Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

The Rotary Club of Beecroft recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and its 51st year is proving to be its best yet. The club's annual events for Australia Day and Anzac Day are a centrepiece of our community. The Young at Heart Festival and the Living Treasures awards have strengthened ties between the generations. The Train Ride to End Polio has spurred hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Another recent success has been the new Beecroft Preloved Bookshop. Beecroft Rotary established the bookshop following the closure of the Beecroft Children's Bookshop in 2019 and two years of cancelled fairs due to COVID. Staffed by local volunteers, in just six months it has sold approximately 8,000 books, raising almost $40,000 for Rotary service projects. I thank Russell Zimmerman and Jaythene Hiscock for their leadership.

Another innovative project is the club's partnership with gin distiller Craft Foundry to create Beecroft Spirit gin, a small-batch gin featuring botanicals that reflect the flora of Beecroft. The community rallied around this unique project, which quickly sold out and raised $2,600. The launch party, hosted by Prashant Gupta of Hannah's wine bar, was a terrific community event with over 150 locals. Congratulations to Daniel Dummer and Christian Young. I want to acknowledge the club's leadership: fourth-generation Rotarian Madeline Sherwood, David Rands, Cathy Sherwood, Russell Zimmerman, Greg Keighran, Niranjan Deodhar, Sophie Lloyd, Christian Kirkendall, Dave Anderson and Daniel Dummer. I look forward to the next 50 years of the wonderful Beecroft Rotary.

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