Santa Claus came to Lovina again……….

Every December, Rotarians all over the world celebrate family month. Rotarians are part of the Rotary family. The Rotary family is not only the 1.2 million Rotary members that we have, but also all people that are involved in the work of Rotary; the spouses and children of our members, our Rotary Foundation participants and alumni, and all those who are part of our program in the tens of thousands communities around the world.

Rotary Club of Bali Lovina celebrates ‘Rotary’s family month’ by including their families, friends and partners in their yearly Christmas activities. They attend the Christmas party, join into the preparations and give donations. The last meeting of the year is always a busy happening, around the Christmas tree with many partners of Rotarians and friends joining in.

Traditionally, the Rotary Club of Bali Lovina will invite Father Christmas to make a Lovina tour, the day prior to the Christmas party to announce the event. Our own Hansjoerg was the one to put on Santa’s costume this year. He drove around Lovina handing out lollies to the children. This year there was no horse for Santa but a decorated pick-up truck. Fortunately, the rain stopped for a moment that afternoon. So Santa kept dry (in the raining sense), although warm behind his beard. We all understood Santa’s refusal to wear his wellingtons on this occasion. He chose to stick to his more Balinese footwear; his flip-flops.

This year’s Christmas party proceeds will, like last year, be going to Rotary’s ‘End Polio Now’ campaign. Like last year many businesses from the local Lovina community joined the Rotary Club of Bali Lovina with raffle prices, donations and auction prices, in achieving it’s goal of collecting a minimum amount of USD 1.000 to help the world getting free of polio.

This year, Rotarians Erna and Frans chaired the organizing committee and kept everyone updated with weekly emails so that everyone know what they should do. All this work paid off - the evening was a great success!

The evening commenced at six o’clock Bali time, meaning most people arrived around seven. A total of 68 members and guests were present. Thanks to a donation of PP Conchita’s own parents our club’s tradition of serving a glass of mulled wine could be continued with Conchita preparing the wine herself and Lia handing them out with the help of Santa, this time with his wellington’s on.

Rotarian Frans opened the evening and spoke about Rotary’s ‘end polio now’ campaign and the amazing results our organzation has booked so far in fighting this crippling disease. We have been able to cut the incidence of the disease by 99%, and we are now working on that last 1% of cases in our world! The evening had a festive character. There was live music, children activities and lot’s of Christmas carols playing in the background. Most surely we saw the first 2 Christmas trees of the island of Bali being lit up that evening.

Our message to our local community was the following; ….. We are almost there. After twenty years and almost two billion vaccinations, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradication polio forever. But we can’t finish the job without you. Thanks to a challenging grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation your donation will work twice as hard……

And people listened and joined in, with prizes and donations coming from;

• Agung Massage
• Bakery Lovina
• Bali Apik Restaurant
• Bali Bintang
• Bayu Kartika
• Bayu Mantra bungalows
• Biyu Nasak Gallery
• Damai Hotel
• East Wind Original
• Jasmine Kitchen
• Kakatua Restaurant
• Karina Hotel
• Lovina Pool and Batu Alam
• Lovina Pages
• Mandurah Spa Sanur
• Pashaa Lovina nightclub
• Poco Bar
• Princes Beauty Salon
• Sea Breeze
• Semina Restaurant
• Serendipity
• Spice Dive
• Spoilted Kerobokan
• Tasya Tasya
• Tropis Bistro

And numerous private sponsors.

There were auctions with the following successful bids

Hans : Buddha statue
Erna : volcanic body treatment
Keiko : Taksu massage
Robbie : Taksu massage

To everybody, thank you very much for helping us making this evening a success and helping us achieving our goal. We were able to raise Rp11,128,850

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR