What do truckloads of snow, Sunday markets, beer fests, the Rotary Oval in Cooma and water supplies in Papua Guinea (PNG) have in common?

There is one simple answer – Cooma Rotary Club - and that club now needs help from the community.

New members are needed to allow the club to maintain its service and continue to innovate ways to serve.

Cooma Rotary Club was established in 1954 and so has proudly served this community for 72 years.

It is one of 36,000 clubs operating in more than 200 countries worldwide.

The Rotary story began in Chicago in 1905. It was originally comprised of a representative of each profession with the motto “Service above self”.

Rotary holds weekly dinner meetings. In Cooma that is at the Cooma Bowling Club.

There are several avenues of service in each Rotary Club.

The Cooma club has embraced that motto – the markets in Centennial park on the third Sunday each month, the establishment of the Rotary Oval and the Cooma Beer Fests in the 1970s are prime examples of the club’s commitment to our community.

This winter, president Joelle Azzopardi initiated Friday night markets, both of which proved popular and successful.

They attracted many tourists as well as locals looking for school holiday activities for their families.

Another avenue of service in Rotary is Youth – the Cooma club was proud to establish the first primary school Rotary Club in Australia, called EarlyAct. Under the guidance of Rotarian Sally Thornton, students from Cooma North Public School meet regularly at lunchtimes and develop leadership skills as well as supporting projects such as donating feminine hygiene kits to communities in Africa.

Principal, Jo Tozer, has been supportive of this initiative.

Cooma Rotary has also hosted exchange students from all over the world. Students spend one year in Cooma and attend Monaro High School. They usually spend three months with different host families during their one-year exchange.

The Rotary Youth Program has been one of the most successful projects the club has undertaken.

In 2025 Cooma Rotary sponsored four local senior students to attend the National Summer Science School which is held at the Australian National University in January.

The club contributed $6000 towards the cost of the school. The students who attended shared their experiences at a club meeting – their enthusiasm and excitement about the course was evident.

Over the past four years Rotary has organised a Local Schools Debating Competition. President Joelle supported two facilitators, Han Worsley and Imogen McGrath, who provided expert coaching and adjudicating. The students’ debating skills showed a remarkable improvement, thanks to the vision of former president Glenys Maddren.

Other community services the club has initiated include a weekly pram walk and talk; support kits for families involved in domestic violence and the annual Men’s Health Rural Education Van visit to Cooma.

Rotary has always been involved in international aid. The Cooma club has been involved in providing clean water for villages in PNG in at least eight different projects, under the guidance of Peter Davis.

The club has also supported Rotary International’s Polio Eradication Initiative, which, over 40 years, has seen the incidence of polio cases decrease by 99 per cent.

Other aid projects have been supported in Haiti and Thailand.

All of these activities require time and energy from club members and it is important that they continue.

New members are needed, but the club will also welcome a “friend of Rotary” to help with cooking the barbecue on market day or assisting with the projects and activities.

For more information, readers are asked to contact President Joelle Azzopari on 0412 283 565, Peter Davis (0414 242 235), Neil Brown (0413 485 615), Kevin Dunne (0409 521 619) or secretary Sally Thornton (0427 507 338).

More information can be found on Cooma Rotary FB page or chat to a member at the markets. The next market day is 16 August.