The Rotary Club of South Foreland celebrates its 40th Anniversary

The Rotary Club of South Foreland Celebrates its 40^th Anniversary

On Wednesday 3^rd June the Rotary Club of South Foreland held an Anniversary Dinner to mark forty years since it was founded.  Master of Ceremonies, Past President John Dunkley, gave an introduction to 90 guests, including current and past members, as well as Rotarians from local clubs and members of the District Team.

He mentioned that it was on 22^nd May 1985 that the charter meeting of the club was held.  A group of Round Tablers, together with local business and professional gentlemen under the leadership of Dennis Jerden met that evening, having been supported by the Rotary Clubs of Dover, Deal and Sandwich, which at that time were lunchtime clubs.

John then took us on a little journey down memory lane by looking at some facts from 1985 when a loaf of bread cost 48p, a litre of petrol 42p and the average price of a house was £29,000.  That year the first commercial mobile phone call was made, and at the Port of Dover there were four roll-on, roll-off loading bays and a hoverport.  How things have changed!

After the introduction by John Dunkley, President Peter Sherred welcomed guests to this significant meeting, thanked them for attending and hoped that they would enjoy the occasion.  District Governor Penny Spiller then gave her greetings to the club, with congratulations for what it had achieved in the past 40 years and looked forward to its continued success.

President Elect Jim Gleeson introduced presidents from visiting clubs, who introduced their own members.  He then introduced gifted pianist Steven Priestly who played lively background music, as required.  Steven also demonstrated his singing talent by performing an operatic version of Happy Birthday for Mike Dallen on his 90^th birthday.

Jim had also prepared a rolling screen of photos featuring members and their activities over the past 40 years, which added interest and gave a flavour of what had happened over those years.

.Several members gave one minute memories from past visits and fundraising events.  Once the club was established it soon made its mark and Mike Taylor gave us an example from 1986 when all Rotary clubs were challenged to raise money for polio vaccination and eradication.  The Rotary Club of South Foreland decided to organise a bargain value weekend trip to Paris for £36.  They sold enough tickets to fill five coaches and held raffles on board and ran other activities.  A total of £5,000 was raised by this trip, which was a lot for those days.  It was the forerunner to annual weekend away trips, which continued until Covid broke the run.

From that time the club has continued to contribute to local, national and international projects and fundraising, as well as providing fellowship to members.. A more recent project covered in his one minute memory by John Glass was the Rotary Grand Tour organised by Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland to raise money for the End Polio Now Campaign in May 2018. Robin Dodridge took the lead and two old bangers were entered for the Grand Tour.   They followed a circuitous route from Dover to Exeter, Brynmaur in Wales, Cambridge, Preston and ending at Halifax. Through donations and business sponsorship of adverts on the cars, around £5000 was raised for Polio.

After a relaxed and enjoyable lunch, Jim Gleeson introduced our speaker, Bob ‘The Cat’ Bevan MBE, his sobriquet a result of him being a goalkeeper in his younger days.  He has appeared with many top comedians in the past, Ronnie Corbet, Eric Morecombe and Barry Humpries to name a few.  He has appeared at 77 of the 92 Premier and Football League Clubs and every County Cricket Club. He spoke for around 45 minutes (not a note in sight) and entertained guests with an interesting, amusing and sometimes extremely funny ramble around aspects of his life, including his time at Dover when he was PR Manager for Townsend Ferries.  He ended on a more serious note, with congratulations for the club’s achievements and an understanding of how difficult it is to attract younger members in this day and age.  The main thing is to keep on going and enjoy the Rotary fellowship which has been exemplified by today’s celebration.

After thanks to Bob, the raffle was drawn and prizes collected.  The sum of £550 was raised for The Rotary Foundation. The Marina Hotel kindly provided a voucher for dinner, bed and breakfast as one of the prizes.

President Peter Sherred then gave the final toast of ‘Rotary, and Peace the world over.’

Guests left for home having taken part in an enjoyable and successful celebration which reflected the Rotary values of giving service to others and long-lasting fellowship to members.  The organising committee are to be thanked for their hard work, which is much appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The club soon made its mark with its contribution to the local community as well as to National and international Rotary.  Mike Taylor gave an example of one of the club’s early projects: in 1986 all clubs were challenged to raise money for polio vaccination and eradication.  The Rotary Club of South Foreland decided to organise a bargain value weekend trip to Paris for £36.  They sold enough tickets to fill five coaches and held raffles on board and other activities over the weekend.  A total of £5,000 was raised, which was a lot in those days.  That trip was the forerunner to annual weekend away trips which continued Covid broke the run.