In
this section are
held
items that appeared on the News page of the web site during David
Ward's year as President, largely relating
to club events and activities.
The
new President of the Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray
for 2009/10 David Ward, receives the chain of office from last year's
president Mike Rowe at the Club's lunch meeting of 6th July 2009. David
Ward becomes the 82nd President of the Club founded in 1928.
At
the same meeting a new member Chris Muris a Solicitor from Whissendine
was inducted into the Club.
The
Club's programme for the coming year will be a
mixture of Local and International projects, with a variety of
fund raising events - the first of which the CiCLE Cycling Challenge
took place on 12th July 2009, and raised over £2000, this was
reported in Melton Times on 23rd July 2009.
Other
Fund raising events will include:-
Musical
Spectacular of talented young musicians on 26th September at
Baptist Church.
Service
projects for the year, many organised jointly with the Rotary Club of
Melton Mowbray Belvoir, will range from:-
Youth
Opportunities, in Young Chef, Musician, Photographer, Writer,
Designer, Youth Speaks
Development
of Interact Club for 14 - 18 year olds, with a BBQ and open evening at
Twin Lakes on 10th July 2009.
Local
Community projects of Christmas parcels for elderly, Flowering bulbs
for the blind, Kids day out at Wicksteed park, Stroke Awareness.
International
projects a few examples, such as sending a container of redundant
school equipment to Cebu in Philippines, collection of redundant
spectacles for reuse, and the Polio challenge of Polio eradication
supported by our local fund raising efforts and the financial support
of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
On
Friday 10 July 2009 Melton
Interact hosted a barbecue
at
Twinlakes Adventure Park in Melton Mowbray, courtesy of Rotarian Phil
Bendall. Most of their current members attended plus a number of their
friends.
Members of Long Field School Council also attended. This group of young
people are considering the formation of a second Interact Club in the
town and the contact with Melton Interact helped to develop real
friendships between the two groups and the promise of future joint
projects. As a result Melton Interact President Ellie Groves
has
been invited to speak to the Long Field group at one of their meetings
at the beginning of October.
Members of
the
Rotaract Club of Melton Mowbray were also
present,
plus Ahmed a member of a Rotaract Club in Egypt who is visiting
Leicester.
The evening was well supported by members of the Rotary Club of Melton
Mowbray of which 15 members were present, many with their wives.
The head cook on the night was Jim Green who deserves special
recognition for his service: "well done" would be a very appropriate
way of applauding his efforts!
The
good news: 12th July 2009
saw a dry start to the
morning after heavy overnight rain
The less good news: the aftermath of the rain front was strong easterly
winds
Nevertheless, 150 cyclists gathered at the King Edward VII
school
to
undertake the Pork Pies and Pot Holes CiCLE Challenge, 2009, organised
by Colin Clews of the Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray. The
following photos show scenes at the start:
and,
less fresh looking,
at the finish:
Many
thanks to Colin,
Ron, and the fund-raising team for a most enjoyable day out for all.
...
and Back Again. Bob McCord Does it the Other Way.
Having
done Le JOG (the Lands End to John O?Groats cycle ride) in
September 2007 (see the story on our above),
Melton
Rotary Club member Bob McCord decided to see if it was any easier the
other way. Read his story below:
"Some folk have a party to celebrate their 70th but I had
this odd
idea
that cycling John O?Groats to Lands End would be a good
notion
and a way of ignoring this milestone in my life!
Family and friends thought I was mad the first time so
imagines
their
reaction to this latest trip! So here are a few memories of the journey.
Training done in the rolling hills of Leicestershire and
Rutland,
Gill
and I set off for John O?Groats to start my ride on Sept
1st.Taking a slightly more direct route this time down the east coast
to the out skirts of Edinburgh across country to Lockerbie and from
there the A6, A49, A38, A30 - 891 miles in all.
Day one was windy but dry and I had forgotten the climbs that
I was
going to encounter apart from the dreaded Berridale Braes and
Helmsdale. Head winds didn?t help.
John
O'Groats - Its a long way from here
Berriedale
Braes - I remember this from last
time - big big hills
Dornoch
- The end of day 1 only 9 to go
Dornoch was lovely but
uppermost in my mind
was the climb out of
Inverness up to Slochd Summit ? bad enough in a car but only
day 2 for
my legs was a tough task but achieved on my 70th birthday.
Fine
way to spend a birthday - climbing
hills out of Cromarty Firth
How
on earth am I supposed to hold this - please
don't light the candles
I've
been having nightmares about climbing
Slochd Summit
Rain, rain and more
rain for the next section
of the ride through what
would have been some of the most stunning scenery along the A9 and on
to Kinross where I arrived wet through - thanks to the
kindness
of the hotel owners my kit was all dried out for the next day. More
rain and flooded roads didn?t make life any easier but by the
time I got to Lockerbie conditions had improved a bit.
Lockerbie and south took in Shap Summit and more hard climbs
(definitely harder in this direction) pretty windy too but at least the
road was fairly quiet. It doesn?t help the moral or legs when
you
have to actually pedal down steep hills because of the head wind!
Never
ending Shap - wish the wind was helping
In
Devon, the suns come out at last - thought
I'd never get the shorts on
Down through Kendal
and on to the busier
stretch through Lancaster,
Preston, Wigan and Warrington, we were making progress but the weather
wasn?t improving much.
Southwards and on towards Gloucester and Bristol and probably
the
worst
piece of road for a cyclist ? the A38 ? it was good
to
leave that behind and head for Crediton and Okehampton to join the A30
for the last part of the ride.
Days 9 and 10 brought out the sun at last and certainly
helped spur
me
on. Devon and Cornwall have not got any flatter than the last time I
rode but at least the end was near and the spirits were rising. My team
car support and manager persuaded me to maybe add a half day to my
ambition of completing the ride in 10 days but the final day was going
so well that I decided to go for it. I had forgotten that the last 14
miles or so were very challenging!
Lands End almost in sight ? 2 miles or so to go and a so far
the
incident free trip was almost put paid to by badly marked road humps
? despite almost taking off I managed to keep upright and
complete my journey in the time I had set myself. North to south is
definitely harder but End to End was achieved!
Hope
this is at last the final climb
Still
some power in the legs - Lands
End here we are!
Does
this jersey mean I've got to start again
This will be my last big ride as my manager and support car driver
resigned as soon as I reached Lands End!
However I would like to say a big thank you to all who
sponsored
me,
spurred me on my way and helped me raise around £1600 for The
Prostate Cancer Charity."
Well
done Bob,
A splendid effort, both the ride and raising money
for such
a worthwhile cause. Are you sure cycling does not damage your
prostate?
This
ShelterBox aid is provided to the Botolan province, about 90 miles
north-west of Manila, so not directly affecting the areas our club
supports - but tragic nevertheless.
ShelterBox
Response Team meets Philippines' President
A further 118
ShelterBoxes have arrived in the Philippines as ShelterBox continues to
help
people rebuild their lives after Typhoon Morakot.
