October 2012

October challenged our wardrobes - from black tie & Rotary Jewels to Lederhosen & serving wenches to cowboy hats & fairy lights!

The Rotary District 1200 Conference is traditionally held in October and this year it was held very close to home in the City of Bath. Friday & Saturday nights were party nights with dancing & entertainment then plenary sessions were held at the Assembly Rooms on the Saturday & Sunday mornings. This year the Conference theme was 'challenge' and the speakers certainly rose to the challenge with a variety of interesting topics including Richard Budd who has set up a charity that supports a Sudanese school  that is now caught up in the Sudanese conflict; Kathy Miller from the Neem Tree Trust showed us photos of an inspirational sports day held at a boys home in Tamil Nadu for those afflicted with polio; Peter Snow talked about his work and the Jubilee Sailing Trust; Mike Mullen shared his journey to BMX world championships and beyond; Peter Rawlinson talked about his life as a stroke survivor; and Roger Hearing spoke about some of the challenges he has faced as a BBC presenter & correspondent.

The following weekend provided a different kind of a challenge as we held the 10th Trowbridge Wessex Mead Bavarian Oompah Evening. Approximately 100 people raised their glasses, slapped their thighs and clapped their hands in time with Karl's Bavarian Brass. A noisy, energetic, fun evening was had by all whilst raising money for Alzheimer's Support South West.

The Trowbridge Carnival Procession took place on Sat 20th and as usual, some of our members could be seen either marshalling or walking along side the floats wearing cowboy hats & fairy lights, brandishing collecting buckets.

On the 25th Oct, Wiltshire Farm Foods provided a luncheon to launch the Royal British Legion Trowbridge Poppy Appeal 2012. The event was attended by representatives of the five ex-Service organisations in Trowbridge plus a few others including me (President Caroline)! Trowbridge Wessex Mead  have distributed poppy  boxes to the various shops, pubs, residential homes etc in Trowbridge and will help with the poppy selling too.

The former Trowbridge Rotary Club used to host an annual supper & entertainment evening for members of the Trowbridge Visually Impaired Club;  we are very pleased to be able to carry on this tradition and so recently hosted an evening for 27 VIP members. Food, drink & fun is something we very much enjoy!

Our October meeting nights have been varied and started with an interesting tour of the new Civic Centre. Bell ringing at Edington Priory followed and was a new & fascinating experience. The bell tower is set up as a training centre so thankfully the villagers were not subjected to the discordant sounds of our attempts! Rounding up the month we enjoyed reliving the 2012 Olympics through Zoe Forman, Games Maker, as she entertained us with stories of her own Olympic experience.