Guest Speaker 

Donny Paterson - "The Third Wave"

Donny Paterson was watching the devastation of the Tsunami on the television on Boxing Day, 2004 when he decided he should go and see what he could do to help. Donny flew across to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka; his mother-in-law donated the airfare. Donny met up the next day with an Australian girl. The pair of them teamed up and with others and hired a van. They filled it up with medical supplies, food and water and headed off down to where the train derailed at Peraliya. First aid was the priority; they cleaned up the school library and worked in an area where 1643 people were killed. Donny will talk about his life changing experience and how a fi lm The Third Wave, a documentary which is now presented by Sean Penn. Donny says the experience was life changing from experiencing such a rewarding time in his life by helping people in need to when he attended the Cannes Film Festival it was like "absolute poverty to absolute opulence".

Donny is an Australian Army vet whose swarthy humor was there to entertain both surviving villagers and volunteers workers who arrived from all over the world. Donny motivated people and was a project manager for a range of activities to rebuild the town. The group of volunteers was instrumental in building 700 temporary houses and 500 permanent houses.

You will be entertained with his tales and stories.