Other News & Events

News

OTHER NEWS AND EVENTS

22nd September 2021

Because I was doing the daily blog this page has been, to an extent, superfluous. I hadn't realised that it had been so long since I added anything here.

President elect Linda has been busy again and just supplied The latest delivery to the Foodbank which topped out at 98Kg and included Tins of fish. Tins of fruit, Hand wash and Shower gel, Razors and deodorant, Long life milk and Kettles. This brings the total so far to £7,177 and 3.78 tonnes!

13th October

I have now registered the Rotary Club of Falkirk Trust Fund with Amazon Smile. Now if you buy anything from Amazon and do it through Amazon smile you can name our Trust Fund as the Charity you want to support and we will receive cash fromAmazon for every purchase.

8th October

St John Scotland has launched a new transport service to help dialysis patients across the Forth Valley.

The service, run by volunteers and provided free to patients, will help those living with chronic kidney disease who undergo dialysis at Forth Valley Royal Hospital.

Narek, Andrew and Sandy McGill have all volunteered and were instrumental in the setting up of the service which currently serves 7 (soon to be 9) patients who require Dialysis three times a week at Forth Valley Royal Hospital Renal Unit.

Find out more https://nhsforthvalley.com/charity-launches-new-dialysis.../

9th July

We had our handover meeting on Zoom today. In Narek’s office Jim Cairns, Linda Noble and Andrew Niven (Photographer) were joined by new members Nancy Rule, Mary Sneddon and James Dyer when the formal handover of Chains was performed. President Narek went on to welcome our new members which included, remotely, Ian Mclean who watched with the rest of us on ZOOM.

In addition to the new members, fourteen Club members were joined by DG Calum, PDG Jo, DGE Ken Robertson from Cumbernauld and James Gibbons, District RYLA Officer from Motherwell & Wishaw. All in all 22 participants were then treated to some light entertainment in the way of recitals on piano and violin from Sevag and a Shiraz respectively, sons of President Narek

29th March

Bob Spears tells me that the contact number for "Falkirk Safebase" for emergency food delivery is: -

0808 100 3161

27th March

Well, Council met last Thursday and, as you alll know, agreed to ask the Club to donate one week's lunch money every month for the benefit of the Food Bank. I am proud to say that yesterday we were able to allow Narek £292.00 to spend at his Wholesaler this month.

I have spoken with the Food Bank and thay have advised that they are happy that we include in our shop, the items which might make up the content of a regular family weekly shop with the emphasis on cans.

Council will meet again next week and I will post the result on line as usual.

You should know that IPP Margaret has unfortunately been delayed in her move north as a result of the Government Department dealing with the sales being shut down. So really we still have Margaret here! Sad news for her but not for us! eh?

18th March

Council will meet tomorrow at 13.00 with a conference meeting on "Zoom"! Narek has very kindly agreed to host the meeting. How things change! With any luck we will discuss the repercussions of the decision to suspend the activities of the Club. It would be useful if any club member has a concern regarding this matter if he/she was to raise this with me by email before the meeting.

17th March

Having heard from the District Secretary that he might be able to organise "Zoom" meetings for Clubs and that he would get back to us today, President Jim has chosen to cancel the Council meeting scheduled for Thursday 13.00 at ASC in favour of the "Zoom" option and the possibility of an on line meeting.

I will continue to post relevant information on this page for your consumption and information.

16th March

As a result of the current Climate relating to Corona Virus and in line with the advice given by District 1020, RIBI and Government agencies we have suspended meetings until the end of April when the situation will be reviewed.

This is unprecedented in peacetime and in most of our memories and requires that we all stay socially distant with no unnecessary physical contact. Detailed advice is available on line at: -

www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

We should however continually bear in mind the wellbeing of those around us who are, or may be, in the "at risk" category. The odd phone call or email is all it takes to establish that everything is as it should be.

5th March

Today was special! IPP Margaret Lyon, who sadly is to leave us at the end of the month, was presented with a Paul Harris Fellowship. Margaret was understandably overcome with the presentation which was richly deserved. She has been a member of this Club for 8 years during which time she has served 7 years on Council, two years as Com/Voc chair, two as president elect, two as president one as IPP / Treasurer, espoused the Floral Clock and the Cyrenians, formed links with Ocean Youth Trust and Young Carers and in doing so with many other Clubs in the District and outwith. Although she has been treasurer for less than a year I also know that she was a great assistance to Linda Noble during her year as treasurer.

25th February

Today the RotaKids at Hallglen were given a demonstration of their chosen International project by John Brown of the Rotary Club of Rosyth. The Kids had great fun working the Aquafilter and learning how it works.

21st February

Jay Areheart the Buell Scholar from Colorado who visited the Club last week has recorded his visit on his blog.

https://jayarehart.com/2020/02/18/the-falkirk-wheel-and-kelpies/

18th February

Santa's helpers from KidneyKids and Falkirk Rotary joined Sheena Dunsmore at Klondyke Garden Centre today for the official presentation of the cheque for £1,657.78 being the proceeds from Santa's Grotto during the weeks leading up to Christmas. Klondyke is undergoing a massive refurbishment and expansion programme at present and it is to the management's great Credit that they continued to support KidneyKids in the way that they have. Many thanks are due to Sandy Williamson and his staff at Klondyke for their continued enthusiasm for the initiative.

