2013-14 Highlights

This page provides some information on what the Club has been getting up to in the Rotary year starting 1st July 2013.  For earlier years please see the pages under "Club History"

Photographic Competition 2014 - 23rd June 2014

As usual an enjoyable evening with our best ever level of entries.  Anne Miller won the overall best picture with her winning entry in the Flora category, with a composition entitled Water Lillies.  All the winning entries are available on the Photographic Competition pages on the website.

Kids Aloud - 24th June 2014

Choirs from 6 primary schools in the Northallerton area joined together for a very successful evening of song - culminating in the massed choirs singing "Jonah-Man Jazz".

An excellent evening that raised money for the shelterbox charity.

Welcoming the Rotary Club of Beverley on their Charity Bike Ride - 15th June 2014

Members of the Beverley Club have completed a charity bike ride in 5 stages - one of which ended in Northallerton.  We were pleased to put in place a "welcome party" to see them at the end of their ride.

Allertonshire School Awards Evening - 10th June 2014

Once again the club sponsored an award at this evening celebrating acheivements at the school.  The 2014 award went to Sophie McGlynn.

"Call My Quaff" Social and Fund Raising Night -  9th May 2014

An enjoyable social evening was held at the Romanby WI Hall where club members and friends were able to test their knowledge (?!) of wine against a panel of 3, only one of whom was telling the truth in describing each of the six wines we tasted.

Excellent fun - and a chance to raise some funds for charity as well.

Thanks to Paul of Bon Coeur Fine Wines for the arrangements including the wine, and the plausible descriptions, and to Mark and Alison for forming the rest of the panel.

Assisting with Bucket Collections for Red Cross Week - 7th May 2014

A number of Members were able to help with the bucket collection at Sainsbury's in aid of Red Cross Funds during Red Cross Week

Charity Concert at the Royal Hall in Harrogate - 3rd May 2014

A party of eight club members and partners had an enjoyable day out in Harrogate organised by Rotarian Bernard Bateman of the Ripon Rowell's Club, who is also the Chairman of the North Yorkshire County Council for 2013/14.  His Charity this year is the ABF and specifically the Phoenix Centre in Catterick Garrison.

An excellent day started with a reception and meal at the Royal Baths Chinese Restaurant, then it was a short walk to the concert hall for an excellent and varied programme of music.  Much of this was from young people in the area and the talent on show was amazing.  We also had the Band of the Armoured Corps, and an excellent Community Choir.

International Evening on an African Theme - April 2014

We held a very successful fundraising evening, when club members, families and friends joined in an evening of fun, and ate a meal of authentic African recipes.  Over £800 was raised for our 2013/14 project to assist the Maternity Hospital in Elobeid in the Sudan.

We are joined by new member Steve Scott-Marshall - April 2014

Steve was inducted into the club at our April Business Meeting

Fundraising Collection at Tesco's in aid of the MRI Scanner Appeal - March 2014

Hard on the heels of the successful concert, the club was involved in a further fundraiser for this excellent project, when members joined our rotary friends from Northallerton Rotary Club for a weekend of fundraising at Tesco's. Over £1000 was raised.

Fundraising Concert with Northallerton Male Voice Choir and Musicality - March 2014

A sell out concert was arranged by the Club working in partnership with the Inner Wheel Club.  The evening provided a varied programme from the two choirs and raised money that was split between the MRI Scanner Appeal, the Club's nominated Charity, and Herriot Hospice Homecare, nominated by Inner Wheel.

The 2014 Technology Tournament - March 2014

Once again the Club joined with the Rotary Clubs of Northallerton, Thirsk, Richmond and Wensleydale to host a Technology Tournament for schools in the area, held at Catterick Garrison Leisure Centre - an ideal venue.  9 schools took part this year and a magnificent 32 teams were involved at three levels.

The ingenuity of the young people involved was, as ever, quite humbling for the rotarians judging and stewarding the event.  A very talented bunch of future engineers in the making perhaps?

A team from Northallerton College won the advanced level competition, Barnard Castle School produced the winners at the intermediate and foundation levels.

The picture below shows the Barnard Castle team who won at Intermediate level, watching their model of a rescue device crossing the river and about to drop it's load.

Well done to all the young people taking part.  It was an enjoyable day, but with plenty of learning opportunities.

A Visit to Middlesborough Football Club

Members, partners and friends had an enjoyable afternoon, starting with an excellent meal in the Director's Dining Room, and moving on to an informative and light-hearted guided tour round the facilities.  We all enjoyed hearing about some of the history of the Club, but the highlight was learning about some of the design features of the away dressing room - aimed at ensuring the visiting team, whilst comfortable, were perhaps not given quite the same light and airy conditions and helpful facilities available to the home side!

The Club Christmas Meal

As usual the Club Christmas Meal was a time to invite partners and friends for a festive get together and a chance to celebrate the season.  As well as the meal we had entertainent and sang some carols.  The team who had so successfuly led the Bollywood Dancing Day earlier in the year did a reprise performance by popular demand.

December  - Santa Collections

As usual the Club organised Santa collections to support our programme of activities for young people.  We expanded our collections in supermarkets,  and Santa was on his sleigh around the town on Tuesday, Wenesday and Thursday 17th to 19th December. We were able to raise the magnificent sum of nearly £1400.

Pictured below is Santa and his helpers at Morrisons on Wednesday 11th December.

