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At the recent “Changeover” of Presidents at the Ahuriri Sunrise Rotary Club in Napier, Katherine Dunstall was installed as president for the 2018 – 2019 Rotary year. Katherine is a third generation Rotarian – her father and grandfather preceded her into Rotary, and a fourth generation funeral director, being preceded there be her great grandfather as well as the aforementioned.
With a little over two years in Rotary and having just turned 25 years of age, the club speculated that she was perhaps the youngest Rotary President in New Zealand. The Ahuriri Sunrise club will celebrate its 20th anniversary during Katherine’s year, having commenced with 20 members back in 1999.
The club grew to 25 members, hovered around that number for several years and then in the last two or three years has gradually increased in numbers to recently be nudging 40 members, plus two or three Honorary members. Roughly one third of the members are women and many hold office in the club.
Reflecting the “youthfulness” of this club, the changeover function was attended by another young member who brought his wife and one year old child. Members wondered just how many Rotary meetings had set up for their meal with a child’s highchair at one of the tables!
Whether or not she is the “youngest” president in the country may be unsure, but Past District Governor Ian Holyoake, also a member of the club, speculated that she would certainly be the first Rotary President in the world to see the sun – based on his reasoning that our club is the eastern most breakfast club in the world to have its meeting – on a Wednesday!