The Club welcomes our new President, Roger Williams:

Firstly, Roger takes a quick look back at July’s meetings:

The new Rotary year started on July 1^st with a successful concert, ‘Lifting The Lid’ at the Mountsorrel Community Centre, where

Caroline Sharpe conducted the Charnwood Community Singers.  Due to the generosity of the attendees, we raised over £1000 for Cancer Research and other Rotary charities.

A few days later Rosemary was invited to Booth Wood primary school assembly to present Rotary Stars with immediate past president Martin. See below for Rosemary’s account of this. Contact with other schools will be made as the year progresses. 

At the first club meeting on July 7^th, I took the opportunity to explain my views on the benefits of supporting individual ‘entrepreneurs’ around the world with microfinancing via Care International. 

I hope I convinced some members to look at this as a low-cost way of helping development in third world countries.

Further information can be found here: Microfinance from CARE International UK

On July 14^th Garner briefed club members on the need to find volunteers and resources if we are to continue running the very successful Golf Day project. He showed that most of the work was administrative and not golf related. A couple of members have already agreed to help. Hopefully more will follow. 

The first external speaker this year (on July 21^st) was Mark Scott, the team leader at the regional King’s Trust. His passion and commitment were clear to see, and his talk generated lots of questions. He explained that after a variety of jobs, including two years of training for the police, he had taken part in a King’s Trust programme and then joined to take on a role within the organisation. Course participants arrive, mainly from the Job Centre, unable or unwilling to engage in simple social exchange. His goal over several weeks is to enable the normal personal interactions that are a necessity for employment.

At the last meeting in July (28^th), Caroline Sharpe took us through her Life in Music. Starting with an ambition to teach people who want to sing, she recounted the many interesting and impressive steps along the way.  These included the Mario Lanza prize,

Birmingham   Conservatory,           Belvoir Wassailers, Charnwood Community Choir, not forgetting her role in Loughborough as Carillonneur. The talk led to lots of questions and a relaxed discussion.  thanks for your support!

President Roger

News update from other members:

Coats 4 Kids..

The Coats 4 Kids team has their first meeting planned for the end of August in readiness to contact schools at the start of the Autumn Term. 

The team plans to reach out to all

Loughborough Primary Schools in September to support those children who may be in need of a warm winter coat.

Michael Charlesworth

Rotary Stars..

After a pause to this programme, I had a request from the Headteacher of Booth Wood Primary School, which I had visited previously, to arrange a visit with other Rotarians to present Rotary Stars certificates and badges at the school's end of term assembly. It's quite unusual to be requested to attend, so of course we were happy to accept. Together with Rtn. Ros Severn and Immediate Past President Martin, I attended the special assembly. The recipients had been selected by the staff. The criteria varied, according to the pupil involved. 

We presented the certificates and badges to the worthy recipients, having first explained who we were and what Rotary is. You never know whom you're talking to! But all in all, it was a happy occasion. Possibly because it was the end of term, but for Ros and I, having been in Primary education, it brought back happy memories. I hope that Martin enjoyed the experience also. Hopefully this will be the start of more schools becoming involved in Rotary Stars, so please let Ros and I know if you have contacts who'd like to be involved next academic year. 

Rtn Rosemary Adams

Cinema Group..

Our latest trip was to see The Odyssey in Loughborough – a bigger group than usual and followed by a lively debate after. Regular members will know of Rosemary’s fascination with closing credits, which I couldn’t resist capturing..:

Looking forward to August:

We launch the month on the 4^th August with a visit from Debbie Thrussell, who will update us on news from LOROS, which was selected as our chosen charity last year and benefitted from some substantial donations from the club last year.

 On the 11^th August, the club will host eight students from around the world selected by Rotary International. As part of their ten-day visit to the UK, we will guide them round Nottingham and introduce them to a particular English 'custom' (more details next month).

On the 25^th August, club member Michael Charlesworth will tell us all more about his recent tall ship sailing adventure with Riviera Travel, and he will explain how travelling with Riviera can benefit Rotary.  In other news..

We are excited to hear that a Rotaract

Club has been established by Loughborough University students. This is great news for potentially providing a pathway for their members to join Rotary in the future. Beacon has also agreed to support one of their number, Daniel Cunningham, as a RYLA participant. We hope to hear more from Daniel at a later date about his experience on RYLA. Graham has agreed to provide guidance as they establish and develop the new club.  The club will officially be named 'The Rotaract Club of the City of Loughborough'. Ah well, what's in a name? 

(NB: Rotaract is nominally separate from

Rotary. Its members are young adults aged

18-30.)