Dawlish Water is a very friendly club that welcomes new members - men and women - who feel they would like to 'put something back into the community.'
We like to have fun, combined with great fellowship and the satisfaction of helping others.
The wide range of activities includes speaker evenings and fun sports such as boules, bowls, skittles, golf and sailing. There are also regular social events including special evenings for wives, husbands and partners.
Fundraising supports numerous local and Rotary charities - a twice-yearly pub quiz and other major events form the backbone of this. Regular support is given to ShelterBox - the successful emergency aid charity - Teignbridge Young Carers, Dawlish Community Transport, Assist Teignbridge, FORCE, the Children's Hospice South West, Chestnut appeal, Hospiscare, Devon Air Ambulance, the Strand Centre as well as other worthy causes. Substantial support is also given to other critical overseas projects such as polio eradication and provision of clean water and in recent times housing help for families made homeless by Russian agression in Ukraine.
In the community, the club provides support for many §local organisations, and has close links with local schools. The club each year donates over £300 in cash prizes to schools taking part in an annual schools' quiz, liases with schools an annual shoebox collection for Moldova and Uhraine, and runs a Young Chef competition to encourage local students keen on a catering career. Support continues to be given to local young people in many other ways.
We use our skills and enthusiasm to help others and raise significant amounts of money for those in need of help - practical or otherwise.
If you would like to find out more about Rotary or membership, please contact: Richard Hayes, secretary, Dawlish Water Rotary Club on 01626 438761 or email: a2r4hayes@talktalk.net
You can also find out more by visiting the Dawlish Water Rotary Club Facebook site.
Gordon, who spent his career in Education, says: " We are a successful club and support many local charities as well as international projects. We will continue this valuable work and join with other clubs where appropriate to spread this support even wider."We also need to keep the focus on
attracting new members and increasing our skill base."
Pictured above: Geoff and Jill King receiving their awards from outgoing Dawlish Water Rotary Club President Chris May.
Two more 'amazing people' have been celebrated as Community Champions by Dawlish Water Rotary Club.
Joint Dawlish Carnival Presidents Jill and Geoff King received the Community Champion Awards for 2024 from Chris May, outgoing President of Dawlish Water Rotary Club who, like other club members, praised the incredible work that both have done in the local community.
Geoff and Jill moved to Devon in 2010 from Derby. Jill was a medical receptionist in her working life. She became involved in the Dawlish Carnival in 2016 as a volunteer and is now joint Carnival President with Geoff. She is also an avid volunteer with Assist Teignbridge, as well as offering help and support to others within the local community.
Jill has been a stalwart and Trustee of the Friends of Dawlish Hospital since 2012. In her leisure time she sings in Dawlish Rockwaves.
Geoff has been Chair of the Friends of Dawlish Hospital since 2012. Without him, the hospital would not have the support it has had for projects and equipment which the NHS could not fund. He is the person who spearheaded the Dawlish MIU reopening and is now campaigning for extended hours.
Former Dawlish Water president, secretary and committee chairman Ray Williams (right) has received Rotary's highest individual award, the Paul Harris Fellowship ( named after Rotary's founder) in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the club.
Dawlish Water will again be hosting Rotary's Young Chef Competition on October 15. There will be a trophy and three prizes worth a total of £140. Also the club discussed the new Youth Apprenticeship Challenge and approved a contribution of £200 for four local
organisations who may qualify.
The next date for
Dawlish Water Rotary Club’s twice-yearly pub quiz, which raises
considerable sums for charity, takes place on Thursday, October 3. The
event continues to attract nearly 40 teams and gives pubs and clubs the
opportunity to win cash prizes for their own particular charity.
O For further details contact: Peter Harrison – email reliancefinance@talktalk.net
From the last quiz in March seven prize-winning teams nominated
the following charities/good causes to receive their prizemoney:
- Hennock Community Primary SchoolAIMS
- The Brain Tumour Charity
- CEDA ( Community Equality Disability
Action In Devon)
- Neuroblastoma ( a rare cancer that affects
children)
- Teignbridge Homeless Action Today
- Rowcroft Hospice
During the last Rotary year the club donated over £2000 to ShelterBox and was presented with their Bronze Award to mark the achievement. One member also sold unwanted items from their house refurbishment and , with Gift Aid, this contributed a further £1500.00.
