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President David Pyke is pictured with Fayah McKenzie and District Governor John McKenzie. | ||
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At our Tuesday July 30th meeting, Geoff Breust came to the Podium to present an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) to Arch Deacon David Ruthven, Rector of the Anglican Parish of Wagga Wagga. An AED is vital in treating a Sudden Cardiac Arrest, they are simple and easy to use, and no harm can be done by using one. Geoff recognised former Wollundry Rotarian Travis Downie, for starting this program and says if it saves one life, it is extremely well worth it. Arch Deacon David said he knew how important these were as he had a heart attack about 4 years ago. He said that it will be a big relief to know that if something happens to someone , they will have an AED available. David Thanked the club on behalf of the Parish. |
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| The organisation "Give Me 5 for Kid" received a $2000 cheque from Wollundry Rotary from Gear's and Beer's income. |
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David Pyke set a record on the changeover evening by winning the Rotarian of the Year award and being inducted as President for 2019-20. The club archives have no other Rotarian achieving such recognition. It was a popular evening with the politians with Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormick, State Member of Parliment Joe McGurr and our own Wagga Wagga Mayor Greg Conkey in attendance. Photos of the Evening can be viewed by clicking here or on the top of the website banner. |
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Mike Smith our guest speaker with avid cyclists Neil Pinto and Phil McIntosh |
Members were astonished by the cycling feats of today's guest speaker Mike Smith. He was introduced by Phil McIntosh, the instigator of the Gears and Beers Festival. Phil told us that Mike had left Melbourne the previous evening at 7.30 pm on his bicycle and had arrived in Wagga in time for our meeting. That is an astonishing 450ks plus in under 15 hours! Riding on the Hume Highway! Phil said that Miles had contacted us because he admired what we do through our Gears and Beers Festival and wanted to redirect the sponsorship money he gets through our Club to Rotary Health. |
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Miles, who took up cycling in recent years and who is 58 years old, wants to break the Guiness Book World Record for the most number of kilometres ridden in a single year. This record is known as the HAMR, Highest Annual Mileage Record. With legs like tree trunks and Heart and Lungs to match, he plans to achieve his goal, by riding approximately 550 ks per day, every day for a year, commencing in August. If successful, he will achieve over 90 other records along the way.
Miles currently works with the Rotary Club of Bright which organises The Alpine, a four peak 250 k ride, regarded as one of the toughest rides in Australia. He wants to help with Polio eradication and has a number of Corporate Sponsors. He believes our Club can receive a lot of money from our work in cycling and he will donate his certificates for his various records which can be auctioned in tandem with our Gears and Beers festival.
Riding such long distances each day doesn't leave a lot of time for eating and sleeping, but Miles has simple but effective strategy. Each night before he rides he checks the weather forecast for wind direction the following day. He then sets our on the day of the ride, i.e. next morning, by taking his bike on a VicRail train against the wind for approx. 250ks. While on the train for about three hours he goes to sleep. He then rides with the wind back to Melbourne and repeats the exercise. By doing this he always rides with wind assistance which is legal under the terms of the record.
Miles' rides are constantly monitored and checked by Guiness. He carries four GPS trackers monitoring time, distance, heart rate etc. He also has a CB radio on his bike which allows him to talk to truck drivers. The latter call him the Hume Fairy, because of his hi vis clothing and not, he hopes, because they think he is a wuz.
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| Miles' trusty bike. Note the size of the drive gear sprocket. Miles averages 35ks an hour! |
The furthest distance Miles has ridden in a day is 720 ks. An engaging ex-Yorkshireman with a good sense of humour, Miles told us that, needless to say, he is not married. Members were totally blown away by his physical capacity and even more so when he responded to a question about travelling home, that he said he was jumping on his bike for the return journey immediately after our meeting! Sleep could wait!
President James presented him with a bottle of Olive Oil produced by some of our members. He jokingly said it would be very useful for oiling his chain. At least we thought he was joking.
Members, somewhat awestruck, applauded this incredible human being.
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Peter Moroney was introduced by PP Paul Milde. Paul said that Peter is retired from the Police Force and had served for 17 years and retired at the rank of a Detective Sergeant. Peter has had a long-time association with Rotary. When he was a young officer he organised a charity bike ride that was supported by Rotary. His talk was about a joint counter terrorism investigation, which was conducted by the AFP, ASIO and the Victorian Police. The investigation started in 2004. Peter wrote a book about the investigation which was referred to “Operation Pandanus” from an investigator’s point of view. He felt the beginning of the effect of terrorism on our own homelands was Sept 11, 2001. His talk, to a great extent was about Islamic terrorism but he stressed that the number of actual Islamic terrorists would not number to over 50 to 100. He spoke about the Australian born terrorists who were instrumental in recruiting young individuals to fight in foreign lands for ISIS. |