An initial 224
ShelterBoxes arrived in the country in the immediate aftermath of the
typhoon.
They were sent to provide emergency shelter for close to 2,000
people who
lost their homes when a 1km section of the 5km Bucao Dike collapsed.
The initial
ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) members Peter Pearce (AU) and Ross
Mackenzie
(NZ) were joined by Lizzy Treglown (UK) and Denise Ho (USA) last week.
With the
help of the local government, the Philippine Army, the police, the Red
Cross,
local Rotarians and local students the team set up the first ShelterBox
camp.
After identifying
the need for more ShelterBoxes, the team requested a further
consignment be
sent. They specifically requested eight ?Classroom in a
Box? boxes as many
schools were also destroyed when the dike collapsed. The 110
ShelterBoxes and 8
Classrooms in a Box arrived in the Philippines at
the weekend.
The ShelterBoxes
were packed and shipped from ShelterBox HQ in Helston, Cornwall, UK
with Tony
Treglown, Lizzy Treglown?s father, joining the
team of volunteers
to help pack the boxes that were met by his daughter in the
Philippines.
On Monday, August
24 SRT members Lizzy Treglown and Denise Ho met Philippine President
Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo who was visiting the affected area where ShelterBox
tents have
been set up.
Lizzy said: ?We met
the president briefly this morning and talked with her about
ShelterBox. The
local government have been a great help, the locals have cleared a
large area
of land for us, they?ve brought earth to fill in holes and
raise some of the
land for the tents.?
SRT member Ross
Mackenzie has now returned to New Zealand but SRT member Hans Van Dyk
(AU) has
joined up with the rest of the team.
On
Saturday 26th
September an inaugural showcase
concert was presented
by the town's two Rotary clubs as a big thank you to those
young people who, in
the previous twelve months, had entered and achieved success in the
wide
variety of Rotary competitions on offer annually. Monies made on the
evening
will be used to fund the coming year?s youth opportunities
programme.
The
large and enthusiastic audience was enthralled by singers and
instrumentalists
who performed to the very highest standards.In addition presentations
were made to:
Sophie
Gowans, on behalf of the winning King Edward 7th
School Youth Speaks team (Sophie Gowans, Beth Cortese and Katie Hale).
Winner
of the Young Designer competition (Krishan Patel).
Georgina
RobertsSenior Solo
Vocal Winner, Young Vocalist - District Final and RIBI
Multi-District Finalist
Last
year?s Interact club president Sioni Platts-Kilburn received
a presidential citation for the community work done by the club under
his leadership.This
Rotary sponsored club, for fourteen to eighteen year olds, is based at
the King Edward 7th
School.
Highlight
of the evening was a rapturously received performance, by the Youth
Group of
the Melton Musical Theatre Company, of excerpts from their recent,
highly
successful production of Les
Miserables.
Following
their
performance a memento
and Rotary community achievement award was presented to their musical
director
Sandra Tebbutt
To
complete a thoroughly entertaining evening
Sheila Aston a prominent, local music teacher and an organiser of the
evening
was presented with a Paul Harris Fellowship, Rotary?s highest
accolade. This
award was made to Sheila, a non Rotarian, in recognition of her long
and
enthusiastic service promoting and supporting music in both Melton and
the
Rotary District over many years.
Past
District Governor Ian Vernon with Sioni
Kilburn-Platts
Presidents
Tony Wallis and David Ward with Sandra Tebbutt and some the Youth Group
of the Melton Musical theatre Company
Presidents
Tony Wallis and David Ward with Sheila Aston
The
81st Annual Conference of RI District 1070 was held over the weekend of
2nd to 4th October 2009 in Eastbourne.
The weather was kind, in that the rain was sparse, the temperatures
acceptable, the wind tolerable all but for those venturing along the
cliffs or attempting picnics on Beachy Head.
Melton fielded an intrepid 27 delegates, who contributed significantly
to the friendly aura that pervaded the formal and fellowship elements
of the conference. In a small way the team also helped to
alleviate stress on the shelves of many of the hostelries in the
vicinity.
Simon Weston OBE the keynote speaker was the Conference highlight, he
was outstanding with an inspirational and humorous talk, detailing his
physical and physiological challenges. Sample of his humour: -
? As a Youth I was not well
informed - more commonly known as 'Thick'
? I was not particularly
intelligent, I couldn't drive a tank, but I could carry one on my back.
The last speaker, Pat Langham OBE, Principal of Girls only Schools
spoke eloquently and humorously, on her perception of the many
differences between men and women. The talk was unfortunately riddled
with fact, mainly truthful, but given with a female perspective which
clearly nullifies the balance.
Highlight of the fellowship occurred at Gala dinner when a group of
disgruntled, late booking Clubs, obviously relegated to fringe tables
at the rear of the hall, attempted to storm those tables in better
positions. Their pathetic attempts at raids using long
balloons,
were soon put to nought by a well disciplined military march and rifle
display, in the manner of 'Sharpe's Chosen Men', by the Melton Team,
led by mercenary James Wiggins ex Grantham, and draftees from other
Clubs - see photo for those involved.
A great time was had by all involved.
We were lucky enough to have the GSE team from the
Philippines
staying
with around the time of conference, and took them down to Eastbourne
with us. They presented themselves, their home country and
their
vocations to all the conference delegates, finsihing with a traditional
Filipino dance:
Melton
Victorious Again - "We blew them away" (from
our totally
unbiased captain) Melton
Rotary
Club's under prepared, under pressure, Minor Sports team did
it
again, in a frankly breathtaking display of skill that left one of last
year's "semi finalists" reeling. In a classic Minor Sports
confrontation on 15th October 2009 the Melton team, despite all the
injury worries & last minute withdrawals, had the look
of a
hungry team & gelled well from the outset. Watch out
the more
established prima donnas, they may well find there places up for grabs.
The usually slow starting Melton team got off to a flyer with
the
first round of conkers going to Big Ben in a matter of minutes (about
20). There followed some grimly determined bouts with no
shortage
of flare & panache, the conkers round was all but conceded
before
the break, all the while the Pea shooting was ticking over nicely in
the background with the two sides fairly evenly matched ... Then came
the fireworks with Gattling Gavin Howling smashing Chris Muris' long
held lead with a astonishing display of power & accuracy which
I
feel finally broke the spirit of the Grantham team & buoyed the
rest of the home side - with the notable exception of the embattled
Captain whose form was once again less than impressive, apart from his
last gasp effort in the power play that could possibly have made a
difference.
Once again it must be noted that the President was spotted in
the
crowd
& when asked stated he & and the management had full
confidence
in the Captain...... we all know what that means!
So yes they did it again even after all the shenanigans
&
boundary
changes during the closed season & with a laughable transfer
budget
compared to some of the nouveaux riches clubs out there, the Pork Pies
march on to the next round with a hopefully kinder draw for last year's
fighting finalists.
Until next time...... keep blowing, keep winning.