13th February

Jay Areheart addressed the Club today and Gordon Daly had generously arranged to take him through the Wheel in his own boat afterwards followed by a visit to the control room and then the inner workings of the Wheel itself. Unfortunately fate took a firm hold by closing the Wheel for maintenance! no boat trip, no wheel and no point in the control room as a result. Additionally Gordon was to discover that he had an opportunity to have his cataract dealt with the day before so he wouldn't manage to visit on the day either.

The up side was that Jay and I were treated to a tour of the workings of the Wheel that might not have been quite so thorough had the Wheel actually been working.

These are the motors that run the hydraulic compressors that actually turn the wheel

My Grandson reckons that this is the Hadron Collider but its actually the end of the hollow axle about which the wheel turns.

The Tardis has nothing on this!

It is possible, but obviously we were not allowed to walk along the axle void.

The space between the works and the Wheel itself.

I am annoyed at myself for omitting to take a photograph of the 8.5l Deisel Generator that sits in a state of permanent readiness to cut in immediately in the event of any disruption of power.

Our thanks obviously to Gordon for arranging this, Ross McMillan at the Wheel and the Engineer who actually showed us round and explained everything in such minute detail. (My apologies to him for my aging memory and forgetting his name)

7th February

It's February already! But that means Charter Dinner Time! 55 members guests and family enjoyed a great night at the Grange Manor Hotel celebrating the 95th anniversary of the Granting of our Rotary Charter.

District Governor Jo Pawley handed over to President Jim a Certificate commemorating the event.

While Ian Scott's Chapter Four provided the entertainment.

All in all it turned out to be a very successful night despite there being fewer attendees than usual.

28th January,

Kidney Kids are to recieve a cheque to the value of £1,657.78 from Klondyke Garden Centre. This as a direct result of President Jim, Andrew Niven and Sandy McGill helping Santa over the pre Christmas period. This is super efficient volunteering working out at something like £40 per man hour. Well done guys.

22nd December

President Jim received this certificate in the post this week! It speakes for itself. Well done everyone.

24th October

Andrew Niven has managed to collect from the Club sufficient cash to buy 460 pairs of knickers for DG Jo's appeal. He says "I'll take my knickers down to Aviemore at the weekend.

22nd October

It's official! WE have a Rotakids Club at Hallglen

The Polio Garden in the Dollar Park isn't quite there yet but the Corms are in the ground and the explanation is up.

2nd October

Four stalwarts braved the coldest morning of the year since last winter to clean and replant the High Street Planters today. The beds are now replete with fruit treees, chives and Rosemary all underplanted with winter flowering pansies and heathers. Stewart Ross had been there since early. I start counting the time at 08.30. I'm not sure that there are times before that but he was there when June arrived then Robert and later I joined them. Many of the Public stop for a chat and it really raises awareness.

That's the beds ready for Winter now.

27th September

Four of us plus two wives visited the Hallglen Primary School McMillan Coffee morning this morning. The kids were amazing and the comestibles equally so. Well done Hallglen.

26th September

We were treated this afternoon to a tour of Torphichen Preceptory by the "Preceptor" himself, Ian Wallace. Ian is a fount of knowledge who selflessly spent an hour with us recounting 2,000 years of history from memory, faultlessly. We are indebted to him.

26th September

Today we had Visitors. Cecil Meiklejohn, leader of Falkirk Council was our speaker and Doreen Allerton visited from Braids to spread the word about Rotaract. Sheena Dunsmore and Phil Swierczek from Kidney Kids and Greenhill Hiostorical Society had been invited to accept cheques for their Charities.

A Night at the Opera

George and Shiela, Ian and Winnie, Sandy and Diane, John and Margaret and Robert and Margaret all dined out at Cafe Corvina on Friday 13th September. All bar Sandy and Diane repaired to FTH for "The Merry Widow" Great way to spend an evening with good friends.

September 2019

Way back in March we were contacted by Martin Strang, an archer hoping to participate in the British and World Transplant Games. He was looking for sponsors to help him with his considerable expenses, all of which are borne by the individual. We offered to donate the cost of a team kit to his club, Balbardie Archers, and made the donation of £222 in April. The British Transplant Games took place in July in Newport, in Wales and Martin contacted us to let us know he had won an individual Gold medal.
The World Transplant Games followed in August in Gateshead and we received an email announcing that Martin was the proud recipient of a team Bronze. Here it is:

August 2019

Our annual Charities Day in the High Street was on Saturday 19th and we were really lucky with the weather. Great fun, fellowship and fundraising. The three Effs!

The Rotary Club of Falkirk continues to volunteer, along with Rotarians from Grangemouth and Soroptimists, at the Newsline studios. Here are the stalwarts waiting for the usb sticks with the audio version of the Falkirk Herald to be placed in the plastic wallets for posting to people with visual impairment throughout the area.

The defibrillator has now been fitted at the Falkirk Wheel. It's not where we agreed that it would go but it's there and ready for use by the general public.

Darren Yeates and Paige Earle from Braes High School visited today (27th June) to accept a cheque in the sum of £280. £200 of that was from the Club Trust fund and the £80 was from the generosity of three individual members. Paige will be visiting Cambodia next year as part of a school project to help the local people there in such things a building schools. She is fundraising to accumulate the cost of the trip and her PE Teacher Darren had approached the Club for assistance on her behalf.

POCKET PLOT PLANTING

June McAlpine, Stewart Ross, Linda Noble and Ian Johnston were grafting hard this morning at the Pocket Plots in the High Street. It was decided that previous planting regimes had been less than successful so now we have fruit trees.

