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!