Werribee Rotary celebrates 54 years

Werribee Rotary members Jerestene Saher, Tino Ballan and club president Colin Muir. (Supplied)

It’s been 54 years since the Werribee Rotary was formed, and to reflect on all of the achievements of the club would take current member Ian Hovey too long, he says.

“We had one event back in the early 90s, one of the members Nino Arrigo rode his bike from Perth to Melbourne and raised $160,000 for the kids cancer unit at the Royal Children’s Hospital,” he said.

“Every year we run an [event] every year and we raise somewhere like $25,000-40,000 dollars that goes to places like Werribee Mercy Hospital, or mental health services.

“We’ve probably done hundreds of projects over the years and raised money for the community…my guess is it would be about a million dollars.”

The club held a birthday celebration recently to reminisce on the years that had gone by.

“It was just a fun night…we also had a birthday cake, we cut the cake,” Mr Hovey said.

“We’ve all got a common theme..we’re always wanting to help others.

“We’ve probably been fairly successful in our own lives and we wanted to contribute to people in the community who are less fortunate than we have been.”

Attendees on the night also heard from Ian Knight and Tino Ballan, the club’s remaining founding members.