Past Reunions – 2019
Warragul Past Jaycees and Jaycettes Reunion Luncheon – Friday 1 March 2017, Wild Dog Winery, (Hoggets) Warragul
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE REUNION GALLERY
It was a very warm day for the start of Autumn that saw 59 attendees at our 5th biannual reunion. Held at Hoggets restaurant in the Wild Dog Winery near Warragul. Kevin Dale welcomed everyone and recognised Brian Hopkins who was awarded an OAM in the recent Australia Day Awards. In our Past Jaycee group he now joins Helen Armour and Cam Algie who both have an OAM, Bill Pyle has an AM and Mavis Gallienne has an AO. Kevin Thomson has also been presented with a Centenary medal in 2000 for outstanding community service. Overall quite an achievement for our group.
Doug Armour read out the apologies from 20 members. Max Cameron recognised members who have sadly passed away in the past two years. They were Bryan Shanahan, Mike Goyne, Jeff Marriott, Max Ford, George Blackstock. Also the wife of Fred Armour, Jeanette and the Daughter of John and Mavis Gallienne, Melinda Freeman.
We were especially pleased to have as guest the current JCI President Sam Gibb attend our function as a guest speaker. Sam is a Batchelor of Mechatronics Engineering at Monash University. He joined Jaycees (now known as JCI) in 2014.
From Bill Pyle
The Warragul Jaycee reunion was as usual a most enjoyable occasion; with Kevin Dale playing another outstanding role: we have to admit he is good! He interview three past members then invited our guest 2019 National President Sam Gibb to address the gathering.
Sam a mechanical engineer spoke very well as he explained Jaycees now have four active chapters three in Victoria & one in Sydney, with 125 members the majority being ladies. . He explained that these days most companies have their own training course for leadership & public speaking. He went on to tell us in 2014 he was invited to a meeting of the Eastern Victoria Chapter during which a project that was designed to help intellectually handicapped young people learn to paint & become artists. They sort a Chairman, Sam volunteered as he thought the idea was so good he wanted to be involved. Over 20 young people were trained over a number of weeks, Sam felt it was one of his most enjoyable experiences.
At the dinner table we yarned; he was a real gentleman, quietly spoken, and interested in what Warragul Jaycees had achieved. We smiled when he referred to us as graduated Jaycees, much better than an” exhausted roster”!
We all agreed another reunion in two years would be good but at a different venue
Bill Pyle was JCI National President and JCI World Vice President
Kevin then interviewed two of our past members. First was Florian Andrighetto to tell us about his adventures in sailing a 40 foot Yacht from the USA to Australia. He included the Caribbean in the journey and all up with a bout of sickness which saw him fly back to Australia for 6 months, it took him 4 years in all to get the Yacht back to Australia. At the moment the yacht is in Tasmania, he was back in Warragul for the wedding of his daughter.
Graham Kinrade was the interviewed, he was Outstanding Jaycee in 1996 and Chapter President in 1999. He mentioned some highlights of his Jaycee career including the Chapter winning the National Debating Championship that year. The third time the Chapter had taken out that prize. Graham was appreciative of the personal development opportunities gained during his membership. He has just recently sold his automotive business
Barbra Bardsley was one of the early office bearers of the Jaycettes and recounted her experience in the early days. As a young wife with babies she found she was in a group with other wives in the same situation. She said they formed a strong bond, sharing experiences and enjoyed each others company. They were keen to do what they could to assist their husbands and then went on to organise their own projects.
It was other enjoyable day and we all agreed we should meet again in two years’ time on the first Friday in March 2021
Special thanks to Doug and Dianne Armour for sending out the function notices, managing all the registrations and providing the name tags. Thanks to Max for looking after the registration desk and collecting the money. Bruce Langton has been most helpful in looking after our web site at his own cost. He did an upgrade of the web site this year and takes all the photos of our event.
Next Reunion
We usually meet on the first Friday of March every two years. So our next date is Friday 5 March 2021.
Contact
For any information or news please contact Kevin Dale, 0411 284 020, kevinfdale46@gmail.com
Doug and Diane Armour, 0418 584 135, armourd@sympac.com.au
Max Cameron, 0427 863 394, mecameron@dcsi.net.au
Bruce Langdon, 0418 595 080, bruce@brucelangdon.com.au