General News
4 July, 2022
Garry Higgins to lead Rotary for historic third term
Garry Higgins will lead the Maryborough Rotary Club for a third term, the first time in the club’s 70-year history the same president has been at the helm for three years consecutively. Mr Higgins was re-appointed at the club’s changeover dinner...
Garry Higgins will lead the Maryborough Rotary Club for a third term, the first time in the club’s 70-year history the same president has been at the helm for three years consecutively.
Mr Higgins was re-appointed at the club’s changeover dinner last week, marking a continued effort by the club to provide stability in the wake of the pandemic.
It follows a decision that for the first time in the club’s history, the board would take on a two-year term as a result of the uncertainty caused by COVID-19.
While excited to be taking on the role for another year, Mr Higgins said it was bittersweet the club’s traditional office bearing succession couldn’t continue.
“It is exciting but it’s also a bit bittersweet that we’ve had to do that to be honest,” he said.
“I think that’s a reflection of how COVID has been a challenge not only from the illness perspective but how it’s also disrupted the social fabric of our community.
“It would have been great for our club to have been in a position to continue the succession we’ve had over the past 70 years, but for us at this time it’s not really feasible and we need to focus on our club reset and getting everything in order.”
Mr Higgins said under his presidency, the club’s usual projects and programs will continue, including its flagship #sayNO2familyviolence campaign.
Moving forward, Mr Higgins said the club’s interest in becoming involved with the Bristol Hill Tower will also remain a priority.
“We’re going to continue our work around the Bristol Hill project moving forward,” he said.
“This will be a really big project for our club and we should be looking at making the tower a destination worth visiting for people.
“I can’t believe the number of people who have come to us asking how they can get involved and help or sharing their stories about the tower.
“We’re also learning a lot about the history side of things and how that relates to the importance of the tower to the community — it would be a real shame for that history to be forgotten.”
In the past few weeks, the club has inducted an additional eight members and will continue to focus on increasing membership moving forward.
Mr Higgins also said the club will look to roll out a new literacy program and spruik its community engagement work.
“The other thing we really want to start pushing is a literacy project and we will be meeting in the coming weeks to discuss what that might look like,” he said.
“We’re also in conversations with Crameri’s Mitre 10 about having regular barbecues there each Saturday morning.
“The idea behind that is we would run the barbecue as a fundraiser for a community group each week which not only supports them, but helps us as a club engage with our community.
“This will be an exciting year for Rotary and we’re looking forward to making a start.”