Summer Months

Grant Awards, Spades and Shovels

Stoberry Park School Sensory Garden

Across the summer months, ably marshalled and led by Kevin and Ellie, club volunteers have been hard at work with support from the school PTA over the weekends clearing the central compound at the school of weeds, debris and stone. Vital to the smooth operation of the work was the timely supply of coffees, teas and of course chocolate biscuits supplied by Sue and Richard.

A trailer load of stone has been stored (dumped?) pending future need in Mike’s paddock and construction of the first raised bed now close to completion. Once the site was cleared slabs were cut and laid, cement mixed to bed them in, timbers cut and trimmed, and with the raised beds now almost completed. Once completed the pupils will be involved through the school’s gardening club in planting the beds with flowers and vegetables  and maintaining them as part of their curricula activities.

Not really a Picnic

The project, ably led by Simon and championed by the club’s Environmental Committee, to build a picnic area on a dead end, raised spur of the Strawberry Line close to Dulcote, with magnificent views back across the Cathedral Fields to Wells, was in fact quite hard work.

With picks, shovels and plenty of sweat the old track bed was cleared of weed and levelled, many tonnes (20 or so 1 cubic meter dumpy bags) of grit laid (thank goodness Ray turned up with his tractor and fork lift) ready for the installation of a picnic table and display board. The latter will inform users of the local landscape, fauna and flora while the former is specially designed to be suitable for wheeled chair use. Sadly for this project the work site was too far for Sue and Richard to serve coffees and teas!!! 

Grant Awards

With the dust now settled and with running shoes and crowd control barriers safely stowed away for another year, the final accounts for the event jointly staged by Wells Rotary and Wells City Harriers back in May show the Festival of Running to have generated a net return of close to £7,000. These funds are available for grant awards to local organisations undertaking projects in support of the local community with an emphasis on youth, mental health and physical fitness, and outdoor pursuits.

Grants currently awarded by the team include:

• Rotary kids out
• The Wells Skatepark project, and
• The Dulote Strawberry Line picnic site

Funds remain available for other appropriate grant awards. See the Festival of Running page on the club web site for further detail.

Boules, Gin, Jazz. Bubbles and Games

Boules and Barbecue 

Late June the club made a serious effort to win the Michael Fish award for breaking the summer drought. Sunday afternoon and evening saw a motley crew gather in Westbury sub Mendip at Pavla and Mike’s for an evening of boules and barbecue. Light rain had been forecast but in the event the sun shone and rain did not materialise. Alan performed sterling work at the barbecue while Chris, Clare, Kevin and Carol scooped the medals.

Gin and Jazz

Andy and Katherine hosted us in July in the beautiful settings of their garden on the edge of Dulcote hill. A local jazz group provided background music for what was a wonderfully relaxed evening of fellowship and enjoyment.

Bubbles and Games

Not wanting to ease up on the socialising and partying, mid August Richard and Sue hosted all members and friends of the club to an American style BYO lunch party in their garden with President Sharon providing the  bubbly reception. The Westbury marquees proved their worth – providing shade from the sun. A relaxed and fun afternoon where good fellowship was interrupted by the jollity of games and the jollity of games was interrupted by further good fellowship. A big thankyou to Sue and Richard for hosting.

International Dimension

Water boxes to Nepal

Given our long and deep relationship with the Nepal Trust, members were devastated to learn of the unfolding disaster in Nepal this summer when the glacial lake burst the dam causing catastrophic flooding in the upper Langtang valley. Although not close to the Humla district where members have been involved in building hands-on a chain of primary health care posts, Langtang is a valley some members have trekked through.

Although our plans to hold a street collection to raise funds in support the relief work were frustrated by the bureaucracy of Somerset, the club neverthe;ess elected to make a donation to fund two water survival boxes in support pf the relief efforts.

Meet the Sikhs

Back in 2013 when we had the floods in the Somerset Levels, Khalsa Aid, which is run by the UK Sikh community, joined with Rotary in providing support to the emergency relief effort. Subsequently the cub has staged a number of “Meet the Sikh” events on the Cathedral Green to promote the work of Khalsa Aid and its ties to Somerset. Held late August this year, Ravi and team joined us on the green with stalls to showcase traditional Sikh food, turban tying, music and dancing to a small but attentive audience.

Visiting the Rotary club of Salzgitter-Wolfenbuttle Vorharz

Late September saw 8 members of the club heading over to Lower Saxony on a Rotary exchange visit. Posts from Angela and Ellie say it all:

Angela posted: “Another fabulous weekend with our amazing German twin club. They were as ever welcoming, enthusiastic and a pleasure to be around. We have come back with not only new friends but new ideas and a renewed enthusiasm for Rotary. A great trip.”

and  Ellie: “What an experience the German exchange was. We were entertained and hosted by the Wolfenbuttel Rotarians, who were so generous with their time. They were kind, fun, interesting and hugely hospitable. Visits to the Herzog Anton Ulrich museum, Churches, lunch in the town square, walking around towns and forest, good company.  Rotary at what must be close to its best – great feeling of friendship and sharing of ideas. I’m so glad I went.”