President Celia's Diary

August 2021 : Presidents Diary

Handover

Our members, family and friends enjoyed a perfect afternoon tea in Carolyn’s  beautiful garden on 1 August to celebrate our handover.  This is when our Past President Elizabeth handed over the chain of office to me as the President for 2021-22.

The sun shone and there was much excitement about seeing each other face to face for the first time since lockdown, it was a lovely, lovely afternoon.

We held a raffle for two very large bottles of whisky – congratulations to Stan and Trevor the lucky winners! and raised some much needed funds.

Long service awards were presented to Pat Shepherd (a total of 28 years), Mark Townsend (30 years), Peter Burrows (40 years), Alan Newberry (44 years) and Keith Barnard-Jones (45 years).

Afternoon Tea

It was lovely to see some of our members at my afternoon tea, the sun shone, the bubbles  flowed and we had a great time raising £140 for our Foundation funds.

Southwell Village Fair

On Saturday 7 August we supported Southwell Village Fair with our marshalling skills.  Unfortunately the weather was unkind on the day but we hope the Fair was a success nevertheless.

Scarecrow competition

We held  a scarecrow competition which attracted very inventive and creative entries.  SThe £30 prize money was won by Karen Gomm who entered a whole St Georges Scarecrow Choir!  Well done to everyone who entered – it was a very close contest.

Coastwatch

We had a very interesting talk from  Coastwatch – a team of volunteers who work alongside the Coastguard and RNLI to keep watch over our shores,  The Coastwatch look out  station has a defibrillator (for treatment of cardiac arrest) for use by the community.  Each time this is used a replacement battery is needed, therefore we made a donation towards a replacement battery for defibrillator in recognition of its value to the Coastwatch service and our community.

Community Award

Nominations are being sought for a community hero or heroin – we look forward to making a presentation to the winner later this year.

Haiti Appeal

With the kind permission of Tesco, Rotary members held a collection to raise funds for a Shelterbox to be sent to Haiti in response to their appeal for aid.  We raised £628 which is enough to buy a shelterbox – well done to the fundraisers and thanks to Tesco for making it possible.

Endurance Heros

Tim Ellis and Eddie Ette from Portland are no strangers to endurance challenges.  They  joined our meeting on 31 August, along with their wives, to give us an informative and humourous presentation on their exploits to date.

In 2006 they ran 35 miles over the pebbles of Chesil Beach in 11 hours.  They have both completed the Enduroman ‘Arch to Arc’ Triathlon between London and Paris.  They have also kayaked from Cherbourg to Portland, and set the kayaking record for the 100 mile circuit of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.

They picked up their paddles once again in May this year to kayak non-stop from Alderney, in the Channel Islands, to Weymouth, all to raise money for Weldmar Hospicecare.

We wish them well with future adventures.