YOUNG WRITER

The Club in partnership with Falkirk Writers’ Circle organised a Young Writers Competition in 2018-19 for the first time under the auspices of Rotary District 1020 rules and with members of the Writers’ Circle judging the entries.

We received seventeen entries, all from Denny High thanks to the efforts of Kerry Lynas, Head of English at the School, and her pupils. On Friday 26 April Morven Mack of the Writers’ Circle, and Club members Raymond Morton and Bill Laurie, met with Kerry and the four winning pupils :

Kyle Kelly, Grant McGuckin, Megan Adamson and Leah McLean who were first, second and third equal respectively.

Morven presented the prizes of £50, £30 and £20 each to the successful pupils and congratulated them on their success. She also encouraged them to keep writing as it was a rewarding activity and would help then in their careers.

9th May

Falkirk Food Bank had asked us for tins of custard. I don't know how many we eventually took but I reckon about 70 or 80 cans or packets. The membership respond extremely well to the odd prod!

7th May

THE ROTARY CLUB OF FALKIRK

LITTER AWARENESS COMPETITION

CARMUIRS DOES THE DOUBLE

Not contented with winning the Rotary Club’s Primary Schools Quiz (reported earlier) Carmuirs Primary School have scooped the top prize in the Rotary Club of Falkirk’s Litter Awareness Competition for the third time.

The Rotary Club of Falkirk’s Litter Awareness Competition began more than twenty years ago as the “Rotary Clean Playground Competition”, but as the regular School curriculum developed to include wider Ecological concerns, the Rotary Club of Falkirk in conjunction with Falkirk Council Estates Management developed the brief. Successive Officers from many organisations have given their expertise over the years notable among whom are Ross Fenwick, Ceri Halsall and Ian Harries from Falkirk Council’s Waste Management Team, Jennifer Terris, the then Falkirk Council Bio Diversity Officer, Catherine Wilson of Zero Waste Scotland and Jean Weir of CATCA

Six entries were received for the 2018-19 competition from Bantaskin, Carmuirs, Hallglen, St Francis Xavier, Victoria and Windsor Park. They were collated and sent to the judges on 25 March. Three schools were selected for a question and answer session to decide the final places and that session took place at Arnotdale in the Dollar Park, courtesy of the Cyrenians, on Tuesday 7th May.

The judges were most impressed with Carmuirs’ continued commitment and improvement and were unanimous in declaring Carmuirs the winners of the competition receiving the first prize of £100 plus £25 for submitting an entry. The runners up, both of whom had also made considerable progress and were close to the standard set by the winners were Victoria Primary School and Windsor Park School who each received cheques for £75 and £50 respectively. This was in addition to the £25 that each participating team received for making the effort to enter the competition.

2nd May

Today we presented the trophies to the winners of the Swimarathon that we held in March. Overall Winner was the team from Grangemoth Sports Complex who managed to swim 211 lengths in the 55 allotted minutes.

The winner of the Schools Trophy was Braes High Scxhool with 134 lengths

Both Gillian Niven from Strathcarron Hospice and Jo McCoriston from Falkirk and Clackmannan Young Carers were present to recieve their cheques from the proceeds of the event.

28th March

Today was our annual joint meeting with Grangemouth Club. We were warmly welcomed by President Brian and the members and treated to another talk by L Bruce Keith on the subject of Scotland's bridges.

We were informed today (21st March) that Kidney Kids Scotland have received a cheque for £1,484.08 from Klondyke Garden Centre as a result of the assistance that our Club gave to Santa during the weekends prior to Christmas. President Jim Cairns, Andrew Niven and Sandy McGill along with two other stalwarts from Kidney Kids were on hand to help Santa during the four weekends prior to the big day. This has become a seasonal regular now and is the most rewarding voluntary work that anyone could imagine.

Monday 18th March heralded the latest of our annual Primary Schools Quizzes. Seven teams took part at Comely Park School. They included Bantaskin, Carmuirs,Comely Park, Hallglen, St Andrews, St Francis and Victoria Primary Schools.

It proved to be the closest run competition yet with only 1 point separating the first three places. Carmuirs eventually prevailed with 27 points with Comely Park only half a point behind and St Francis on 26.

The winners received a cheque for £100 for School funds and a book token for each of the team. Second and third places received a cheque for £75 and £50 respectively.

The Principle and staff at Comely Park are to be roundly thanked for organising the event. This honour being bestowed upon them by virtue of their success last year.

8th of February saw us all at the Grange Manor Hotel for our 94th Charter Anniversary Dinner. 76 members, friends and family enjoyed a lovely meal and afterwards the delightful Gaelic singing of Lucy and Holly (Andrew Niven's nieces) before dancing to the music of "In Touch".

President Jim also handed over a cheque for £2,762.00 to the Cyrenians representative Lynda Ross-Hale. This took the cumulative raised through Rotary to a figure in excess of £4,000.00 towards the reinstatement of the Dollar Park Floral Clock. An envelope collection on the night raised another £425.00.

Members of 5 local Rotary Clubs also attended along with Cyrenians, Soroptimists, Inner Wheelers and Probus members.

Of Course there were many of our own members there too thoroughly enjoying the experience.

The theme for the evening was "The Floral Clock" and the tables were all very expertly decorated by June and Linda N. to reflect the theme. Gift bags for each guest included a different quotation relating to time.

