What A Way To End 2013 With A Post Christmas Walk

It is hard to believe that 2013 comes to an end today and that also marks the first six months of Rotary 2013-14 have also gone by. It seems like yesterday that there was 110 people in my back garden at the Meet The President BBQ this past July. Looking back at all these blogs it is quite rewarding to see what an active club we have been and the amount of money raised has been massive.

The Christmas Float Collection has collected record amounts and I am not going to announce it here as Rtn Brian Stokes (who is basically in charge of the Christmas float) will announce the final total at the next Club meeting on the 6th Jan 2014. But, I can tell you it has shattered all past records by a major amount.

Following on from the Christmas Float Collection and Carol Service (which were talked about in the last blog entry) we had our post-Christmas walk. This year it was once again organised by Rtn John Cox who is an avid walker himself. 

John designed the walk this year to be about 5 miles and on the flat and was in Shipley Park. It was a fantastic walk and the weather held for it too. The night before there was terrific winds and rain, but when morning came all was fine. The fields were a little muddy but not impossible to negotiate. 

The walk started and ended at Shipley Cricket Club. Before the start we enjoyed a hot cup of coffee or tea to get us going. After that it was onwards. In total there were 20 Rotarians and family members along with six dogs. Superb!

Just before we set off on our walk. In front of the SCC Pavilion

We saw some lovely scenery and history as we went by some rather old buildings and houses that once belonged to Earls...

The Long & Winding Road

Finally, after we got back to the Cricket Club we all got into our cars and made our way to Dale Abbey where we enjoyed a pint and some lunch but most important fellowship. Actually, the whole walk was a fantastic time of fellowship too.

There is one final thing to report. Rtn Adrian Perkins parked his car on the grass at the Cricket Club and got stuck in the wet soggy ground. Had to be towed out by Rtn Mick Barker. I am sure there is a fine coming from the Sargent At Arms for this one. Lol.

All that remains to be said is have a happy New Years and a prosperous 2014. 

See you soon!

Greg

PHF Award, Christmas Celebration, Float Collections and More!

Sorry for being out of commission for a while but I just switched internet providers and didn't have a wifi connection for over a week. Of course a lot goes by in that amount of time.

PAUL HARRIS FELLOWSHIP AWARD
First we had a Paul Harris Fellow awards ceremony and the deserving candidate was none other than Bob Martin, a bigger than life personality in the Club who has served RCCW for 24 years. Bob was President in 1998 when I was inducted into the Club. It was certainly interesting and quite an honour to now be the President awarding Bob his PHF. 

Thank you so much Bob for 24 years of loyal and giving service. You are a sining example of Service Above Self.

Bob receiving his PHF

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION MEAL
What a night this was. I wanted the evening to be more than just a meal with wives. I wanted a proper party atmosphere. I think this was achieved  or at least what everyone has said. LOL. What a better way to start off the meal than with a pole dancer! Yes that's right - a pole dancer. Not the usual pole dancer you may think of. This is true strength, agility and acrobatic and very competitive pole dancing. 

We were lucky enough to have Alissa Pearson (former Ockbrook School student) come and give us a very acrobatic routine to the tune of Merry Christmas Baby. Thanks Alissa. It has been suggested that you come to all our Monday meetings and open them up in the same fashion. I guess it was a unique way of opening up this Christmas celebration.

There was another highlight and that was our drama group with their Panto production. Guys, you're ready for the West End.

Alissa in action.

It seemed wherever you turned on the evening there were smiling tables to be found. In fact we had 92 people there which is a record attendance. This included 43 Club members which is another record for the evening. Thank you all very much for your support.

Here are some great pictures of the evening. One of the highlights has got to be young Laura Cook's mountain of incredible cupcakes.

CHRISTMAS FLOAT COLLECTION
Of course this time of year it is the most important Christmas Float Collection spearheaded by the Service Projects committee and most notably Brian Stokes who manages the float year round. I can't wait to find out what the final total is at the next Club meeting on 6th Jan 2014. Should be a good amount. Thanks to everyone (once again a Club effort) who had any part in it large or small.

Here are some pictures to enjoy that will give you a flavour of our Christmas collection efforts. No prizes for guessing who Santa is.

NINE LESSONS & CAROLS SERVICE
Finally, the Christmas Float collections stopped and we all had time to pause and celebrate with our annual Nine Lessons & Carols Service at St Chad's in Church Wilne. It was a fantastic service designed by our own Rtn Rev Gary Dundas. Thank you Gary for making it a service we all thoroughly enjoyed and for giving your time to arrange everything. 

Below is a picture of Jane Beal singing the Benediction. All the musicians did a fantastic job supplying the music and it really added so much to an already enjoyable affair.

