Our club was privileged to be the first visited by the new District Governor 

Jayti Singh as she begins her Rotary year in District 9920. 

With 20 years experience as a Rotarian, Jayti has picked up the challenge to promote  R.I President 

Yinka Babalola’s goal to have all Rotarians ‘CREATE LASTING IMPACT’.

Her goals for our district are:

• Grow Rotary
• Add at least 2 new clubs – Past D.G Kirsten heads a committee to work on this
• Promote a more effective public image of Rotary
• Support the moves to regionalisation and redistricting – the process to combine Districts 9910, 9920 and 9930 will bring together approximately 2600 Rotarians.
• Strengthen participation of young people through Rotaract, Interact as well as Rotary membership – giving them more input into decisions and increasing their roles.
• Support the Rotary Foundation
• To promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) with an emphasis on women and girls, especially in the Pacific Island settings. To help this process a Summit gathering is being organised, probably in early April 2027 where clubs will have the opportunity to share stories of successful projects and programmes and possible arrange co-operative ventures for the future.

    Jayti left us with the challenge provided by the R.I President Yinka – AIM TO DO BETTER THAN YOUR BEST.

Accompanied by their mentoring teacher Adam Driver, three students from Pakuranga College gave their report on experiences as attendees at the Model United Nations Assembly (MUNA) held for about 300 students at Rosmini College recently. 

This being the first feedback on this programme for some time, the audience of about 40 Rotarians and visitors was treated to an excellent, well presented and articulate account from Abby, Paul and Orin who obviously enjoyed and learnt much from their assigned task of representing Malaysia in the Rotary-organised forum. In preparation, all participants are expected to have a good knowledge of their allocated country’s social and economic structure, government and political outlook in order to be able to represent their interests in debates on global and regional issues.

After impressive personal introductions which outlined their involvement in exciting opportunities (both at school and in the community) to promote interests in political and social issues, each of the presenters, augmented with colourful slides showing costumed participants in various aspects of the programme, gave listeners a clear picture of the workings of the two day event. Among other issues they joined a push to have all countries take a more pro-active stance on dealing with the victims of climate-change events, especially in developing countries.

All three students expressed their deep appreciation for the sponsorship provided by our club to attend the conference and, given the quality of the feed-back from such personable and self-assured young people, members could not but help feeling that it was money well spent. We left with the feeling that this would not be the last occasion these three names will be brought to our notice.

P L A N T I N G DAY S U M M A R Y:

28 Jul 2026 at 134 Clevedon-Takanini Road

We had a lovely crisp blue day for Pakuranga Colleges return to the Aulds property for planting this year. This year we were planting on the south side of the Auld property filling in the sides of an access track where there is regenerating bush and a previous school planting from a few years ago. 

Many of the students and their teacher Smitha Randhir had planted with the Aulds the previous year, so after a slippery trek up the track they got stuck in with the spades. The students worked really well together to get the planting done to a high standard.

We were very grateful for the opportunity to plant two beautiful Kahikatea side by side in memory of the students lost tragically in January of this year. These trees will become forest giants and live for many hundreds of years above the Wairoa river valley. 

With planting finished we made our way back down to a lovely lunch provided by Niki, Alec and Norma.

It was an absolute pleasure and a privilege to plant again with the Aulds and Pakuranga College, our thanks to everyone involved for the hard work that made the day such a success.

22 Students

2 School Staff

4 Parents, Landowners, Others

Waterway planted: 120m and 5m

COMMUNITY AWARDS NIGHT

Rotary International President-elect Mário César Martins de Camargo introduced the theme of “Unite for Good” at the 2025 International Assembly And it was that theme that exemplified the recipients of our four community awards presented earlier in July. All recipients had great credentials and in the material that follows there is a brief summary with the full detail of each being in the read on section below. 

Barry Wood

Barry and Jewel Wood have lived at Cockle Bay for over 30 years. During that time Barry with the support of Jewel has done a huge amount of community work.

Barry was appointed an Honorary Fisheries Officer in 2006 and in that role has worked to protect not only Cockle Bay but other fisheries throughout the Auckland area.

Sarah Kavanagh

From the time Sarah moved to our area she has been closely involved in helping within the community.

She has managed children's football teams at BB AFC and been a committee member of the Howick Rhythmic Gymnastics Club.Sarah sits on the Board of Trustees at Shelly Park School and holds the community liaison role. She has also been a member of the school's PTA over the last ten years.

Shirley Pincham

For many years Shirley was a Member of the Inner Wheel Club of Howick. Her chosen Charity Bellyful needed more of her time so she resigned from the Inner Wheel Club 10 years ago. She is still actively involved cooking and delivering meals for Bellyful along with assisting families through her local Church.

Deanna Cao

Since arriving from China in 2013 Deanna Cao has thrown herself into community work. She is a great example of a person who embraces the opportunities that New Zealand offers, from both a business and community perspective.

There has always been people who have sought to create and spread information which is not accurate or true. 

With AI now able to produce visual, audio and written material that even experts are unable to identify as being AI produced and with the ubiquitous internet now able to spread that widely and instantly the need to be cautious about what we see, hear, read and especially share, has become ever more important.

This has given rise to a range of terms that describe situations we all need to be aware of: 

• Misinformation is false or inaccurate information that is spread unintentionally without the intent to deceive, often due to error, a mistake, or ignorance. E.g. sharing an incorrect statistic without checking the source.
• Disinformation is knowingly false or manipulated information that is deliberately created and spread with the malicious intent to mislead, manipulate, or harm. E.g. using computer software to make a manipulated video having a public figure say something they never said. 

To those two we now have a third category:

• Malinformation is usually true, factual information that is spread in a deceitful, manipulative way in order to influence public opinion, obscure the truth or create harm. Publishing the home address of a public figure or sharing a private text message or photo are examples. 

While we dont normally include promotion of business interests in the Bulletin I have included material on this cafe previously. 

What makes the cafe at Te Tuhi next to the Pakuranga Plaza different is that it gives work experience to people with intellectual disabilities. The fact that the coffee and food are very good is a bonus as by popping in for a coffee you can also help ensure this worthy initiative can continue. 

Following flooding caused by the roading work last year Te Tuhi has been modernised and improved so pop in for a coffee and some art appreciation.