President Jim, Narek and Andrew were all given a hearty welcome when they visited the Rotaract Club in Edinburgh where Anamaria Koeva hangs out as president. Annamaria is keen to promote interaction between the Clubs and beseeches us to visit more often and in bigger numbers.

Forty six members, family and friends joined together for a festive treat at Chianti again this year. John Struthers never fails in his role as “Mr Fellowship”.
Thursday 27th December was I think, the third year that this event has been staged since the Park Hotel made a practice of closing down between Christmas and New Year.
The food was as usual excellent and great value for money.
13th December

Harry Johnston has pulled off another coup in the annual Christmas Hamper Raffle.

At the Club meeting on Thursday 13th Harry thanked everyone in the Club for their efforts while acknowledging the generosity of Jim Marven and Andrew Dawkins for their part in the event which raised a net sum of £1,250.00

6th December 2018

At our Christmas lunch today we presented three Paul Harris Fellowships to three deserving members. Tom Curry, Robert Craig and Gordon Daly were all delighted with their presentations.

And as if this was not enough the last of our long service Certificates was presented to Inglis McAulay for 43 years service.

29th November
HATS OFF TO ALL OF THE MEMBERS WHO CONTRIBUTED! I CHALLENGED THE CLUB AND THEY DELIVERED. SPAGHETTI BY THE TON!

When I delivered the spaghetti and left 20 or 30 cans on the floor they were quite appreciative. After my fourth or fifth journey to the car they were incredulous!

9th October

The Rotary Club of Falkirk sponsored the award for ‘Most Promising Student in the Department of Access & Progression’ presented at Forth Valley College’s recent graduation ceremony. The event was held at Falkirk Town Hall on Tuesday 9th October. Ross Avery, who was graduating from HNC Working with Communities, was the recipient of the award. Ross is known as an exemplary student and his support of the College community as well as other students has been fantastic during his time at Forth Valley College. Ross is pictured here with head of department Jaqueline McArthur.

9th November

News from Falkirk Community Trust indicates that the collection at the Firework Display raised more than £3,400.00. WOO HOO!

8th November

Today in the absence of President Jim, who was at the Inner Wheel annual Dinner, President Elect Narek presided over the meeting. He presented long service awards to Gordon Daly and Sandy Murrison for service in excess of 30 years, Gillies Sinclair and Jim Watson for service over 35 years and Harry Johnston and Ian Rule for service over 40 years. Between them these six members have amassed a total of 224 years of service. Well done you I say!

5th November

Having been invited to do so by Falkirk Community Trust, 7 members and partners shook buckets at the annual Fireworks display in the Callendar Park. The Council funding for the event has been withdrawn but the Blue Light Services are keen to see the event continue. The proceeds of the collection will go towards the staging of next year's event. The Park was crowded for the display which lasted all of 20 minutes and finished around 8 o'clock.

Afterwards the volunteers met at the Sanam Tandoori restaurant for a well earned meal.

Rotary Clubs join forces to support local young carers.

Freshly made pizza, a game of king of the jungle, and the “Great Boat Bake Off” were just some of the highlights for 10 young carers from Falkirk & Clackmannanshire after spending a week on board with Ocean Youth Trust Scotland. The trip was supported by local Rotary Clubs who joined together to enable deserving young people from their communities to have the adventure of a lifetime.

In July, the group spent 5 days on sailing the 72ft yacht Alba Explorer and the Clubs that helped make this trip possible recently visited the boat to find out for themselves what the young people got up to.

Coming together to support the voyage were 5 Rotary Clubs from the region where the young carers live; Rotary Clubs of Alloa, Cumbernauld, Falkirk, Grangemouth, and Larbert. By joining forces, they allowed the young crew to take a break from their caring responsibilities and learn new skills, make new friends, and have lots of fun and laughter along the way.

A huge thank you to everyone who supported this voyage and made it possible.

Falkirk & Clackmannanshire Young Carers on board Alba Explorer in July

Representatives from Rotary Clubs of Alloa, Cumbernauld, Falkirk, Grangemouth, and Larbert visit to Ocean Youth Trust Scotland

The Last Day!!! We have now completed our walk and while it took a day longer than anticipated we were all thrilled in having achieved what we have. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Kareen Cairns and Andrew Niven for there unstinting support on the logistics front. We couldn't have done it without you guys.
Dalmuir


Day three of the walk by the intrepid trio of Linda Jim and Sandy along the Forth and Clyde Canal. 28 miles are under our belt and we only have another seven to go tomorrow when we will arrive at Bowling.

The weather was beautiful today and we had a very enjoyable walk



Day two complete! Auchinstarry to the depths of To rrance and Balmore.

The weather was slightly less kind to us today

But the Flora and the fauna made up for it. 21 miles complete out of 35!
Day 1 of our epic walk is complete Kelpies to Auchenstarry: -




With a combined age of 211 the intrepid trio have decided that they will complete the remainder of the walk in a further three days walking 7 miles on each day. The walk this morning actually turned out to be 14 miles.

At their 50th Anniversary Garden Party, in the Dollar Park Walled Garden on 31st August, Cyrenians presented IPP Margaret with a Certificate of Appreciation for "Genuine Partnership Working" in recognition of the work that the Rotary Club of Falkirk has done in promoting the reinstatement of the Floral Clock.

IPP Margaret accepted the Certificate on behalf of the Club at an informal Garden Party staged to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Cyrenians. The Party was attended by volunteers from The Friends of the Dollar Park, Rotary, The Criminal Justice System, and the many Volunteers who aid the day to day workings of the Cyrenians.

