Lunch Time meeting - Ewen MacDonald Order of St Johns Patient Transport

On Thursday 8^th March 2018 President Lindsay Roy welcomed 20 Rotarians and 3 guests, Myra Penn a guest of Lindsay Roy, John Campbell, friend of Will Wishart, and Findlay Macrae a friend of Ewen MacDonald to our lunch time meeting which was held at the Gilvenbank Hotel.

On reception was Geoff Sampson, Brian Johnson and Iain Haywood saying grace.

Three apologies for absence were received.

Anne Sampson mentioned the forthcoming speakers.

Iain Haywood once again mentioned the Sportsman’s dinner to be held on 23^rd March 2018.

Jim Boyd mentioned that the High School Top of the Form Quiz would take place at Auchmuty High School next Wednesday 14th March 2018 at Auchmuty High School.

Our speaker this week was our own Ewen MacDonald supported by Findlay Macrae speaking about the Order of St Johns. In its early years, the Order of St John operated throughout the United Kingdom, providing training in first aid and an ambulance service. However, the St Andrew’s Ambulance Association was already in existence from 1882 and conducted similar activities, both in Scotland and England. In 1908, it was agreed that St Andrew’s would handle first aid training north of the border and St John south of it. By the 1940s, some of the Scottish members of St John felt there was still scope for the Order to carry out a number of public services in Scotland. Then, in 1947, the Scottish Priory was formed, and since then it has achieved remarkable success in meeting a wide variety of needs. Each year, a festival is held in a different location in Scotland where Priory members who have shown exceptional commitment to the work of St John are invested as new or promoted members of the Order in recognition of their great work. dedicated to saving and enhancing life. Headquartered in Edinburgh, they run many projects nationally, delivered by twelve Area teams across the country. their national projects include ongoing support of Scottish Mountain Rescue teams and a Mountain Safety Instructor, Patient Transport schemes, public access defibrillator programmes and their group of First Responders. Internationally, they are proud to support the sight saving work of the St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem, as well as helping people across the world who need it most through their support of St John Malawi Programmes.  St John Scotland is also a proud partner of the Save a Life for Scotland initiative, which aims to train 500,000 people in Scotland skills in by-stander CPR by 2020.   

They also support the provision of public access defibrillators to aid first response in an emergency. Most notably, their team of volunteers in Edinburgh run the St John and the City defibrillator project, installing lifesaving machines across the city and surrounding areas - including on each of Edinburgh's trams. The St John Family like St John Ambulance, St John Scotland is part of the wider St John family, but they don’t currently provide first aid or ambulance services. 

Iain Haywood gave the Rotary Vote of Thanks.

The next meeting will be on the 15th March 2018 to be held at the Gilvenbank Hotel. Please meet 12.45pm for starting at 12.55pm, their will be no Speaker this week as this meeting is set aside for Council Reports where committee chairs will give members an update on their ongoing projects.

On reception will be Peter May and Archie Lawrie.

If you were interested in joining or supporting the community and international projects get in touch by Private message on The Rotary Club of Glenrothes Facebook page. You will be made most welcome.