President Noel presenting Roger with a Paul Harris Fellow Award
We had a busy meeting when Rotarian, Roger Budd, was presented with a well deserved Paul Harris Fellow Award. Roger was recognised for his energetic enthusiasm always making himself available to help. Well done, Roger.
Our guest speaker, Gerd Jacobsen gave as a riveting insight into how he came to Australia.
He was born in Germany and spent his early life in Hamburg, Germany. He witnessed a horrendous air raid in 1943 when 42,600 people were killed and 37,000 were injured and over 50% of homes were destroyed. In 1945 the city was handed over to the British and over the next 3 years he endured many hardships, worse than the war, no food, no fuel, no firewood. He was only able to start school when he was 9 years old.
He qualified for an assisted passage to Australia under the category ‘Unskilled Labourer’ and his family were also given assisted passage.
He spent his working life in the telephone industry and he and his wife retired in 1989 to live in Tura Beach.
Roger presenting Gerd with a Certificate of Appreciation