Alan Morton joined Batemans Bay Rotary Club in the mid 2000’s and immediately became Club Secretary, a position he held for several years. Having retired from the NSW Police service, he had purchased the Bay Beginners learn to drive school and was an accredited driving instructor.
In 2007 Alan was one of a group of Rotarians who travelled to Bega to assess the RYDA Course being run for senior students in their local schools. In 2008, Eurobodalla Rotary Clubs ran RYDA for the first time in Moruya and Alan presented one of the key sessions – Speed and Stopping. Alan arranged a friend John McCarter) who had been a mechanic and race car driver to drive the car (donated by Coastal Auto Group) for the demonstration of speed and stopping distances.
In those days, 4 students at a time took rides in the car for the demonstration. John and Alan had great difficulty in maintaining the student’s focus after they stepped out of a car having done an emergency stop from 80kph! They were a superb team and over the years they got to know the material in depth, plus they added their own important information from the perspective of a race car driver and driving instructor. More recently, due to increased safety provisions, student passengers have not been allowed to ride in the demonstration car.
In 2017 Alan (and John) had presented at RYDA for ten consecutive years and in 2018 they presented this session to our 2000th student.
Alan was elected as a Councillor on Eurobodalla Shire Council for one term, but then resigned from Rotary and moved to Gold Coast. In 2018 and 2019 Alan made the journey from the Gold Coast to present the session at RYDA for the 11th and 12th time.
In 2019 the Club Board nominated both Alan and John for a PHF in recognition of their services to RYDA. As we have not seen Alan since April 2019, it was wonderful that Pam and Jeff looked him up while they were on the Gold Coast in April and presented him with the PHF. Alan is both honoured and humbled to be given a PHF by his old club as he fully understands the significance of the PHF. Many thanks Pam and Jeff!