Gary Newton speaks at MUNA
I was guest speaker at this year’s Rotary conference MUNA held at Phillip Island 18th-20th May 2018.
MUNA stands for Model United Nations Assembly and is a long running youth project to develop the skills of the talented youth of Melbourne’s South East, the Mornington Peninsula and Gippsland regions.
At the conference were about seventy Year 11 senior students around the 16-17 year range plus visiting Rotarians and school teachers. There was about 100 people there in total.
In my Talk I spoke about: why there are no young peoples names on a list of famous polio survivors such as WA Governor Kim Beasley and Senator John Tierney amongst others. Polio as it stands today, what Rotary and millions of others has been doing to eradicate it, the work of Polio Australia and the existence still of many survivors of polio here and all around the world.
I also spoke about some of my personal experiences as a polio survivor, why anti-vaxxers are so dangerous to world health, what it takes to be successful and just how important it is to have a positive attitude. Also I did a little ‘experiment’ with some of the kids to give everyone a bit of an idea what it might be like to have a disability.
To that end (and as pictured) I got two volunteers to try walking like me (swinging through) on crutches, at the same time carrying a cup of confetti in one hand and a glass of water in the other.
It was quite amusing and no doubt left a lasting impression on the large audience.