At the District Conference this year the Club was awarded the Bill Boyd Significant Impact Award for a project that had made, or would make, a significant difference to their community. Our project that received this accolade was the Charity Ball and Auction that raised money for Ronald MacDonald House.
I was delighted to be able to tell members of our success and Neroli, on behalf of the organising committee (Jan, Pam, Trish, Neroli, Craig and Jo Morshius) accepted the award. The award is a rather stunning framed picture from space alongside the flag of New Zealand that was flown aboard the space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station in July 2006 – presented to Bill Boyd by NASA when he visited the space centre in October 2006.
Bill Boyd was Rotary International President in 2006/2007 and only the second New Zealander to hold this prestigious post (we were very fortunate to have him speak at a Polio fund raiser that our club held during his year). As well as establishing this award, Bill and his wife Lorna, established the Bill and Lorna Boyd Charitable Trust, which has so far purchased and distributed through Rotary Clubs, over 220,000 illustrated dictionaries, to primary schools throughout New Zealand, a project that our Club has been proud to support for many years.
