1st February 2012 - Routley’s Ramble No 8

I don’t know about the month, but what a week we had in January! From the successful first attempt to hold a Youth Competition on Monday 23rd to the superb Burns Night Supper on Friday 27th followed by a Guests Evening on Monday 30th.

It has meant a lot of planning and hard work for many of our members, but I feel we have really achieved something in our Community and hopefully, like me, our volunteers have enjoyed the experience.

The month started fairly quietly with the usual Business Meeting followed by Club Council and started to warm up on the 16th when Geoff Williams gave his job talk entitled “A Life on the Road”.

I joked that this was part of the Rotary initiation ceremony and have to say that he passed with flying colours. He had quite a story to tell regarding his varied career culminating in the Trailer Leasing Business with many a setback in the early days and meeting some interesting characters along the way.

Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland encourages clubs to engage with young people as a community project and to promote themselves to a “New Generation”. Nowadays there are competitions around the country for such things as Young Chef, Young Engineer, Young Writer, Young Photographer and of course Youth Speaks, a public speaking contest which Aurora have run for some years. Knowing our long connection with the music department at Thamesmead School in Shepperton it was suggested that we might organise a Rotary Young Musician Competition for individual students throughout the Borough and this came to fruition after consultation with seven senior schools in the area.

The competition, involving 10 singers and 5 instrumentalists, took place in the John Crook Theatre at Halliford School and it was judged a success with the winner of each category, who received a certificate and a cash prize, going through to the next stage which takes place at Cranleigh on March 17th. We will support the winners, Bekki Bennett, 15 and Kieran Pereira, 16 and hope they make it to the National Final at the RIBI Conference at Bournemouth in April. We are pleased to have unearthed such musical talent in our midst and I thank our Rotarians and partners who did so much to make this a worthwhile and enjoyable evening.

Above: The contestants in the Solo Singer Group of the Young Musicians Competition presented with their certificates by PDG Rtn Betty McClure. The Winner of
this group was Bekki Bennett (3rd from right)

Above: The competitors in the Instrumental group with Councillor Vivienne Leighton. The winner was Kieran Pereira (2nd from left).

This was closely followed by our Burns Night Supper at the Riverside Arts Centre in Sunbury, organised so well by Cathy Black and her International Committee members. It was much more than just a supper – more like a Scottish Festival of poetry, music, dance and good food and drink! From the moment we were greeted by the swirl of the bagpipes and the immaculately dressed piper to the Toastmaster/MC, Finlay Forbes, who addressed the haggis and then proposed a toast to the “Immortal Memory” of Rabbie Burns, we knew we were in for a treat.

Our Rotary friend, Alex Forrester, gave the Selkirk Grace before we began our 3-course meal, comprising smoked salmon mousse, beef casserole, haggis with neeps and tatties, followed by tipsy trifle. Really good food (even second helpings for some of us) and good service with a smile. Then came the energetic bit; Finlay and his wife Georgina leading us a merry dance for an hour or two. Yes, the intricacies of Scottish Country Dancing which most of us attempted, before Auld Lang Syne signalled the end of a memorable evening. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of the evening, particularly to Cathy and her team.

Finally on 30th January, Eric Painter stepped into the breach when our planned speaker had to cancel. Eric showed us a wonderful selection of photographs of his visit to Sydney, Australia and to the north and south islands of New Zealand interspersed with a little quiz about the animals and birds of that country. It was an opportunity for those of us who had not been ‘down under’ to see the beauty of the countryside, towns and cities there. We look forward to February with the Beetle Drive Challenge against Aurora in defence of our win last time and to The Homestart Party.

Yours in Rotary Peter Routley
President 2011/12

1st January 2012 - Routley’s Ramble No 7

I hope you all had a merry Christmas. A Happy New Year to all our readers! A Happy Rotary half-year to all our members!

Our Club celebrated Christmas at the Holiday Inn on 12th December with 45 members and guests enjoying a traditional meal and the usual fun and games. The tables were well decorated by the hotel and the balloons certainly started things off with a whoosh! (If not a bang). The atmosphere throughout the evening was lively and I do hope that everyone enjoyed the festive occasion.

The highlight of the evening for me was the presentation of a Certificate and lapel badge to Jeremy Edwards for services to Rotary International over many years. It was a great pleasure to declare Jeremy a Paul Harris Fellow and to thank him on behalf of the Club for the great contribution he has made.

There is a lot to be planned in the coming months, and having completed a major fundraising effort with the Christmas collections in Shepperton and the static collections in Laleham and Sunbury for which I thank Nick, David, Santa, and all his little helpers, we can look forward to the following with anticipation.

Monday 23rd January - Young Musician 2012 Competition at Halliford School, Shepperton. Our first attempt to engage in a Rotary Youth initiative and with so much musical knowledge in our Club we are well placed to organise and adjudicate this event which showcases the talented young singers and instrumentalists in our midst.

