After being at the forefront of Rotary’s iconic chocolate wheel for more than four decades JOE Catanzariti said it would be lovely to see the tradition kept alive for another 45 years.
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Mr Catanzariti got his first taste of spinning the wheel at the age of 35 during the Sacred Heart Parish Fete.
That was more than 45 years ago and since then Mr Catanzariti has given away thousands of Christmas hams and prizes between the Parish Fete, Rotary Carnival and events at Scalabrini Village.
"Oh I love doing it, it makes me very happy, because it’s a service to the community and it makes a lot of people happy," Mr Catanzariti said.
"You want the next person to love it as much as you do, you want to pass on that enthusiasm,” he said.
"I try and create enthusiasm in peoples minds, unless you create that enthusiasm you cant pass it on to others.”
While Mr Catanzariti is not handing over complete control, during this year’s Parish Fete he passed the spinning ranks onto Alan Wedesweiler.
"I've been thinking we should find someone to pass the tradition onto and Alan Wedesweiler started selling the tickets and he sold them in no time at all so I graduated him up to spinning the wheel," Mr Catanzariti said.
"I think Alan would be a great person to carry on the tradition.”
Mr Wedesweiler said he has big shoes to fill but was extremely honoured to be involved with an important fete and community tradition.
“I am extremely honoured and it is humbling to be involved with something so important in the community with someone so important to the community,” Mr Wedesweiler said.
While Mr Catanzariti will continue to man the wheel at various events, Mr Wedesweiler will take on the tradition at next year’s fete but not necessarily for the next 45 years.
“We can always be people of hope but I don’t think there will ever be someone with the same longevity as Joe Catanzariti,” he said.
“He really is someone that is once in a lifetime.”
Rotary Carnival will be held this Friday, November 25 in Memorial Park.