Dawlish Water club have made a number of donations over the summer including:
£100 to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and £100 to the Children's Hospice South West
The club also enabled the Alice Cross Centre to fund their new lift to bring back into use the two upper floors of their building. This was done in co-operation with the Teignmouth Rotary Club.
A Starcross man received a prestigious national award for his pioneering work, heading a charity dedicated to improving the lives of vulnerable communities in the Republic of Moldova, the poorest country in Europe.
Hugh Scudder received the Rotary UK Champions Awards 2020/21 – Community Champion, for his outstanding work leading the Christian Response to Eastern Europe (CR2ee) project after being nominated by Dawlish Water Rotary Club.
For more than 25 years Dawlish Water Rotary have been co-ordinating a collection of Christmas shoeboxes for children and families in Moldova and paying towards costs for transporting these and a huge range of other goods including clothing, toys and medical equipment.
Hugh Scudder (pictured below) makes regular trips to Moldova to maintain direct personal contact with families, to monitor projects, assess future needs and prepare plans for future initiatives. For more details and if you would like to help, please contact Hugh on hugh@cr2ee.org.uk or go to the Cr2ee website or Facebook page.
The search for this year’s winners was carried out across Rotary’s vibrant network of over 1,700 Rotary clubs.
Many families are facing a range of difficulties with extended lockdowns - and it has been a particularly hard time for the small ’army’ of South Devon young carers that Dawlish Water Rotary Club has actively supported for several years, mainly through its Speed Pool competitions.
Now with £1,000 worth of funding from Dawlish Water club ( with several members making individual donations) and two contributions of £500.00 each from Teignmouth and Dartmoor Vale Rotary clubs, South Devon Carers are able to produce three short informational videos to be shared via links to schools. One will be aimed at primary aged children and another at secondary pupils to support young carers and provide greater awareness of their needs, educational and otherwise.
The videos will explain to the young people exactly what a young carer is, what they do and how they can support their friend who may be a young carer. It may also enable some young people to recognise they are a young carer.
The final video will be aimed at CPD (Continuing Professional Development) training days for teachers, support staff and all those who work in schools to enable them to understand the enormous impact being a young carer can have on that young person’s day- to-day life; including ensuring they can do learning at home or through incorporation into the school day.
This video will be focusing on what schools and all staff can do to support the young carer to access their education, be mindful of their own needs and look out for signs where pupils are not coping, an area where young carers can often hide.
Christine Franklin, Young Carers Lead Practitioner - South has praised the fact that Rotary has been able to sponsor this 'valuable and powerful' package.
- In line with a national need to support more disadvantaged children who do not have ready access to computers. Dawlish Water Rotary has donated one of its laptops to Westcliff Primary Academy in Dawlish and also earmarked a £150 donation to help Gatehouse Primary Academy with their computer needs and on-line learning.
People living in Dawlish and visitors earlier this year admired the spread of purple crocuses planted five years ago in the town by local Rotarians - but may not realise they also have a special meaning.
The crocuses are the symbol of Rotary’s greatest achievement, tackling polio - their purple colour matching the dye painted on the fingers of children who have been immunised. Hundreds of the purple crocuses were planted along the lower half of the stream and in a large circular bed nearby in the form of the Rotary roundel.
Rotary spearheaded the campaign at a time when there were over 1,000 polio cases a day in 125 countries, paralysing and even killing children. Today, the number of cases is down by 99.9% - an amazing achievement.
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a paralysing and potentially deadly infectious disease that most commonly affects children under the age of five. The virus spreads from person to person, typically through contaminated water. It can then attack the nervous system. At its peak in the 1940s and 1950s, polio would paralyse or kill over half a million people worldwide every year, including the UK.
Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan but it is crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could affect as many as 200,000 children each year.
Polio eradication is now a hugely successful partnership between Rotary, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the US Center for Disease Control & Prevention and, more recently, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
Dawlish Water Rotary Club is continually supporting this worldwide effort through regularly fundraising for the Rotary Foundation.
“We can see queues at food banks getting longer and longer as many families and individuals become desperate for food for themselves and their children and we will continue to support the local food bank as this crisis is far from over,” said Dawlish Water Rotary Club President Anne Harrison.
The club’s most recent donation was £500.00 to HITS ( the Homeless in Teignbridge Support) food bank which provides the basic food requirements for households in financial crisis. They can also help with costs toward some essential services, such as electricity and gas.
The local food banks also help people in poverty by providing additional support to help them resolve the crises that they face, and, of course, they rely on the support of local communities to provide these needs.
Local ‘hero’ Paul Lentle, Manager of the popular Strand Centre in Dawlish, was voted Rotary Community Service Champion 2020.
"The Rotary Club of Dawlish Water, which has continued to meet by Zoom on the internet, chose Paul for this club accolade because of the tremendous amount of work he has done to support particularly the elderly and vulnerable over a long period, not least during the coronavirus lockdown,” said President Anne Harrison.
The Rotary club had donated £400.00 to the Strand Centre, recognising it as a vital community hub. Paul also received a further £100.00 donation following his award. Paul for 7 days a week continued preparing and cooking meals, which he sends out to the vulnerable, elderly, and self-isolating people of Dawlish. He is arranging to do shopping and collecting/ delivering prescriptions as well as delivering food parcels.
He works in the centre alone and has a couple of people to come to the door to collect the deliveries. He is currently sending out about 20 meals a day. Three years ago, the Strand Centre became aware that people on their own that go to the Christmas lunch (which has been running for some time) were just as likely to be on their own in the week following Christmas. As a result, each year they run the Lighthouse Project when the Centre is open from early morning till after lunch each day for older people and for families in need of support at that time. Paul has worked with the Centre in providing games and other entertainment. Everyone has a free lunch because they know many who attend cannot afford a hot meal in the middle of the day.
"The success of this venture reflects the reality that Dawlish is the third most deprived community in the county of Devon,” added Anne.
The trustees of the Strand Centre have decided to build on the experiment held last autumn to have a weekly afternoon club which would follow the Inspire cafe lunch period, and would be open from about 3.15 pm for families identified by the local schools, to provide activities and a free hot evening meal…meeting a very real need in the community.
In addition, Paul noticed that several homeless people come to the Strand Centre and on his own initiative, started voluntary collections of clothes and food for distribution.
In our photo below:Socially-distanced, Rotary’s Anne Harrison presents Paul Lentle with his well-deserved Rotary community award.
The various heats were sponsored by Dawlish
Water Rotary Club with the generous co-operation of Dawlish College.
The judges were Giles Maling,
Hospitality Operations Manager, and Rob Doidge, Head Chef, at Exeter
University. A very experienced and successful chef, Rob, who is also a Dawlish
resident, mentioned in his introduction that, on her visit to Exeter
University, he had cooked a meal for HM The Queen. His two children had
attended Dawlish College.
Rotary District Governor, Simon Wood,
was also there to present the prizes.
The winners will now all go through
to the Regional Final, which takes place on Saturday, 28 March at Havant and
South Downs College, Waterlooville, Hants.
Rotary co-ordinator Robin Buchanan says: ” Our
thanks go especially to the welcoming, committed and very professional staff of
the Design and Technology Department of Dawlish College, who arranged for the
college to be open on the day, and gave up their time, and to Rachel Wickham,
the Head, who made it all possible.
“Dawlish
Water Rotary Club looks forward to continuing to work closely with the college
in the future. And not least, our grateful appreciation to the parents and
supporters, most of whom travelled long distances on one of the wettest and
windiest days on the year!"
Dawlish Water Rotary Club celebrated more than 25 years of fundraising through its quiz with a special gathering at Teignmouth Rugby Club.
