The Month that was May 26

Up the Amazon, a Summer Raffle and a shed load of T shirts

May could well have been the busiest month this year (so far!!). Teaming up with other clubs, reaching out to make a difference, and a little fun and fellowship along the way.

Snakes alive

Our after-dinner speaker at the meeting at the Crown was Geof Egan, the immediate past Chairman of Wells Probus club. Prior to joining Clarkes Shoes Geof had an amazing experience taking charge of a project to build a razor blade factory at where else none other than right up the Amazon in the jungle at Manus in Brazil. The challenges of acquiring the site and plant, preparing the site and buildings, transporting heavy machinery from Europe halfway across the world and up the Amazon, and ‘fixing’ local officialdom were nothing compared to the challenges posed by the local wildlife. Geof still shudders at the memories of snakes, crocodiles, mosquitoes, ants and other biting animals.

AGM

Held at the Museum, the AGM passed quietly with members approving the accounts and formal business of the meeting. Reflecting the beginning of the holiday season, numbers were a little down.

UP and Away

Integral to the club’s preparations for the Festival of Running, Ray masterminded and launched the club’s summer raffle, with Alan leading from the front (at the front of The Crown none the less on market Saturdays across the month) selling tickets to anyone’s eye he and his team of volunteers could catch.

First prize was a hot air balloon ride for 2 donated by Chris and Clare Monk, second was a 90 minute experience on the Gloucester airport flight simulator (again for 2) and third prize was a £150 travel voucher donated by Miles Morgan Travel of Wells.

In addition to a special thank you to Chris and Clare, we also have to give a big thank you for their massive contribution in ticket sales to Jane Bennett and all her staff at Bookrite, who took on the challenge and sold 750 (yes 750!!!) books of tickets.

All in all, the raffle raised very close to £1,800 – a massive contribution to the club’s charity account and more than sufficient to cover the costs of our commitment to support Kids Out next month.

The draw was held Monday morning in front of the Town Hall when Mayor Denise, supported by Angela and the Deputy Mayoress, drew the winning tickets.

Teaming Up – the Power and Reach of Rotary

Co-ordinated and organised by Chelwood Bridge Rotary, 15 local Rotary Clubs in North Somerset including Wells Rotary helped collect old T-shirts for delivery to a rehabilitation hospital in central Ukraine.

Delivered by Pavla and Mike to President Umang Patel’s Post Office in Pensford, the combined effort of the clubs saw at least 150 to 200 carrier bags, bin bags and boxes of the requested items assembled ready for sorting and repacking in cardboard cartons by a team of four Pensford ladies, whose labours were rewarded by President Umang with fresh baked pizza and a glass of vino rosso.

On Saturday 30 May, Rotarians from the Hereford Elgar Club collected the donations at the start of their journey out to Ukraine. The consignment will travel overland and finish its journey at the hospital in Kirovohrad.

This was a tremendous result and an example of Rotary Clubs working together for the benefit of others. In this case those attempting to hold the line against aggression on the edge of Europe.

Teaming Up – this time with the Harriers

Sunday the 24th saw the club team with the Wells City Harriers to stage the Wells Festival of Running. It was a joint event with the Harriers focused on the runner side of things (promotion, registration, start and finish) and Rotary focused on the logistics (marshalling, set up and clear down, stalls, water stations, toilet facilities, road closure).

It was an early start for Andy and Richard leading the team setting up the gazebos and stalls, crowd barriers, under 8 racetrack and the finish line water station. Hot on their heels Alan and Angela opened the marshal registration desk, Ray and Pat took opened the balloon raffle stall, Ellie and team set up and took up station at the Rotary showcase stand, while Clare and team moved across to Cathedral Green to prepare the 8 and under race.

Once the races were under way Stewart and June, Jake and Jenny, Pavla and Andy all did sterling work running the water stations out at Dulcote and on the finish line. The Scouts ran the Silver St water station – all together we dispensed over 2,000 degradable paper cups of refreshing nectar to quench and cool the thirsty runners.

Over on the Cathedral Green Clare and Sebastian got the 8 and unders into the mood dressing up as chickens to lead the warmup exercise before mayor Denise fired the starter’s gun.

 A big effort but, as always, many hands make light work. There were 900 runners ( possibly a few more) and once we’ve done the final maths would expect that the event will have raised a reasonable sum (north of £5,000) for grant wards to local good causes, with an emphasis towards projects and programmes focused on improving health and fitness through running and outdoors activities, supporting the disadvantaged and homeless, improving the mental and physical wellbeing of the community, encouraging youth participation activities, and supporting young people addressing challenging circumstances. A long list but the need is there.  

In addition to Wells Scouts on the water station, we were supported for the marshalling duties by volunteers from Wells Carnival Club, Mendip Vale Carnival Club and Henton Church.

All in all, a big success on all fronts, but no doubt there will be few lessons to be learnt and picked up on. All feedback and comments to Kevin and Mike please.

We had 9 stalls in total: in addition to the Rotary and Strawberry Line showcase stalls we had the balloon raffle stall and 4 stalls selling food and drink. With the baking temperatures of the mini heat wave, one observation was food sales don’t really work at this event, apart from coffee to increase adrenaline and soft drinks to rehydrate with. Runners don’t want to eat before running and after running everyone wants to go home, shower and light the barbecue. We did wonder whether the admiring parents and grandparents of runners would be after drinks and nibbles while waiting for the runners to return, but it feels that in general this was not the case.

Tea Party and Jazz in the Garden

Hosted by Caterine and Andy and blessed by a warm sunny afternoon, we found time on the last day of May to relax and enjoy more than a little fellowship in the beautiful settings of their lovely garden out at Dulcote. A big, big, ever so big thank you to both from all for organising and hosting.

Angela, Adrian, Alan and Mike

DISTRICT ASSEMBLY on 16th Mayy

This was held in the Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon, which was a comfortable and well-equipped venue, A very interesting and useful morning - a refresher for older members, and a valuable run-down on several aspects of Rotary at all levels for newer members. District Assembly is held only once each year, in May, but a District Forum will be held on 3rd October, with presentations on other aspects of Rotary; also on dates in 2027 yet to be announced on the District website/events.