Last Meeting Of The First Quarter

It is hard to believe that the first quarter of my year as President has gone by. Looking back at these blogs I am amazed and humbled by what the Club has done in such a short period of time. As President I could not have asked for more support, generosity and goodwill from any Club member. Church Wilne Rotary Club is the best Club anyone can be a part of. 

St Chad's Church Wilne

Tonight we had a great last meeting of the quarter with Dean Anderson of Anderson's Cafe in Breaston and Long Eaton. Dean's historical talk of his journey into helping the less fortunate of society was very interesting and inspiring as he has been and continues to be guided by his firm beliefs.

Dean's talk dovetailed nicely with the talk earlier this quarter about Canaan Trust. Dean in fact set up the predecessor to Canaan and it was a project his whole family got involved with. Thank you Dean for sharing a part of your life with us.

Dean Anderson & I After Meeting

11th President of The USA

Tonight we also had a short history on the 11th President of The USA who was James Polk. To be honest I had never heard of this guy before so it was in fact a history lesson for me as well. 

Polk's accomplishments were mainly achieved by force. He negotiated the 45th parallel souther boundary of Canada with the British government at the time with the threat of war and indeed took California and New Mexico from Mexico with the use of force by declaring war on Mexico, winning and taking what he wanted.

A very interesting fact about Polk is he had Urinary tract stones removed with no anaesthetic and only brandy to dull the pain. Ouch! He was awake for the whole operation too. Double Ouch!! 

So with those facts it was very difficult to name a Rotarian for the honour of being the 11th President so I had to go on looks alone. Therefore, Mick White got the nod. Congratulations Mic for getting the final honour of the first quarter. 

THANK YOU ALL FOR A GREAT FIRST QUARTER

President Greg

Car Treasure Hunt - WOW!

Yesterday (Sunday) members of the Club were treated to a fabulous day out of fellowship in the form of a car treasure hunt organised by Rtn: Graham Markwell and his wife Jane. We started out at Ticknall Community Centre at 10:00am and went until about 2:00pm where we all met up at the finish line for lunch and a drink at The Bull & Lion in Packington.

The gang starting off in Ticknall

Where we ended up for lunch. A lovely country pub.

All of us saw parts of the countryside we had never seen. I never knew that Northwest Leicester had so many garden spots. The clues that wew given (six pages I think) were challenging but manageable and made it lots of fun to find things.

Here are some pictures of what we saw. There was much, much more as well and I especially enjoyed the gaol houses in many of the villages we went through that were used to house local criminals until the county sherif could come and get them and take them away for trial. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to take too many pictures as I was driving.

Lake at Melbourne Hall

An interesting little corner on the Melbourne Hall estate

Melbourne Hall

Are these folk trying to find something?

Writing in the sky. The old Newbold brick works.

Courtyard with tea room. Must go back there.

Church at Ashby

I am going to have to revisit some of these places in the near future and learn more about the history... Anyhow, so much fun culminated in a lovely lunch at The Bull and Lion pub in Packington where we enjoyed a very good menu selection.

Once again, thank you very much Graham & Jane for a superb afternoon of fun, exploration, education and most of all fellowship.

A New Member & International Trip To Prague

Two weeks ago we welcomed our first new member of this Rotary year - Adrian Perkins. Adrian has been a stalwart of the local Draycott community organising every event going in that neck of the woods. He has a wonderful team that helps him but it has been recognised by many people in the community that Adrian has been the driving force behind the growth of community spirit and pride in Draycott. 

It was an absolute pleasure to give Adrian a cheque for £100 for the Draycott Village Fund and then to present him with his Rotary pin. Adrian will make a fantastic Rotarian as he already lives by the ethos of service above self. Thank you very much Gary for introducing Adrian to RCCW.

Rtn Rev Gary Dundas with Adrian

I must say that for a President the induction of a member is very exciting yet daunting, but enjoyable as well. Congratulations Adrian. We look forward to your contributions to the Rotary movement in future.


INTERNATIONAL TRIP TO PRAGUE
This past Monday our guest speakers were Rtn's Gary Dundas and David Smith. They gave us a very detailed talk on all aspects of the Prague trip last Rotary year. The sights in Prague were well photographed including the picture of the BMW. A real shame the beautiful young blond lady walked in front of the camera! Oh well, David tried his best.

David, Me and Gary

PRESIDENTIAL MOMENT

A few weeks ago we did the 8th President of The USA - Martin Van-Buren. Basically this President was unremarkable except for one act which was rather infamous. It seems Van Buren was asked to stop the persecution of the Mormons by a state governor. Sadly the reply was that he would not for fear of losing the peoples vote in the next election. But he was a builders apprentice and so the honour of being the 8th President went to Rtn: Bob Martin.

Doesn't look like Bob. Or, wait a minute...

This week we did the 9th and 10th Presidents of the USA: William Henry Harrison and John Tyler.

