CLUB NEWS
ROTARY CLUB OF LONGFORD
DISTRICT 9830 TASMANIA
2014/15
No:- 12
September 25th 2014
Rotary Grace: For good food, good fellowship and the opportunity to serve, we give thanks
PROGRAM
TONIGHT
Thursday 25th
NEXT meeting
Thursday
2nd
Time:
6:30 for 7:00
6:30 for 7:00
Venue
RSL
RSL
Speaker
Tim, Linus, Bob
Topic
Peru
Chairperson
Dennis Dwyer
Linus Grant
Corporal
Sina Mahjoor
David Ford
Attendance
Vivian Mann
Michael Moore
Apologies:
Greg Knight email :- [email protected]
or phone 6391 3008
mob 0418343569
By Noon on Wednesday if possible
Birthdays:- Nil
Wedding Anniversary:- Nil
Club Anniversary:- Nil
Forthcoming Events:
Volunteers needed for BBQ cooking – 5th Oct Rocking Rods, assist with erection of
marquees .
“Are you being served”
Club Notices:
November:- Nov 12th Cressy School road safety event
LAST MEETING
PDG James was in control of the meeting.
20 – 24th October is the driver awareness program at Symmonds Plains .
The club member police check program is being revised
The annual club subs is set at $160. This being subsidised by the club to $60 per club member
Ron Denne – report
Cressy School
23 Boxes delivere
+ plans well in hand for the car accident
scenario training day
Help is also required on the 14th October at Symmons plains Race Track for the Driver Training day
Bulletin Notes
September 25th 2014
Guest Speaker
Paul Schwamm
I was born in 1961 in Launceston. My mother was English and my father was German. They met here in
Launceston after the second World War and then travelled to Germany to get married.
My father was called up at the age of seventeen into the German Army. He fought in France and was taken
as a prisoner of war by the French. I recall the stories he told me like the time a German officer lined up
him and his fellow soldiers and proceeded to ask them why they would like to be officers to which most of
them replied “I am proud to serve my country”..........except for my father who said: “ ...because I am sick of
laying in the shit all the time” of which he meant the trenches.
And then the story he told me of the time after he was taken as a prisoner war when his mates and the
French walked into a mine field and the French sergeant had his leg blown off so they sent my dad into
retrieve him.
My mother also lived through the war in England.
As a child I had a pretty good life. My father was actually a good hurdler and
hammer thrower in Germany.
He decided to coach me in the pole vault. I started on a broomstick & when I
was eight clearing a height of three feet. I gradually moved from a
broomstick to a bamboo pole, then to a metal pole and eventually to a
fibreglass pole.
At the age of eleven I became a state champion and
then started competing on the mainland in different competitions. At
sixteen I won the Australian schoolboy pole-vaulting title and then again the
following year.
Training was rigid - during the summer months I trained 5 days a week. My
dad set up my training arena in the backyard. My fibreglass poles were
imported from the USA for $ 140 each.
I recall the time when I missed the landing area, (which was a trapeze
arrangement of foam rubber bags) and landed in an apple tree and got stung
by a bee.
Another mishap I had was when I was competing in a triangular match between Western Australia and
South Australia and Tasmania. I had won the title but missed the landing area completely on my last jump
and feel into the metal box backside first from 3 metres 70 cm.
The Mercury newspaper plastered three pictures of me on the front page. One going over the bar, one in
the box being comforted by an official and one being carted away by the ambulance paramedics ...the
heading was “Fame brings its pain”
My personal best height was 4.25 metres
I was also quite good at soccer representing the state twice and winning the beast and fairest and the
players player for my club.
While I was at Matriculation College I secured a job at the Examiner Newspaper as a cadet photographer
which started a long life passion for photography.
At this time I moved away from sport. If I had to choose between sport and photography I’d choose
photography. I worked at the Examiner for five years from 1978 to 1983. But during this time I became
mentally ill. When I left the Examiner I was determined to deal with my illness without the use of
medication.
I started practising YOGA which helped but only seemed to mask it. I went to a Yoga ASHRAM near
Gosford NSW in 1984 where you were taught Karma Yoga which means work through Yoga. The daily
regime started at five in the morning, first a cold shower, meditate with a swami and then work all day.
My job assignment was to push truck tyres up a hill to terrace the hills.
I had it down to a fine art – I could push two tyres at once – except, one day, one got away from me went
bouncing down through the bush narrowly missing a mother pushing a baby in a pram.
While I was at the Ashram I rode my bike to Gosford, a 50 kms trip, to see a Uniting Church Minister.
I asked what it was like to be a Christian. He couldn’t give me an answer. He left me stay in the church hall
overnight. I remember that night praying for forgiveness of sins. The next day I started my journey back to
the Ashram and on the way I started to sing a James Taylor song:
“Won’t you look down upon me Jesus you’ve got to help me make a stand”
I found the more I let myself go into the song the freer I felt. By the time I reached the Ashram my normally
timid self had transcended into a stout heavenly boldness feeling completely free of my problems.
This transformation changed my life completely. I started to put other people before my own needs. I
started doing simple things for other people like cutting wood free of charge for old age pensioners. For
me, my religion is my rock but I think it is important to understand - not to judge other people’s beliefs and
to respect all ideologies.
My father passed away in 2002 and with my inheritance I bought a block of land in Perth. A good friend
who is a builder, helped me build my house there. At this time I restarted working as a Photographer, and
obtained a job with the Country Courier Newspaper.
I won the festival Photographic competition 4 times, three in a row 2011, 2012, 2013.
I am pleased I joined the Rotary.
This was a fascinating talk - Well Done Paul !
Missing in Action –
Is any Rotarian aware of where the Baking dishes for the BBQ trailer are ??
Editors Note:- Thanks to Kevin Headlam for his assistance while I have been unwell.