LAST ENTRY - Year Is Over

I can't believe it started a year ago. Seems just like yesterday. So, last night was the Handover meeting where I gave the Presidential chain to SVP Geoff. But of course there was the farewell speech where I sincerely thanked the Club for its support and fellowship throughout the past Rotary year.

I would also like to thank all of you out there following this blog. It has reached about a dozen countries and has had 3,155 hits this past year. Not bad going, but then again the story it told was about a year in the life of a great Rotary club - Church Wilne.

As you can see from the picture the Presidential chain is now around the neck and shoulders of President Geoff. Tony has received the Senior Vice President chain and I am wearing the Past President medallion that I get to keep! 

I am looking forward to and wish President Geoff all the best for his year as President of Church Wilne RC and very much look forward to SVP Tony's year as well.

As the saying goes - That's all folks!

Kindest regards and Yours in Rotary

Greg - Immediate Past President / Church Wilne Rotary Club

In-Out Meal, Total Funds Raised 2013-14

Last night we had our In-Out meal at the Coopers Arms in Weston On Trent where we shared excellent fellowship along with good food and drink. It is amazing at how you learn so much about fellow Rotarians even when you think you know them fairly well. 

Well, all I got to say is a BIG thank you to all who came and I wish Geoff Smith and Tony Beenham all the best for their years as President of RCCW. These two Rotarians have been so supportive in my year and I and the Club would not have had such a successful year as we had without Tony and Geoff.

Here we are at the In - Out Meal.

TOTAL FUNDS RAISED 2013-14
Whilst the books are not totally complete I can confirm that we have raised over £16,000.00 this Rotary year. Thank you to all the Club for your incredible hard work to raise this sort of money for local charities and further afield. 

BALLOON RACE CREW
A final thank you to the Balloon Race crew who did all the hard work - setting up, putting things away... at the Derbyshire County Show. I can confirm the Balloon Race made a little over £700.00 and the Exit Collection over £1,000.00. 

Well done to all.

The "A" Team Crew

135th Derbyshire County Show & Club Assembly

This past weekend was once again the Derbyshire County Show. In fact it was the 135th Derbyshire County Show. I have been reliably informed by the Club tonight that it is considered a young show at 135 years old as that is recent history in British terms. Personally, I thought it was a long time but I obviously have much to learn still about being British. LOL.

Here are a few photos of our efforts for our pitch spot. We had a Membership tent as well as the balloon race tent. I very much enjoyed playing the piano in the Membership tent. Saw many familiar faces as they walked by.

All hands to the pump. JVP Tony at the helm organising everything!

Our Membership tent. Looking good.

What is JVP and Club Secretary son Rob doing with the helium. Have a look below.

Great fun playing in the warm sun. 

Paula and Ann Gregory. Two fantastic Inner Wheel members helping out on the day.

As you can see everyone had fun. Secretary Tony's son Rob had a bit more fun than most with the helium gas. Here is a video showing you what I mean. 

Major special thanks to Tony and Paula who put their heart and soul into making all this a reality this past Sunday. We raised over £1000.00 for Air Ambulance and £750 for Click Sargent. Superb as always RCCW.


CLUB ASSEMBLY
This evening we had our annual Club Assembly where the incoming President unveils his and his Committee Chairmen's plans for the coming Rotary year. It sounds as though Geoff Smith has all in order to bring us a great year ahead for the Club. 

Sadly, it was my last full meeting as President. Next week I will be President for half the meeting and back to being part of the rank and file the second half of the meeting. Basically, I will leave home President and come back as a back bencher. 

More on all that next week. But first we have tomorrow night - our In Out dinner of Committee Chairmen and Presidents. We will be at the Carpenters in Weston on Trent. Great place and great food. I'll be sure to get some good action shots as well and blog it your way later on this week.

Until then....
Greg

Santa Claus Does Come In June To Draycott and Ashbrook Primary Schools

Such a fun day out at lunch time today. I visited our two Primary Schools on our patch that we support year on year with funding for projects that have educational value. I felt like Santa Claus when handing them their cheques that will enable each School to complete projects of educational value and need this School year and beyond.