Present at the celebration were the three organisers over the years, Adrian Acton, Garry Adams - and Peter Harrison who currently organises the event. There were also presentations by local groups who have benefitted from the quizzes over the years - including FORCE, AIMS, ELF Dawlish Community Transport,Teignbridge Young Carers.
Guests also included quizmasters, including those from other Rotary clubs, who actively support the quizzes
On the night cheques, each for £500, were also presented by Dawlish Water President Brian Hodge to Dawlish Community Transport and Assist Teignbridge.
Dawlish Water Rotary Club celebrated the 30th anniversary of its charter with a special event at the Langstone Cliff Hotel, Dawlish Warren.
Two past presidents of the club, Richard Hayes and Robert Coates, were also presented with certificates to mark their 30 years as founder members.The event was attended by District Governor Graham Carey from Dawlish club.
Richard is currently secretary of the club and Robert, founder treasurer, is currently honorary auditor.
During its 30 years, Dawlish Water Rotary has helped scores of local community groups as well as having a significant role in overseas projects. Overall, these groups and charities have benefitted from hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Below in our picture: Richard Hayes and Robert Coates cut the first slice of the anniversary cake.
A big thank you to all who supported December's Home Aid coffee morning in Dawlish. The wonderful Chisletts and their magnificent helpers presented me with a cheque for ShelterBox for £750," reports Club International Chairman Bill Hande. See article on Home Aid Community Awards below.
Four local charities benefited from a successful Jumble sale run by Dawlish Water Rotary Club in late June.
Dawlish Community Transport were presented with a cheque for £250.00 by Rotary organisers Eunice Everard and Robin Buchanan.The money will help them to continue to provide accessible, affordable transport services for those who are unable to use public transport over a wide area including Dawlish, Cockwood, Teignmouth, and Shaldon.
Devon Young Carers, the HITS food bank project and AIMS, the Dawlish group for families who have special needs, have each received £50.00.
"Many thanks to all those who came along to the sale. We are delighted to have been able to support these local charities that do so much for other people in the community," said Rotarian Eunice Everard.
In our photograph below: Rotarian Eunice Everard presents the cheque for £250 to the Dawlish Community Transport Manager Sally Preston. On the left is Marion Phillips and on the right Paul Cooper.
** Dawlish Water has again voted to give a £100 cheque to HITS to help with the pre-Christmas demand on its services.
Dawlish Water Rotary Club has received a generous £4,000 cheque from Paignton Rotary Club towards their ambitious and successful project to provide clean water for life in the Third World through river dams. Already the District Sand Dams project, led by Dawlish Water, has sponsored three dams - two in Kenya and one in Rajasthan in India. Plans are under way to support a fourth dam. Above: Immediate Past President of Paignton club, Marion Smith, presents the cheque to Bruce Pell of Dawlish Water.
For more details of the project, see below...
Teignbridge Young Carers
have received a major boost after pub and club teams from around South Devon
competed against each other in a charity speed pool competition organised by
Dawlish Water, Teignmouth and Dartmoor Vale Rotary clubs.
A cheque for £2050.00 was
handed over to South Devon Young Carers' Lead Practitioner Tom Humphreys at a
special presentation at the Teignmouth Inn in Dawlish.
The Teignmouth Inn also received
the winners shield for collecting most sponsorship – nearly £450.00 - while the
trophy for the highest individual score went to one of their team, Scott
Hellier, who raised an amazing £210.00.
Rotarians from the three
Rotary clubs helped to tot up the scores from a total of 18 pubs and clubs in
Dawlish, Teignmouth, Kingsteignton, Newton Abbot, Highweek, Christow, Chudleigh
and Abbotskerswell.
The Rotary perpetual shield
for the highest score went the Courtenay Arms A team from Teignmouth with a
great score of 1305 points after completing 87 frames on the pool table. Second
were the Conservative Club in Dawlish (1255 points from 83 frames) and third
were The Globe at Chudleigh (870 points from 58 frames).