Thanks to all involved (especially Grantham Kesteven) for
making
this
such an enjoyable night of Fellowship.
Shannon
Trust Our
speaker at the Melton Rotary Club's meeting on 21st
September was Roger Outram, the Eastern Regional Co-ordinator
for Shannon Trust.
Roger
became involved with Shannon Trust, following his retirement as a
Prison Governor in some of the country's toughest
establishments.
He explained that Shannon Trust runs the Toe
by Toe Reading Plan, an award winning mentoring programme, which
encourages and supports prisoners who can read to give one to one
tuition to prisoners who struggle to or who cannot read. In
2008, it provided resources to teach over five thousand new learners in
prison.
He went on to describe how Shannon Trust works with prisons
to set
up
and maintain the Toe to Toe reading plan. They do this by
supplying prisons with:
Trained
volunteers to help staff and prisoners set up and maintain a reading
plan that is tailored to the needs of the specific establishment
Copies of
the Toe to Toe reading manual to every learner and every prisoner
involved in mentoring others
Promotional
resources to raise awareness and attract new Learners
On going
support
The
aims of
the Shannon Trust is to
To engage
EVERY non- reading prisoner early in their sentence
To support
the prison staff to run the Toe by Toe reading plan in EVERY prison and
Young Offenders institution in the UK
To promote
the benefits of peer ?mentoring in prisons
Shannon
Trust recognises that:
Without the
ability to read, it is almost impossible for prisoners to take the
positive steps necessary to address their offending behaviour; or to
engage in the further learning and training that they need to acquire
employment skills in order to lead fulfilled and pro social lives
Many
prisoners have had negative past experiences of learning, and are
therefore reluctant to engage with the formal learning opportunities
available within prisons. Those with poor reading skills in
prison are the most difficult group to reach
Shannon
Trust provides both the Mentor and Learner with a copy of the
Toe by Toe reading manual. The manual helps Learners to
develop the skills they need to decode written words using phonetics.
A
Mentor may
have more than one or more Learners and will meet each for
just 20 minutes daily, 5 times a week. Together they will
work through the phonetics exercises and record progress using the grid
system in the manual.
The
club were
all impressed with the approach and the outcomes described by Roger.
We wish them well in their endeavours in a vitally
important
field.
Remembrance
Day The 8th of
November 2009 was
Remembrance Day. It was a bright
sunny day and drew the largest turn-out to the town parde that
the
President of the British Legion could remember for a long
time.
The Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray were represented by our
President David Ward and other members.
Our
President David Ward organised an
enjoyable evening's shooting at Holwell rifle club on 27th November
2009. 16 members of the club and friends & family
came along
and had good fun (and some success). It was all hosted by the
very hospitable members of the Holwell rifle club - thank you to them.
To
summarise the results:
Ladies
outright winner, and overall fourth place - Jenny
Howling.
Prone
or
Bench, First - Gavin Howling 98, equal Second James Green and John
Dehnel 97.
Standing
Lightweight Sports Rifle, First - Phil Bendall 156, Second - Gavin
Howling 149, Third - David Ward 148.
Overall
winner, First - Gavin Howling 247, Second -
Phil Bendall 239, Third - John Dehnel - 232, Fourth - Jenny Howling 229.
Youth
Speaks in Melton On
Saturday 21st November the young
people of Melton excelled themselves in the Youth Speaks competition
organised by the two Rotary Clubs in the town. President
David
Ward writes:
Another
excellent display of youth talent, all participants contributed to a
most enjoyable display of confidence, presentation skills, with a
varied and interesting range of topics, unfortunately there has to be
winners : -
Seniors
- winners
John Fernley C. speaking on 'Freedom and the Right to Vote', team of
Antony Walker(chair), Kimberley Anderson (speaker), and Amiee
Barratt (vote of thanks)
Seniors
-
runners-up KEV11 Interact team speaking on 'Generation 'Y' is born',
team of Jessica Wing (chair), Natalie
Grindey (speaker),
Ralph Hardisty (vote of thanks).
Seniors
- third
place KEV11 team, speaking on 'Teenagers, Villains or Victims', team of
Jessica Spencer(chair), Gemma Callaghan (speaker), and Lucy Starbuck
(vote of thanks).
Intermediates
- winners Melton Young Farmers speaking on ' Archies Menagerie', team
of Sarah Lovegrove (chair), Archie Herrick (speaker), and Charlotte
Hammond (vote of thanks).
The
top
photograph shows all contestants, plus adjudicators who were John Horn,
Shirley Morley and Rhona Tomblin.
Questionnaire
and presenter of trophies was David Ward.
Joint
Youth committee of organisers with Linda Moore as MC,
Humphrey
Davis timekeeper, Eric Sylt, Brian Sollitt and Jenny Foreman supporting.
Thanks
are owed to the adjudicators, organisers, and above all to the
participants who showed just what talent exists in our town.
Izaak
Walton Visit 2009 Another
enjoyable weekend on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border in Dove Dale
was had by several members of the club in early December 2009,
including a super walk on the Saturday morning followed by a compulsory
visit to the local pub.
Over
Christmas 2009, and with the kind help of Twinlakes'
family theme park, their polar bear is helping to raise funds to
support Rotary's challenge
to eradicate polio world-wide:
Philippines
Aid Container The
Melton Rotary Club was
pleased to dispatch another container
of goods to our friends in the central Philippines today, the 2nd
December 2009. In exactly one month's time the Rotarians in
Cebu
should be receiving a large quantity of clothing and assorted medical,
educational and other equipment for them to distribute to hospitals,
health centres, schools and many other projects that they
support
in their district.
A major reorganisation of schooling in Melton means that the
secondary
schools are disposing of computers, books (school text books
including sets of encyclopaedias and some hymn books), classroom
furniture, science equipment (including microscopes) sports equipment
(gymnasium equipment including a pair of basketball nets and
backboards) and other items which are not apppropriate to the new
buildings and IT specifications. More sets of encyclopaedias
were
donated by the Leicester Mercury. A Melton primary school
which
was re-equipping let us have class-rooms' worth of infant-sized
chairs. The donations will all support education at
the
schools we visited in February where computers were non-existent or at
best very scarce, science equipment was scant, and books were fewer
that most of us have on the bookshelves in our living rooms.
Through our contacts across the East Midlands many Rotarians
and
Rotary
Clubs have donated other goods: more PCs, books, clothing
(especially children's clothes), folding chairs, children's
soft
toys and much more. We were fortunate to be given another
ultrasound scanner by a Rotarian in Bedford; she is a vet, and
they had an old but serviceable human-spec scanner no longer in use in
their surgery. Another Rotarian has a great variety of
sources of
aid materials, and was able to let us have, literally, pallet loads of
children's toothpaste kits complete with a tube of toothpaste and
brush; pencils and pens which can go to the schools; children's
clothes; antiseptic wipes which will be of enormous help in the health
centres. We have also sent a few more bicycles, many
unclaimed
from the police pound where they store stolen and recovered bikes.
