DG Blog Weeks 9 & 10

 

Another enjoyable couple of weeks spent busily juggling work and Rotary. I feel my time management skills will be perfect after the next 10 months.

It is clear to me after this year’s successful Rotakid’s event how important we have become in our collaboration with teachers and young people. The young people get so much from the programme and I firmly believe any engagement with young people by Rotarians is worth all the hard work and is definitely money and time well spent.

When all said and done this type of engagement leaves a lasting memory with the young people. They are the volunteers of the future and any positive engagement surely has to be a good thing.

I have managed to secure the funding, through a contact, for a conference next year and I’m confident that we can now look even further than that. Safe to say that’s a work already in progress. We have a fantastic Youth Team and ones who look specifically at the Rotakid’s conference. They give so much and I would like to pass on my sincere thanks to the Team, you will all know who you are.

As you know my chosen Charity this year is Polio and it is unfortunate that the number of cases of this awful illness have increased slightly. I know that much work has been put in by Rotarians and the NHS to inoculate children in the London Borough’s. It makes me realise, after the Covid pandemic, and the up-coming booster and flu jabs, just how hard this work is and how grateful and lucky we are in this Country.

Don’t forget if you want to order tins of Purple4Polio I will be hoping to make an order at the end of this month.


One thing I want to remind you of it’s the Ride for Prostate which Upper Eden have organised. If you are not able to assist with the ride itself, maybe you could donate to the club, it would be really welcome. I have attached a flyer for more information.


On Saturday 3 September I was happy to accept an invite from Darwen Rotary Club to assist at a community event in the town centre. I wasn’t just too sure what to expect but it was a brilliant visit. I turned a corner in the middle of Darwen to park my car and I could hear the sounds of a beautiful brass band. I do like the sound of a good brass band.


The town square was full of lovely charity stalls and fairground rides for children and there was a lovely community atmosphere, it was great. After assisting on a children’s craft stall for a couple of hours I had the opportunity to walk round and speak to the stall holders and members of the Community. 

Everyone I spoke to was so complimentary and grateful to the Rotary Club of Darwen. It was clear the Club do so much for the Town.

I had time to visit a youth zone in the centre and was wowed with the space and equipment that had been put together for the benefit of young people. This was clearly having a fantastic impact in the town. It was obvious to see that the local businesses, market stallholders and the local Council have strong links with Rotary. These links aren’t forged overnight, it takes years for this kind of partnership working to come together. But when it does and with mutual support from all involved the benefits for the local Community can be huge.




I thoroughly enjoyed the day and would like to thank Club President Gil and all Darwen Rotarians who made me feel so welcome.





On Sunday 4 September I was also delighted to accept an invite to a Steam Rally organised by the Rotary Club of Kirkham, I had a fantastic time.

This event was so well organised and from the moment I drove through the gates it was clear that a lot of planning had gone into the event. I was immediately impressed at the sight of members of the local Police Volunteer Cadets and Scouts organising the car parking and what a fantastic job they did.

We managed to get around the whole event, took lots of pictures and treated ourselves to a well-deserved Ice Cream. Although the weather forecast hadn’t looked too promising, the sun was shining and no coats required. The huge crowds were all clearly enjoying themselves and a good time was had by all Huge thanks from me to Kirkham Rotary Club for all the hard work and effort that had gone into organising such an incredible 2 day event. As soon as the dates for next years show are announced I’ll be making a note in my diary. My thanks again goes to the President and the Rotarians of Kirkham and Rural Fylde, a professional events team!

If any club would like an extra pair of hands I am here for you, just let me know a date and I can check my diary. The same goes for DG visits, I’m more than happy to travel to any club so again please give me a shout.

That’s all for now folks - TTFN

Popular posts from this blog

Week 6

Image
  Dear Friends, the beginning of August already! Time appears to be moving along at an ever increasing fast pace. For those who have had the opportunity to listen to Rotary Radio UK you will have heard the start of many messages from me as well as many others from around the District. We are very lucky that Rotary Radio is being dedicated to District 1190 this month. Grab yourself a coffee and tune in as it’s really easy listening. This week I have been having meetings with both Public Image and Membership Leads, it’s been great to talk about the work being carried out around these two very important aspects. Much of the discussion has been about how we can involve Club leads to help us look at new ideas and putting those ideas into practice. The focus being aimed not as tasks for individuals but Clubs working as a Team. We are now putting together a list for the next order of “Purple for Polio” Quality Street tins which I will place during September. Please let our District ...
Read more

Week 7 & 8

Image
  Well, what a very busy, but enjoyable, couple of weeks that has been. Am 2 months in to my DG-ship and where has the time gone? It’s hard to believe we’re hurtling towards the end of August and already some shops are talking about Christmas. Even work have been sending out invitations to Christmas parties and my local Club are asking about Santa’s Sleigh duties!! We had the District Executive meeting on the 8th of August and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. To get myself prepared I read what seemed like a book of papers beforehand. I then decided I’d be better off printing them out, not something I like to do to be honest, but wanted to be prepared as best I could. I remember once going to the Home Office to deliver a presentation to a Parliamentary cross-party Committee on the subject of vulnerable families. Unbeknown to me I was to deliver my presentation from half way up an open stairwell to the seated Committee below. As I climbed the stairwell I was that nervous I...
Read more

Week 13

Image
    Happy week 13! And there’s certainly a change in the air, Autumn is definitely here. Gone away are the cotton dresses and out have come the knitted jumpers.   Who knows what will happen with our weather this winter and how some families will get through it without incurring debt through sky high heating bills. Maybe we could open our doors to some of these people, especially those in need through loneliness or misfortune. I know this is what I intend to do more of.   This week saw my first District Council Meeting take place and although I had some I.T issues, which I’m glad are now solved, it was brilliant to see so many Clubs attend and so many people take part. Please remember this is your District and we want you to get involved so that we lead in the right direction taking into account the combined thoughts of us all.     Although our meeting was on zoom it was good to see so many faces, many whom I have not had the opportunity to meet ...
Read more