Rotary Club of PlimmertonPhillip Reidy
Posted: 21 July 2013
Long time Pauatahanui resident Ron Lucas has just become the new President of Plimmerton Rotary. Those with long memories will know that Ron is following in the family tradition as his father was both a Rotarian for many years and also a long serving Hutt County Councillor.
Plimmerton Rotary plays an important part in the local community doing many things that help make a lasting difference and of course amongst these projects is the one that captures Ron’s passion, the joint project with Porirua City to develop the pathway around the Pauatahanui Inlet (Te Ara Piko).
A Rotary President holds the leadership role for just twelve months and this is quite a short time in which to achieve numerous goals from the mundane to the truly exciting so a clear focus on achievement is needed from day one.
For Ron Lucas, this is not a problem as he brings to the role his skills as a surveyor having had his own practice for quite a number of years.
So what does this mean for Rotary and the community? “My passion is the Pathway and I want to see an even greater emphasis on working with Porirua City to get this thing really moving along”, says Ron. “We are just a whisker away from closing the gap between Pauatahanui Village and Motukaraka Point and won’t it be great to see the Pathway starting its journey to join the Camborne Walkway after that?”
“Youth is really something we focus on in Plimmerton” says Ron “and I have some great plans around accelerating some of the work we have been doing here”. For example we had a team go down to a local College and undertake mock job interviews with students and during the two days 200 very nervous students experienced their very first (in many cases) interviews and received constructive feedback. This is a first class example of the power Rotary has to help youth in a very positive way using the well learnt skills of many Rotarians. This kind of help is priceless and is just an example of how I want to unleash even more the talent Plimmerton Rotary has to just make things different in a better way.”
“Being a Rotarian is not all work either”, says Ron, “and the regular meetings are a great way to hear from speakers who sometimes challenge, sometimes inform, and often entertain. Work and fun seem to me to be the real strength of Rotary and again I have some ideas I want to make work here as well.”
Expect to see some things happen in and around you as Ron uses the benefit of a surveyor’s optical focus to lead Plimmerton Rotary over the next twelve months.