When it comes to longevity for local community groups, the Rotary Club of Caboolture are certainly showing their strength.
This year, the club is celebrating 70 years and will be having an anniversary dinner at the North Lakes Hotel on 2 August.
Kathleen Finter joined the Rotary Club of Caboolture just over three years ago, fulfilling the role of secretary for most of that time (until 1 July), as well as being a very active member of the community.
“Celebrating 70 years serving our wonderful community is certainly an achievement; our members are very excited about reaching this milestone,” Kathleen said. “We have been involved in the Caboolture community on many levels over the years, mainly by identifying a need in the community and then coming up with a solution of some kind.”
In the early days, the club was behind the installation of park benches, picnic tables and bus shelters. They became more adventurous, moving on to bigger projects, such as raising funds for the construction of the Caboolture Swimming Pool in the early 1960s and the development of the Centenary Lakes sporting grounds.
“We constructed the Netball Association kiosk and amenities block and helped form the BMX track,” Kathleen said. “Finally, we sponsored the Rotary Walkway through Centenary Lakes, which we have upgraded several times with new exercise stations.
“We also built a chapel/quiet room at Caboolture Hospital, installed a liberty swing at Riding for the Disabled and sponsored one of their horses ‘Lefty’ for many years, as well as undertaking many working bees at the centre.”
Rotary Club of Caboolture Celebrating 70 Years of Community Service and Milestones
Another big milestone was in 1986, with the Rotary Club of Caboolture assisting to get the local radio station FM101.5 up and running. There has also been a lot of support for the younger members of the community.
“As far back as 1961, we have been sponsoring young people to go to the Rotary Youth Leadership camp,” Kathleen said. “We also sponsor year 12 students to attend the National Youth Science Forum.
“We are very much involved in the Rotary Youth Driver Awareness Program that we run out of Morayfield Sports and Entertainment Centre – over the years, thousands of local students have attended this training.”
On top of many of these programs and projects, one of the group’s most ambitious projects is seeing an end to domestic violence.
“For the last four years, we have run Red Ride to raise awareness of domestic violence,” Kathleen said. “However, on a national level our current president Eric Wood is working on the ‘say no to domestic violence’ campaign. To raise awareness of domestic violence, businesses are encouraged to have their employees wear purple shirts on Fridays.”
For further information about the Rotary Club of Caboolture or to attend a meeting, email secretary@caboolturerotary.org.
Read more stories from The Caboolture Guide print magazine here:
- Caboolture Connect: Updates from the Community
- What’s Hot Around Town
- Miniature Horses BIG on Cuteness
- It Makes Cents to Raise Funds
- DagFest – the Aussiest Musical Festival Ever!
- From Cotton to Sugar: The Evolution of George Raff’s Morayfield Plantation
- Fun and Games at Heritage Day
- On the Bite
- Meet Costa at Eco Fest
- Jumping Into a Playground of Nature
- Such Is Life for An Artist
- Morayfield to Benefit From $7 Million Road Upgrade
- It’s All In the Bag
- What’s Old Is Now New Again
