District Changeover

Sunday 1 July dawned fine and calm after a very wet winter week.  This was a fitting start to our year and District Changeover.  A huge amount of effort and planning had been put into the event by our Changeover committee led by Bob Austin from the Rotary Club of Plimmerton.  Attended by 270 Rotarians, friends and family we were hosted in the new Te Rauparaha Arena, Porirua.  This proved to be a fitting and appropriate venue for this event.

Mayor of Porirua, Nick Leggett was invited to open the proceedings.  Lunch followed and an opportunity to mix and mingle.  After lunch then DG Bob gave an account of his year and awarded trophies and certificates.  This was followed by the formal changeover ceremony where the chain of office was passed across to the new DG Graeme.  DGN, Deb, became DGE and DGNN, Anthony became DGN – we do complicate things as Master of Ceremony Philip said bring a touch of humour to proceedings.

A great performance by the 40 strong Kapahaka performers from the Kura Maori O Porirua School who are the regional Kapahaka champions. It was a stirring performance thoroughly enjoyed by all present.

DG Graeme then gave his inaugural speech to those present.  He introduced the new RI theme for the year – Peace Through Service.  Using an orange as an analogy he went on to describe that we needed to get back to basics and that Rotary was at an crossroads.  He described how he wanted to take a new route and challenged us to ‘Push Boundaries’ and ‘Make Change Real’.

It was a great day and the beginning of a wonderful year ahead when we will promote change in Rotary.  We look forward to visiting clubs, sharing our Rotary journey together, and having a lot of fun along the way.