90th Charter Night Celebration at RVYC

ROTARY CLUB OF RYDE 90th CHARTER

90 Years old, still young and active

The Club was officially recognised as a Rotary Club when it received its Charter on 23 February, 1925.  Seventy two people, Rotarians and friends, joined together on Saturday, 28 February, 2015, at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club to celebrate the last ninety years.

The formal part of the evening commenced with a presentation to PP Ian McDowall, PHF, for fifty years service to the Club Ian has been a loyal member and this was well received by all present. 

The District Governor, Mike Jackson, PHF, then spoke extremely well about Rotary throughout the world and the immense contribution of Ryde over the last ninety years. 

Our own President Ron Gould, PHF, then responded and stated that one of our biggest achievements was the raising of some £250,000 for Water Aid, providing clean drinking water and sanitation to many of the deprived areas of remote Africa.  He paid tribute to John Busby for all the work that he does in managing the Rotary Well sited at Waltzing Waters.  President Ron also mentioned Rick Hancock who had only just returned from India where he had been supporting the Rotary Foundation project to provide vaccinations for children in our attempt to eradicate polio.  He also outlined some of our local community projects which we are or have been involved in, The Foyer, road safety at Medina House School and new rib for Inshore Rescue.  He did refer to all the many world events that had happened over the last ninety years and thanked Paul and Sandra Ferguson for the excellent work they had done in producing the commemorative booklet, World Highlights during the 90 years of Ryde Charter.  He concluded by saying the Club was in excellent shape to tackle and take on the demands of the next ninety years.

We were very privileged to have four members of our twin Rotary Club from Chateau Du Loir with us and their President Karine Rossard spoke extremely good English to congratulate the Club on its achievements.  She spoke about the community projects that we have worked on together across both sides of the Channel and said are relationship is stronger as a result, she then presented President Ron with a commemorative, commissioned plate, made by one of their own members.  This will be framed to hang in our meeting venue. Karine concluded by wishing the Club well for the future and hoped that our twinning would last for many years to come.

The evening concluded on a musical theme.  We were delighted to welcome the Island Youth Band to play to allow us to dance the evening away in celebration.

AT