Special framed certificates
were also presented to participating pubs and clubs.
"It was a great fun
night, though very competitive, and all the players did us proud by raising so
much money for a very worthy cause," said Rotary co-ordinator Richard
Hayes. Pictured below - one of the competing teams from the Dog House in Dawlish with President-elect Peter Gibbs on the right of the picture.
For the first time Dawlish Water Rotary Club has
awarded its community award to a whole group of fantastic volunteers who make
up Dawlish Home Aid and who have raised more than £50,000 for charity.
The award was made at a surprise presentation at
the group’s coffee morning on Friday, 27 April, which was held in aid of the FORCE
Cancer Centre.
The group, mainly retired Dawlish citizens, was
established by Peter and Wanda Chislett (past recipients of the award) over 15
years ago in order to raise funds to support a number of local good causes.
Early success prompted the group to become
formally established and it extended its support more widely. While events
such as concerts have been promoted, the basis of the fundraising has been
monthly coffee mornings and the sale of cakes, jams and preserves.
Their Christmas coffee morning has for many years
raised funds for Rotary’s partner charity ShelterBox – more than £5,000 in total.
“As with many local organisations, its members
are getting older and fewer in number. Although the group has cut down on
their commitments, they continue to raise much-needed funds for several
charities and well deserve this recognition,” says Rotary co-ordinator Robin
Buchanan.
Coffee mornings in future this year will raise
funds for AIMS, Rowcroft Hospice, the Salvation Army and ShelterBox.
Pictured above, left to right, with their award
certificates are: Frances Young, Rotary co-ordinator
Robin Buchanan, Elsie Pike, Bergitte Clatworthy, Judith Holmes, Peter Chislett,
Sheila Coates, Joy Read, Veronica Dann, Jeanne Powell, Barry Rendal-Jones,
Dawlish Water Rotary Club President, and Wanda Chislett.
The largest number of players for
five years took part in the spring pub and club quiz held by Dawlish Water
Rotary Club. More than 700 customers participated in the three round challenge
and in so doing raised more than £1500 for Charities, including Children’s
Hospice, The Polio Eradication programme and Shelterbox.
In
addition, over £1000 has gone out to charities chosen by the various winning
teams from the night, as listed below.
For the first time the
quiz was sponsored and the club is grateful to Heavitree Brewery PLC. Their support is very much appreciated and means
that all associated expenses are covered and 100% of the cash raised will go to
worthy causes. The club is also confident that the Charities being supported
can guarantee that every donation will directly support the work of the charity
chosen.
The
winning team was The ‘Artichoke’ Christow, who went one better than their
previous runner-up place in October with an amazing score of 186 out of 195. They
have chosen the Exeter Leukaemia Fund to receive their £250 prize . The team
also win a half-case of wine and the Top Team trophy.
The
other prize winners were:-
2nd - Teign House, Christow, with
£200 going to assist Rowcroft Hospice. (180points)
3rd
- ‘Two Mile Oak’, Newton Abbot with £150 going to assist National Coastwatch.
(179 points)
4th
- Church House Inn, Stoke Gabriel,
with £125 again going to Rowcroft Hospice.
5th
- Team Asterix, France won £100
6th
- Castle Inn, Holcombe (£75)
7th
- Anchor Inn, Cockwood (£50)
Finally,
the prize for the largest team on the night went this time to regular Quizzers,
The Highweek Village with an amazing crowd of 55 players, raising from one team
a total of £175. They win £100 for their preferred charity, Teignbridge Young Carers.
“
My thanks go to all the teams and players on the night for making this another
successful charity quiz. I must
also thank the support of other Rotarians from Teignmouth , Dartmoor Vale ,
Otter Valley , Crediton and Seaton Clubs, as well as various guest quizmasters
and ladies on the night , who gave up their time to help run this event” , says
Rotary organiser Peter Harrison.
