It is a fascinating street, a real hodge podge of  people from different walks of life. Stepping out of my house is like entering a chapter from the Magic Faraway Tree – you never know what will greet you on the footpath beyond the safety of the doorstep – it could be the leftovers of a wild night – empty bottles, half eaten pizzas, empty cigarette packets and some cushion dredged up from god knows where; the friendly panting of a neighbours dog as it beats the path happily after a beachside escapade; the thin blue line of police tape marking out the horrors of an early morning event; the rush of well-dressed commuters racing to catch a tram with take-away latté in one hand, and work notes in the other; bedraggled backpackers tumbling out of their combi van during the Melbourne leg of their budget Australian tour; a girl slouched over a car window negotiating a morning trick; a zombied statue slumped against the fence with syringe discarded on the side; or simply a sunny, glorious day with wattle birds chattering gleefully in the gum tree above the path.

As I said, I have lived here for almost 10 years, almost anonymous, witness to many events but never part of them. Finally last year it struck me as strange - I was a strong critic of new neighbours entering the neighbourhood, wanting change – agitating for streets to be cleaned, building high fences, working 10 hours a day, not talking or greeting people in the street. Being in the ‘hip’ neighbourhood but not really being part of it. One day I realised I was no different; I worked here, I slept here, I ate here, I shopped here – but I wasn’t really living here. I turned the critics gaze upon myself, and sadly reflected that my dreams of community spirit were lacking. I, like everyone else was happy to complain about the lack but was reluctant to get my hands dirty and do some work to motivate a change.

That epiphany rested uncomfortably within me. It niggled at my insides, as self-realisations often do, and finally it motivated me to make a change. I joined a club called Rotary and found an avenue that opened doors…and one of the doors it opened was further down my street. The Rotary Club of St Kilda is a small club of twelve members, passionate and committed, but tiny. Although Rotary International is a massive organisation with over 1.2 million members, stretched out over every continent in the world; in Australia it suffers, maybe because it is not particularly good at telling people what great things it does. Even flicking through the index of St Kilda The Show Must Go On, The History of St Kilda, Volume III, 1930 – 1983 by Anne Longmire, there is no mention of the Rotary Club of St Kilda. It is a well researched volume, I suspect that the author may not have even been aware of the club’s activity within the area, or that it comprised of civic leaders such as the CEO of the St Kilda City Council.

One of the doors that Rotary opened for me was the Sacred Heart Mission. I had lived in my street for almost 10 years and had hurried by many times, sometimes sideways peeking; often considering the bold edifice and curt fence line that seemed to mark the boundaries of a timeless sanctuary. Timeless, because the values within that boundary seemed to mark an era gone by, a legacy of ideas and principles that vanished once you were back on the street. The Mission really seems to hold its own within its neat little sections that dominate that part of the neighbourhood. So finally, nearly 10 years down the track, I arranged a tour of the Mission for myself and some of my friends. Slightly ashamed after a friendly phone call that it had taken me that long to call a neighbour to ask if I could come and drop by for a visit.

As many of you know, Father Ernie Smith was the founding Parish Priest for the meals centre at the Mission which opened its doors in 1982. It started with a simple knock on the presbytery door one night. On the doorstep Ernie found someone in need of food. He invited this poor soul in and sat with him at his dining room table and shared his evening meal. This simple and bold act, that removed the boundaries between street and home, that recognised an individual as a human being deserving of respect  and compassion, is what germinated the seed that has produced what the Mission is today.

What some of you might not know is that Ernie also became a member of the Rotary Club of St Kilda that same year. The club, during this period was well supported with about 45 members, all men, upstanding members of a community. Flicking through the Rotary Weekly Bulletin from this period some interesting notes leap up from the page.  Ernie, three months after his induction into the club, gave a talk at a weekly meeting about his life and his work at the Sacred Heart Parish as it was called then. The Weekly Bulletin notes:

Currently, he is organising a daily meal for 50 to 60 needy people as well as trying to help them to rehabilitate themselves.
We hope that Ern has the resources, both financial and physical, to continue the excellent projects he has initiated at Grey Street, St Kilda.

My heart jumped, as I considered the massive undertaking that Ernie had embarked upon, and the rather distant response the note taker had made to a super human endeavour by a single individual with vision and commitment. I mused over the St Kilda Rotary Christmas Party which I attended last year. I purposefully sat next to Ernie, now retired, and quizzed him over the beginnings of the Meals Centre and his work at the Mission. Alastair Chisholm, who back in those days was an Office Bearer with the club, was standing nearby while we talked about the early days and I remember him saying to Ernie:

‘We all thought you were crazy, we wished you luck but didn’t know how you were going to pull it off. We supported you anyway, and you actually did it.’

