Vale Clearances

9/07/26 – Vale Clearances – Chris Spibey

Another new venue on trial at The Royal Oak, East Bridgford, which seemed to fit the bill, although not sure how the skittles Alley will be in the depth of Winter. Information was circulated about our ‘Litter picking’ exercise in Bingham on the 23^rd. Karen was presented with her certificate and medal for her Swimathon performance. Roy Mortledge was then re-inducted (recycled!) into our membership again; welcome back Roy, we are all glad to see you back in the fold.

Chris the started his presentation, saying that he was born in Bingham, but joined the Army as a 16-year-old, which seems to have set him up as a successful man with excellent ideals towards his community. He did 7 years as a ‘Gardener’, which he really enjoyed, but then with his partner, a nurse, they decided to set up a business to help the local community, where they saw a ‘need’. 5 years later they have a workforce of 30, both young and old (including their 2 sons) They have helped 3500 people and re-furnished 126 houses. They have shipped stuff to the Ukraine, worked in Holland and Ireland, worked with Local Authorities, Framework, The Friary, Beaumond House and created a ‘transparent compassionate and respectful service’ that means zero landfill with thousands of items donated to charities and local families. He related a number of examples from ‘2 chairs for Christmas’ in Bottesford, working with Eric Morcambe’s son together with many of the amusing items they have encountered: false teeth, fake eyes, prosthetics under a bed, ammunition, knives and various weapons. The range was unbelievable from 175 Playboy magazines to a pickled cobra.  Another story involved a family in Mapperley Park, who offered all their furniture in a clearance, which enabled Chris to give them £11500 from the sales his company made. He would like to see similar services all over the country, but as was pointed out to him, it takes someone very special, with a passion, positivity and commitment to be able to offer such a Clearance and Home removal’s service! 

An indication of the qualities of this man that having heard about our work in recovering medical equipment and hearing the 4 principles of Rotary during Roy’s induction, he made a donation to our Charity fund of £100.  Karen did the Vote of Thanks, saying that Chris had put over a complex task that he had made into a successful straight forward operation, she really appreciated the ethos behind his service, thanked him for sharing it with us and wished him and his team the best of luck for the coming year in continuing their work in “The Vale Way”; members joined in with an enthusiastic round of applause.                    AR