Woodend Rotary

12/06/2026

The great thing about being in Rotary is the ability to help the community.

🏅🦘 𝗥𝗢𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗬 𝗪𝗢𝗢𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗗 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗣𝗦 𝗨𝗣 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗗𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗖𝗨𝗘𝗥𝗦 🦘🏅

💛 The Macedon Ranges Wildlife Network would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the incredible team Woodend Rotary for their generous support of our wildlife rescuers.

🦺 Through this fantastic local partnership, Rotary Woodend has provided our members with high quality, professional grade reversible safety vests featuring both the MRWN and Rotary logos. The vests are polar fleece lined for warmth, waterproof on the outside, highly reflective for night visibility and packed with practical pockets for rescue equipment.

🚨 Rotary Woodend has also supplied reflective warning triangles to help improve safety for our members when responding to wildlife emergencies on roadsides across the Macedon Ranges.

🦘 Over the long weekend our members were out in force wearing their new vests and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Not only do they help keep our volunteers safer, they also provide a professional and recognisable presence when assisting injured wildlife and supporting members of the public.

🤝 This partnership is a wonderful example of one local volunteer organisation supporting another. Both Rotary Woodend and MRWN are powered by volunteers who give their time, skills and energy to make the Macedon Ranges a better place for people and wildlife.

💚 We are incredibly grateful for Rotary Woodend's commitment to community safety, wildlife welfare and volunteer support. Your generosity will make a real difference every time one of our members answers the call to help an animal in need.

🦘🦺🚨💚

05/06/2026

To top off our wonderful meeting last night we were pleased to induct another new member last night with Dr Clayton Massey being formally inducted into Woodend Rotary and presented with his name badge and Rotary pin. Clayton who has been attending meetings for a few weeks was joined by his wife Jenny and both were made very welcome by all members.
This is our 6th new member for the year and we are expecting more to come.

05/06/2026

Another great catchup at Woodend Rotary last night with the presentation of high quality, high vis vests and reflective road triangles to members of the Macedon Ranges Wildlife Rescue team. This will keep them safer and warmer in the field and on the roadside when rescuing injured wildlife. The vests are branded with their logo and ours to show our contribution and support of the wonderful work of their volunteers. Meaghan and the team showed us their new video and explained their new Walk and Talk program showing people the mob of Roos at Hanging Rock. Lots of visitors making it another lively and interesting experience. We were proud to do our best to support their work. We raised nearly $150 for Operation Cleft through our progressive egg auction. We also inducted a new member but more about this in another post.

27/05/2026

Today a dedicated team of 11 from Woodend Rotary completed yard work at the Carlsruhe campus of Woodend Primary school. This campus accommodates year 4 students who spend 4 days a week at the annexe engaging in a curriculum focussing on sustainability, environmental awareness and animal care. We did weeding, pruning, hedging and raking up the millions of acorns. The after photos look amazing. Students spend Wednesdays at the main campus so we had the run of the place filling two tandem trailers with debris.

18/05/2026

What's happening at Woodend Rotary?

This Thursday 21st May our guest speaker is Peace Fellow Dr Tania Miletic. Tania (pictured) was part of the first intake of our Rotary Peace Fellows over two decades ago, attending a fully funded 2-year Masters program in Peace Studies in Tokyo. Since then, Tania has been supporting our Rotary District with the mentoring and selection of Rotary Peace Fellows, working in the Peace field and is currently the Co-Director, Initiative for Peacebuilding and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Tania has also published a book PEACEMEAL which is a unique collection of over 40 global peacebuilders who share culinary stories and recipes that will feed an imagination for everyday peacebuilding amidst conflict.
You can find out more at https://peace-meal.org/

The following week Thursday 28th May we will be actively engaged in our monthly activity of folding The New Woodend Star prior to distribution. Make contact if you would like to participate. It is easy and lots of fun.

On Thursday 4th June at the Victoria Hotel, Woodend we have a special night to say farewell to our exchange student Carla, who is returning home to Spain after spending 12 months being hosted by Rotarians and families in the Macedon Ranges as part of the Rotary Youth exchange program.

13/05/2026

Hi there, I thought you would enjoy information on the Polio Network Victoria.

Many know about efforts to eradicate Polio but fewer have awareness of the plight of those people who contracted the disease as children and have been living with the Post Polio effect since. There are 400,000 people in Australia.

As in previous years Woodend Rotarians helped at the Polio Day event held in Bendigo last year and were lucky enough to get a mention and appear in the photo on page 2 of the Polio Perspectives newsletter.

For over a decade Woodend Rotary has been supporting the Victorian chapter providing assistance at their yearly Polio Day event and financial contributions to support their activities. We are doing our bit, so they know Rotary still cares and is still making a difference.

Eradicating Polio is the main goal but supporting the brave individuals living with the aftereffects of Polio, their family and carers is also essential.

11/05/2026

Woodend Rotary was pleased that our story about our Plastic Free Bali project was featured in the latest edition of the Rotary Down Under magazine (pages 12-14 May/June edition). Supported by a Rotary Foundation grant this was a joint project with the Rotary clubs of Woodend, Perth, Bali and the Rotary Club of Bali Seminyak. The project involved several villages and environmental NGO Yayasan Biosfir Indonesia.

10/05/2026

Last week we made our first delivery of coats, blankets, sleeping bags and men’s underwear to Youth projects. We immediately packed a consignment to be transported to The Living Room in Hosier Lane Melbourne to distribute to the homeless people in need. Please continue to donate items to Woodend Rotary for this cause. Drop off items to Mort and Pestle in Woodend until the end of May.

08/05/2026

Thanks to Councillor Kate Kendall, Mayor of Macedon Ranges for visiting Woodend Rotary on Thursday to chat and answer those burning questions from the community. A brilliant evening from a knowledgeable leader making us feel comfortable that our Council is I. Good hands. We also inducted and welcomed our newest member Phil Wilkinson who will make a great addition to our team.

02/02/2026

We are pleased to confirm the following speakers for our Woodend Rotary Meeting this Thursday 5th Feb- upstairs at the Victoria Hotel Woodend. (6.30pm for a 7pm start)

-Charmaine Soulsby (NYSF- National Youth Science Forum))
-Jessica McDougall (The Science Experiment)
-Laura Dettmann (RYLA- Rotary Youth Leadership Awards)

It will be a wonderful night for you to meet some of our members and hear about these youth programs we sponsor.