TheLoWDoWN - Rotary Down Under

Young takesdriver’s seat ofInner WheelNew Zealander Carole Young is thisyear’s President of International InnerWheel. She leads one of the largestvoluntary women’s organisations inthe world with a membership of over100,000 in 103 countries.Carole joined Inner Wheel in thesmall mid-North Island town ofOpotiki in 1986. She was NationalRepresentative/President ofInner Wheel NZ from 2004-2006,which culminated in hosting theInternational Inner Wheel Conventionin Christchurch in 2006.After serving as an InternationalBoard Director for two years, Carolewas elected International Inner WheelVice-President, and this year shebecame only the third woman fromNew Zealand to hold the position ofInternational President.Carole visits many countries in hercurrent role, and recently celebratedthe 80th birthday of the Inner WheelClub of North Sydney, NSW, theoldest club outside Great Britainwhere Inner Wheel was founded in1924. This was followed by a visit toBali where Carole chartered the InnerWheel Club of Bali Seminyak, the firstclub in Indonesia.Within New Zealand, Carole hasvisited all five Districts, encouragingmembers to follow her simpletheme for the year, Be a Friend, andThelowdown>>>• Kiwi elected as world president ofInner Wheel• Leading more than 100,000 members from103 countries• Be a Friend chosen as Inner Wheel theme.• Helped Inner Wheel of North Sydney, NSW,celebrate 80th anniversaryInner Wheelto support the International InnerWheel social project Happier Futures– helping children around the worldnow. Clubs and Districts throughoutthe world are working on projectswithin their communities from whichthousands of children will benefit.A more poignant moment was avisit to Christchurch where Carolepresented cheques to the SalvationArmy and the Earthquake Survivors’Trust. Inner Wheel memberswithin New Zealand and aroundthe world were very generous insupporting those in need after theongoing earthquakes.Carole also works within thecommunity as a Justice of the Peace,and regularly presides in the localCriminal Court. She is a FuneralCelebrant, and has been awarded aQueen’s Service Medal in recognitionof her community work. •International InnerWheel PresidentCarole Young withJocelyn Smith andJohn Gardner fromthe Salvation Army.RAWCSwith John McLarenChairman, Rotary AustraliaWorld Community ServiceNow charityreally can beginat homeThe Board of RAWCS are very pleasedto announce that Rotarians can nowundertake charitable work in Australiaand receive tax deductibility for theirdonations. This is the first time anAustralian Rotary organisation hasbeen able to provide a national taxdeductible structure for Rotariansand the public “for the direct relief ofpoverty, sickness, suffering, distress,misfortune, disability, destitution, orhelplessness as arouses compassion inthe community”.The “Rotary Australian BenevolentSociety” (RABS) is the home-basedversion of RAWCS’s Overseas AidFund. RABS offers a web-based projectregistration system for Rotary clubs toallow them to have projects registeredfor tax deductibility and for them tobe included on the RAWCS web-baseddonations system.This is a tremendous opportunity forclubs to partner with the communityto do charitable work in their ownbackyard. Charity really can beginat home.The easily accessed web-basedproject registration system – see www.rawcs.com.au – steps through theinformation needed to register yourclub’s project. Like all Rotary projects,it is important to share our good workwith the public and so the websitewill also provide the opportunity toprovide a brief description and otherpublicity material to support the onlinedonations facility. Go online to checkit out and be the first to let your clubknow about this great new opportunityto get involved in something that reallymatters here at home.Further information is available atwww.rawcs.com.au •www.rotarydownunder.org 23www.rotarydownunder.org 23