Friday 27th January - Burns Night at the Riverside Arts Centre, Sunbury organised by Cathy Black and her International Committee members. Caterers have been booked, as have a piper and Scottish dancers so it is now up to us to book tickets (£25 per head) and make sure this is a real success.

Friday 10th February - a Beetle Drive at St John Fisher Church Hall, Squires Road, Shepperton. We have been challenged by Aurora who aim to wrestle back the Beetle Trophy won by Eric Painter a few years ago.

Monday 27th February - a Greek Meal for members and their guests with details to be announced, and on Tuesday 13th March our Four Clubs Dinner at Stanwell Hall Hotel with a speaker from Pump Aid.

On Friday 23rd & Saturday 24th March “Rotary’s Spring Clean” - two mornings of litter picking and general tidying up in our area which I will arrange. This coincides with Climate Week and I hope we can engage with the young and not so young amongst us!

So apart from our regular Anchor meetings we have quite a First Quarter of 2012 to look forward to. Let’s go for it!

Yours in Rotary Peter Routley
President 2011/12

Above: Club President Peter Routley (left) presents Jeremy Edwards with his Paul Harris Award, the highest accolade for service to his club and Rotary.

Above: Past-President Eric Painter formally starts the Christmas Party festivities!

Above: Lucky Old Father Christmas with one of his Elves on ‘Big Tree Night’!

Above: Meeting Father Christmas - a Shepperton tradition

1st December 2011 - Routley’s Ramble No 6

Now into my sixth month as President it’s time to take stock and consider what still has to be done in this Rotary Year.

Certainly we have enjoyed a full and varied programme thanks to Pat, our Speaker Secretary.
Our social and charitable events have gone well and I am pleased with the steady progress of my President’s Charity, Action Aid. However it is during the next six months that our major fund-raising efforts take place, namely the Christmas collections, Burns Night, Sponsored Charity Walk and the Shepperton Village Fair. I know I can rely on our members to do their bit during this period because it is so important that our level of support to local and International causes is maintained, and this year for the first time we need to cover the expenses of running the Young Musician 2012 Competition.

Quite a lot happened in November. Some of us attended Aurora’s Race Night and later their excellent ‘Youth Speaks’ competition in the Council Chamber. A record number of people turned out in sunny weather for Shepperton’s Remembrance Sunday service and I was proud to represent our Club by laying a wreath in memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice.
We had three very interesting talks to the Club which I summarise below, a successful Christmas collection at Notcutts and oh, did I mention that we beat Woking Club at table tennis!

Our first speaker, Brenda Penfold, suffered the rare condition of retinitis pigmentosa blindness and tunnel vision at the age of 25, leaving her partially sighted. She described the “bombshell” of losing her job within 2 weeks of this diagnosis, finding that she was expecting her first child, and then losing her driving licence – all within a very short time. She intrigued us with her description of electronic devices enabling her to work in her kitchen, to choose the colour of her clothes and not least the use of a computer with special speaking software. Nowadays she helps other disabled people, notably the swimming club “Runnymede Dolphins” with its 80 members. She has an active social life and now she is helping to look after her very young grandson. Truly an inspirational lady.

We first heard about “TALK” when their Ashford branch joined in our Sponsored Walk last May. It was good therefore to welcome to the Club Peter Walker, a Rotarian from Guildford and a Group Leader & Trustee for this Charity which cares for people with aphasia,one of the debilitating effects of a stroke. Originally an affiliate of the Stroke Association, whose funds were cut in 1998, a group was formed in Guildford utilizing the existing volunteers – and TALK was born! Today they are helping 100 people, each with a volunteer, and the aim is to create a good social atmosphere in which they can meet to experience informal speech therapy and to help rebuild confidence and well-being. It was heartening to hear how even the most reluctant attendee “Mr Grumpy” had changed over time, and was now helping with other recoveries and was even driving the regular programmes. In thanking Peter for his fascinating talk on behalf of the Club, our member, Ian Wetherell, recounted his own experience with aphasia following a stroke exactly 4 years ago, and the great progress he had made thanks to the support of family and dedicated volunteers like those admirable people at TALK.

Finally we kept our last meeting “in the family” as it were when Alan Barber gave a 3-part presentation of his wonderful holiday to Russia, Scandinavia and the Baltic States.

An audiovisual account including still and video photography of the cruise that he and Gaynor enjoyed in May aboard the Saga Pearl 2.
Apart from visits to the lovely cities of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn etc. and the journeys through the Kiel Canal, the highlight was undoubtedly the tour of St Petersburg with its impressive Hermitage Museum and Art Galleries as well as the ornate Church of the Spilled Blood.

With Alan’s eye for a good picture and the choice of music the evening was enjoyed by members and guests.

The next “Rambles” will be in 2012, so I wish all or members, partners and Rotary friends a very happy and healthy Christmas and New Year. I look forward to seeing many of you at the Holiday Inn on 12th December when the
Christmas festivities can really begin!

Yours in Rotary Peter Routley
President 2011/12

Above: Our gathering photo for our Christmas Card for RC Mennecy

Above: Our very own travel film producer, Alan Barber