W H Harrison has the honour of being the President that served the shortest term (32 days) in office. He didn't wear warm clothing at his inauguration parade and ended up catching pneumonia and dying shortly after. However, Harrison was a farmer who ran dairy herds. So this honour fell to Tim Barker who also is a farmer and has an uncanny resemblance to Harrison.

The 10th President of the USA was John Tyler. He was the firs President not elected since he took over as Vice President. Tyler just escaped death when enjoying a cruise up and down the Potomac river in the USS Cambridge. At that time the USS Cambridge had the biggest gun on its deck in the world. The Captain kept firing it off in celebration. Finally, the very last time it fired the gun exploded and killed half of Tyler's cabinet. Tyler was below deck when it happened and was unharmed. 

Tyler was also a farmer and dairy man whose relations later on invented Tyler's Ice Cream. He was also tall and skinny. This President could only go to one Rotarian in our Club - our own Ice Cream and Dairy man who is also tall and skinny - Rtn Geoff Brown of Bluebells Ice Cream.

That's about it for this week. See you next week!

CHARITY HORSE RIDE 2013

On Sunday 8th September Rotary Club of Church Wilne held its 8th annual Charity Horse Ride in aid of Derbyshire Air Ambulance. We had a record number of riders registered at 250. The weather was most cooperative and I suppose we must thank Rtn Rev Gary for speaking to his senior manager about that one!

There is so much to say about the day and the event itself and it would take hours to write and read. So I will only say big THANK YOU to all of RCCW and Inner Wheel for making the event such a major success. I will let the pictures do the talking and you will notice that everyone has a smile on their face. Helpers and riders alike.

The first horse of the day

Lucky rider 13

A very young rider

Rtn Roger - The mastermind behind this years ride. Thank you Roger!

Inner Wheel running the whole catering tent.

After all is done some hearty congratulations

Sitting down and enjoying the evening after the ride is over.

Looking At South Africa & Planning The Future But Keeping Our Eyes On Today

LOOKING AT SOUTH AFRICA
Our first meeting of September was another great one. This time featuring our own fellow Rotarian Peter Woods giving a talk on South Africa in general and Cape Town in particular. We were treated to some humorous slides of South African life. My favourite was the major hazard in the road where you had to go to the right to avoid it but the sign said "keep well left". Peter then explained that "keep well left" is a very popular South African phrase for advising people to avoid anything in life.

Another great photo Peter shared with us was a sign next to a scene near a hospital that we would all like to avoid. LOL

One of the most fantastic aspects of Peter's talk was the joined up Rotary being practised by the Rotary Club of Melkbos with a Rotary Club in Alaska of all places! They were able to raise quite a substantial sum of money to by a mini bus for the Emanuel Care Centre whose work includes helping the young, disadvantaged and disabled person. I would imagine there is some specialist equipment on the mini bus as well.

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
Peter suggested that we may want to look at a joined up Rotary project next year with Melkbos to raise substantial sums to help them with other needs for their centre. It was pleasing the positive reception this idea got from Club members and we look forward to an update from Peter in the Spring. 

It is also heartening that even at this early stage planning is in motion for SVP Geoff's year in July 2014. The Rotary Club of Church Wilne is such a vibrant club whose members are passionate about all it does and willing to work hard in planning for its future, short, medium and long term.


KEEPING OUR EYES ON TODAY - MANNA RESCUE HOME, UGANDA
One thing we can't do is stop thinking and working towards our goals we set out for our Foundation/International project for this Rotary year: Manna Rescue Home in Uganda. We have raise a very good sum of money for it from the balloon race but there is much more to do and I know every member of the Club will work hard to attain our goals with this project.

Don't forget about our fundraising concert for this project to be held on Saturday, 9th November 2013, 7:30pm at Ockbrook School, Ockbrook, Derbyshire DE72 3RJ. I will be performing in the 1st half and then my jazz quartet (Greg Maskalick & The Midlands Express) will be performing in the 2nd half. You can listen and join my jazz quartet by going to: Greg Maskalick & The Midlands Express Facebook page. It's going to be a fantastic evening of entertainment so I hope to see you there.

PRESIDENTIAL MOMENT

Our 7th President of the USA - Andrew Jackson - went to fellow Rotarian Quentin as much of Jackson's personality and line of work completely matched Quentin's. 

Jackson was a general in the US Army and beat the British in the Battle of New Orleans. This news went over like a lead balloon with Club members. I don't know why. LOL

CHARITY HORSE RIDE

Our annual Charity Horse Ride is this Sunday and it's not too late to saddle up and join the 200+ riders that will be on the 12 mile course through some of the best countryside in the UK - Derbyshire. We are so fortunate that several landowners have opened up their property to us for this very worthwhile fundraising activity for the benefit of Derbyshire Air Ambulance. 

I can't thank Rotarian Roger and the whole Horse Ride Committee for their incredible work to make this event a success before it even starts. Let's just keep our fingers crossed for the weather to hold. Personally, I can't wait for Sunday. Giddy-up!!!