VALE: Mansfield Apex Club.

" People who are passionate about their community will find time. The rest will find excuses."

It may be harsh but I think it is true. Apex was founded during the Great Depression when there was little or no social welfare and certainly not a social welfare safety net. You want your community to have better stuff for it citizens? If, as seems to e the case today, you rely on the government to fund it all then you will be sadly let down. and spending you days winging and whining on social media won't get it done either. You want community to still mean something then you need to get of your collective backsides stop with the "We are to busy these days" roll up your sleeves and make it happen. Being "busy" is not just a modern aberration. We were also very busy in the 80s and 90s. but we still found time to support our local community

In few hours I will be heading to our local show grounds to celebrate the life of The Mansfield Apex Club. I was a member back in the 80s and early 90s. Apex was a young mans service club. In my time you could be a member until the age of forty. When I left school at 18 and started working at the old shire of Mansfield I was invited to join Apex. It was one of the best decisions I made. I learned through my time what it was like to work to make your community a better place as well as making friends. I have many memories but one that sands out is a number of local members traveling to Macedon after the horrific Ash Wednesday fires to help with the cleanup. I borrowed a pair of Dad’s steel-capped Forestry boots and got a first hand view of the utter devastation that fires can cause. I also learned how to speak in public due to Apex having public speaking and debating contests. My Friend Martin Hunt, David Parsons and I fell one step short of making the Zone debating final. Apex built playgrounds, netball shelters raised lots of money for local and national projects and moulded generations of young men to be community orientated through service. There is so much more I could say but it seams the era of service clubs has come to an end. this is terribly sad. VALE: Mansfield Apex Club.

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