CHARITIES' DAY ANOTHER HUGE SUCCESS.
Lots of us pitched in on Saturday 18th August to make Charities day a huge success yet again. Apart from the cash that was raised we all had a great fun day of fundraising and fellowship.

The 41 Club among others was there too cycling from Falkirk to Ardeonaig and back.
Cash raised on the day totalled £1210 with a further £430 to be added from sponsorship obtained by George Honeyman.

RYLA Candidates Jan and and Eilidh worked hard while others just blethered!
When Inglis was presented with his Paul Harris Fellowship his "Jewel" was still to arrive. President Jim had the pleasant task of presenting Inglis with the errant decoration on Thursday 2nd August.
At our Meeting on the 26th July Immediate Past President Margaret was presented with her Past President's Jewel by President Jim. Well deserved I say.

In conjunction with the Rotary Clubs of Falkirk, Larbert, Grangemouth and Alloa along with a local company Drummond Laurie, we sent 10 young carers supplied with hoodies on a week’s sailing experience with the Ocean youth trust at a cost of £1900

8th July

I'm playing catchup now, I know, but it has just occurred to me that I have not added the Joint Venture lunch at Chianti on the 3rd of June. We had a lovely afternoon with members of Inner Wheel and Rotary enjoying delightful food and the company of each other. I'm not sure exactly how many there were but we filled at least half of the restaurant.

6th July
Well done everyone who helped to raise £456 by turning out at the collections at Zippos Circus performances. This is a well needed boost to our fundraising and having been collected simply for “Rotary” will be available for any project funded from our Trust Fund. This is how it should be.
Many thanks to Andrew Niven who provided the photographs for this and other Club projects
2nd June

Comely Park win Rotary Quiz

Comely Park Primary School’s quiz team won the Rotary Southern Scotland Primary Schools Quiz on Saturday 2 June.

Over 200 primary schools in Southern Scotland began the competition early in the year in rounds conducted by their local Rotary Clubs. Comely Park won the Falkirk Club’s competition in March. They then were successful in the Central Area final at Longridge in May. This qualified the team to compete in the final at Carluke Lifestyle Centre with 12 successful teams from all over Southern Scotland.

After a sticky start Comely Park prevailed in a very tight tie break over teams from Dalmeny, West Lothian and Polnackie, Kirkcudbrightshire.

14th May

For a long time now, I think it originated in the time of Duncan McCosh, we have had a tradition of telling the Club about our personal good news by presenting a "Nifty Fifty" donation. Originally it was intended to be a much more light hearted thing and the "fifty" referred to the fify pence that would be donated for the privelege of telling the Club your news. Somehow or another the fifty pence has multiplied but the name has stuck. The latest of these to be announced to the Club was Robert Spears's 30th anniversary of his first election to Falkirk Council.

10th May

President Margaret had the privelege of presenting four Paul Harris Fellowships to members today. All, Inglis MacAulay, Ronald Mochrie, Raymond Morton and Bill Laurie were delighted at the honour and utterly struck dumb at the presentation.

OUR LATEST NEW MEMBER

John Graham McGregor (Graham) has been attending the Club as a guest for some time now and at last was inducted into our membership today (3rd May). Graham was inducted in the usual formal manner and afterwards was asked to say a few words. In his response he admitted to having been President of Denny when the Club regretably folded and also to having subsequently joined Vale of Carron Club which has also regretably folded. Graham was sure that Falkirk would not fall prey to the same fate. His induction is pictured under (courtesy of Robert Spears) with Ian Johnston and Inglis Macaulay visibly awaiting the passage of the cortege.

ECO Awareness Competition

Check out the Youth Committee page.

FLORAL CLOCK FUNDRAISING LAUNCH

You are all aware I hope by this time that we have joined forces with the Cyrenians to reinstate the Floral Clock in the Dollar Park. Our Club is to take the lead role in fundraising and to this end we have had manufactured lapel stickers to give those people who contribute at our can collection days.
We have been allocated two days for a can collection in the Howgate Friday 30th March and Saturday 5th May. We have also been given access to a vacant shop next to Trespass in the Howgate to mount a semi permanent display.
We have ordered a pop up banner and car stickers which we would hope to sell.
It is hoped to convince local businesses to support and sponsor the venture for which they will earn the right to our digital signature on their web page.
These are the only firm measures so far that have been put in place. A Just giving page has been established and a text giving method as well these are: -

www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/cyrenians-edinburgh/floralclock
and
DFLO77£10 or whatever you wish to donate to 70070

2018 Primary Schools Quiz

The Club round of the 2018 Primary Schools Quiz was held in St Andrew's Primary School on Friday morning the 16th of March. 6 Schools took part, Bantaskin, Comely Park, Hallglen, St Andrews, St Francis and Victoria. After a keenly fought competition Comely Park emerged winners with St Andrews close behind and Bantaskin in third place.

The categories included Language and Literacy, Health and Wellbeing, Expressive Arts, Science and Technology, Scotland and its People, Mathematics and Numeracy, Social Studies RME and Pot Luck.

President Margaret presented the cheques and trophies to the well deserving recipients.

Bantaskin and St Andrews receive their cheque for third and second place.