The next Charity quiz is
set for Thursday October 11th
2018. Heavitree
Brewery PLC.have, once again, kindly offered to sponsor the
event so that all proceeds will go to the nominated charities. If you
have a Pub/Club team of at least 10 players and wish to enter next time, then
please contact Rotarian Peter
Harrison on 01626 862731 or by e-mail to reliancefinance@talktalk.net) Come and join us!
Kenn and Kenton Primary School, with an excellent final round, just managed to claim the Dawlish Water Rotary Schools' Quiz trophy.
Eight local schools took part in the annual event and each earned a £50 cheque from Rotary for their school councils to use for the school.
There were three rounds on People, Places and General Knowledge and although each group of pupils was in their own school the electronic scoreboard kept them up to date on the scores.
"Kingskerswell Primary School were the leaders in rounds one and two but Kenn and Kenton, with their excellent final round, came up to tie with the leaders on 175 points and so were declared winners based on countback and Dawlish Water President Barry Rendal-Jones (seen below) presented them with the trophy.
"Cockwood Primary School, last year’s winners, finished third this time. Over 150 pupils from Exminster, Gatehouse, Westcliff, Our Lady and St Patrick’s, Starcross and the three schools mentioned above took part in the competition and were enthusiastic quizzers," says Rotary organiser Brian Hodge.
The beach clean, held with the support of Teignbridge District Council at Dawlish main beach and Coryton Cove on Friday February 23, was a success attracting a dozen or more volunteers to join the Rotary party (about 30 in all) - a very good effort considering the given the bitterly cold weather conditions.
A group of schoolchildren from Westcliff School in Dawlish also turned up to help although their efforts were a little hampered by the conditions and higher seas whipped up by the wind.
Nevertheless, the rubbish collected - including quite a lot of it plastic - filled four wheelie bins provided by Teignbridge District Council.
Dawlish Water Rotary club will be considering further beach clean initiatives this year to maintain the momentum.
Rotary organiser Gordon Peacock says: " The extent of pollution of the oceans and beaches, particularly by plastic, has horrified many people. It seems unbelievable that plastic is being ingested by wildlife in such remote places as Antarctica. It really is a wake-up call to us all.
"We are delighted to be doing our bit to clean up local beaches and supporting voluntary efforts and we hope others will follow."
A second environmental initiative by Dawlish Water Rotary Club is well under way. Following the recent beach clean to celebrate Rotary Day, the club has acquired 50 trees to be planted in the local community
A total of 10 silver birch, 10 alder trees have already been set in Crockwells Meadow in Exminster through the offices of the Parish Council, who are developing this area as a forest zone with many trees. Rotary's contribution will add to that and we have yet to plan in 10 oaks, 10 beech and 10 hornbeam.
A few of these will be used to replace damaged trees in public spaces.
Rotary spokesman Gordon Peacock says: "We are keen to find ways of supporting our communities and work jointly with them to improve our local facilities.The trees have been supplied free under the OVO Energy 'I Dig Trees' scheme - a national scheme by this new energy provider where they have set half a million trees nationwide over the last three years.
"We also welcome potential new members who may join us in these activities and feel they can contribute in a wider sense. We meet weekly at the Mount Pleasant Dawlish Warren on a Tuesday at 1930. Supporters can follow us on our Dawlish Water Rotary home page or Facebook page."
Dawlish Water Rotarians collected over 2000 shoeboxes for the children and families of Moldova from schools, church groups and other organisations. These were transported in early December along with a host of clothing and other useful goods by Christian Response to Eastern Europe.
Dawlish Water has refurbished a number of musical instruments and gifted these to Dawlish Community College to help and encourage music students. Two guitars, a violin and two keyboards donated through members were presented to Jonathan Waterworth ( Head of Expressive Arts at the College (seen left below) with Dawlish Water President Barry Rendal-Jones, Youth lead Chris May and another member of staff (see also article below).
Dawlish Water inducted as a Rotarian in its third lady member, Anne Harrison, wife of former President and District officer Peter Harrison. Anne is a counsellor and was warmly welcomed into the club by President Barry Rendal-Jones.
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