2025 / 2026 Club News

2025-26 Pinner Rotary Club Activities

June

2nd: Speaker Meeting: Our local MP was due to talk but had to cancel so we had an impromptu fellowship meeting with our Corporate Members contributing and a slideshow about the Link Visit. We also inducted Vivek Gupta.

13th - 17th: Rotary International Convention in Taipei. John & Melinda joined a delegation from London District.

16th: Club Assembly. PE Urvashi and her team outlined their plans for the year ahead. We also inducted Michael Kemper.

23rd: Social evening at local restaurant Social Dough.

30th: President's Dinner and Handover. We had a full house at PHGC with 47 attendees including our outgoing and incoming AGs and incoming presidents of Harrow and Radlett. It was a lively evening with long service awards presented to Mike, Eddie, Tony and Tom and an Avenues of Service award for outgoing President Cathy. The Club also awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship to Glyn Watkins and made Malcolm Mitchell an MPHF, both for their service to the club and in particular for organising the community events. President Urvashi introduced her team and gave an uplifting speech echoing the RI Presidential theme: Create Lasting Impact.

May

10th: North West London Rotary Sponsored Walk. Six clubs combined together to organise a walk in Cannon's Park. Over £10,000 was raised and divided equally between five charities.

15th - 17th: Link Visit to Cambridge

28th: Corporate Members' Dinner at Yako Restaurant. 

April

19th: St George's Day Celebration

21st: Speaker Meeting: Robert Shaw, a friend of President Cathy, gave a talk entitled "Spies, Saboteurs and Smartphones" based on his experience working in intelligence for the British Army. We also inducted Ameeta Jethwa.

March

3rd: Speaker Meeting: The Mayor of Harrow Cllr Anjana Patel gave a very personal and entertaining talk about her role as mayor.

24th: Speaker Meeting: Our Foundation Chair, Melinda, gave a talk about Rotary Foundation grants and scholars supported by Adrian. We also welcomed Globat Scholar Meredith Nye who gave a very informative talk about her experience.

28th: Quiz Night. Another sell-out fundraiser at Pinner Parish Church Hall raised over £2,000. Our regular quizmasters Alan & Hilary Coulson produced another entertaining quiz and our kitchen team made sure everyone was well fed.

31st: Social evening at local restaurant Pinner Table.

Febuary

17th: Speaker Meeting: Linda Davies gave a talk about Mary Shelley in Harrow

January

14th: Our Darts Team - Anne, Steve and Malcolm - triumphed over RC Southgate in a close fought match.

22nd: D1130 Presidents and New Members Reception. Our club was well represented!

27th: Our annual Burns Night celebration of Robbie Burns and all things Scottish, with a fundraising raffle in support of End Polio. We also inducted Jan Heath as our 40th club member.

December

2nd: Speaker Meeting at Northwood Piazza restaurant. Mike Mckenzie gave a talk entitled "Do you want to Be-long? - A story of Foster Care". We also welcomed David Elliott as a Corporate member representing Pinner Local, transferring from RC Langley & Iver.

6th: Collection at Morrisons Supermarket.

10th - 19th: Santa's Sleigh.

16th: Christmas Party at Pinner Hill Golf Club. Fr. Antonio Pineda gave an uplifting talk. We also inducted Stephanie Turner as a Corporate member representing Home Instead Watford.

November

3rd: North West London Social Evening, hosted by Pinner Rotary in St Luke's Church Hall. 55 Rotarians from Clubs in the NW area of London and further afield shared projects and future plans.

18th: Speaker Meeting: Rtn Jeremy Stern gave his personal talk "A Life in Brands". We were given the inside story on Willy Wonka wins, Cola wars and TV voting. We also inducted Sharon Pink as a Corporate member representing Pinner Business Hub.

October

7th: Our Charter Evening with speaker Rtn David Palmer giving a talk on "Rotary during World War 2".

11th: Visit to CVSS at Rickmansworth Aquadrome, one of President Cathy's two charities for her year in office.

21st: Speaker Meeting: Rtn Glyn Watkins "Bridge Street Gardens - Pinner's Village Green?". Glyn told us about the project to bring the neglected gardens back to life and make them the centre of Pinner. We also inducted Corporate member Nathan Mainwaring representing Pinner Wood School.

25th - 26th: D1130 and D1120 joint District Conference in Eastbourne. Pinner Rotary were invited to give a presentation about our Community Events.

September

2nd: Speaker Meeting: Pierre du Bois gave a talk about the work of the Paul Strickland Scanner Centre, one of President Cathy's two charities for her year. 

6th: Pinner Rotary Village Show

19th - 21st: Link Visit to The Hague

23rd: Social evening - City of London Guide Viv Kermath took us on a guided walk around Clerkenwell.

30th: Corporate member Lara hosted a Ceylon Tea Tasting event at Yako Restaurant. We combined the event with a fundraiser for ShelterBox, celebrating 25 years with 'Tea in a Tent'.

August

5th: Speaker Meeting: Rtn Melinda Whitehead shared pictures and feedback from the RI Convention in Calgary. We inducted new Corporate Member Jeremy Stern representing his organisation PromoVeritas.

9th: Summer Garden Party

19th: Speaker Meeting: DG Adrian Faiers came on a club visit to his own club.We inducted new member Anil Rajani.

July

1st: President's Dinner and Handover

3rd:  A group of Rotarians attended the official opening of the Pinner Wood School Music Garden, funded by a significant donation from Pinner Rotary last year. We also had a stall at their Summer Fair on 5 July promoting Rotary.

5th: A collection for Rotary supported charities was held at Morrisons supermarket in Hatch End.

6th: District Handover: Pinner Rotary were well represented at the D1130 Handover lunch with President Cathy giving the Welcome and receiving the DG Banner on behalf of the club as Pinner is now the home club of the District Governor.

22nd: Speaker Meeting: Rtn Joe Gaunt gave a very interesting personal talk about himself and his professional career.

25th: We held a new members and prospective members social hosted by Corporate member Yako Restaurant.

29th: Social: Wine Tasting in Cathy's garden, Tony Moore acted as sommelier