It is now 5 weeks in lock down and 6 weeks since our last person to person Rotary meeting at the Manningham club. It does seem longer than 6 weeks, but probably because life has slowed down with home isolation. The toilet rolls and other essentials to life are starting to come back onto supermarket shelves. The number of new COVID 19 cases are slowing down and there is hope now for an easing of restrictions. But hate to add that winter is still coming. So even though we are controlling the spread of the virus through social distancing, we still have to be vigilant with what we do, and to not lose the advantages that we have gained. We are now using zoom for our meetings at club level as well as for our committee meetings.

For the past 29 years, the Rotary Club of Templestowe has conducted a Schools Anzac Service involving up to 32 schools from within the Manningham City area. This has now grown to include up to 800 students and teachers.  Due to Covid-19, the Schools Anzac Service scheduled to be held on Thursday 23rd April '20 was cancelled. The solitary figure in the photo is a student from East Doncaster Secondary College who placed a wreath at the Templestowe Memorial Park on behalf of the College. 

On the eve of ANZAC Day, we are saddened that for the first time in almost 30 years, we are unable to conduct this remembrance service at the Templestowe Memorial Park. The Schools ANZAC Service has been run by the Rotary Club of Templestowe since 1990. About 800 children from a range of local Primary and Secondary schools normally participate in the event this year where wreaths are placed on the memorial.

We're now in full swing with our regular meetings, with 23 participants last Wednesday. As usual, we started off with a toast to Rotary International and the People of Australia, and almost everyone came prepared with their favourite beverage!

Before writing this April report, I was having a look at what was written in the March report and was amazed how much has changed in just one month due to the Corona virus.  All the events which we were looking forward to last month have all been cancelled and the club meetings have also been suspended.  Our 43rd Birthday celebrations were cancelled, as too was the District Conference, our Bunnings Sausage Sizzles + Shine on Awards.  Business Excellence Awards was cancelled.  Our Primary School Speech competitions have also been cancelled.  We will though, continue with Pride of Workmanship Awards, but in a modified form.  No one knows how long this situation is going to last, but once it is over, we intend to double up on our celebrations.