Newsletter - April 2012

HARWICH & DOVERCOURT ROTARY CLUB

APRIL 2012 NEWSLETTER

On Monday 26th March several members visited Belstead Brook Hotel for the annual joint meeting of the Ipswich and Woodbridge Clubs. It was apparently a successful evening with a most interesting presentation by a Royal Navy party giving details of the strength and future development of the Service.

On Monday 2nd April PDG Milton Frary of Caslteford and Trustee of the Wheelchair Foundation UK gave a most moving and interesting talk about his (and his wife) work with the Foundation. His commitment started when he met a very rich American Ken Behring. Milton gave a slide show and video and you could see from the faces of the children and adults who were given wheelchairs how happy they were and what a life changing moment. How did it all start ?

In2001 at the Rotary International Convention in San Antonio, Texas, World President Frank Devlin launched a joint programme with Ken Behring, founder of the Wheelchair Foundation California. The programme was very much geared to the USA and Milton Frary, confident that the programme would succeed in Great Britain and Ireland with a different structure, negotiated with Ken Behring to assist in launching a separate independent charity in the UK that would be run subject to the Charity Commission rules and the ideals of Rotary. Their efforts would be concentrated on the needs of Eastern Europe and Africa but not ignoring the plight of others around the world especially when disasters strike. The formation of the Charity took some considerable time and was not formed until December 2004. Fortunately, the Rotary Clubs in 2006 in their planning period decided that the new charity was one that they would wish to support and it was during that year that the true success was gained in funding. To ensure the identity of Rotary GB&I