Club Blog April 2016

The Rotary GB&I annual conference was held in Bournemouth on the first weekend of April and curious to see what it was all about, Caroline attended with her sister Sarah from Melksham Rotary. Rotary GB&I stands for Rotary international in Great Britain & Ireland and thus the attendees came from all over the country to meet with new friends & old, talk Rotary, hear inspirational speakers and have lots of fun. In short Rotary GB&I Conference is similar to District Conference, but bigger & better!

For our member organised evening on 4^th April, Andrew & Bryony decided to give club members a taste of what it may be like to be visually impaired. We partook in a number of sensory activities, first putting on blindfolds before being given a plate of food to explore by taste, touch & smell, then identifying objects in a bag by touch alone, pinned the cherry on the cupcake before navigating our way past obstacles with just the verbal guidance of a partner. We found it interesting to note that a number of people incorrectly identified the flavour of the yoghurt as raspberry instead of strawberry, suggesting that our taste is often guided by our expectation having seen the packaging and we all felt vulnerable when blindfolded during the obstacle course.

Our President’s Night Charity in June will be Julia’s House, the Dorset & Wiltshire Children’s Hospices, so President Julia arranged for a speaker, Liz Froud, from the Charity to visit our club on 11th April: Julia’s House is Dorset’s only hospice dedicated to children with life-limiting conditions in Dorset and Wiltshire & the majority of the children they care for are unlikely to live beyond the age of 18. Complementing the work of the Julia’s House Community Team, which consists of nurses and carers who travel the county, the children’s hospice provides life-changing support for families both in their own homes and in the hospice itself. Full planning has been given for a new hospice to be built in Devizes, funds have been raised and work is expected to begin in earnest this summer with a planned opening next year. In 2016, only 5% of funding will come from the Government, meaning that Julia’s House will continue to rely on the Dorset & Wiltshire community to help raise the remainder of their required annual income.

On 16th April, President Julia was invited to the Oasis Longmeadow Academy to help select the 2016 Carnival Royalty. There were 8 entrants, 6 girls and 2 boys, and the judging was very hard as all did exceptionally well when asked a series of questions about their interests and knowledge of the carnival. Kaitlyn Maddox, eight, of Paxcroft Primary School, was selected as the Princess and Olivia Bygraves, 10, of North Bradley Primary School, was selected as the Queen, while Henry Butler, 7, of Staverton Primary School, was selected as Carnival Consort.

April finished with our Spring Pub Quiz held as usual at the Polish Club. Eighteen teams took part, enjoying a fish & chip supper from The Jolly Friar during a break mid quiz. Our next Quiz Night will be 19^th September 2016, in aid of Carnival Charities, hope we see you there.