At Sainsbury's on Wednesday the 18th December we were pleased to be joined by the District Governor Mark Stewart - Clarke.

7th and 8th December - Christmas Tree Festival at Ainderby Church

The Church held a Christmas Tree Festival this weekend and Rotary members decorated a tree on the theme of service and giving.  All the decorations on the tree had a link to one of the many charities and community activities that the Club has supported over the years.  A fantastic amount of hard work and imagination had gone into the trees on display round the church, prepared by people in the village and a range of organisations,  and we were proud to take part in this wonderfull initiative.

1 December 2013 - Santa comes to Northallerton

Members of the Club were on hand to welcome Santa and ensure his "Sleigh" was able to make it safely through the crowds to the Grotto in the Town Hall.  The Sunday afternoon event replaced the tradition of an arrival on a Friday evening and seemed to go down well.  The town was full of families and shoppers getting in the Christmas Spirit.

30 November 2013 - 19th Charter Dinner

The Club held it's Charter Dinner at the Lodge at Leeming.  We were very pleased to make a well deserved award of a Paul Harris Fellowship to one of our founder members Pat Martin, for her service to rotary projects over the years, and in particular her involvement in organising our RYLA and Kids Out programmes.

Our speaker was Lt Colonel Mel Pears - the Commanding Officer of the personal Recovery Unit at Catterick Garrison.  As well as hearing something of this, his most recent placement, we had a fascinating insite into his earlier career in the Army and some of the events that had shaped his develoment as he moved through the ranks and became a commissioned officer.

We were joined by partners and guests and everyone enjoyed a splendid evening.

The raffle raised over £200 for the ABF charity that supports the running of the Recovery Unit.

16 September 2013 - A talk about this year's RYLA course

Maisy Bradbury - who had been sponsored by the Club to take part in the 2013 RYLA course at Hebden Hey, joined the Club to tell us about her experiences.

14 September 2013 - Flash Mob Dancing in aid of End Polio Now

For the last few years, the Club has held an annual street collection in aid of End Polio Now. This year we decided to step outside our comfort zone and combine the collection with a "Flash Mob Dance" performed Bollywood style! Northallerton Town Hall Square witnessed Rotarians dancing in the sunshine wearing saris and scarves. Whilst not bringing the town to a complete standstill the group certainly attracted a lot of attention and helped to improve Rotary's image by showing that we are a modern, dynamic organisation of men and women from many different walks of life. Moreover we had great fun taking part, even if some of us needed to take a nap in the afternoon!

9 September 2013 - Fundraiser at the Jaipur Spice Restaurant

A large group of members with family and friends were able to attend a fundraiser at a recently opened Indian Reastaurant.  An obvious choice for one of this year's International Committee projects, which is to raise funds for the Lourdes Hospital in Dharwad, Karnataka State in India.

19 August 2013 - Painting workparty at the Clervaux Trust

Members of the club donned painting gear to lime wash two of the buildings at the Clervaux Trust site just outside Croft.  It was also an opportunity to learn more about the work of the Trust and to meet staff and service users.

As this picture shows this was definitely "hands on" or do I mean "face in" Rotary at it's best!

Further pictures are available on the page on this event under Community and Vocational

12 August 2013 - Visit to Staveley Nature Reserve

We had an excellent visit to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Reserve at Staveley. After a number of us had travelled through heavy rain we wondered what the weather would bring, but we were able to walk round the reserve with Tim, one of the Trust's wardens in glorious evening sunshine.  There was a good range of flowers and birds to be seen, and the highlight of the visit was undoubtedly the barn owl and the common terns.  The otters resident on the site eluded on this occasion!

We followed the visit with an excellent meal at the Angel in Topcliffe.

7 August 2013 - Fundraising Coffee Morning at Northallerton Town Hall

A succesful fundraiser was held for the Community and Vocational Committee and around £320 was raised for future initiatives.  As well as serving coffees, we had well supported tombola, bric a brac and book stalls

5 August 2013 New Member John Duncan is welcomed formally to the Club

John, who has been a member of Rotary for some years, but has moved recently to Northallerton was welcomed formally into the Club.

29 July 2013 - Visit to the Jo Cornish Gallery

A good turnout to the Gallery.  Over a cup of coffee in the recently opened coffee shop at the Gallery, we were given a history of the building itself and how Jo had decided to develop this as a gallery space.  We also learnt more about Jo's career.  We were then able to browse the excellent work of Jo and the many other photographers and other artists work that fills this wonderful space.

15 July 2013 - Petanque Night

Last year we had an interesting talk about the game of Petanque and how this is played at the highest competitive levels.  Whilst not aspiring to such a degree of skill and excellence a good turnout from the club enjoyed a beginners session at the excellent facility at the Staveley Arms in North Stainley, followed by a meal at the pub.

14 July 2013 - Northallerton Carnival

This years event included a bed push and the club entered a team, which showed great spirit, but was not able to win the day! the taking part was, however, enjoyed by all involved.  We also provided stewarding for the event.

30 June 2013 - Hail and Farewell

As the old Rotary year ended, and the new began, we held an enjoyable social event to celebrate last year's achievements and commence the new year.  During the afternoon, our new President Sue Bush received the formal handover of her Presidents chain of office for the year, as did the new President Elect, Mark Williams.  Sue Adsett was thanked for her hard work and leadership during the previous 12 months and received her Past Presidents Jewel.