George Ritchie – “North to 60 North”

President Katrina welcomed everyone to the meeting including the speaker for the evening, George Ritchie.

President Katrina intimated a change to the normal running order.  We would have the speaker first, followed by club business.  This would be a trial to see which running order members preferred.

President Katrina introduced George Ritchie who was going to talk about “A Flying Rotarian’s Adventure to Finland”

George started off by showing slides of his six-seater private ‘plane which had been built 47 years ago but had been totally revamped, bearing no resemblance to the original.  He showed slides of the cockpit and the large display of instruments used to fly the ‘plane safely.

The Flying Rotarians Fellowship was set up in the 1980’s and had worldwide membership.  Before he became a Rotarian, George was made an Honorary Member of the Flying Rotarians in 2008.

The flying adventure he talked about was attending the Flying Rotarians Fellowship International meeting in Finland that took place in 2017.  Over the course of three days, George, with his wife, piloted his ‘plane all the way from Luton via the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden to Turku in Finland. He showed various slides of the fantastic scenery on his journey to illustrate his talk. With other Flying Rotarians he spent several days on guided tours of Finland, culminating in a Gala Dinner in Turku at which he was awarded the Nordic Aviation Trophy, ten years after his father.

After his talk he answered a variety of questions from the Rotarians.

Jane Allan proposed our vote of thanks and thanked George for a very enjoyable and fascinating presentation.

In her interesting Rotary information, President Katrina highlighted Improving Literacy in Guatemala by supporting education.  The host sponsor was the Rotary Club of Guatemala Vista Hermosa, Guatemala and the international sponsor was the Rotary Club of Summit County (Frisco), Colorado, USA.  The total budget was $339,191.

The Guatemala Literacy Project is a 20-year partnership between Rotary clubs and districts and the non-profit Cooperative for Education. This global grant provided textbooks, computer labs, teacher training, and scholarships to impoverished schools. The sustainable model requires families to pay a fee to rent the donated textbooks; schools use the money to buy new books when the old ones wear out.

This grant served 5,880 students and trained 337 teachers. First-graders in the program scored 71 percent higher than the national average in letter naming. 

More than 500 Rotary clubs have participated in the Guatemala Literacy Project over the past 20 years.

Willie Talbot reported that the Bonus Ball had been won by Tom McPherson

Secretary Ian He highlighted the request that Jean Murray had received from Orchard Primary/Nursery School in Overtown for assistance in obtaining equipment/resources.  

Treasurer Tom reported that we were now fully mandated for the General and Charities accounts and the donation of £2000, which had been agreed for Foundation, had been sent to RFUK.