DRAYCOTT PRIMARY SCHOOL
First stop this afternoon was Draycott Primary School. What a lovely school and a new Head Teacher at the helm. They received a cheque for £400.00 to help them buy notice boards for inside School and various items to keep up their lovely gardens that the students and staff take care of.

Year 6 Students and Head Teacher. Student holding cheque.

As you can see there was smile all around and the young girls were very polite and represented Draycott Primary School very well. Thank you to everyone at Draycott Primary School for welcoming me!


ASHBROOK PRIMARY SCHOOL
The second stop for Santa's sleigh was Ashbrook Primary School where they received a cheque for £450.00 and that money will go towards buying moor books and reading aids for the Dora library.

Finance Manager of Ashbrook School accepting cheque.

Sadly, the Head Teacher was in interviews all day for new staff for next School year. But, I was very grateful that the Finance Manager of the School was able to accept the cheque on behalf of the School. We are standing in part of the Dora library and I am sure the shelves will be full of new books...

BIG Thanks to both Schools for the warm welcome I received and most of all a massive thanks to all Rotary Club of Church Wilne members who spent the whole Rotary year raising money for local needs. RCCW is the greatest RC in the world.

It was great being Santa in June! Thanks everyone!

Two more weeks.

Last Speaker Meeting of This Rotary Year

LAST SPEAKER MEETING
The clock is certainly ticking down as this past Monday was the last Speaker meeting of this Rotary year. Next week is Club Assembly and then the week after is the Handover meeting where the Presidential baton will be passed over to SVP Geoff Smith.

I wanted to make the last Speaker meeting a memorable one and in that regard I brewed two beers: an English Ale and a traditional Bitter. Both beers seemed to have gone down well. Almost all of the 23 litres of ale were consumed and most of the bottles of bitter were drunk. So, I think everyone enjoyed the beer. 

Here are some photos of beer glass empty or half empty. A very good sign!

Of course I do enjoy my beer too!

Our guest speaker was Alan Davies a very good personal friend of mine from my umpiring days with the Derby County league. He gave us a superb accounting of his career and the game today. Everyone very much enjoyed his talk which was followed up by several questions. The vote of thanks by Neil Hall was superb as well as Alan and many in the Club knew Author Hunnybun from Ockbrook and Borrowash Cricketing fame and umpiring days.

Thank you very much Alan for coming and speaking to us. Most memorable and appropriate for the last speaker meeting. 

Alan Davies

A true pleasure to be President on the last Speaker meeting of the year. Major thanks to Gail and the girls in the kitchen who prepared an American southern fried chicken dinner. Superb! Big thank you to all 35 Club members who attended.

Me and Alan at Top Table

One of the big moments of the evening happened in the beginning when we presented two BIG cheques to two local charities: 

Borrowbrook Home Link and NORSACA. Borrowbrook Home Link does so much wonderful work with our local OAP community in providing assistance in any way possible to OAP's in need. Considering they lost most, if not all of their government funding organisations like Rotary need to step in and help fill the need for funds. Thank you to the Club for agreeing this substantial amount for Borrowbrook Home Link.

NORSACA is our local Autism charity and they have a school in Heanor. I was so pleased to present them with a cheque that will purchase in full a wiggle bar for their young people in their care. I am very thankful to the Club for supporting this charity as there is a personal interest of mine in Autism. The Club's support was overwhelming and I believe that when Melanie came to speak she sold the charity and its work superbly. Thank you to all for making this a reality for NORSACA

I will be going out later this month to deliver cheques to Ashbrook and Draycott Primary Schools. Pictures to follow.

Thank you to everyone for making our last Speaker meeting of Rotary year 2013-14 such a success.

Greg

Hinnerup Visit, Barn Dance & More!

It has been busy once again but now it is time to catch up as my year as President comes to a close. Sad to say it all ends on 30th June 2014. But, lots to report so here we go!

HINNERUP VISIT
We had the most fantastic time in Hinnerup a few weeks ago. Seven of us went to see our Club we are twinned with and wow did we have a great time!!! There was a Viking theme to our time there which was lots of fun and very educational. One of the highlights was watching a Viking play with our hosts interpreting the action for us. Some in the audience did not appreciate it as much as we did. LOL.

