Club History
Where Did Tauranga Te Papa Rotary Come From?
The Rotary Club of Tauranga Te Papa Inc was chartered as a member club of Rotary International on 20th April 1981 with 24 foundation members. One of those foundation members is still an active member nearly 40 years later and 30% of our members have been part of the Rotary movement for more than 20 years.
Current membership sits at 57 Active members plus 3 Honorary members.
71% men and 29% women. 25 of our current members have been honoured as a Paul Harris Fellow.
The Rotary Club of Tauranga South was our sponsor club and their member Bruce Henderson, who is still an Honorary member today, was the instigator and first President of our Lunch time club. Bruce is referred to as the “father” of Tauranga Te Papa Rotary due to his diligence and hard work to make it a reality.
Tauranga Te Papa is one of six Rotary Clubs active in the city of Tauranga, one of which, Papamoa, was initiated by Warwick Fairburn and other members of our club in 2008.
The clubs of the city of Tauranga form part of Rotary district 9930 which covers most of the central North Island of New Zealand which in turn is part of Oceania Zone 7b covering the Pacific Islands from Kiribati in the North to New Caledonia in the West, Tahiti in the East and New Zealand in the South. Our club has an enviable record of service to the local and international community which includes a number of projects in the Pacific, Nepal and Africa. We are responsible for many exchanges and visits with Rotarians from around the world and a very large alumni of Rotary Student Exchangees and Study Exchangees who have enjoyed living or learning in a wide range of countries around the world and bringing students to New Zealand to enjoy our hospitality.
Many of our members have held district office with two of our current members having served a term as District Governor of District 9930. Others have been chair of Rotary Youth Exchange, Group Study Exchange, Georgia Student Program, District Treasurer, District Legal, Rotary Fellowships, Information, Communication and Technology, Public Image, Membership, Alumni, Foundation Grants, District World Convention Coordinator, and District Conference Chair.
Fund-raising needs to be fun and our club has certainly provided the fun element over the years. One of our first club fund-raisers was the raffling of a car which had its moments however didn’t deter us from a further attempt the following year to raffle a house. A somewhat more successful effort which provided the impetus to start building funds to develop a Trust Fund providing passive funds to distribute to the many smaller but worthy recipients. We brought in a container load of clay pots from Peru and sold them off to the public at an auction (what a day that was) and provided an open day for members of the community to walk across the new harbour bridge prior to its opening to traffic.
As time went on, it became necessary to find a fund-raiser which could become an annual event. The first of these was the Tauranga Charity Yacht Regatta, run in conjunction with The Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club. This provided an excellent vehicle to raise considerable funds which were used for charitable purposes throughout the local district. We were a founding contributor to the success of the Tauranga Air Show providing a backup service to The Classic Flyers Trust. Our participation in both of these two events has since ceased after many years of fun and fund-raising foe the community.
Right now we have two major fund-raisers both of which involve the required element of fun with a Melbourne Cup Charity Auction and Long Lunch held on the first Tuesday of November and The Tauranga Great Annual Charity Duck Race held in March ~ April each year to suit the tides of Tauranga Harbour. More on these two events can be found on the front page of this website.
Our purpose as a club is to allow a vehicle for ordinary people like you and me to become involved in helping our community both locally and internationally while having a good time doing it well!
We meet together on Thursdays for lunch where we pack a lot of fun, good humour, good food and networking into the middle of the day with a diverse range of guest speakers.
If you’re interested in becoming part of this great organisation that is Rotary, there are contacts accessible from the front page. We’d love to hear from you.
400 enjoyed the Melbourne Cup Long Lunch 2016
ROTARY STUDENT EXCHANGE ALUMNI
RYE - HOSTED BY TAURANGA TE PAPA
1983 – Ramona Van-Diepen (Canada)
1984 – Michelle Gaston (USA)
1988 – Katrina Nesemann (Germany)
1990 – Michelle Reininger (USA)
1991 – Jamie McKenzie (Canada)
1993 - Sophia Hiden (Sweden)
1995 – Aymeric Devaux (Belgium)
1997 – Kinau Erasmus (South Africa)
1998 – Leslie Rautenberg (USA)
2000 – Gaby Magaquian (Argentina)
2002 – Thayla Stivari (Brazil)
2003 – Axel Obermeier (Austria)
2005 – Lukas Kappeler (Switzerland)
2006 – Agus Temporini (Argentina)
2007 – Ana Lorenzetti (Brazil)
2008 - Lucie Demortier (France)
2010 - Henrique Schmidt (Brazil)
2010 – Nehir Schmid(Switzerland)
2012 – Madeline Woods (USA)
2014 - Marie-Christine Grethen (Austria)
2015 - Emma Boulogne (France)
2016 - Alexis Winter (Canada)
2017 - Lara Sarmento Martins (Brazil)
2018 - Vera Zwijnenberg (Netherlands)
RYE - REPRESENTING US IN OTHER COUNTRIES
1985 - Jodie Passgaard (Denmark)
1987 – Suzanne Walker (USA)
1991 – Jen McIntyre (Canada)
1992 - Kirsty Read-Smith (Finland)
1994 – Dianne Goodrick (Japan)
1996 – Jason Enright (South Africa)
1998 - Amanda Fleming (Norway)
1999 – Megan Enright (Argentina)
2000 – Megan Ede (Sweden)
2002 - Stacey Enright (France)
2002 – Lauren Owens (Brazil)
2004 – Sarah-Jane Fisher (Germany)
2005 - Kirsty Smith (Switzerland)
2006 – Ben Ron (Chile)
2007 – Michael Sparrow (Denmark)
2008 – Dillon Johnston-Keys (France)
2009 – Emma Walsh (Sweden)
2013 – Morgan Armitage (Netherlands)
2014 – Charlotte Coultas (USA)
2014 – Scott Young (Netherlands)
2015 - Jasmine Cox (Belgium)
2017 – Tessa Waldon (France)
2017 – Jessica Smalberger (Belgium)
2018 – Kalista Ellis (USA)
2018 – Kelly Chadwick (Germany)
GROUP STUDY EXCHANGE ALUMNI
GROUP STUDY EXCHANGE TEAMS HOSTED BY US
1999 – Norway – District 2300
2001 – Brazil – District 4630
2002 – USA – District 6580
2005 – Canada – District 6400
2005 - Germany - District 1800
2006 – Argentina – District 4960
2007 – Finland – District 1420
2008 – Scotland – District 1020
2009 - Turkey - District 2440
2013 – Canada/USA District 5050
GROUP STUDY EXCHANGE AWAY TEAMS:
1994 – Tony Grayburn - Team Leader (to Philippines)
1998 – Susan Dore - Team Member (to Canada)
2001 - Roger Miller – Team Leader (to Brazil)
ROTARY FOUNDATION AMBASSADORIAL SCHOLAR ALUMNUS
2013 - Monique Macfarlane (to England)
GEORGIA ROTARY STUDENT PROGRAM ALUMNI
1999 – Deborah Fergusson
2002 - Scott Trebelco
2003 – Megan Enright
2005 - Richard Clifford
2007 - Maria Livingstone