The
Loading Party
Bob
Parfitt's contribution
White
Board and Basketball
Books
Yes
John - more books
Keep
going with the books
We
decided to leave Sasha to it
...
... while
Tony and David
chatted ...
...
and we ate the bacon butties
Nearly
full
Closing
Up
Ready
to go
We
are enormously grateful to all the
donors of what is going out to the Philippines.
Having
visited the Philippines as a club earlier in the year we know how
overwhelmed they will be by all you have given us.
So many
thanks to you all, too many to mention here. We also
are
very grateful to Tony and Sasha Lord, club members and also the owners
of PP Removals, without whom the storage of it all and the logistics of
the whole operation would not have been possible.
We are hoping to repeat this exercise in 2010, so please let
us
know if
you have any items at all similar that we could include in our next aid
container.
Addendum
3rd December: having
just listed out all the equipment we've sent, to ward the Filipinos
what's coming, I am including it here for the interest of all those who
helped us:
1. An ultrasound machine - a Hitachi (not
the same
model as the ones we sent last time, but suitable for pre-natal use)
complete with two probes (a linear 7.5MHz and a curved array 305MHz).
2. A single, very heavy box containing a
range of
medical (surgical, maybe laproscopic) instruments.
3. Disposable "wet wipes" - again,
another pallet
load. They should be useful in health centre and hospitals
4. Boxes of tooth care kits - packs with
a child's
toothbrush and tube of toothpaste - several thousand I imagine - a full
pallet load anyway. We remember well Jun taking us to a school where
the kids were being shown how to brush their teeth.
5. Computers (CPUs, monitors, etc) -
probably (at a
wild guess) about 60 CPUs and 60 monitors. Many of the CPUs
are
from the schools, where they've been used in the school
network.
They are not all that old - Windows XP era, and should work
fine.
There'll be many others of varying ages and states of
repair. There is at least one laptop (minus hard
drive
unfortunately); maybe more. We hope to send more laptops next
time. I've no idea what software they have
installed. There
are bundles of mice, keyboards, network cables, and other
bits,
Have fun sorting that lot out! I'd like to think that several
of
the computers can go to the schools in Leyte that we visited in
February (c/o Rico Rentuza and Jane Araneta) and in Boljoon and Granada
(c/o Antoinette Gould).
6. Some printers and other computer
peripherals
7. At least one TV (though it will be a
UK standard,
so not sure if it will function in the Philippines - apologies if not).
8. A fully working photocopier.
9. Small amount of gymnasium equipment
including a
pair of basketball nets and backboards. The basketball stuff
all
comes from a school gym - a complete, very professional looking set
up. It's in several pieces, so anything in the container that
is
a light blue piece of metal is probably part of it. There are
four sheets of board that all are part of it. And, of course,
two
hoops and baskets painted dark yellow.
10. Several boxes (maybe 40) of assorted
books
including secondary school text books, sets of encyclopaedias, some
hymn books. I'd like to think that a good lot of these can go
to
the schools in Leyte and Boljoon, as above.
11. Boxes of pens (1000 per box) - a
complete pallet
load
12. Some school science equipment (a few
boxes of
microscopes, a couple of boxes of chemistry lab equipment, and a few
boxes containing some sort of electrical meters - not sure what they
are for) - can some of this go to Leyte? Rico knows which
secondary school it was that we visited that particularly asked for
science equipment.
13. Several bundles of assorted clothing
- much of it
used to pack out the spaces in the container. Much of it is
children's clothing I believe.
14. Several Disney character soft toys -
for the
REACH school, perhaps?
15. Elementary school furniture (mainly
desks and
chairs for younger children) - about two classrooms' worth, I think
16. Folding chairs (adult size),
promotional items
from a pet food company near us
17. A few bicycles that we couldn't ship
last time
18. Some boxes, marked with a large red
"A", which
are Allan's and the rest of the GSE team's personal goods
Thank you to all who made such a wide range and large amount
of
stuff
available.
Christmas
Tree Display in St. Mary's Church The
Rotary Club of
Melton
Mowbray displayed a Christmas Tree
with ?Rotary Activities? as the theme at the 2009
annual St
Mary?s Church Christmas Tree Festival which was held between
4th
and 8th December 2009.
Pam Wiggins, Kate Theobald, Adrienne Holland, Wendy Davies, John and
Jane
Horn all contributed towards getting everything organised including
supplying the tree, tables, lights etc. and the artistic talents of all
the helpers who made the decorations, obviously learnt from watching
Blue Peter in their youth.
Many people from far and wide visited the festival and we hope that we
have managed to let people know what Rotary is all about.
Flower
Bulbs for Blind People In
the lead up to
Christmas
the President of the club,
David Ward, and other members (Pam Wiggins, Bill Glancy) presented
approximately 35 pots of hyacinths to the Vista group for the Blind,
and their helpers, on 10th December 2009 at Gloucester House.
The bulbs, pots, compost and moss were obtained by Pam
Wiggins from
a
variety of sources, including generous sponsorship from Gates' Garden
Centre, Market Overton. Pam spent a happy evening earlier in
the
week potting up the plants. While the presentation was going
on
the ladies at Vista found Pam a job to do so as to re-soften her hands
after her unaccustomed manual toil.
Christmas
Food Parcels for the Older,
Needy People of Melton Four
local
organisations
participated both financially and physically in the annual food parcel
project for the elderly needy of Melton, with over 500 parcels of food
items being delivered on Monday 14th December 2009 as a
result.
The four organisations contributing some £550 each plus many
manhours of labour and organisation in the project are : -
Rotary
Club of Melton Mowbray.
Rotary
Club of Melton Mowbray Belvoir
Melton
Lions and Phoenix Lions
Barnes
Trust
The
financial contributions were complemented by food collections at both
Tesco's and Morrison's during the Friday and Saturday.
We thank the shoppers of Melton for buying that one extra
item to put in our collection trollies - they make so much difference
at this time of year. The purchased and donated produce was
sorted, stacked and packed ready for delivery over the same weekend.
This very rewarding project and worthwhile project has been
undertaken
for about 28 years, with Mike Pell (Lions), being the organiser for the
last 20 years.
All
the Service organisations involved are extremely grateful to the two
supermarkets Tesco's and Morrison's who allow the collection of food
products in their stores for this event.
Burns'
Night Celebrations Another
excellent night of fun and
fellowship was enjoyed by 65 members, friends and guests at a Burns'
Night
dinner held on the 23rd January 2010 at Sysonby Knoll hotel, who again
royally hosted the
event with traditional Burns' fare, ambiance and genial
hospitality.
Thanks to Ben and Claire Abbott, along with Club Service team for the
planning
and organising of the occasion.
Members
and friends of our Club were
joined by guests of Sysonby Knoll, plus a group from Melton
Round
Tablers,
to a most enjoyable evening celebrating the Life and works of 'The
Scottish
Bard Robbie Burns', as well as raising approx £250 for Rotary
charities.
