By Tanya Steele
A dress-up competition had members of the Rotary Club of Emerald and District rock and rolling all night as they pulled together a stunning group costume of the band Kiss, taking out the top prize.
Members recently attended their inaugural Rotary District 9815 conference in Bendigo over the weekend of 28 – 30 March – dressed to impress in iconic rock and roll style for the costume competition.
Emerald Rotary President Kelly McAllister said the whole event from start to finish was ‘so much fun’.
“We were all in this Airbnb, two hours before the event, getting ready, putting makeup on and everything – we were singing KISS songs the whole time,” she said.
Ms McAllister said the group were off at one of their regular annual cluster conferences – which brought together around 55 Rotary clubs across the country and around 450 members.
“It was really inspiring – we learned a lot about different really worthy causes, we do it every year,” she said.
While the event offers Rotary members a chance to hear about different Rotary causes as well as new things that they might be embarking upon, Ms McAllister said it’s mainly all about fellowship.
“This year we heard all about several different, mainly international causes with some different communities that need, say, dental work,” she said.
The collaborative weekend always includes a dress-up which the Emerald cohort takes very seriously and this year’s theme was Rotary Rock, so the group decided to attend as the band Kiss.
Ms McAllister said the Rotary Club of Emerald and District always throws a lot of effort into the dress-up theme.
“We have two really clever people in the club, Lynn and Gail, who also come up with the themes every year,” she said.
Rotary has a few fun events coming up on the calendar, with their big annual fundraising event the kids’ fun run with Puffing Billy scheduled for late November.
Last year, the group made a stunning donation of 41,000 to assist cancer research at the Monash Children’s Hospital, which many members added to at the weekend conference.
Returning from their epic costumed event, the members will now continue to work in their community.
“We’re always looking for new members. We meet every Tuesday at 7pm at the Paradise Valley Hotel,” said Ms McAllister.
The group also have a volunteer register which means the community can pop along to help with single events.
“It takes the pressure off some of the regular members and means people can check out the Rotary and what we are about,” said Ms McAllister.
“Then we can call out for volunteers, and if they’ve registered, then we can say, Hey, do you mind coming along and flipping a sausage?” she said.
Next year, it’s been announced that the conference will be held in Hobart, and the theme is going to be nautical.
“So we’re going to have to come up and figure something out for that. We are the most raucous, and we attend the most, and we get into the theme the most.” said Ms McAllister.