The Comely Park Team recieve their Trophy

Our partnership with the Cyrenians in the replacement of the Floral Clock is gathering pace. It is intended that the Rotary Club of Falkirk will take the lead role in fundraising and to this end a number of things have been put in place: -

Ian Scott, noted local historian, has given us a history of Floral Clocks in Scotland and accompanied that with a plethora of photographs.
Eden Consultancy Group is currently designing stickers to facilitate the collection in the Howgate for which a date has been promised but is yet to be arranged.
The Services of Julie Currie , Falkirk Herald reporter have been promised for an article publicising the project.
Both The Howgate and Falkirk Bid are anxious to become involved in broadcasting the information across their marketing media.
It is hoped to offer sponsorship deals to businesses throughout the town in return for publicity of their involvement either at the site or by the use of our digital signature.
Les Pryde Council gardener who spent his apprenticeship planting up the old Clock will be centre stage in the promotion.
Klondyke Garden Centre have promised assistance in the provision of some bedding plants for the initial planting regime.
A quote for the clock itself has been obtained and once the funding is in place will be accepted.
Falkirk Council have already installed the power supply that will eventually drive the hands of the digitally operated electronic movement.

Ian Johnston returned today from his 3 week trip around New Zealand to present President Margaret with a banner from the Rotary Club of Queenstown.

Friday night the 16th of February saw the 75 members, family friends and guests enjoy an amazingly successful Annual Charter Celebration Dinner. The assembled company enjoyed a lovely meal at the Beancross followed by entertainment in the form of Andrew Niven's twin neices Lucy and Holly who sang Gaelic songs to the delight of everyione. In Touch, with John and Catherine, was the band that played through the rest of the evening of dancing. Tables were decorated with Scottish made goods and foodstuffs which at the end of the night was all donated to the Food Bank. Not satisfied with that Linda Noble and June had personalised gifts for everyone beautifully monogrammed in what was classic caligraphy. President Margaret is pictured here with Grangemouth Club President Stuart Comrie.

During the run up to Christmas Jim Cairns, Andrew Niven Sandy McGill and a friend of Sheena Dunsmore were actively helping Santa at his Grotto in the Klondyke Garden Centre. Klondyke have over the past three or four years committed the profits from that to Kidney Kids. This year the cheque amounted to a fabulous £1,768.75. Considering that there are four weekends involved at 10 hours per weekend, (that's 11.00 until 4.00pm each of Saturdays and Sundays) that works out at £44.20 per hour and I think that is effective fundraising.

It's now Public! The Rotary Club of Falkirk has joined forces with The Cyrenians to reinstate the Floral clock in the Dollar Park. A just giving page has been established at : -

www.mypark.scot/projects/dollar-park-floral-clock

It was really sad to discover the news that Bob Grant had died suddenly at home early in the new year.

Bob joined this Club in 1982 at the age of 52. He was one of three Doctors who were partners in the medical practice in Camelon all of whom were members of this Club, Gillies Sinclair and Craig Bryce being the other two.

Bob served the Club as president in 1990-1991 and as Secretary from 1999 – 2004. He very successfully acted as Editor for many years and the template of his “Rotary Calling” is still in use today.

Bob became the Club’s unofficial photographer of choice and many of the Clubs activities over the years have been recorded by him for posterity. In addition to this his computing skills were regularly called upon for the printing of leaflets and other pieces of Stationery for things like the District Quiz, Primary schools Quiz, the Golf day, Coffee Morning and many more.

Bob was an active member of this Club during all of the 35 years that he was a member being heavily involved in the initiative in the early years of “Polio Plus”, the forerunner of End Polio now. He was instrumental among others in organising an event for Polio Plus in the early 90s in the stables of Calendar House which raised in the region of £10,000. Later, he was heavily involved with Jim Penman in raising £35,000 for Strathcarron Hospice and acted as assistant Conference Convener to Jim for both Jim Watson’s and Ian Rule’s District Conferences.

Bob’s continuous effort in this Club earned him a Paul Harris Fellowship in 2004. Not content with the success that he had enjoyed in the Club over all these years he continued to serve the Club on the team that provided the PA system for the Club’s weekly meetings. He will be sadly missed. 28th December.

15 members, friends, families and guests had a marvellous meal at Chianti today in place of the regular Club meeting because the Park Hotel was closed. As usual John Struthers carries the Laurels for the organisation of the event which saw 35 revellers in total enjoy an excellent meal and some first class fellowship.

26th December

Paul will be sending reports every Monday so I have created a page for the team Noble Progress on the Front page.

19th December.

Paul has delivered the latest update on progress of Team Noble Atlantic row. It's not as easy as they thought! it seems. You can read the latest here.

14th December

Sheena Dunsmore from Kidney Kids Scotland showed up today bearing gifts for the three stalwarts that help Santa out at Klondyke every year. Here are the three with Sheena sporting their Kidney Kids tartan ties. This was really kind and much appreciated by the intrepid trio.

12th December

This is our logo on the Team Noble "Pendovey Swift" you can read the update here

11th December

Sandy McGill and Jim Cairns visited Tesco in Camelon today to collect 21 shoe boxes filled by the staff at the store.

Team Noble update here

11th December

Falkirk Club receives recognition for contributions towards End Polio Now. Narek sleeps through presentation of Certificate at District AGM.

8th December.

Our Christmas Raffle this year has raised £1,322.75. Well done Harry.

6th December.

We have been approached by the Cyrenians in connection with their work in restoring and redeveloping Dollar Park. Lynda Ross-Hale (Senior Manager, Falkirk Services) attended our Council meeting on Thursday evening to tell us about their plans to reinstate the Floral Clock. They are keen to involve us and give us our place as the founders and funders of the original clock.

