PP Donald Hunt PHF Fifty Years of Service With Rotary
President   1994/95
 
My journey in Rotary began in August 1967 after being inducted into the Rotary Club of Waimate, the town of my birth, with the classification of Florist. I was sponsored by Alan McRae.  Between joining up and until the present time Rotary has played a major role in the development of me as a person due mainly to the influence of the friendship and fellowship of Club members and the programmes sponsored by Rotary. In those first early years, with the backing of Rose, I left her at home, with four children under the age of seven, every Thursday evening in order to record my attendance at the Rotary tea meeting held in the Savoy Tearooms. To be able to share in a meal and meet socially with a group of people in an atmosphere of friendship, fellowship and comradeship, has kept me engaged week by week in the Rotary movement.
Now, at this stage of my life it would be easy to lose interest if Rotary did not continue to attract me through stimulating thought and participating in a variety of projects.
 
On an historical note I would like to acknowledge three other current active members of the Rotary Club of Waimate who were first to complete over fifty years of “Service above Self”. Those members are John Abraham, Alan Meyer and Charles Ruddenklau, who along with yours truly (Donald Hunt), joined up within a 12 month period during 1967/68 and “don’t mention the weekend trout fishing to the Lakes”, that trip, as a Rotary project every year, has also met the fifty year milestone. 
 
Rotary Service:
Inducted into Rotary 10.8.67
Bulletin Editor 1975/76
Rotary Information 1976/77
Chairman J R McKenzie Trust 1979/80
Attendance officer 1986/87/88
Director International 1992/93
Vice President 1993/94
President 1994/95
Paul Harris Fellow 1995
Sergeant at Arms 1997/98
Past Presidents Rep 1999/20
 
 
Donald Hunt - Rotarian and Community Servant.
When asked to give  some thoughts on his 50 years of Rotary Membership his reply was “I haven’t done much but have really enjoyed the friendship and fellowship”  With that in true Donald Hunt  under statement  he handed in the three paragraphs above.  So we are going to take things into our own hands and make an effort to paint a picture of one of our clubs most influential and inspirational members.
Donald has spent most, if not all, of his life in Waimate.
The son of a hard working couple he is one of a family of 5 and has a twin brother named David. He served his apprenticeship in Landscape Gardening with Parks & Reserves here in Waimate. Donald married Rose on 28.3.59 – and together they have produced 3 sons and a daughter.
A while after completing his apprenticeship Don brought the Florist and Gardening shop here on the main street of Waimate where he and Rose worked until retiring a few years ago.
Don’s progressive sight disability has not stopped him from being an excellent Rotarian and a real inspiration to the rest of us. He proved this with 100% attendance for many of his 50 years of service.
Probably one of the very best years in our clubs history was the year 94/95 when Don led us as our President.   To cover his sight disability all that was required was Lester Paul to act as Don’s personal secretary (I think you would call that a PA these days) A meeting between Lester and Don the night before Rotary and Don’s wonderful memory would do the rest.
The truly great project that year was the clubs sponsorship of the guide dog Hobson who was in the care of Dame Cath Tizard, our then Governor General.  This was our clubs recognition of the huge effort Don put into his year as our President.
I remember Don and Ryan (His Guide Dog)  going up to receive awards at the District Conference that year and  a Rotarian from another club saying “Waimate’s got a blind man leading their club?  I didn’t think any club would ever try anything as radical as that!”
This comment confirmed that ours was the very best Rotary Club - that we give our members  an opportunity and they prove they can do anything no matter what the apparent disabilities. It really was an inspirational year for our club.
 Even although most people would think Don has every reason to feel he has been dealt a raw deal, he has always had a smile on his face.   His good nature, his sense of humour, his good old fashioned family values and knowledge of worldly things mean you are always going to have a meaningful conversation with him.
Outside of Rotary Don has been a very active servant to our community serving on many of our towns committees which look after the well being of our people.
These include being a long time member of the Foundation for the Blind and their Chairman for many years.
For more than 25 years he was a valued member of the Lister Home Board of Governance.
Many of those years he chaired the difficult constitutional committee charged with the responsibility of drafting rules to suit the ever changing market.
And so even though he thinks he hasn’t done much!    We all know differently!