The Month That Was Jan 26

Sad Times

Last month we learnt of the unexpected passing of Adrian Clifford, a long standing, valued and much respected member of the club, following recent by-pass surgery.

Seven members of the club attended Adrian’s funeral at the Chard Methodist Church on Thursday the 11^th December.  It was a very full church and the wake was held the Lordleaze Hotel, Chard.  Our thoughts and condolences sit with Anne.

Sadly, this month we also learnt of the loss of Molly Mullins. Molly’s husband, George, was a stalwart member of Wells Rotary Club for many years and President in the 1990s.

Law and Order

We were very privileged to have Mary Ellis as our speaker at our first meeting of the year at The Crown. Mary has recently been appointed Deputy Lieutenant for Somerset.  She spoke about her experiences at the bench and her talk entitled, “How long?  Is that all?  Why not lock them up and throw away the key?”, captured members attention throughout. Mary is President of Wells Lions and good friend not only of the club as a whole but also good friends with Sally and June, who happily shared memories of past times together with her over supper.

Mary grew up in Wells, as her father was a member of the Vicars Choral at Wells Cathedral, and in 2008 was appointed a Justice of the Peace. Her public service as a magistrate has involved her sitting on Criminal and Family courts throughout the Avon and Somerset area. In addition Mary is part of the Magistrate Recruitment Advisory Committee and is a Mentor to new appointees. A real all-rounder she has love of music which includes playing the cello in the Mid-Somerset Orchestra.

Business Meeting

Suzzanne Addicot, who with husband Rob oversee the running of the Dairy House, joined us for the January business meeting and spoke about the work of the Dairy House helping address the challenges and problems of rough sleeping and homelessness on the Mendips.

Introduced by Alan, who explained the context to the craft workshop project that the club is considering supporting, Suzzanne gave a heartfelt talk on the work and approach taken by her team at the Dairy House towards tacking the problem of the of the “revolving door of homelessness”.

Currently, at any one time there are circa 50 rough sleepers in the Mendip district, with homelessness mostly trigged by debt and the breakdown of family relationships. The Dairy House Rehabilitation Centre was established in partnership with Mendip District Council in 2015 to support individuals experiencing homelessness and offers a 12-week residential placement for citizens who are either rough sleeping or at risk of rough sleeping. At any one time it accommodates up to 7 residents. Since inception circa 100+ residents will by now have passed now through the Dairy House

To find sustainable housing pathways for residents and in preparation for their next steps after leaving the Rehabilitation Centre, residents engage in a number of structured activities including art, pottery, animal care and hedge-laying.

One element of this approach a community garden was developed in 2018 enabling volunteers from the local community and residents to come together and farm produce together. This has grown over the past 7 years to the point where over 40 volunteers, residents, and past residents engage each week in structured activities: many of the volunteers can also be classed as individuals at risk.

To strengthen its offering and in anticipation of continued growth in demand for therapeutic support from past residents and volunteers, the Dairy House team is looking to expand the Rehabilitation Centre to include a craft workshop facility and also to introduce an outreach service, based on using a mini bus to facilitate access to the centre for returning residents looking to maintain contact with the Rehabilitation Centre.

Previously the Dairy House successfully operated a small woodworking centre for several years close to the Root Connection centre but had to close this two years ago for a mix of health and safety and operational reasons.

Supporting St Margarets

Ably organised and led by John, 4 teams supported by friends of the club, spent the weekend of January 10 collecting used Christmas trees from the BA5 post code area and taking them to a depot on the Mendips for shredding and recycling. Members of the public signed up on a web site organise by St Margarets hospice and paid a fee to have their tree collected. St Margarets then prepared and advised John and teams of the collection routes for the day. Eash team comprised a vehicle with trailer, a driver, a navigator and 2 loaders. Post event we learnt that the club’s efforts had raised a magnificent £3,400 for St Margarets. Well done to all involved.

The table below shows the total amount raised across the County by all teams engaged in the project – a fabulous £47,052 grand total!!!

Community Day

Organised by the Cathedral Team, the Community Day gave local organisations the opportunity to prepare and staff a stand to show case their activities at the Cathedral on the 17the of the month.

Organised by Ellie we took a stand the centre piece of which was a rogue’s gallery with pictures of club members having fun while engaging in activities in support of the community. We also had a water survival box on display and hosted a display by EVAG (the Emergency Volunteer Action Group).

As a follow up we are organising a Rotary Information evening for February 23 to which those who stopped by at the stand and expressed interested in knowing more about the work and activities of the club will be invited.