Robotics Workshop at Newlands College School. 20 Year 9 students from the college got an opportunity to personally transform a set of electronic components into a Robot using a soldering iron and then programming it in just half a day. The IET provided the robot kits for the students to build to enable

Due to the cancellation of the Johnsonville Christmas Parade in December 2021 , Johnsonville Rotary was unable to run the Christmas Market that normally took place the same day. So, instead we decided to move to a virtual market hosted on this website. The website was very busy and we were very pleased to support the market stalls that would have physically been with us if we had been able to hold the market. In 2022 we hope to be back with the physical market at Christmas sa

On Tuesday 2nd and Tuesday 9th November Johnsonville Rotary and Johnsonville Volunteer Fire Brigade collected over half a ton of food to support Kiwi Community Assistance and Newlands Food Bank over the holiday period. There were also several cash donations made. We would like to thank the residents of Johnsonville and Churton Park for their support and food donations Toot 4 Tucker is one of our key events in 2021 supporting the local community organisations, helping families

The Johnsonville Rotary Christmas Market has moved on line this year due to Covid 19 We are pleased to support the following market stalls that would have physically been with us in Johnsonville this year. They are local businesses producing great products and available for Christmas orders. Please scroll down check out their links We will be adding new market stalls as they become available so keep coming back to visit Lavish Prints by Victoria Lavish Prints by Victoria prov

Wellington Regional Councillor Chris Kirk Burnnand was a guest speaker at the club on 8th November. Chris outlined his career explained how he is using his community and business experience to use this to get things done in Wellington.

Due to the cancellation of the 2021 Johnsonville Christmas Parade we unfortunately lost the venue for the Johnsonville Christmas market being held at the same time. So, instead we are running a Virtual Christmas Market instead, hosted on the website and providing direct links to stall holders. More information on this soon. In the meantime if you are interested in being on the Virtual Market please use “Contact Us”.

The Innovative Young Minds (IYM) program is designed to encourage young women to explore science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and high-tech manufacturing – fields. The program provides the students with the opportunity to experience potential career paths in technology and science. Johnsonville Rotary was very pleased to sponsor Emma Cooper on the 2021 IYM program and on the 8th November Emma was able to visit the club and talk about her experience in the program an

Karen outlines the process for saving native NZ species Our Rotary meetings were able to resume on 13th September and we very pleased to welcome Karin van der Walt who works as the Conservation and Science Advisor to Wellington City Council. Karen outlined her important work in identifying and preserving unique NZ plant varieties and why it is so important to preserve them for posterity. Currently she is working on her PhD research investigating the conservation of the Myrtac

On 27th September Judith Gray; Managing Director of Nada Bakery was guest speaker at our club meeting. Judith outlined her career which started when she trained as a nurse and later how she met Peter Gray who started the family business that is Nada Bakery today. Originally, Judith looked after marketing, recruitment and general administration for Nada Cakes (as it was then known) until becoming Managing Director of the business after the sad passing of her husband Peter in 2

Just before Wellington entered its most recent COVID lockdown we had a timely presentation by Chris Tchernegovski: who looks after Rotary International’s “End Polio” program for District 9940. Chris outlines the current state of Rotary International’s successful “End Polio” program Chris gave a really interesting updates in the the End Polio program Just two countries still have Polio; Afganistan and Pakistan and even now it is hoped it will be eradicated despite the difficul

On 28 July Pooja Kulkarni was our guest speaker. Pooja is the Emergency Management Adviser for Wellington’s Northern and Western Suburbs. They have a major role in ensuring community resilience and to prepare communities for a major disaster. Pooja gave an interesting presentation outlining the work that the Wellington Region Emergency Management office (WREMO) undertakes and explained what local communities and individuals need to do to be better prepared for the impact of m

On 14th July the club held it’s annual changeover meeting. Outgoing Club President; Neil Haydon reviewed the club’s achievements and activities during the last 12 months and thanked all members for their support. President Neil Haydon (right) presents Alex Georgiades (left) with the Presidents Award He awarded Alex Georgiades with the Presidents Award to recognize Alex’s special effort and work during the year. New Club President William Nobelen (left), ADG Kathryn Beattie (c

On Wednesday 16th June members of the club and friends made a visit to the Gryphon Theatre in Wellington to see Wellington Repretory Theatres production of Ben Elton’s play ‘Popcorn’. Menbers of the club enjoyed the dark comedy that examines the question of whether violence on the screen is a reflection of violence in real life, or vice versa. The play was written by Ben Elton in 1988 and adpted from a book he wrote of the same name. Cast of Popcorn

Club Secretary Mike Wotherspoon recently visited Life Flight to see how their new Wireless Intercom System is working out. In 2020, Johnsonville Rotary donated funds in and arranged a Rotary District Grant to fund the purchase of the system. The new communication system enables the flight crew operating the Westpac Rescue Helicopter to improve communications with ground crews during operations. Club Secretary; Mike Wotherspoon meets with the Life Fight crew