Anyhow, there was much more to the trip as well. Our formal dinner was an evening I will never forget. Superb food from a local young chef along with great fellowship. What more could one ask for. There was also the art museum, cathedral, city tour and trip to Sky Mountain. Of course our hosts showed us even more. We were exhausted when we came back home and we do miss all the wonderful people we met at our sister club and look forward to seeing them again in two years time when they visit us.

Here is a video that kind of captures our trip. Hope you enjoy watching it.

HINNERUP VISIT MAY 2014

BARN DANCE

Now, what do you get when you have International Committee and a barn free of charge? You get an incredible evening in the form of a barn dance. What a great evening of fun and dancing. We all learned a few new moves and found that many of us can't count or stay on our feet as SVP Geoff demonstrated. 

Here are some pictures and video from last weekends superb and well attended barn dance. As you can see lots of fun and smiling faces.

CITIZENSHIP PARTY

Last weekend I had a Citizenship party to celebrate my becoming a citizen of this great country - the UK. I am blessed to be a citizen of two countries and you can see by the flags in the pictures that both were represented. However, the festivities (which included Morris Dancers) and food which was very English traditional food celebrated the day in British style. 

It was also very special a few weeks ago to be able to vote for the first time since I moved here 17 years ago. It was the European Parliamentary elections. Very important stuff for the future of the UK and Europe. 

Well, here are some pictures to show you the action on the day. Thanks to all from RCCW who came out and supported the afternoon fun. Very much appreciated.

INNER WHEEL CHARTER

One of the best things about RCCW is we have a great and well supported Inner Wheel club. This years President is Ann Gregory who I have had the great pleasure to serve with as my role of President of RCCW. The Inner Wheel Club of Church Wilne has done some incredible fundraising events this past Rotary year and today there were some cheque presentations to their charities.

Congratulations to Ann and all of Inner Wheel for a most successful year. Also, thank you very much for inviting Gail and I to your Charter this past Sunday. It was absolutely delightful.

Here are some pictures of todays cheque presentations to two very important charities in our local community. Thank you Inner Wheel of Church Wilne for being a leading light in our area and setting a superb example of service above self.

Cheque presentation to keep Rainbows bus going!

Cheque presentation to NIDAS

So, as you can see it has been busy once again. Can't believe how much we have squeezed in this past month. I will be writing a few more blogs before the end of my year as President of RCCW. Stay tuned!!!

Many thanks,

Greg

Great Speaker Meeting This Past Monday - AUTISM AWARENESS

NORSACA Speaker
We had the most wonderful speaker meeting this past Monday evening as we welcomed Melanie Howard from NORSACA, which is an Autism Charity serving both Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

The group was set up in 1968 by parents and in 1970 they opened at the Sutherland House School in Nottingham and have been serving local autism people now for 45 years.

Autism is a life long condition and effects 1% of the population and with 4 times as many men. It affects social communication, integration and imagination with around 50% having learning difficulties.

There are 22 sites in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and they employ 450 . The sites in Derbyshire includ e an adult centre at Heanor and also a residential one along with 3 supportive living centres

The members heard first hand the stories of two people who attend 5 days a week at the Heanor centre which gives their parents much needed rest bite. At this centre they are currently working on the development of a sensory garden which again will help the many needs of the people.

The Group helps families by reducing strain, give advice and also held training workshops last year for 220 parents and carers. They produced a training programme last year which was given to 1,700 professions.

There will be a 2 week summer play scheme which last year attracted 56 people and they also have regular play and leisure activities on a weekly basis. They are looking to develop a Sports Club.

Melanie in summing up said the aim of NORSACA is to bring “Quality of life for people with Autism”

This is a charity near and dear to my heart that I hope our Club can support in my Presidential year. 

HINNERUP RC, DENMARK

This Bank Holiday weekend will feature a journey to Denmark with several other Rotarians from our Club to visit our twin club in Hinnerup. The schedule of fellowship activities is very full and I look forward to reporting back to you about all aspects of this journey. 

Here is a taster of what we have in store:

Saturday :

Sailing to “Sky Mountain” ( Himmelbjerget – 147 m) and lunch, before sailing back to Ry

Banquet / formal dinner with speaks and music

Sunday :

The afternoon to Fyrkat ( www.fyrkat.dk )which is a Viking fortress, and we are booket to the Viking Games (show)

Farewell reception

Until then hope you all have a great weekend!

Greg