The Cyrenians are hoping to have the clock in place for their 50th anniversary celebrations in 2018 and so are keen to launch the project as soon as possible. To this end, Lynda is aiming to put an article in the Falkirk Herald next week. She would like the press release to say that Falkirk Rotary and the Cyrenians are going to work in partnership to raise funds to reinstate the Floral Clock.

This does quite a lot for us - supporting local Social Care, building partnerships with like-minded organisations, contributing to our civic heritage and pride, participating in a community project (which Falkirk Rotary founded) and raising awareness of Rotary generally.

20th November.

As a result of the Park Hotel closing over the festive season you should all know by this time that the inimitable John Struthers has organised that on Thursday 28th December we will lunch at Chianti instead. You should have intimated your intention to be there to John already. The cost will be £15 per head and the time is 12.15 for 12.30. I have put a link to the menu here

16th November

Three Club members and President Margaret visited the Kelpies after our meeting today to meet with four members from Grangemouth including President Stuart Comrie and Andrew Wilson the Area Shelterbox representative. The occasion was a photo opportunity handing over a cheque in the sum of £1,471.75 plus another £85 from Soroptimists to Andrew making a sum total in excess of £1,500.

7th November

The Rotary GB&I Conference is to be held in Torquay in April 2018. It’s the first time that the Conference has been held there since 1924. You can read all about it here.

Also our own Gordon McInally is Convention Convener for the 2018 RI Convention to be held in Toronto 23 – 27 June 2018. You can read all about it here.

1st November

As intimated in the article on the 26^th October we posted a collection point outside film studio number 8 at Cineworld Falkirk on 1st November.

Sarah, the Manager, could not have been more helpful, allowing us access to the staff canteen and free coffee. Some of the collectors however found the instant coffee that was on offer was not up to the standard that they expected and chose instead to visit the coffee shop in the foyer.

There was not a huge crowd of folk in the cinema during any of the four screenings but those that were there were extremely generous. A total of £74.65 was collected which means that pretty well everyone that watched the movie contributed.

Huge thanks are due to Andrew Niven who organised the whole thing in less than a week 3 days of which he was at the Newcastle District Conference.

27-29 October

14 of us descended on Newcastle for the District 1020 annual Conference on Friday. After hospitality in President Elect Jim’s room we all had our evening meal at “Bistro Forty Six” in Brentwood Avenue, Jesmond.

The reception, service and food were all without peer and we had a ball.

The Conference began properly on Saturday morning and ended on Sunday lunchtime with a hilarious delivery from Geoff Mackey – Rotarian and motivational speaker. A more detailed account will be included in the next Rotary Calling.

26th October

We had a visit from 5 members of Shotts and District today and as is their wont they entered into the spirit of the Purple Pinkie initiative.

Breathe The Movie

Andrew Niven is hoping to convince the management of the Cinema in Falkirk to allow us to shake cans after some of the showings of this movie in aid of End Polio Now.

The movie is about ex-Army officer Robin Cavendish. He had been leaping about on a tennis court just hours earlier – but now the 28-year-old was paralysed for life.

Polio had struck at lightning speed and the young dad-to-be was told he just had three months to live.

Every moment of those months would be spent in hospital, hooked up to a breathing machine, unable to move from the neck down. So he begged his pregnant wife Diana, 25, to turn off the machine and let him go, so that she could be free to “start again”.

Diana refused and took on the medical profession and medical science to not only bring her beloved husband home, but to let him live a full and rich life for another 35 years.

Along the way, the couple and their inventor friends created the first wheelchair with a portable respirator and changed the world’s attitude towards the disabled.

Now their story is being told in an emotional movie opening this Friday in Falkirk and running for a whole week, starring The Crown actress Claire Foy as Diana and Amazing Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield as Robin.

Titled Breathe, it was produced by the couple’s son Jonathan, who made the Bridget Jones films, and directed by Gollum actor Andy Serkis.

In an exclusive interview Diana, now 83, told The Sun: “I never considered letting him die, not at all.”

24th October

You don’t have to buy a plane ticket to participate in this year’s World Polio Day festivities at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s facility in downtown Seattle, Washington, USA. You can watch the event live on 24 October at 14:30 Seattle time (UTC-7) for an update on our global campaign to eradicate polio. A recording of the livestream will be available later.

19th October

Gordon Daly reeturned today from his extended holiday on the West coast of the USA. He had been given a banner from the Clubs that he visited on the condition that he send them a photograph of him presenting it to President Margaret.

Our bench in the Dollar Park.

We had the bench lovingly restored and replaced in its original position in the park next to the Prodigal Son. It was however moved from there to soft ground under the trees and was quite likely to rot there until Jessica Paterson Estates Development Officer with Falkirk Council got on the case. Jessica was instrumental in having the bench moved into the walled garden where it now sits in pride of place as witness this photograph from Robert Spears.

23rd September

Grangemouth and Falkirk Clubs got together again at the Howgate this time with the ShelterBox tent. The total raised between the two venues was £987. It is hoped that this will be augmented by other ventures and initiatives to £1,180 to allow the purchase of two ShelterBoxes. Well done everyone.

19th September

Ungrateful Grangemouth having had our support in York Square on Saturday chose to utterly thrash us comprehensively in the first round of the District Quiz in the Park Hotel on Tuesday night. The Falkirk Team was woefully inadequate against a more than adequate Grangemouth Team who won the day with a whopping 26 to 11 success.

