Rotary uplifts spirits

By Kelly Yates
ROTARIANS from Narre Warren say they feel complete satisfaction after completing the club’s biggest international project ever, renovating a school in Tonga.
Thirteen of the club’s members spent between two and three weeks installing lights and fencing, painting classrooms, creating ramps for wheelchair access and laying an asphalt assembly area at Ngeleia Primary School.
The project was worth around $35,000 with president Ian Pickering saying the works came under the initial budget.
He said the biggest challenge of the trip was the asphalting, led by Roger McGill, Kevin Bentley, David Teakle and Brendan Bentley.
“We asphalted a large quadrangle play area for the children but the area took some time to level because there was a lot of coral on the ground,” Mr Pickering said.
“It was wonderful to see the students skipping and playing on the asphalt when it was completed,” he said.
Rotarians Tim Carswell and Roger Hall spent 10 days re-wiring around 25 rooms at the school including classrooms, offices and the library.
It was all hands on deck for the members, with parents of the students at the school preparing food each day for the volunteers.
Rotarian Lyn Pickering said the parents realised after a couple of days that some of team couldn’t eat spicy food, so cheese, tomato and lettuce sandwiches became the number one meal on the menu.
A plaque was erected in the library in honour of devoted member Marion Mason who passed away from breast cancer on 13 June, Ms Pickering said.
Members of the Rotary Club of Narre Warren plan to keep up the work in Tonga, with future possible projects on the cards.