ROTARY Club of Casterton celebrated Easter with a tribute to a much loved and well-known former member.
The late Johnny Hughes, or John Hughes JP PHP & PP, came to the Casterton district as a relief pharmacist during World War II.
He made Casterton his home for the following 70-plus years and was an esteemed member of Rotary until his passing in 2012.
For many years, Mr Hughes sponsored a raffle outside his ‘Chemist Shop’, with proceeds donated to local charitable work, in the community.
This year, the Rotary Club of Casterton reintroduced the Easter Raffle to honour his memory and raise funds for Casterton’s Youth HQ and Blood Bank Bus.
More than 2500 tickets were sold in the record-breaking John Hughes Memorial Raffle, sold by local members outside Casterton’s Care+ Plus Pharmacy in the lead up to Easter weekend.
The prize was an array of Easter merchandise, which was organised by Rotarian Kaye Annett and generously donated by Glenelg Chocolates, Timboon Distillery, artisan Peter Broomhead and Kaye, herself.
The prize was beautifully arranged and displayed in the pharmacy window by pharmacist, Bek Hamill’s staff and Bek was also called-upon to draw the winning ticket, on Good Friday eve.
Rotary President, Tonie Thiel, thanked Kaye, her generous team of ticket sellers and Bek and the pharmacy team, for their contribution to the fundraiser and presented winner, Dunrobin’s Jill Hortle, with her prize.
Ms Thiel also thanks everyone in the community who supported Rotary to help with our work in the community by purchasing tickets in The John Hughes Memorial Raffle.
Rotary Border Group Strathdownie Meeting
GETTING a bit worried about the collaboration between the Border Community Group of Rotary Clubs.
The last couple of meetings may have discussed ‘some Rotary Business’, but to repeat that word used to describe the above raffle prize, have been ‘indulgent’ due to the food consumed.
The result from this event could be described as Border Bulge; thanks to the Strathdownie Memorial Hall Committee, you always do it so well.
The hot event following the ‘Border Bulge meal (and we really mean ‘hot’, with the temperature over 30c degrees) featured the well-publicised Pétanque event at the SPA – The Strathdownie Pétanque Arena.
We were too busy to bother with any photographic evidence, but on the Casterton side of the draw the scoreboard looked something like this:
Round 1: Casterton D Millicent – best player Belinda; Semi Final: Casterton D Naracoorte – best player Tonie; Grand Final: Mt Gambier D Casterton – best player Ian (Dougs).
Mt Gambier will have the honour of selecting the sport to be played at next year’s event.
We’re quite relieved that Casterton did not win as there was a strong lobby group vying for Belinda’s (Casterton) choice of ‘Twister’.
