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.