President's Blog February 2014

We started the month with a club scatter. This is when club members visit other Rotary clubs to say hello and see how other clubs operate. Although we are all part of the Rotary family, no two clubs are exactly the same so it is interesting to attend a different club meeting occasionally.

This year the Trowbridge in Bloom public speaking competition, The Young Voice of Trowbridge, took place at John of Gaunt School on Thursday 13th February and Trowbridge Wessex Mead Rotary was delighted to once again be involved with organising and sponsoring this event. Pupils  from years 8, 10, and 13 from The Clarendon Academy, John of Gaunt School and St Augustine's Catholic College had previously competed in their school heats with the winners from each year group taking part in this inter-school final. The standard was excellent and I hope the influential people on the judging panel have taken heed of some of the youngsters innovative ideas!

At our meeting on 17th February we enjoyed a talk by Jenny Wilcockson about the Wiltshire Online Project.  Jenny & her team at the Wiltshire Council are endeavouring to work alongside communities to ensure that everyone has opportunities to become digitally literate and confident users of technology. They also aim to improve connectivity and provision of broadband access for the businesses and citizens of Wiltshire and to increase the range, take-up and usage of online services by the public to access council services.

Sunday 23rd February brought our annual Big Breakfast, raising funds to support Rotary's fight against Polio. With over 140 full English breakfasts cooked at North Bradley's Peace Memorial Hall it was a very busy morning for the members of Trowbridge Wessex Mead. A big thank you to everybody who supported our event with  a special thank you to Fair Trade for providing & serving all the teas & coffees with a smile, and Celia Young for sponsoring the free range eggs.

Back in June 2013, we made a donation to Asthma Relief to place and maintain a mains operated nebuliser in or around Trowbridge. I was therefore very pleased to be able to attend the presentation of the nebuliser, at the end of February, to the Bradford Road Medical Centre.