The
event
packed evening included: -
Bagpipes
played throughout the evening by 'Champion Piper Bill', who explained
the reason for pipers keeping walking around - to get away from the
noise!
Malt whiskey
tasting, quiz on Robbie Burns, 'heads and tails quiz, raffle.
Elegance
beyond imagination from Gavin, Haggis, and piper Bill in Piping in,
addressing and then decimating the haggis. (see photo)
Three
representative Scots from the club (see photo), plus honorary Scots
lass, presided over: -
Selkirk
Grace, with true sartorial aplomb - Bill Glancy.
Immortal
memory, with compassion for times gone - Bob McCord
Toast
to
the Laddies, with subtlety and care - Jane Horn
Toast
to
the Lassies, with true feeling - Duncan Manderson
A
most
enjoyable event, achieving
all objectives set for the evening, Fun, Celebration of Burns, Raising
cash for
charities, allowing Scots in Club at least once a year a bit of freedom
to show
off their heritage.
Youth
Speaks Melton?s
two Rotary Clubs sponsored three teams in this year?s Rotary
Youth Speaks competition.
The local heat was held in November 2009 with the winners and
runners-up in the intermediate and senior sections taking part in the
district semi-finals in January and February 2010 at the Walton
Girls? School in Grantham.
Melton Young Farmers were the representative team in the
intermediate
section, ably coached by Emma Lovegrove, a past winner of the
competition. They were by far the youngest team in the semi-final and
although they didn?t progress any further in the competition,
they will have learnt a great deal from the experience, especially if
they choose to compete again next year.
King Edward VII / Interact team, and the John Ferneley
College team
participated in the senior competition and were supported and trained
by Kathryn Bloodworth and Jon Beaver respectively.
Young
Farmers
John
Ferneley College
King
Edward VII / Interact
The
standard of public speaking in this year?s senior
semi-final
was very high, and although neither team made it through to the
district final they acquitted themselves very well, speaking on the
Nineties v The Noughties and Freedom and Responsibilities.
All the teams deserve much respect and also to be
congratulated for
speaking so confidently and with such aplomb to a critical audience of
adults. Linda
Moore, Eric Sylt
Induction
of new member, Julia Hinde, 8th February 2010 The
Rotary
Club of Harpenden acted as the formal proposer for Rtn. Julia Hinde to
be transferred as a member of their Club to that of the Rotary Club of
Melton Mowbray. However President David requested that the
honour
of proposal and of induction be his, with due justification in that
Julia's father, Rex Barber, a long serving member of our Club,
introduced President David into our Club for the first time in the
early 1980's. Julia's mother Joyce also participates in the
activities of Rotary, through Ladies in Rotary, and other social events
of our Club.
Rtn.
Julia has recently moved back into the area, now living in Burton
Lazars. Julia will initially join the ComVoc committee, but
has
in the recent past been involved with many Youth projects in her
Harpenden Club.
All Club members extend their best wishes to Julia in her
relocation
and membership of our 'family'.
Anthony
Smith - Our club's Group Study Exchange delegate to the Philippines Anthony
Smith one of the delegates for the 2010 District 1070 GSE team to the
Philippines made an excellent presentation to the Club on 8th February
2010 covering his qualifications, vocational training and experiences.
The enthusiasm and presence of Anthony throughout the
presentation fully justified the Club's nomination and sponsorship for
a place in the GSE team.
Anthony
will be joined by three other delegates, all female, plus team
leader Mike Brearley on their trip leaving at the end of the week for
some 4 weeks in Philippines. This is a return visit as the
Philippine team visited our District 1070 in Sept/Oct of 2009.
President David on behalf of the club presented Anthony
with 12
Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray banners and a cheque to value of
£100 to assist in his expenses possibly for gifts to be given
to
host families etc. All members of the Club wished Anthony
every
success in this unique opportunity and adventure, and hoped that he and
the rest of the team would visit R. C. of Melton Mowbray on their
return to present their experiences.
Thanks
for Life, End Polio Now To
promote Rotary's campaign to "End Polio Now" the two rotary clubs in
Melton Mowbray rented a stall at the Melton market on 23rd February.
This gave us the opportunity to tell people about the
campaign
and how close we are to achieving the goal of eradicating polio
world-wide for ever. We also took the chance to
publicise
the work we do with Shelter Boxes, Aquaboxes, and other Rotary
programmes such as ICE.
The Interactors of King Edward V11 School also organised a
collection
in the school for Rotary week 'Thanks for Life'.
Indian
Evening in aid of
the End Polio Now campaign As
part of the "Thanks for Life - End Polio Now" campaign across the
UK, three of the Rotary Clubs in Melton and Rutland combined in a
"Bollywood Evening" at the The
Dining
Room
Indian
restaurant in Oakham. 55 members and friends of the three
clubs
enjoyed a
wonderful meal and great fellowship, also raising over £500
towards the eradication of polio. Many thanks to Amin, the
proprietor of the restaurant and his staff, for looking after us all so
well.
Long
Field School
Year 7s Raise Money for a Shelter Box
Long
Field
School's year 7 pupils were concerned by the stories coming from Haiti
following the recent terrible earthquake, so decided to raise money to
help. They did fantastically well with a wide range of fund
raising efforts among their friends and families,
including selling cakes, lollipops, filling in the white of a
Union Jack with coins and many, many other novel ideas.
Rotary
International has sent well over 10,000 Shelter Boxes
to Haiti to help
the displaced families to re-establish some sort of a normal life.
The Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray were delighted on 26th
February
2010 to be presented with a cheque from the pupils for
£423.31
which, with some
other small donations we have received from other kind donors, will
pay the £490 needed to send another Shelter Box to people
affected by natural disasters.
A Shelter Box contains all the
living needs for a family of 10 people - including tent, cooking
equipment and eating utensils, water purification equipment, carpentry
tools, waterproof clothing, blankets, and even colouring books
and
crayons for the children.
Melton
Tigers Celebrate Our
Community and Vocational Committee and Ladies in Rotary teamed up to
organise a surprise 70th Birthday Tea Party for John Hack at the King
Edward V11 School on Friday 5th March 2010.
The party was a result of a request by John's
daughter-in-law, to
help
in recognising the work John puts into organising the Tigers Club, a
group of disabled adults that meet weekly in the school to play a range
of games including carpet bowls, soft darts, pool, table games etc. The
group who were very appreciative of the evening tucked into food and
drink provided and served by members of our Community and Vocational
committee and Ladies in Rotary.
Photo's show: -
o John Hack mid-puff blowing out birthday
cake
candles.
o Tigers Club in full flow tucking into
food and drink
o Servers for the event plus John's
daughter-in-law
Linda
Ladies
in Rotary 60th Birthday
Party In
recognition of the 60th year of our Ladies in Rotary organisation, a
seated celebration Tea party for 20 past and present members was held
on March 9th, 2010 at the home of Pam Ward, this year's President.
