September was a busy month for the Club

Sun 19 Sep 2010 - Cabramatta Moon Festival
The Cabramatta Moon Festival celebrated once a year when the moon shines brightest at the vernal equinox is one of Sydney’s largest Asian multicultural festivals. It draws crowds in the tens of thousands for a taste of Asian multicultural life in the suburbs of Sydney.
The Moon Festival is centred in the bustling shopping and restaurant precinct of Cabramatta’s John St and Freedom Plaza and this year was held on Sunday 19th September 2010.
Following application to council, the Rotary Club of Liverpool West in conjunction with the Vietnam Vision Project (VVP) group was able to establish a stall to primarily provide public education and community awareness of both organisations. Fundraising was also undertaken by way of accepting donations and selling soft drinks and bottled water.
The generosity of the public was overwhelming. The first donation was received well before the stall was ready for business; a generous donor just left the donation on the counter.
It wasn’t long before the crowd increased (the official crowd estimates exceeded 90,000) and the stall was overwhelmed with enquiries and donations, both large and small, came pouring in. Pamphlets were distributed and questions answered, soft drinks sold and balloons given out. The demand for balloons was extremely high and the stall soon ran out of helium, however, with the generosity of the local federal member, more helium gas was provided to enable a few hundred more bal-loons to be distributed.
Local politicians and dignitaries visited the stall and took photo opportunities with the workers. A visit from the Premier of NSW also took place.
The day may have been long, however, the benefits rewarding. A total of $1,850 was collected. Volunteers from both Rotary and VVP worked willingly and together to ensure a successful out-come and all who attended on the day should be congratulated for a job well done.
(They told me Volunteers took in helium, ran out of gas, then packed up and went home early.) 

Sat 26 Sep 2010 - Cabramatta BBQ fundraiser 
The BBQ was an outstanding success being attended by members and volunteers from the Rotary Club of Liverpool West, the Satellite Club and Vietnam Vision Project. The numbers in attendance to lend a helping hand would be the envy of many Rotary club weekly meetings. A great turnout however, not surprising.
The volunteers jobs were many and varied, and included setup of the stall and BBQ trailer, decorating the stall with Rotary and VVP banners and photos, selling food and drinks, handing out balloons and providing information to the public and general community about the work conducted by VVP and Rotary.
Again, as experienced during the Cabramatta Moon Festival the previous Sunday, the generosity of the community was outstanding. Donations alone exceeded $2,800.00 with food and drink sales collecting around $600.00.
The event provided a lot of fun for those attending including the competition for "Master Chef" for the day. The clear winner by the length of the home straight was our own Trudi, having shoved her way through crowd, pushing contestants out of the way, Trudi, with her personal, custom made gold plated, diamond encrusted BBQ tongs took over the plate. Without batting an eyelid, eggs were being fried, bacon tossed and sausages turned with the end result of a "gourmet delight". Good work Trudi? Special thank you to all those attending and helping.
Volunteer workers on the day included Phuoc and Catherine Vo, Chinh and Ha Dang, Thuan and Thuy Nguyen, Dr Le-Duc Hong, Kevin Walker, Jim Rudling, Charles Hili, Joe Cauchi, Jim Leahy, Ted Mlynarz, Bob Groat, Shann O’Connell and Trudi from VVP who has attended the last 3 missions in an administrative role. Chief Inspectors included Geoff and John Gibbs. Chief Merchandise and Culinary Delight Explorers were Doris Gibbs, Indra and Trisa Rudling, a very enjoyable day. 

Tues 28 Sep 2010 – Guest Speakers from Sierra Leone and Tanzania
Our first Guest speaker was Saibatu Van Holst accompanied by Bintu, spoke to us about life in Sierra Leone and the plight of a country that has had its infrastructure destroyed by war. A professional power point presentation was graciously presented for the benefit of knowledge for members. Saibatu, Husband Marcelis and Bintu travelled from St Andrews simply to provide members with an interesting program as a favour to member Past President Frans Buskermolen
Heide Schooling then spoke to us on Tanzania. Heidi has spent the past 2 ½ years in Tanzania as a volunteer teacher trainer. In the area Heide taught, the infrastructure has yet to develop beyond tracks. Heide has visited Gemma Sisia at the school of St Jude’s, which is about 1,000 km away and would like to start a school of her own and estimates $90,000.00 would establish a decent school.