16th September

Members of the Rotary Clubs of Grangemouth and Falkirk joined forces today in York Place in Grangemouth to raise much needed cash for Shelterbox.

7th September

Falkirk BID have won a Gold Award at the Keep Scotland Beautiful Awards today for the Best Business Improvement District. The Eating beds in Falkirk High Street were praised for being Inovative. The awards brochure can be found here. The Falkirk BID award is on page 17. This project was spearheaded by Linda and June.

31st August

Our latest new full member. Donald McNicol, well known to us all, who recently enrolled as an associate member has now joined the Club as a full member. Donald was inducted by President Margaret at our meeting earlier today. Welcome Donald.

26th August

We have traditionally, well over the last two or three years anyway, sponsored Equi-power Riding for the Disabled. Anne Brown who has benefitted from the sponsorship has been great at coming to the Club and telling us just how much the sponsorship is appreciated and how much is achieved because of it. These are the most recent photographs she has let us have. Hopefully she'll come back and tell us more.

Traditionally our "Community Achievement" award has been sponsored by Phoenix Honda and we are indebted to them for their support over the years. having no longer any local contact Phoenix have decided that they will no longer be able to continue the sponsorship.

At our meeting on 17th August ian Johnston made a plea for Club members to fill the gap and was immediately confronted by at least two offers. As a result the sponsorship of this year's Award will be by Morton Pacitti.

19th August

The Shelterbox stand in the High Street on Charities day manned by June and Linda collected £145 while the Bottle stall organised by Stewart Ross and manned by a plethora of members sold out at 3.30pm and grossed a total of £1,019.50.

Thanks to ARD Consultancy and Falkirk Football Club, George Honeyman raised £180 by raffling a signed Bairns strip, a signed ball and two tickets to a game at Westfield. Well done everyone!

The ball was won by Mrs Sylvia Cochrane, the strip by Mr David Wheeler and the tickets by Mr Narek Bido.

17th August
Our speaker didn't show up today but we had a very successful meeting simply chatting amongst ourselves.

14th August
5 Club members visited Linlithgow Grange on Monday 14th August. Jim Cairns, Tom Curry, John Struthers, George Honeyman and Andrew Niven enjoyed a very warm welcome from President Harry Miller and the members. An excellent meal was enjoyed while many interesting conversations unfolded.
The speaker for the evening was Rosie Black from Historic Environment Scotland who gave a presentation on the project that HES were intending to carry out around Linlithgow Loch to improve water quality and the surrounding habitat hopefully with the assistance of Rotary members. Rosie also intimated that HES have recently carried out work around the area of the Kelpies. It is hoped that she might be persuaded to come to Falkirk at some point to address the Club in a similar vein.

10th August
As a result of one of our members pointing out that our bench in the Dollar Park had been unceremoniously dumped under some trees behind where it rightly ought to be Falkirk Council was approached. They have been extremely co-operative and have been in touch to say that the bench has been temporarily placed within the walled Garden for safekeeping until such times as they can arrange to have it bolted down in it's rightful place.

10th August
Both DEBRA and Kidney Kids have sent letters of thanks to the Club for the cheques they were given on the 13th July. The letters follow. In the letter from Kidney Kids Sheena promises to let us know exactly how her charges fared in the Transplant Games. She has since let us know that the Kidney Kids gained 19 Gold Medals, 14 Silver Medals and 16 Bronze. What an amazing haul. Well done everyone.

Representatives from Cycling without Age, Kidney Kids Scotland and DEBRA all visited the Club on the 13th July 2017 to accept cheques for their Charities.

Six members visited Shotts and District Rotary Club on Wednesday night 12th July. There was much said about the route that the two drivers took to get there but they all arrived in time for a pint before the meeting. Shotts lived up to their reputation of the most genial hosts when member Alex Napier stepped in to entertain the room because their speaker had called off. Alex presented a career Biography of Claus Wunderlich the celebrated German organist complete with bluetooth and internet technology to illustrate the breadth of the man's repertoire.

Incoming RI President Ian HS Riseley has chosen "Rotary Making a Difference" as his theme for 2017-2018.

Click here to see his Theme / citation brochure

The Club has received the following e-mail from WaterAid on 23rd June: -

Obse is full of joy because she has clean safe water near her home. This joy was made possible because of Clubs like yours. Thanks to the support of the Rotary Club of Falkirk, children like Obse will have the opportunity to grow, learn and achieve their true potential. Her Mother, Aberash, told us: -

"My children have had parasites and diarrhoea because they drank dirty water. Now we bathe our children with clean water and they drink clean water and they are healthier"

Aberash and her husband were both involved in the water project - carrying materials and helping to dig the trenches. They were both so desperate to give their children a better future. Now they can look at Obse's smile and know that she will grow up safe, happy and healthy thanks to their hard work.

Your Clubs donation of £600 will bring the same excitement and opportunity to the people of Liben Gamo, Babich Town and Toke Kombolcha.

Thank you so much for your committed support and generosity.

With best wishes

Imogen Hardman

After automatic counting and separation of coinage at Kidney Kids this afternoon 3rd July, The Grand sum of £492.82 (barring the discovery of any foreign coins) was raised at the Circus bucket collection. Almost half of the Club was present and by my reckoning including travel time grossed a total of some 29 hours. That equates to around £17.00 per hour! Not bad eh? Well done everyone who took part.