Ernie really did pull it off. Not only did he launch an incredible St Kilda institution that now feeds over 450 people a day and also offers housing assistance, counselling programs, food parcels, clothing, emergency financial support, drug & alcohol support and employment programs; but he also went on to become the President of the Rotary Club of St Kilda and to maintain an active membership of the club for many years.

St Kilda has always had a problem associated with prostitution and armed hold-ups with drugs providing the greatest problems recently.
80% of all calls to police are service orientated with many domestic problems.
St Kilda provides a training ground for young constables and the temptations are great – nightclubs and gambling providing the main areas of corruption.
The drug problems associated with St. Kilda are usually caused by people from outside the St. Kilda area. Many burglaries are drug related and are not reported. Many rapes are also not reported.
Many attractions for burglaries are new T.V.’s, videos, which are traded for heroin. The drug habit is an extremely expensive one to maintain.
Prostitution in St Kilda is on the decline and suburbs such as Richmond and Brunswick are becoming problem areas in this regard.
Police work is becoming more community orientated by involvement with social workers, councils and Delta Task Force.

Anne Longmire in her history of St Kilda during this period provides a much more thorough and bleak picture. It is one of street kids - child prostitution & pornography, of brain-damaged alcoholics, psychiatric outpatients -  an estimated three thousand in the area in 1981, she noted a lack of support for the 40% of the population that were recent migrants and refugees, 75% of which did not speak English. A further 15% of residents were on the Aged pension and 8% were on unemployment benefits. This amongst a burgeoning real estate market as home ownership increased, and investors speculated on what might be a future lucrative deal.

It was in this climate that Ernie opened his doors. He wrote during this time:

It is not a soup kitchen. We attempt to provide a variety of meals everyday of the week, seven days per week, and to sit people down at tables where they can enjoy their meal with other people.

It is no surprise that at some stage the Sacred Heart Mission’s and the Rotary Club of St Kilda’s paths entwined. It is now hard to track when the club started to focus its energy on supporting Ernie’s creation. The club is by no means the largest contributor to the Mission, but I bet it is one of the longest serving.

Now in its 41st year, the club has lived many lives, seen many people come and go, it has been the witness of a constantly shifting St Kilda landscape. Members have included a variety of business people, residents, local council employees, councillors and parish priests. Each and every club member has influenced St Kilda and the club in different ways – whether it is someone like Ken Dowling and his foreshore plan in the mid 80’s; or Alastair Chisholm’s committed drive that saw the massive fundraising effort required to build the Children’s playground along the Esplanade; or the club’s current project, Relish 2009, that has raised money for the Sacred Heart Mission and ShelterBox.

So you might ask what is Rotary? If we delve into the records of the Weekly Bulletin once more, President Bill Donald provides an answer, that transformed into a new millennia text states:

The cornerstone of the whole Rotary movement is Fellowship. The coming together of a group of people from many different occupations and producing a common entity of intellect and experience. From this common entity with its creativeness, management ability, its experience and the acknowledged success of its members’ arises the capacity to provide service to others.
In Rotary this service is provided in four ways.
Firstly, through Club Service, by attending regular meetings, by supporting club activities and the continued recruitment of new members.
Secondly, through Community Service, by finding new ways to help our community to progress.
Thirdly, through Vocational Service, by leading by example and maintaining high ethical standards.
And Finally, Internationally, by supporting other nations by assisting those in need, or by the establishment of goodwill through cultural and educational exchange programs.

Transformed for the new millennia, you might ask? Well, below every gloss there are a few cobwebs lurking – in Rotary’s case it is hard for me to even consider my club in the 1980s being made up of only male members, where Rotary women were essentially wives of members relegated to a background, the ‘strong woman’ behind the ‘great man’; or the notion that a great community leader can only be sourced from a successful business person.

So how many doors has this ‘new millennia’ Rotary Club opened for me? How many people have I met and whom do I now greet in my street? It would take pages to let you know all the new experiences that unfold beyond my doorstep as a result of my involvement with Rotary. This new chapter is just evolving and nothing but a first hand experience will tell you how a single individual can motivate change, or how the power of many individuals, joined together with a common goal, can achieve world change.