That's it for now. We do have our post Christmas walk this Friday afternoon weather permitting. Hope to have some good pictures of that event. Until then have a very happy Christmas.

Greg

Former DFCF Players from Clough Era, Games Night, Thanksgiving Dinner and Service

Another massively busy week for RCCW. What an incredibly active club we have and so proud to be a small part of it. This week we had four major events; Club Meeting featuring former Derby County greats Barry Butlin and John O'hare followed on Wednesday evening with a Games Night with Long Eaton, Long Eaton Dawnbreakers, Ilkeston and ourselves and then Thursday evenings Thanksgiving Dinner and on Saturday evening a Thanksgiving Service at St Chad's, Church Wilne.

DCFC GREATS AT CLUB MEETING
What an experience sitting at top-table with two legends of DCFC Brian Clough era; Barry Butlin and John O'Hare. Both had great insight about the Clough era and some of the stories told were very funny and others gave us a clearer understanding of complex man - Brian Clough.

Barry also talked about the DCFC Former Players Association and their charitable work with young children and supporting them with Summer holidays to Skegness. This will be a charity we will look forward to raising some funds for during this Rotary year. 

In fact, we have started by raffling off two DCFC tickets kindly donated by Barry to the Club. We were able to raise £116.00 on the evening and the raffle had a very creative and entertaining twist to it due to the creativity of the organiser Andy Lord.

John O'Hare, Me & Barry Butlin

John O'Hare, Jenny Gary, Me, William Saunders

We were also fortunate enough to be joined by Burton of Trent President Jenny Gray and IPP William Saunders. It was wonderful to have them sitting with us at top table where we were also joined by guests of the Club Phil Thatcher, Anthony Prichard and Neil Gupta. Thank you Jenny and William for attending our Club meeting. Looking forward to going to your Club Charter and receiving you at ours.


GAMES NIGHT
On Wednesday evening we had a Games Night arranged by Long Eaton Dawnbreakers and involving Long Eaton and Ilkeston Clubs as well as ours. We were in it to win it but sadly came 3rd out of four. We tried our best and it was indeed a fine evening of fun and fellowship with other Rotarians. Major thanks to Long Eaton Dawnbreakers for setting this event up for us all to enjoy.

Our team of winners!

Chapman lining it up for a sure 50 points!

Good fun and smiles all round!

Special thanks to Club Secretary and Jr VP Tony Beenham for setting this event up for our club. Sadly we were not able to perform as well as the previous week's bowling victory. Oh well. We'll get them next time!


THANKSGIVING DINNER
Wow!!! What a turnout. 48 people in attendance to eat an American Thanksgiving dinner at The Lecture Hall, Ockbrook. The food and fellowship was superb and a Thanksgiving quiz with pudding was a real hoot. Thank you all for coming out and sharing this special American holiday with me. I'm very glad you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

One of the two turkeys who answered the call

This turkey cracks me up. Great door decoration

The Hall all set up

Everyone enjoying themselves with a plate full of Thanksgiving food

Gary serving guest

THANKSGIVING SERVICE
To end off the week we had a Service of Thanksgiving led by our own Rtn the Rev Gary Dundas at our home church of St Chad's, Church Wilne. Gary designed and led a superb service that gave us much to think about and be thankful for within Rotary and other aspects of our lives.

We also had Eleanor Sheehy-Smith lead the hymns on the organ. Very special as she is a former student of mine who is now helping me teach at Ockbrook School. Ellie's help is so much appreciated. 

Thank you Ellie and Gary for a fantastic Service of Thanksgiving.

Ellie, Gary and Me

Ellie at the organ. Love those gloves!!! LOL

My friend and Rotarian the Rev Gary Dundas

So, as I said in the beginning of this post - we are a busy club and this week was incredibly busy with four full on fellowship events. Thank you to all who participated in and supported any and all these events. RCCW is one of a kind.

Horse Ride Dinner, Bowling To Victory

Once again the past week and a half has been very busy. Finally some time to catch up on things. 

Horse Ride Dinner
First we had our annual Horse Ride dinner where we thanked all the farmers for opening up their fields for us to use back in September. We also thanked our sponsors and of course handed over a very large cheque to our chosen charity for the event - Derbyshire Air Ambulance.

The Air Ambulance is so specialised and all the agricultural community fully supports this charitable service for obvious reasons. The presentation of the cheque was very gratifying as we were able to give over £6,000.00 to Derbyshire Air Ambulance.

Presentation of the BIG £6000.00+ Cheqque raised from the Horse Ride

A cheque for £700.00+ raised at a collection at the Derbyshire County Show

Group photo of Farmers and Sponsors with Me, Roger Graham and DAA Representative

We really must thank the stars of the evening and that is our farming community who without their kind cooperation and support the event could have never taken place.

