2025-26 Highlights

During the year we will be updating this page with details of what the Club has been doing in the Rotary year that started on 1st July 2025.

Santa Collections - December 2025

The Club held the traditional Santa Collections at Sainsburys and Tesco raising funds for our projects. All together we raised £670, and we are able to get gift aid on this type of collection as well. Thank you to everyone who helped us to raise these funds, and to the Supermarkets for assisting us.

All Saints Church Christmas Tree Festival - December 2025

Members of the Club had great fun designing and making the decorations for, and then decorating, our tree in this year's Festival.  We chose the theme of Peace - linked to the Rotary Vision of "Rotary and Peace the World Over". This involved creating large numbers of Origami Peace Doves - this proved to be less easy than you might imagine, and there was much laughter (but not all that many completed doves) when we had a craft session at one of our October meetings as part of the preparations. We hope that taking part in the Festival helped to make the Community aware of the Club and some of the things we are able to achieve. The tree decorations included information on lots of our projects that have taken place opver the last 12 months or so.

Helping with the Bucket Collection at the Town Fireworks - November 2025

The Club turned out for the annual job of helping the Town Council with collecting donations at this event to help fund the following year's Fireworks. The weather was kind, and the crowds were huge, the fireworks were impressive,and all seemed to enjoy themselves at this great community event.  We followed this and warmed up with our usual trip for a great curry at The Red Chilli.

Helping to get Aids and Equipment to those in Need - November 2025

An inter-club project this year has been to raise money to help Physionet meet the transport costs of sending overseas shipments of surplus equipment, collected from hospitals and other health and care settings. The Club put £500 into the project.  The overall budget was supported by a grant from The Rotary Foundation 

 Visit to Carlton Lodge Activity Centre - October 2025

The Club had a very interesting visit to the Centre to look round the facilities and learn something of what they do, and the groups who visit the Centre.  We then adjourned to the nearby Jaipur Spice Indian Restaurant for an excellent meal.

Bedale Book and Postcard Fair - October 2025

Our biannual Book and Postcard Fair, held at Bedale Hall, is one of our main fundraisers. As usual there were a good range of stallholders, and we held our cafe with homemade sandwiches and cakes for all to enjoy. We raised over £1,100 for our Rotary projects. 

Rotary Peace Seminar in Bradford - October 2025

Some of our Members were able to attend this annual event at the Peace Studies Centre in Bradford. Each year Rotary supports a group of scholars from across the world to study for a Masters Degree at the Centre. At this event we heard from the group nearing the end of their course about their studies, how they came to be at the Centre, and their ambitions for the future. It was also an opportunity for the group who had just arrived and embarked on the next course who gave a brief background about themselves.  We look forward to hearing from this same group again in a year's time. We expect we will see the usual evidence of how the course has developed them and inspired them for their future careers as well. And for those in the delegates group the day was thought provoking and inspiring for us too.

Taking Part in the Romanby Scarecrow Festival, and Helping to Raise the Profile of Bloodrun EVS - October 2025

We had great fun creating our entry in the 2025 Scarecrow Festival.  We decided to create our scarecrow to represent a motorbike and rider for one of the key charities that we are supporting in the current Rotary year - Bloodrun EVS.  It certainly got plenty of notice and we hope raised the visibility of this great organisation in the eyes of those who went round the trail.  Since it was on the main road through the town it also attracted lots of attention from passing motorists. We were happy to be able to present a cheque for £1000 to the Charity from our fundraising, and with the support of a Rotary Foundation grant. We aim to raise more money for them at our Charter Lunch in February 2026. A picture of the scarecrow, but also our cheque presentation event, are in the photo gallery. See if you can spot which is which!

A Trip to the Druids Temple and the Lucy Pittaway Trail - October 2025

A group of us had a day out in the woods at The Druids Temple near Masham. With autumn well under way we saw an amazing array of fungi. The Lucy Pittaway Trail is a new trail in the wood financed by the Artist from part of the proceeds of sales made of a painting she did following the cutting down of the iconic tree in Sycamore Gap on Hadrians Wall. The picture in the Gallery shows the entrance point to the trail - dressed up ready for the Halloween Spooky Trail. As you might guess we bumped into lots of ghosts, ghouls and skeletons on the way round our walk! 

A New Kit for Northallerton Town Juniors

We were pleased to be able to support the football club by purchasing a new kit for one of the junior teams, and pleased when they agreed to have this with our Club logo. This will certainly help in getting across the message that we are active in supporting community activities in the town, and continues one of our priorities this year to assist youth activities.

