Hutt Valley Rotary met with their sister club Minoh Rotary Club during Lower Hutt's October visit and joined the regular club meeting at Minoh Kanko Hotel. The two clubs signed a cooperation agreement in 2004 and Hutt club President Tony McCombs grabbed the opportunity to visit the Minoh club with his wife Kate, Mayor Wallace, Deputy Mayor Bassett and council CEO Tony Stallinger.
Minoh Rotary hosts Hutt Valley Rotary and Hutt City Council
The two clubs talked about each other's activities, shared recent successes and proffered projects that could happen between the two clubs and cities. A memorable moment came when Tony McCombs spoke about the annual fundraising duck race along the Hutt River. Tony described how people could buy a duck and paint it, how smaller ducks simply had numbers on them and how the valley's Mayors each had one that looked like them and how businesses joined in the fundingraising spirit by adding costumes to theirs too. By this point you can imagine some of the expressions on the audience's faces were looking a little surprised and confused, until it was clarified that there were indeed plastic ducks. Phew.
Minoh Rotary liked the idea of a local duck race too and are already talking about how that might happen. When speaking to Tony afterwards, I asked him could the race be held in the two cities on the same day. Perhaps you could buy a duck in each race...
BY JAMES LAMB, HMHFT SECRETARY