Bowling VictoryClub Secretary and JVP Tony Beenham led our Club Bowling Team to a major victory over Long Eaton Dawnbreakers this past Thursday evening at Ilkeston Bowl. Tony received high score in both games and it is always good to have someone on your team who bowls for a bowling league. 

My game was pretty dire. I did not instil any sort of good team vibes when my very first ball bowled went for the left side gutter. My second ball wasn't much better, only three pins went down. I gradually got better but nowhere near the dizzying heights of Tony.

Thank you Tony for organising and leading this event and now we wait to hear who we face on the next round. I will go and practise in between time.

Captain Tony

Ray Terry looking the part 

The two Presidents

Tony putting names on score board

The whole gang from both Clubs

Time to go but I will write a new blog this Friday that includes Thanksgiving Dinner this Thursday evening and of course our Monday meeting this past week that involved Derby County Football greats Barry Butlin and John O'Hare. 

Until then stay warm on these cold Autumn going into Winter nights.

Another Busy Weekend

Another busy weekend full of fellowship and fun was had by all at Church Wilne Rotary Club. Saturday evening saw our fantastic Inner Wheel in action with their Quiz Night. There were 13 teams of six present and the questions were very good. Tested us all on our knowledge in many areas. 

The winning team - The Smith's - got the high score of 61. But, my team got 60 and had the lead throughout the 8 rounds of questions and were pipped at the end. Oh well, it was all good fun and for a good cause - Tubular Sclerosis. 

Many thanks to Inner Wheel President Ann Gregory, all of Inner Wheel and her team that assembled and organised the quiz night. Great atmosphere and fellowship.

The winning team The Smiths

The Hall full of teams ready to go!

My team working hard but enjoying the evening.

FIREWORKS & BONFIRE

Ok, so it was a week or so delayed due to the weather but RCCW annual bonfire evening went off without a hitch. Great night weather, food, warm bonfire and fantastic fireworks. 

Many thanks to everyone involved in organising and working so hard on everyones behalf to make this past Sunday evening very memorable.

The Whole Gang @ The Bonfire. Smiles all round

You can see more pictures on the Club's FB page at: https://www.facebook.com/RotaryClubOfChurchWilne

Or, you can visit our website at: www.churchwilnerotary.org.uk

Clay Pigeon Shoot, Concert, Remembrance Sunday

It was an incredible weekend past with three major events happening within 24 hours. Only Church Wilne Rotary Club could accomplish that sort of thing. First off was the Clay Pigeon Shoot that Rtn Andy Cartwright planned and promoted to great success. There were 29 participants of all ages and every last person had a smile on their face. 

What I can't believe is that I actually won the event. Here is the score card to prove it.

Many of the participants were Rotarians and here is a great shot of all who came from the Club to support this superb event.

But, what you got to watch for are the ladies from Inner Wheel. They are a tough bunch with guns in their hands! LOL But they shot very well.

May favourite shot though is of Mrs T rearing back and firing and hitting one of those clay pigeons. Well done!

Of course the men looked the part as well. Here is Pete Wealthdale taking his shot. Well done Pete.

And, here is Andy letting us know how guns work and giving a very good H&S talk beforehand. Andy organised the whole thing and we are very grateful for his enthusiasm for the Clay Shoot and wish him luck in organising the District Shoot in Spring 2014.

The shot of the day is when I asked the Rotarians to pose with their guns. What I did not expect is an assassination attempt. LOL You can tell only one of these guys likes me.

FOUNDATION CONCERT

The very same day (in the evening) was our Foundation Concert where we raised £225.00. That amount has now helped us reach our fund raising target for our Uganda project. My thanks to all who turned out to support the Concert and to our two incredible performers who helped me entertain the audience that evening - Ellie Sheehy-Smith and Chris Hill.

Chris will have a CD out on iTunes shortly so watch this space!

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY

I had the great privilege of representing RCCW at the Remembrance Sunday church and memorial services in Draycott whilst IPP Derek Sheehy Smith did the honours in Ockbrook. My most sincere thanks to Derek and to all the Rotarians who came out and supported me and Derek on the day. The pictures below tell the whole story. As per usual the services were moving and thought provoking about wars past and present.

IPP Derek Sheehy-Smith reading names at Ockbrook War Memorial 

Rotarian Wives supporting Draycott Service

All Rotarians at Draycott Service

Well it's time to go and can't wait for the Land Owners Dinner this coming week. Thank you for keeping up with us via this blog and know you can find more details of our Club at our website: www.churchwilnerotary.org.uk.