Broadwater Southport Rotary Club's guest speaker at our Friday 19 November 2021 breakfast meeting was Rotarian Kasia Brzezicka, President of the Gold Coast Passport Club.
Kasia enlightened us on the Gold Coast Passport Club's ground breaking Club model and how it works in practise to attract a younger membership group who want to volunteer to serve others. The club welcomes a fresh take on what it means to be a Rotary Club.Proudly forming as the 25th Passport Rotary Club in the world, the young dynamic Gold Coast club has centred around flexibility and action, to attract a sprightly hoard of participants to combat local issues and causes as well as global struggles.
As the first Passport club in Australia they hold bi-monthly meetups in Miami where members converse, sip and nibble on the last Tuesday of each month. As a Passport club, the impact of members spans beyond the borders of the Gold Coast city limits and lands internationally as well. Members have the opportunity to ‘exchange’ or connect with members and initiatives of other clubs and members across the globe.
So far, 19 passport clubs have been officially chartered by Rotary International: 11 in North America, six in Canada, one in Croatia and one in Australia. Two more Australian clubs are currently in the process of chartering. The Gold Coast Passport Rotary chartered in June 2020 brings together millennials to connect with Rotary to do good in the world.
Kasia also spoke about the various interesting international projects that the Gold Coast Passport Rotary Club supports in Bali and in India, including support for needy families in Bali with a water filter and working with Baby Give Back for twelve months supporting the organisation with hands on help on a weekly basis sorting through donated baby goods.
The club has a dynamic website and makes every use of internet technologies through virtual meetings, Facebook, Instagram, and emerging platforms.
The club's website states their vision: Together we make change.
"We believe in helping those that need it most. Gold Coast Passport Club have been achieve in the community provided hands on assistance where needed, working with organisations who are in desperate need of young energy to project manage fundraisers and bring awareness to so many great causes.
Our club members are diverse and with a healthy variety of skill sets. We come together to collaborate and achieve the best result we can to create the largest impact we can."
Outside Rotary, Kasia is a Business Development Manager at News Corp Australia specialising in Digital Marketing. She is a graduate of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland.
