SOUTH WAIRARAPA ROTARY WELCOMES INCOMING PRESIDENT

Outgoing President – Anne Atkinson and Cam Sutherland.

With each Rotary year, which starts on 1 July, Rotary has a changeover of Presidents.  On Wednesday 30^th June, past President, Anne Atkinson handed over the leadership of the South Wairarapa Rotary Club, to its incoming President Tamara Allerhand, at a function held at Brackenridge in Martinborough.

The function each year is attended by club members, spouses and special guests, which began with a dinner.  Tamara had chosen the entertainment which were – a dance performed by The Waiohine Belly Dancers, followed by a performance from Tamara’s classical ballet teacher Justine Kingdon.  Tamara and Justine  then performed a ballet together.  Finally, as a surprise tribute to Tamara, her dance group performed a beautiful middle eastern dance Isis Wings to music by Sting called Desert Rose.

Past President Anne spoke about her year as Club President – “I hand over my presidency to Tamara with a mix of feelings. It’s been a difficult year with two lockdowns and a number of our important fundraising events having to be cancelled.  I’m really sad that I didn’t manage to complete some of the events that I had in mind for our club.

“We have many dedicated and hardworking members who did their best to attend meetings and keep the club in good heart! Now things are back to normal, so I wish all the best for your year, Tamara”.

The evening’s formalities included a presentation to Cam Sutherland of a silver ice bucket for exceptional service by a club member, during the past year. Flowers were presented to Anne before she officially handed over the Club Presidential Chains to incoming President Tamara.  The Presidential Chain is made up of silver links with the name of each Club President engraved on a link.

President Tamara’s main aim is to do her best to ensure that the club continues to be able to help the community and is a place where people have a good time together.

After a difficult year she hopes that the coming year will be easier and that we don’t have to postpone or cancel anything.  However, we live in uncertain times and she would like to focus on building resilience.  

The Club’s main fundraising  events are the two annual Martinborough Fairs and the Martinborough Charity Fun Ride.  She said, “the Club should have alternative fundraising plans in place even if we don’t use them”.

Tamara reminded everyone that “we are looking forward to having the Martinborough Fair on 26 November”.

The evening was entertaining, convivial and an altogether enjoyable event for the Club.