The Rotary Club of Moree’s final six members, from left, Leo Reiner, Mary Reiner, Gery Bierhoff, Angela Druery, Steven Harris and Paula Barton. Photo: Rotary Club of Moree.
After 89 years of service in Moree, the Rotary Club of Moree has drawn a line under its history with a final farewell lunch attended by people whose lives had crossed paths with the club.
The club, chartered in 1937, officially finished on July 1 after its membership had fallen to six. Former president Angela Druery said declining membership and an ageing membership base had made it increasingly difficult to organise and sustain the club’s activities.
“We just couldn’t get members,” Ms Druery said.
“We were down to like six members. A lot of our members were ageing, so we just couldn’t get people to help for an event, but to actually organise something and do it ongoing was just not really possible.”
Rather than focus on the difficulties facing service clubs more broadly, Ms Druery said the final gathering was intended as a chance to acknowledge what the Rotary Club of Moree had meant to the people involved with it.
About 30 people attended the lunch, including the six final members, former members, widows of past members, people involved with Rotaract and youth exchange, members of Moree’s other Rotary club, representatives of other service clubs and others with connections to the Rotary Club of Moree. Each was given an opportunity to speak about what Rotary had meant to them.
“This is a farewell lunch. It’s not a Rotary meeting,” Ms Druery said.
“It’s a get-together and remember the good times and, yeah, just do it one last time.”
Slideshows, club memorabilia and displays helped tell the story of the club, but Ms Druery said the day was ultimately about memories and marking the end of an era.
“It was about the memories, the memories, and, you know, it’s a line in the sand,” she said.
Across its 89 years, the Rotary Club of Moree was involved in a broad range of local projects and programs.
Ms Druery said the club sponsored an active Rotaract club, supported youth and student exchanges, public speaking programs and agricultural youth programs, and contributed to community projects including the construction of a helipad at Moree hospital and the development of Rotary Park.
The club also supported schools and other local organisations through fundraising and donations.
Before the club wound up, its remaining funds were distributed in June to five local schools and a range of community and sporting organisations.
Recipients were Moree Christian School, St Philomenas, Moree East PS, Moree Primary School, Moree Secondary College, Moree Netball, Moree Junior Soccer, Moree Junior Rugby League, Moree Junior Rugby, Moree Junior Cricket, Moree District Band, Moree Arts Community Thespians, Canassist and Westpac Rescue Helicopter.
While the Rotary Club of Moree has closed, Rotary continues to have a presence locally through another Rotary club in Moree. Ms Druery said the closure did not rule out the possibility of a new group forming in the future.
“If there was a group of people who wanted to get together and restart it up, absolutely, it’d be fabulous,” she said.
For the Rotary Club of Moree’s final six members, the farewell lunch marked the end of a club that had been part of Moree since 1937.