A North East Round Robin Railway Journey - September 2025

Members of the Club joined members from the Northallerton Club for a day on the railway and completed a scenic "Round Robin" which took them to York, Leeds, along the Settle-Carlisle Line, along the Tyne Valley to Newcastle and finally back to Northallerton. Phew! Everyone enjoyed their day out.

Quiz Night and Pie and Pea Supper - 17th September 2025

The Club held another very successful quiz night at The Forum, and on this occasion we decided that the proceeds should go towards the Forum's own fundraising appeal to replace the seating in the main hall.  The event was supported by a number of local Rotary Clubs, as well as teams from our own Club, and from the local community. Everyone had great fun. Including the proceeds of the obligatory raffle we were able to contribute an excellent total of £637 to the Forum Appeal. 

A Walk for Water - September 2025

Our member Robert Williamson joined friends from Stokesley Rotary Club, and other Clubs in the area, to walk four sections of that Club's Walk for Water, raising sponsorship for clean water schemes in Zambia, as well as enjoying the challenge. Well done Robert.

Equipment Purchased for Northallerton Boxing Club - August 2025

The Club was pleased to provide the funding for a new set of boxing gloves designed specifically for sparring. We also provided funds to replace the rope on the boxing ring.

"Much Ado About Nothing" at Kiplin Hall - 10th August 2025

A good sized group from the Club made the annual pilgrimage to Kiplin to see the Handlebards in their latest Shakespeare romp.  These productions are definitely played to find the humour in the piece - and they certainly achieved that this year!  And a we had a lovely warm sunny evening as well. What's not to like!

Our Annual Treasure Hunt - 4th August 2025

This year's event was held in Topcliffe, with a meal after the event itself at the Angel Inn. There was a danger that the contestant teams would get "blown away" by the high winds we had earlier in the day, but in the end they all declared that this only applied to the quality of the clues themselves, and everyone had a great time.  In a remarkably close contest, with the top three teams being separated by only half marks, the star prize - of setting next year's contest - went to a team comprising Ian and Julie, Basil and Alison, and Anne Ash.

And our photo is the picture clue no one got!  See if you can spot it next time you are walking around Topcliffe.

Yorkshire Day Moth Trapping - 1st and 2nd August 2025

Members Alan and Anne Miller are keen recorders of moths and butterflies, and Alan put up his moth trap in his garden overnight on August 1st, and invited interested members and partners to see what had been attracted to the trap the following morning.  There are now another 7 of us who have begun to realise the sheer number and range of moths that visit our night gardens, of all shapes and sizes.  Thanks to Anne and Alan for a very enjoyable morning.

Rotary Young Chef Club Competition Final - July 2025

More than 20 talented students demonstrated their skills in the popular Young Chef competition.

Our team of Judges were highly impressed by the range of dishes produced in a battle against the clock to produce healthy two-course meals.

Nine students from Northallerton School & Sixth Form College and six from Bedale High School were given two hours to demonstrate their culinary talents. They had a tight budget for ingredients and were marked on taste and presentation.

The winner, pictured below, was Alexandra Chandler, from Northallerton School & Sixth Form College, who wowed the panel with her main course of chicken skewers and a chocolate cake dessert.

In second place was Isabella Bush, from Bedale High School, who produced chicken flatbread for her main course, followed by chocolate brownie with raspberry coulis. Third was schoolmate Polly Spencer, who cooked chicken Milanese followed by mini-lemon meringue pie.

Our thanks go to Northallerton School & Sixth Form College and Bedale High School for giving the competition such strong support. 

New Members - July 2025

We are very pleased to welcome back Ian Parminter as a member of the Club after a gap of a few years.

Our second new member is Roman Pronyszyn who has moved into town and has transferred to our Club from the Richmond Club.

Roman has been very active in Richmondshire, both as a Rotarian and also as the Ukranian Community Coordinator for Richmondshire. Details of one of his recent initiatives is shown below. 

A Visit to Dark Star Plants- 26th July 2025

A large group of members, partners and friends had a trip to East Rounton to visit Dark Star Plants.  Some followed this with lunch at nearby Roots Farm Shop and Cafe, whilst others visited the church in the village with it's memorial to Gertrude Bell. An excellent day of Fellowship.

A Belated Handover to our President Elect - 21st July 2025

Our incoming President Elect is Sandhya Nadgir, and President Tony completed the handover and the presentation of the President Elect chain to Sandhya at our meeting on 21st July.

Our new President takes over - 7th July 2025

At our first meeting of the new Rotary year we say thank you to Chris Horler for all his good work during the last year, and welcome our new President Tony Wood. Anna Naughton and Geoff Wall remain as Secretary and Treasurer, and Sandhya Nadgir takes on the role of President Elect. Our picture shows Chris handing over the presidential chain to Tony.