September 2012

September started with two carnival events, on the Saturday we ran a 'wine or air' stall for adults alongside a 'hook a duck' game for children at the Trowbridge Country Fayre. Although it was a lovely day, the footfall through Trowbridge Park was quite light, we were there but where were you people of Trowbridge?

On the Monday we hosted our annual carnival quiz. Teams battled it out, stopping for a tasty  supper of pasties, wedges & salad supplied from NOSH of Trowbridge. The winning team 'The Management' contained two members of the carnival committee so they were delighted to have a night off from organising carnival events and to receive a prize! The carnival this year will be on October 20th and we will be there as usual with our fairy lights & collecting buckets.

As a team from Melksham Rotary Club supported our quiz night we decided to return the favour and entered two teams in the Melksham Rotary Food & Drink Festival Quiz. To our surprise the questions were not about food & drink (a subject close to our hearts) as we had been led to believe, but we didn't disgrace ourselves and came in at a very respectable 5th & 7th.

Trowbridge Arts Festival was launched on Saturday 15th Sept and the organisers very kindly allowed us to publicise our forthcoming Bavarian Oomph Night alongside them. (http://www.wessexmeadrotary.org.uk)  Ann & I were dressed in our Bavarian serving wench costumes and were accompanied by Andrew & Deon in florescent yellow waistcoats. Quite a sight to see especially when Ann & I were persuaded to don jingly scarves around our middles and take part in a belly dancing demonstration. Bavarian belly dancers, a thankfully rare sight in Trowbridge!

The Following Monday, Mark our resident brewer from RCH Brewery organised a club vocational evening at the nearby Box Steam Brewery at Holt. RCH is near Weston Super Mare and the two breweries are similar in size, so it was very interesting to see both the similarities and how the two differ.  We had a very interesting tour and thoroughly sampled the product too.

The Rotary Club of Trowbridge Wessex Mead supports the Rotary Dictionary 4 Life programme which aims to promote literacy around the world. The D4L promotes British English and encourages children to widen their vocabularies and improve their life chances. Each year we purchase bespoke editions of the Usborne Illustrated Dictionary and donate them to a local primary school to use as a classroom resource. This year's recipients were The Mead Community Primary School at Hilperton & Wingfield and they kindly invited us to present the dictionaries at their school community assemblies and to talk to the children about how Rotary works with the community to make a difference.

Our final event in September was to attend the Trowbridge in Bloom Awards Presentation Evening. Trowbridge Wessex Mead sponsor the TIB Young Persons Award, this award is given to a young person or group of young people who have 'gone the extra mile' and by their actions have contributed significantly to the 'IN BLOOM' Campaign. This year we had joint winners - the Hilperton Primary School Eco Group and Walwayne Court School Wolves Class. We have also been involved in the Churches in Bloom category, I was a judge back in July so was delighted to be able to present the Churches Competition Awards.