Past club members Maureen Precious, Joan Crosher, and Gill Hurst
reminisced with old and new friends whilst tucking in to home made
cakes, tarts, sandwiches, jam and cream scones, plus leaf tea served in
china crockery from silver and china teapots - to reflect the norm in
the 'good old days'.
A birthday cake was an added treat to a most
enjoyable afternoon.
Thanks to all those ladies who slaved away making the goodies, and for
searching through family heirlooms to provide the silverware and china
for the occasion, at the point of writing - no breakages recorded!
Group
Study Exchange Team
return
We've had this report from the Philippines of the district GSE team's
return from the central Philippines. No doubt we'll hear a
lot
more about the visit from the team themselves in the near future.
The Melton Mowbray Rotary Club put Anthony Smith forward for
this
exchange, and are delighted to hear he had a successful visit. "By
now Mike and the rest of he team should be on the flight back to
England after their memorable 28 day tour across the Visayas and some
parts of Mindanao. They are a super super team and all of us here had a
great and wonderful time hosting them. I am sure that they very much
enjoyed themselves as well with the gracious hosting of our host
Rotarians, our excellent Conference and the various sights, sounds,
drinks and food that most would have been quite unique and a first time
experience for them. A lot of people have also been touched by their
involvement in some of our projects and the sharing of their vocations
with local counterparts here.
In behalf of our DG Tony and our Chair Me'anne, please allow
me to
acknowledge once again for your efforts and vision in arranging this
exchange. We will never forget you and everyone's warm hospitality and
the tremendous experience we had a as a team there in England. Thank
you also for sending over these five wonderful people over to visit our
shores. Daghang salamat.
Hopefully they will bring back to their clubs some of the
service
opportunities and challenges of our projects here, promote our country
as a viable travel destination, continue their involvement with
Rotary's and the Foundations' goals and make this visit an
unforgettable life experience.
We look forward to seeing them all again sometime soon.
Induction
of new member, Ian Neale, 15th March 2010 Ian
Neale,
the third new member of the Rotary year was inducted into the Club on
Monday 15th March 2010 by President David Ward, and warmly welcomed by
all members present, many having known Ian for numerous
years.
Ian, whose classification is Building Surveyor, is retired from full
time employment but has taken on the onerous role of project managing
the refurbishment of the magnificent Launde Abbey. In
addition to
this major involvement in Launde Abbey, Ian has other numerous
community roles including involvement in St Mary's and other local
Churches, masterminding the annual Christmas tree festival, member and
chairman of the Raynes Trust and many, many more interests and
challenges, including ownership of a Triumph Stag classic car.
Ian is married to Dina, and they have a daughter.
Overall a genuinely 'good egg'.
3
Peaks Challenge Several
members of the club and friends have decided to undertake the
challenge of climbing the 3 highest peaks in each of Scotland, England
and Wales this coming June. The aim is to complete the three peaks
inside 24 hours. For more details see the 3 Peaks Challenge page
on this web
site. At the moment we have 7 Rotarians and 2 friends. But
after
this weekend's first training walk will we all continue?
The walk on 20th March 2010 was around the northern edge of
Kinder
Scout, in the Peak
District. We managed to choose what must have been about the
wettest day of the year for the walk. As Tony said
afterwards,
"If it says it's waterproof it probably isn't! Take plenty of spare
clothes." We all completed the walk, but in a much longer
time
than we had anticipated. We all realised just how much
fitness
will be needed for the real event.
That said, it was a wonderful place to walk, and the views
are
probably
fantastic when the rain clouds lift. It's just better not to
fall
in the crevasses in the snow. (Nor to go swimming in the
Peaks in
March - no pictures of that!)
Charter
Night Scalford
Hall hosted the 82nd Charter Night celebration of the Rotary Club of
Melton Mowbray on 22nd March 2010. Everyone enjoyed a great
evening of fun and occasional frivolity, all excellently organised by
President-elect John Horn in honour of this year's President David
Ward. We were delighted to have the director of Rotary
International, David Liddiatt, as our main speaker to inform and
entertain us. He travelled all the way from Bristol to be
with us.
Two presentations were made on the night:
Club members Tony and Sasha Lord were presented with individual Paul
Harris Fellowships in recognition of their unstinting support in
collecting, storing, sorting, packing and shipping containers of
humanitarian aid for the Philippines.
And Diana Osborne was selected by President David as Rotarian
of
the
Year, following her tireless efforts in so many activities of the club
since she joined, culminating in raising the funds for four Shelter
Boxes to be sent for disaster relief.
Photos
3, 4, 5, 6 and 8,
courtesy of the Melton Times
The 2010 shooting
evening took place on 30th
March
this year.
Some16 small bore rifle markspersons, 14 men, one lady and
one boy,
met
at the Holwell Rifle Club on Tuesday evening for a social shooting
night with our good friends from the Rotary Club of Rutland, and for
the Annual competition to elect the Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray's
champion for the year.
This annual event, has been held almost continually since
1953, as
a
competition between Rotary Club of Rutland and our own Club for the
'Dick Turpin Trophy', unfortunately the passage of time has led this
year to Rutland being short of a fully competitive team, but are happy
to continue as a social event. Five members from Rutland
attended.
This year's competition was over two disciplines prone or bench
shooting, along with LSR (Light weight Sports Rifle).
The New Champion for 2010 was Phil Bendall winning both disciplines:
In
equal Second place was David Ward, Gavin Howling and Tony Lord
In equal Third place was Joe Carrington and Richard Simmons from Rutland
The Highest Rutland Score earned Richard Simmons an Easter egg to show
off to the Rutland Club members.
James Howling, young son of Jenny and Gavin, was very impressive
shooting consistently high scores with an air rifle in the pistol
range, also earned an Easter egg.
For the full gory detail of the scores click
here
to open the spreadsheet.
3
Peaks Challenge As
a follow-up to our very wet and generally unpleasant first training
walk
in March, our April day (11th April 2010) on Kinder Scout was a
complete contrast. We
had wonderfully fine weather, everyone was feeling far better than on
the previous walk, and we completed the circuit up Jacobs Ladder,
across the edge of the Scout to Nether Tor and down well inside the
target time.
The
induction
of Brian Giller as a new member to our club took place on Monday 12th
April
2010. Brian
is a vastly experienced
Rotarian with many years of Rotary service in UK and overseas.
He
is married to
Barbara, who is a member of Ladies in Rotary Brian and Barbara
have already
attended many of our functions, and Brian has previously spoken to the
Club (in
February) about his Rotary experiences in South Africa, so is not
unknown to
our members.
Brian's
experience of Rotary stretches back many years in that he was President
of his East London Club in
South Africa
in 1997, then continued
his Rotary involvement and became D.G. of District 9320 in
2001. Returning to the UK, they moved to
Lancashire where Brian became
a member of R.C. of
Rossendale
in 2007/8, before moving to Melton Mowbray.
Brian was warmly welcomed
into his new club
by all members present.
