Rotary Foundation

Rau rangatira mā, e huihui nei, tēnei aku mihi māhana ki a koutou.  Kia ora tātou katoa.  Distinguished guests, Rotarians from New Zealand and overseas; ladies and gentlemen, warm greetings to you all.

I specifically acknowledge: President Trevor Bailey, and President-elect Ross Milne—tēnā korua; District Governor of Rotary District 9970 David Drake—tēnā koe; John Cole, Rotary Foundation co-ordinator—tēnā koe; and visiting Rotarian John Albery, President of the Rotary Club of Frankston Sunrise in Victoria—tēnā koe.

Thank you for inviting me to this Rotary Foundation dinner.  Your invitation was for me and my wife Janine, unfortunately Janine is unable to be here tonight.

I recognise a number of people here tonight from my time with the New Zealand Defence Force and the New Zealand Army, including your President-elect.  As a former member of the Rotary Club of Wellington, it’s great to be among friends and Rotarians.  Let me assure you that I do not intend telling any war stories – I have none.  Indeed, wars stopped when I joined the Army, they’re now called “conflicts” and I don’t want to tell “conflicting” stories, because that’s what they’ll be – my version of events and Malcolm de Joux’s version!

Tonight, I’m here for this Rotary Foundation event, as a Paul Harris fellow and to share some of my thoughts about what you do.  And most importantly, it’s good to be among Rotarians to share some fellowship. 

While yours is an international movement, Rotary is very much an organisation that does things in local communities.  And, whether it’s in New Zealand or elsewhere in the more than 34,000 clubs world-wide Rotary promotes the things that are important to people.  Rotary brings people together and serves the community in both the good and bad times.  In New Zealand that encompasses volunteering, doing good things, caring for others and exemplifying the Kiwi can-do attitude. 

If there is one word that describes Rotary’s purpose, it’s the word “service” and it’s the concept of service in the context of this Rotary District that I want to speak about this evening.

Service is a word that has many definitions.  The Oxford New Zealand Dictionary gives 15 substantive definitions as well as a significant number of related sub-definitions.   They include working as a servant, the process of serving food and drink, maintenance on a vehicle or machine, a religious gathering, starting a tennis game and working in the military to name a few.

I could not help but notice, however, that the definitions share a common theme.  They are “the act of helping or doing work for another or for a community,” “work done in this way” and “assistance or benefit given to someone.”   These definitions seem like common-sense, but within them are a number of hidden truths. 

The first truth is that service does not occur in a vacuum.  It occurs when one person helps another.  There is no point in offering a service if isn’t needed or it doesn’t meet a genuine need.

We can all recall cartoons of children told by their teachers that they needed to do more to help others.  So they head out seeking to do good and end up helping elderly people cross a road.  On arriving at the other side, the elderly person promptly hits them over the head with their walking stick—they didn’t want to cross the road—they had just stopped at the street corner.

While services offered in an emergency or crisis are often instinctive and immediate, meeting community needs requires a more deliberate approach. Talking to people to establish what is needed, then working with them and others to provide the service or services and confirming that the needs have been met takes time.

The second truth is that a service offered has an inherently selfless basis that springs from a genuine desire to help others.  If the service offered is primarily to gain a reward, especially a monetary reward, it is something entirely different.  It’s called paid employment!

As an example, two days ago, I hosted an afternoon tea at Government House in Wellington for Kidney Health New Zealand to recognise people who made live donations of kidneys.  All have made a significant sacrifice to give someone bound to dialysis a normal quality of life.  Many were to friends or family members who were living with kidney disease. A select few had simply decided to altruistically give a kidney to someone else who needed it. 

Returning to the definition of service, the third aspect is that service has to involve effort.  Fine words and lofty sentiments have their place, but it is in rolling up the sleeves and getting stuck in that we actually provide a service to others. 

These truths are well encapsulated in Rotary’s long-standing motto - “service above self” - and its primary objective of encouraging and fostering the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise.

And they were well demonstrated by the response of Rotary, both here in Christchurch, and more widely in New Zealand and internationally, to the devastating earthquakes that have rocked this city and region in the last 18 months, claiming more than 180 lives and destroying buildings, homes and livelihoods.

The quake on 22 February 2011, saw everyone, and especially the people of this city and region, respond in a way that demonstrated the best of New Zealanders’ traits - resilience and preparedness to get stuck in and help friends and strangers alike.  And with that they demonstrated warmth, compassion and a strong sense of community.

When I visited Christchurch on February 22 this year, to mark the first anniversary of that devastating earthquake, I also attended the Christchurch City Council earthquake awards in Hagley Park.  

It did not surprise me that of the 140 awards given to individuals and organisations one was received by Rotary District 9970 and Rotary International.  In particular, the awards recognised acts of kindness, service and heroism and resonated with Rotary’s international theme: “Reach within to embrace humanity.”

The service provided by Rotary Clubs and Rotarians defies a simple description or list but they have demonstrated a great depth commitment to humanity.   It included, in the immediate aftermath, providing manpower and transport to help the Salvation Army deliver food parcels.  More recently it has included supporting the Pools for Schoolz  programme which provides portable pools for local schools, providing a replacement portable emergency centre for St John, new vans for the Burwood Spinal Unit, and helping out schools.   The list goes on and on, much of it provided by Rotarians who also had to deal with damage to their own home and the loss of friends and family.  In one club in the east of the city, half of the members’ homes were damaged beyond repair.

Support came from other Rotary Clubs in New Zealand, and also from abroad and the International Rotary Foundation.  That is because Rotary is more than a group of business and professional people helping their communities by organising sausage sizzles—it is a family of clubs based on friendship and fellowship.  As Rotary Founder Paul Harris once said: “Friendship is a natural and willing servant….There is no reason…why the great power of friendship should not be harnessed to do its part in the world’s work.”

And Rotary has been doing the world’s work for more than a century.  For years, Rotary Clubs in this District have been supporting projects both in New Zealand and throughout the world.  For example, Christchurch Sunrise has previously been involved in supporting a water project in Nepal.  Another cause has been Rotary’s worldwide campaign against polio – Polio-plus - and I understand funds raised at this dinner will go to that programme. 

With the disaster that struck this city, the tables have been turned and it is the wider Rotary family that has responded to the needs of New Zealand.  Tonight, for example, I will have the honour of presenting a number of defibrillators to the New Zealand Fire Service as a result of the support of the Rotary Foundation International.  This equipment will mean that when a fire crew arrives at an emergency before the ambulance service they will be able to provide life-saving treatment if someone is suffering from a cardiac arrest.

All these initiatives meet the definition of service that I have outlined earlier.   The projects are well-thought out and planned, eminently practical and invariably involve significant collaboration with other Rotary clubs or community organisations.  They meet genuine needs and are provided and with no desire or requirement for reward apart from a simple thank you.  They remind me of the words of Joe Abey, who was Rotary International President in 1961-62.  He said: “This is not a time for us to say: ‘Somebody ought to do that.’ Our words must be: ‘We will do it.’”

In conclusion, I want to thank the Clubs of Rotary District 9970 for your service, and particularly your service to Christchurch and Canterbury at its hour of need.  Despite the individual difficulties you have all had to deal with, your deeds and your actions have given true meaning to the notion of “service above self.”   Kia ora huihui tātou katoa.