November 2019 Update

November is always a very busy month for our club.  As always it was a delight to help with the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal with the result that our street collection on Saturday November 2nd raised the magnificent total of £835.27

Due to the main road into Ambleside being closed for major road repairs each  weekday evening from 6.30pm to 1.30am a couple of club meetings were cancelled, along with our proposed International fund raising quiz.  DG Miles Leadbeater’s club visit was rescheduled to a Lunch time meeting with Ambleside & Windermere clubs at The Salutation Hotel.

Saturday 16th November saw Ambleside alive with packed streets, shops and pubs all enjoying the annual Christmas Lights switch on, Willow Lantern Parade and Fireworks Display. AK members were in fine fettle, many in fancy dress, as they collected much needed funds for the Community Lights, with a record breaking street collection of £2988.33 from collecting buckets + £458.65 in Park barrels in all totalling £3446.98. Of that £2447.41 was raised by AK club members.

The Human Fruit Machine once again brought much merriment and fun to the Market Cross charity stalls where a continual crowd of punters, some apples, oranges and bananas resulted in lots of laughs and a handsome profit for Rotary Charities.

Over the last year or so we have held a variety of ‘Open Meetings’ at Ambleside Parish Centre on a range of topics that are of general interest to members of the public. This has also been an ideal opportunity to showcase our club and to show the general public that we’re not quite what they envisage a Rotary Club to be! (Sadly still the perception is of an all-male luncheon club despite all of Rotary’s PR efforts)  It is hoped that such open meetings will encourage those attending to consider becoming ‘Friends of Rotary’ if they are unable to commit to full membership.

On Tuesday 19th November one such ‘Open Meeting’ was held with Suzanne Spender, Ursula Brendling & Dr Paul Davies giving a detailed outline of the proposed Ambleside “parkrun”. A packed room heard how parkrun organise free, weekly, 5km timed runs around the world, at 9am every Saturday morning. They are open to everyone, free, and are safe and easy to take part in. The speakers covered all aspects of the proposal and were able to answer queries first hand, resulting in a very positive upbeat meeting.

As December arrives we look forward to helping at Theatre Voices Christmas Concert ‘A Winter’s Tale’ and socialising with members and friends at our Christmas Dinner on Tuesday 10^th December.