The
Big Duck Race The
Duck
Race was the brain child of Pam Wiggins, the Community and Vocational
Chairman for the Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray. TwinLakes
Director, Phil Bendall, was eager to support the event and
made
the park facilities available to the members of the Rotary Club of
Melton Mowbray.
This was the first ever Duck Race to be held at Twinlakes Park and it
took place on Sunday 11th April. This followed a 12 day
period of
Rotarians asking visitors to the Park to sponsor the ducks and be
allocated with a Duck Number. There was also a side
competition
to Name the Duck..
On any other day we would have prayed for fine weather. On
the
Race day we prayed for wind. A Duck Run was tried at around 11.30am to
check the wind direction. The 2 ducks trialled hit the bank
on
the
other side of the lake within minutes.
At the Start Time of 3.00pm the crowds surrounded one side of the
lake. Everyone was ready as the Ducks were launched from a
tarpaulin into the water . There were a few nervous minutes
when
the wind died down and we had to wait for the wind to whip up again.
Up came the wind and 3 pink ducks made a break for
it. The
others tried hard to follow, but the pinkies were pulling away from the
pack. They reached the other bank.
The winners had been decided.
Duck
Number 407 was the first one to reach the opposite bank winning
£50 each for Ms Cooper and Mr Hamilton
Duck
Number 778 was the second home winning £30 each for Mr Harvey
and
Ms Williams
Duck
Number 417 was in third position winning £20 each for Mr
Spare
and Mrs Woods
The
Name the Duck Competition was drawn after the Duck Race and was won
by Mr Breden, with the name of Jaimee. He will
receive
£15
This
event concluded with over £3,000 being raised for Rotary
Community projects
President
David Ward attended the
15th Anniversary Gala Ball of our 'Twin' Club the Rotary Club of Warsaw
Wilanow
over the weekend of 14/16th May 2010.
President
Jan Papina and our old
friend Joergen Hansen royally hosted President David over the three day
visit
which with the Gala Ball, included a 'Drinking and American food
reception' at
the American Embassy in aid of the local police and security services
charities, a visit to the old city and Royal Summer Palace near Warsaw.
Although
the Rotary Club of Warsaw
Wilanow also has twinning relationships with the Rotary Clubs of Munich
and
Milan, President David was the only visiting Rotarian from the 150 Club
Rotarians and guests present - so was made exceptionally welcome as the
only
'President' wearing significant regalia, having to pose for
photographs, and forced to drink copious quantities of fluids
to
reciprocate greetings and toasts.
Photo's
show President David with
President Jan and Joergen hansen at Summer palace, and President David,
President
Jan, wife Barbara, and Joergen Hansen still standing and sober at
Chopin Vodka
bar around 1.30am with hours to go!
3
Peaks Challenge - to the Lakes The
training continues. Four of the 3 Peaks Challenge team went
up to
the Lake District over the weekend of 15th-16th May 2010, for some more
taxing walking and to test out our abilities on Scafell Pike - one of
the mountains we will climb during the challenge itself.
On Saturday we climbed just over 8,000 vertical feet, in
three
ascents.
This included the Great Gable, Kirk Fell and part of the
Mosedale
Horseshoe. We did a couple of long scree run descents, which
not
everyone enjoyed!
On the Sunday we climbed Scafell, reaching the top in 3
minutes
short
of two hours, and the complete walk in 3 hours 20 minutes.
Maybe
not a world record, but it has given us confidence in achieving the 24
hour target for completing all the peaks. Now, we keep up the
training, work on the logistics, and ask for your sponsorship.
Remember the super charities we are doing this for (see here).
'The
2010
Charter Celebration and
President's Handover of the King Edward V11 Interact Club took place on
Tuesday
18th June 2010 at the King Edward V11 School, attended by Interact
President Ellie
Grove, Incoming President Natalie Grindey, District Governor District
1070 Dick
Parsley, the two sponsoring Melton Rotary Club Presidents David Ward
and Tony
Wallis, along with a few members of the two Rotary Clubs and
teachers, plus a good representation from the Interact Club
members.
After
the
formalities of the
Presidential handover, reviewing a successful year, and setting the
plans for
next year, light refreshments were served rounding off a most enjoyable
and
rewarding event.
Casual
discussions with some of the Interact
members
Interact
president 2009/10 Ellie Grove handing
over to incoming President 2010/11 Natalie Grindey
D.G.
District 1070 Dick Parsley, incoming King
Edward VII Interact President Natalie Grindey, Presidents of the two
Melton
Rotary Clubs Tony Wallis and David Ward, along with outgoing President
Interact
Ellie Grove
Good
luck to all those students heading off to
University, and to those remaining to take on the reins of the
successful King
Edward V11 Interact Club.
Philippines
Rotary Club Donates Melton Computers to Alternative Learning Centres The
Rotary Club of Mactan, in Cebu, Philippines, sent a
"Certificate
of Donation" to the Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray in June 2010, in to
confirm the donation of computers to several Alternative Learning
Centres in Cebu, Philippines. The computers were sent
initially
to Cebu by the Melton club as part of a large shipment of educational
and medical items. The items all originated from various schools,
companies
and people in and around Melton Mowbray.
The alternative learning centres are explained in the
attached
file: click here
Jun
Ferreros, one of the Rotary district officers in Cebu, wrote:
"Thank
you for working very hard in enabling us to bring hope
to those because of the accident of birth , are in a much worse
condition than
we are in.These are the people whom we can describe as those who are
too poor
to live.
The
" classroom without borders" described
by the teachers are being
held in the jails, spaces under the bridge, in chapels, open spaces,
dumpsites.
etc.
The teachers lack basic educational materials- pencils,
paper,
blackboards. With their meager salaries which do not come on time- they
have to
buy their own Manila paper so they can write their lessons.
But despite all that, things are being accomplished and people are
being
educated. According to Education Secretary Lapus "Thanks to
the
efforts of these esteemed educators and the DepEd, the term "out of
school" does not mean "uneducated."
3
Peaks Challenge - Another visit to the Peak District We
are
nearing the end of the training - only 10 days to go before we start
the challenge itself. Four of the 3 Peaks Challenge team went
up
to
the Peak District on Saturday 12th June 2010 for some more exercise
and to test out how our fitness has developed. We walked a couple of
steep ascents we had done early in our training sessions, and were all
pleased to find we got up considerable more easily than previously.
It augers well for the challenge itself.
From Hayfield we went up to Kinder reservoir and on up
William
Clough
onto Kinder Scout. A loop round the edge of the moor past
Kinder
Downfall took us to the descent back into Hayfield. In an attempt to
simulate the effects on the challenge itself of stopping walking,
sitting in cars for several hours, then having to get the legs working
again, we then stopped in Hayfield for lunch, jumped in the car and
drove round to Barber Booth. Certainly it was a slow process
getting the legs moving again, but that soon wore off and we ascended
Jacob's Ladder in good time. Up onto the moor then back down
Crowden Brook back to the car and the journey home. About 5
hours
walking should have helped us prepare for the challenge ahead.
