2010 Vanuatu Humanitarian Aid Effort - Wishing Well

Yes. She certainly is a human Trevi Fountain. Sue Clinnick and her daughters, Kate and Lauren, have amassed a sizeable little collection to go in the container for the Vanuatu Humanitarian Aid project.

Kate on the left and Lauren Clinnick on the right, with some of the goodies off to Vanuatu soon.

In Sue’s initial batch were 40 tennis balls and six used but still very good racquets that her Sister-in–Law, Joanne O'Donoghue, a tennis coach in Canterbury in Melbourne’s inner Eastern suburbs, had arranged. More of her students are checking the cupboards at home too... The brand new items included six soccer balls, six Rugby balls, six Netballs, two ball pumps, since she thought they’d take up less space as deflated balls (good thinking), two referee whistles, two sets of netball team apron/vests, and one Teen/adult bike with wide tyres. Rebel Sport even lobbed in by giving them Staff Discount – thank you.

Also in there were two rolls of drawing paper, a bulk box of HB pencils, 150 ball point pens, six erasers, six sets of coloured pencils, file cards, box of chalk, three large sets of felt tip pens, three sets of water colour paints, 20 markers, 10 highlighters, some drawing pins and paper clips, four poster markers, two pairs of scissors and 10 lined A4 pads.

Two or three school kits will be made out of some of this. There are plenty of smaller schools further afield where a donation like this would be gobbled up. Two of the schools in line for this are an hour’s walk from the beach - straight up. The plan is to get the supplies into backpacks for the trek uphill and just leave everything behind. As Sue said, ‘Greg seems to get a new backpack every race series as a prize, so that’s that problem sorted!’

Not content with all that, she has also just gathered the next tranche of brand new equipment. In it were three sets of art brushes, more pencils, three large boxes of crayons, three reels of fishing line and mixed boxes of hooks, three science magnifying glasses, some staplers and staples and five children’s’ games, such as Uno and Dominoes.

So you see, one small effort can make such a huge difference. You may ask what are you doing? Well, there’s many ways. Sue and the gang got staff discount at certain stores to get the equipment at a better price. They locked onto surplus gear that just sits in someone’s corner and they asked the question of all persons they could find. Don’t forget dear old Aldi and the $2 shops. Put it on your next grocery bill and you won’t even see it, but the folks in Vanuatu sure will. Just look above to see that your inspiration can literally come from anywhere.

Anonymous' light tower marks the ORCV area at Rotary International's Donation In Kind Warehouse. Let's fill the space!

Now there’s also sorting and packing on Tuesdays and Thursday throughout May. We need a few volunteers to assist packing student kits at the Rotary Warehouse on Tuesdays and Thursdays until the end of May. If you are able to help out on either of those days - anytime between 9am and 3pm, please ring Robyn on 8601 5882. There’s even help with transport to the venue and in collecting the stuff you gather up too! A working bee is on Saturday 22nd May and the plan is to pack the container on 29th. Phone now.

Where are we at, in addition to this lot, then? There are already the computers from APC Logistics, our ‘Star’ donations from anonymous and Rotary have accumulated enough goods to make up 50 student packs. We can certainly use more, however! A backpack with school supplies for one child, for one year would be an awesome donation and we could probably fit 2,000 of them into the container. Please use your contacts, so we can make wishes come true.

Rotary have been busy scooping up all manner of requirements to send over.

The list includes, but is not restricted to:

The container will be loaded and shipped at the end of june; therefore all donations need to reach the warehouse by June 10th, so as to allow time for sorting and packaging.

This is the actual ship that will be taking the container to vanuatu - many thanks to APC Logistics for making it so!

The warehouse address is as listed, and please remember to use this information on your label. The warehouse is open Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9am and 3pm - other times and days on request (Contact Bill on 0425 741 045). If you are unable to get your donations to the warehouse, please let Robyn know, by calling 03 8601 5882.

The warehouse address is as listed, and please remember to use the label, which is available from the link below:

Vanuatu School Project

Rotary DIK Warehouse

Rear of Woolshed 40 (enter gate 1)

400 Somerville Road

(between Paramount & Geelong Rds)

West Footscray, Victoria, 3012

Please ensure there is a list of contents on the outside too!

Click HERE to get your label to affix to your donations to assist in the identification of your donations,

when they arrive at the Rotary DIK warehouse

If you have any questions please contact:

Click HERE to get your competitor space allocation form for your gear to be sent over in the container for your return voyage etc.

You get a little over one cubic metre per vessel and remember to give approximate dimensions for your items. If you haven't yet sent your container space request in to the ORCV office, you'd better get a move along.  Please complete it pronto and then send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  Don't forget to include your disembarkation ramp (passarelle to some)

There is more information here at orcv.org.au, if you would like to read about the race or the country. Thank you to all who have dug deep with time, donations or other. May we exceed the tremendous results of the 2006 Melbourne to Vanuatu race!

You can go back and look at the donation thread by revisiting Wish List, HERE and Wish Upon a Star, HERE

By John Curnow