Dannevirke Rotary awards Paul Harris Fellowship to Garry Hasler

Di Carter passes the presidency of Dannevirke Rotary to Chris Southgate.

At its Changeover Night on June 30 in the Dannevirke Black Stump Restaurant, Dannevirke Rotary Club underwent a leadership change when outgoing president Di Carter handed the chain and gong to Chris Southgate.

Dannevirke Rotarians enjoy a great meal at Dannevirke's Black Stump Restaurant.

The previous year the leadership role had been shared by Diana Mancer and Di Carter for six months each. Each had been president before, Diana when the club held its 90th birthday in November 2017.

Garry Hasler - recipient of the Paul Harris Fellowship - with new Rotary president Chris Southgate.

For Chris this is his third term as president and his first task was to award member Garry Hasler a Paul Harris Fellowship which recognises outstanding service to Rotary International and the community.

Garry's service has been outstanding in its longevity (over 30 years), leadership and involvement. Garry was introduced to Rotary in Dannevirke by Mike Olsen and after several years he transferred to Masterton figuring it was the best way to get to know the community.

He thoroughly enjoyed his 17 years in the Marton club, becoming its president and taking on many project roles.

He rejoined Dannevirke Rotary when he returned as owner of New World Supermarket and has been in the club a further 12 years, also becoming its president.

Like Marton he has thoroughly enjoyed serving the Dannevirke club and community, taking on in particular its youth projects of RYPEN (Rotary Youth Programme for Enrichment) and RYDA (Rotary Youth Driver Awareness).

He finds them very rewarding, seeing the change in young people when they go to the RYPEN Camp in Inglewood and seeing young people learn to drive safely.

Chris said it was very easy to make the decision to recommend someone for a Paul Harris Fellowship when he had someone of Garry's credentials.

Chris Southgate in his message to his membership challenged them to find more members saying that like most service clubs, numbers are diminishing and average age is increasing.

He also challenged them to support existing projects like the gifting of dictionaries to all Year 4 students in Tararua, RYPEN and RYDA and money-raising ventures like their sausages and pancakes stalls on market days to help sponsor Rotary International third world programmes.

His theme "Post-Covid – now let's get on with it" says it all.