For details of the 3 Peaks Challenge and the good causes for
which
we
are raising the sponsorship see here.
The
3
Peaks - The Story of a Challenge After
several months of planning and training, a team of 10 from the Rotary
Club of Melton Mowbray undertook the challenge of climbing all three of
the highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales within 24 hours
towards the end of June 2010, all with the aim of raising funds to
support various local and international charity efforts of the club (click
here for details
or to
sponsor us).
The team of walkers was Phil Bendall, Joe Carrington, John
Dehnel, Ron Edwards, Chris Hall, Gavin Howling and Tony Lord,
supported by the logistics team of Sue Hall, Steve Jeal and
David
Ward. The training, which is detailed in other stories on this site,
started in March, followed by several days of increasingly strenuous
walks in the Peak District. We went up to the Lake District
in
May to sample some higher mountains, and then on the 21st June set off
to Scotland with the supportive good luck wishes of the club in our
minds. We stopped in Carlisle on the way up, knowing that we would have
plenty of time to drive the additional four hours to Fort William the
next day. We had planned to start walking around
5pm, and in
the event set off at 16.56 from the Youth Hostel at the food of Ben
Nevis, allowing an evening ascent of this first mountain, an
early
morning climb to the top of Scafell Pike and an afternoon "stroll" to
complete the challenge on Snowdon. A total of 11,000 feet of
climbing, 20 miles of walking and about 500 miles of driving between
the mountains. The last of these three,
the
driving,
accounted
for the efforts of our fantastic three logistics team - who drove,
fed and watered us between the mountains, an essential ingredient of
any such expedition. Many thanks are owed to them.
Rather than relate the story of each peak individually,
suffice it
to
say that all three went quite uneventfully. That is to say:
which
way do we go? Up, then down. For time reasons we
had
necessarily chosen the shortest but therefore the steepest
routes.
None needed any real climbing - certainly no rope work, but
were
all daunting in their own ways. All three mountains demanded a
steady
but unrelenting pace up almost continuous ascents. Snowdon,
which
started very gently, ended with a real sting in the tail for the final
ascent. We failed to get lost on the mountains, other than a
brief diversion on a rather long "short cut" down Ben Nevis.
We
each had a slightly varying natural pace, but the
teams stayed together to arrive at the top of each
climb all
together. We were lucky with the weather, particularly in
that we
had reasonable visibility from the top of each - some cloud
but views each time of the valleys below.
Not that
we had
much time to admire the views. There was only time for a
quick
photo and off back down, being particularly careful at the top
of
Ben Nevis as there are some sheer drops in the wrong direction!
We completed Ben Nevis in 5 hours flat, Scafell Pike in 3 hours 40
minutes, and Snowdon in 3 hours 33 minutes, completing
the whole
expedition in 23 hours 7 minutes - almost a relaxed finish after a very
hectic previous day or so.
For details of the 3 Peaks Challenge and the good causes for
which
we
are raising the sponsorship see here.
If you can offer to sponsor our efforts and support our good
causes, see
details here.
The
journey to the start:
Starting
out from Sysonby Knoll
Carlisle
stop-over
Loch
Lomond
Ben
Nevis
Inn (note - no alcohol!)
Ben
Nevis:
Last
minute preparation
The
approach to Ben Nevis from the start
Setting
off from near the Youth Hostel
Across
to
the foothills
Bridging
the many streams
Views
from
the top
Nearly
there
Snow
- Bob
beware!
The
summit
cairn
One
down
(or rather, up), two to go
Ben
Nevis
conquered
Scafell
Pike:
Setting
off before dawn
Summit
cairn
The
long
descent
Over
the
river
Nearing
the finish
Snowdon:
The
start
Views
from
the top
Nearing
the summit
The
summit
cairn
Careful
descents
Nearing
the finish
The
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YOUNG
DESIGNER
COMPETITIONs
On Monday June 28th 2010 the local heat of the Young Designer
Competition was held at King Edward VII School. This competition is
based upon GCSE, A/S and A level Design course work in Textiles,
Resistant Materials (wood, metal, plastic), graphics and electronics
and is designed to encourage schools to enter their most outstanding
project submissions. Entries were judged on both their innovative and
practical attributes.
The standard of work, the quality of the design and
workmanship and
the
enthusiasm and ingenuity of the students were impressive. Entries
submitted for adjudication by John Tyers (Soar Valley RC)
were as
follows:-
Michael Fiford - Electronic Products - Tennis serve accuracy
trainer
Ryan Wade - Electronic Products - press-up exercise counter
Georgia Pearson - Graphic Products - display stand and packaging for
bracelets
Nayan Mistry - Graphic Products - display stand and packaging for
aftershave
Sophie Freestone - Product Design - jewellery box
Chloe Kutkus Morton ? Textiles ? white chiffon dress
Beth Jackson ? Textiles ? blue party dress with
pink belt
Katy Horsman ? Food Technlogy ? Chicken wrapped
with
prosciutto, stuffed with dolcelatta cheese
Natalie Mepsted ? Food Technology - steak &
mushroom
short crust pie
A big WELL DONE to all entrants and special
CONGRATULATIONS to
the
winners who were:-
1st Prize: Beth Jackson
2nd Prize: Katy Horsman
The District Final was held at The Masque Kettering
on 26th
June. We
had two entries, they were Georgia Pearson and Michael
Fiford.
Michael?s Tennis Trainer was commended for the most
commercially
viable project and he received a gift voucher for £25.
The
photographs show Beth Jackson,
Katy Horsman, Michael Fiford and Georgia Pearson.
Certificates were presented by Rotarian Maggie Wilson,
Also pictured is David Wilson who is Head of Design at King
Edward VII School.
Kids
Out 2010
The annual Kids Out day was held on 9th June 2010,
when
Rotary Clubs from around District 1070 took 2,387 disadvantaged
children to Wicksteed Park in Kettering for a day's fun and enjoyment.
The two Melton Rotary Clubs took 40 children from the Grove
School and arranged for 100 children from Birchwood school, together
with their helpers, to go also.
A few photos illustrate some of the fun had by the children:
Presidential
Citation for
2009-2010
On Monday 23rd August, Immediate Past President David Ward received the
Presidential Citation on behalf of the Club from last year's Assistant
Governor for Area B Robert Bracegirdle. Also in attendance was 2010/11
Assistant Governor Garner Roberts.
Only 41 Clubs out of 87 in our District 1070 achieved the
necessary
criteria to achieve the Presidential Citation qualifications, which
require the Club to be involved in a range of activities, including
Polio eradication projects, Public image of Rotary, Service projects,
Vocational Service and to have achieved a positive movement on
membership.
The
2009/10
Committee chairs and all Club members should be very
proud
to have achieved this recognition of achievement, as should the
President of the club for 2009-2010, David Ward, who led the club to
such a notable achievement.