66 Years of Service and Success

Another memorable Charter Lunch on October 25, 2024 at the Magic Mushroom Restaurant, our traditional venue over the past few years.

A Warm Welcome

President Stephen and Mary welcomed Members, Partners, Honoured Guests and our Speaker Gerry Peaty (Chairman of St. Luke’s Hospice).  In particular, Honorary Member the Lord Petre, District Governor Elect Gloria Nichols, Assistant Governor Mark Chambers, President Keith Dewis of the Rotary Club of Billericay Mayflower and President-Elect Kathy Herlock of the Rotary Club of Billericay Town.  He also welcomed our friends from the Rotary Club of Basildon - Peter, Lyn, Ben, Vineetha, Kevin and Christina.  It has been another proud year and another reason to celebrate in style. 

Grace was read by Rotarian Bert French, nonagenarian and our oldest member, in the same inimitable style as at our weekly meetings.

End Polio Now

Attendees then partook of a generous and very tasty three-course meal, during which a Bucket collection was made for End Polio Now.  Generous as always, club members and guests donated the substantial sum of £470.  Gift Aid will add a further £117 for a total £587, which, plus the double contribution from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation of £1174 means we raised a total of £1761!  
This will pay for approximately 16,800 doses of anti-polio vaccine.

Well done everybody.

Following an excellent lunch as always at the Magic Mushroom and the Loyal Toast, the “Objects of Rotary” were read by our Founder Member and another nonagenarian, Ben Clarke.  

After Lunch it was time for the annual Charter Draw of our 100 Club conducted professionally and expertly as usual by Master of Ceremonies Past President Roger Kettle (see separate report).

It was then time for President Stephen to address all those present.
“I wish to say a few words before we toast our guests. It is indeed an honour to stand before you today as we celebrate our 66th Charter Lunch. Being President is a special honour for me, as I have only been in the club for three years. Earlier this week Brian, our secretary, gave me a copy of the history of our club.  At the Charter presentation in 1959,  Founder Member Bert Raven predicted, and Ben Clarke will probably remember this, that  ‘The club will prove a valuable asset to the town’ and 66 years of service to the community have proved that prediction correct.  I give thanks to my fellow members for carrying forward the Rotary ethic of ‘Service before Self’ and achieving great things this year.  Issac Newton famously said he was ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ …. I feel much the same”. 

Community Service and Co-operation

“This year we are proud to support many causes including Polio Plus,  Kenyan students education, Mary’s Meals, Orbis blindness prevention,  Pen Pals bringing together children and the lonely elderly, Rotakids in two local schools, St Lukes Hospice, Barrow Farm Riding for the Disabled, Lennox Children’s cancer charity and the new local ‘Unite for Kindness’ badge campaign.  

I am excited that we are involved in the creating a new type of club for people with dementia and their carers called a PALZ Club (Professionals with Alzheimers) which will be only the second club of this type in the country.  We continue to support the Rotary Foundation, being one of the few clubs where every member donates $100 dollars every year. 

We deeply value our close ties with other service clubs in Billericay. Working together we have supported some wonderful community events like the Soapbox Derby, Summerfest, the Fireworks Display and the Christmas Market. This cooperation with friends in other clubs corresponds with this year’s Rotary Theme ‘Unite for Good’.

We also very much value our ties with Buttsbury and Quilters Schools through the RotaKids Clubs where the children are extremely enthusiastic and a credit to their schools. I am delighted that this year, Buttsbury School has become our first Corporate Member and we enjoy welcoming their teachers to our meetings.  
On the subject of cooperation and friendship, a party of eleven from the club joined Rotary Clubs from Beausoleil in France, Alba and the hosts Ovada In Italy for the Double Triangular event.  We renewed old friendships and made new ones and together we hope to support a project to bring sick children from Africa for vital surgery in Italy.”

My Thanks

Stephen closed by extending his heartfelt thanks to all the members who had supported him this year and whose guidance, encouragement and hard work have been invaluable, and in particular to Brian Wellman for organizing today’s Lunch and being unfailingly helpful and supportive to me.  “My deepest gratitude to my wonderful wife Mary for her support, patience and putting up with my busy schedule. Thank you”. 
Stephen then led club members in the traditional toast to our guests.

Very well Done

District Governor Elect Gloria Nichols’ replied on behalf of the guests, congratulating the Rotary Club of Billericay on its 66th Charter Anniversary.  She thanked us all for all our achievements over the years.  We haven’t just made a difference there – but our continued commitment to The Rotary Foundation and End Polio Now is changing lives across the World.  Gloria asked the guests to toast the members of the Rotary Club of Billericay.

End of Life Care

President Stephen then introduced our speaker for the day, Gerry Peaty, Chairman of St Luke’s Hospice.  

Gerry thanked the Club for inviting him to speak to us on the occasion of its 66th. anniversary celebration, remarking that this year, St Luke’s celebrated it’s 35th anniversary with various events and garden parties.
But the history of St Luke’s actually started 42 years ago, when a group of 7 people, Gerry included, decided to try and do something about improving end of life care in our district.
There are over 270 hospices in the UK and they are all subject to inspection by the Care Quality Commission. St Luke’s was only the third hospice in the UK to be rated as outstanding and that is a tremendous tribute to its 270 wonderful staff and over 500 volunteers, as it is to our community which continues to support it.
“It surprises many people to know that we provide 16 different services”, said Gerry, “and so I would like to tell you of some of our newer ones”.

• The One Response service is a dedicated telephone support line, manned 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.  If a patient at home has a change in circumstances, deteriorating condition or new symptoms then they or their carers can phone us and we will either attend or contact other services for them. The idea of the service is to prevent our patients going to A & E. and last year, “One Response” took over 40,000 calls.”
• In April 2024, we opened up our new inpatient unit at Lower Dunton Road.  This was for the sole purpose of taking people who are on a 12 week pathway.  This is a longer term type of care which needs slightly different nursing to the acute unit at Fobbing Farm.
• The Community Outpatients clinic. This has been a huge success, and we can meet all our patients needs, except for chemotherapy and radiotherapy”.

Gerry ended by saying “Fear of COVID and many other factors, have meant that most people would rather be cared for in their own homes, by loved ones with our support, and for that reason we have expanded our Care in the Community services, where our staff are travelling around the area looking after our patients in their own homes. The number of times that we visit depends very much on the health of the patient and their home environment, and this model of care is where we see the focus of our future service.”

Paul Harris Fellowship

President Stephen thanked Gerry for his most interesting and enlightening talk, but then surprised him by awarding him Rotary's most prestigious Award - a Paul Harris Fellowship Award (named after the founder of Rotary) for the over forty years of giving up his own time and working tirelessly at St. Luke’s Hospice, improving the lives of countless people and their families in our community. 

All present rose and applauded Gerry’s award.

The day ended with the final toast to Rotary and Peace the World Over.