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Club News and Projects

Click on the link in this list to view the News Item, which are in date order, most recent first. (Note: older items have been moved to the "History" page - click here)

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Melton Tigers Celebrate

Our Community and Vocational Committee and Ladies in Rotary teamed up to organise a surprise 70th Birthday Tea Party for John Hack at the King Edward V11 School on Friday 5th March 2010.

The party was a result of a request by John's daughter-in-law, to help in recognising the work John puts into organising the Tigers Club, a group of disabled adults that meet weekly in the school to play a range of games including carpet bowls, soft darts, pool, table games etc. The group who were very appreciative of the evening tucked into food and drink provided and served by members of our Community and Vocational committee and Ladies in Rotary.
 
Photo's show: -
o    John Hack mid-puff blowing out birthday cake candles.
o    Tigers Club in full flow tucking into food and drink
o    Servers for the event plus John's daughter-in-law Linda
Melton Tigers Melton Tigers Melton Tigers Melton Tigers

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Long Field School Year 7s Raise Money for a Shelter Box

Long Field School's year 7 pupils were concerned by the stories coming from Haiti following the recent terrible earthquake, so decided to raise money to help.  They did fantastically well with a wide range of fund raising efforts among their friends and families, including selling cakes, lollipops, filling in the white of a Union Jack with coins and many, many other novel ideas.  Rotary International has sent well over 10,000 Shelter Boxes to Haiti to help the displaced families to re-establish some sort of a normal life.  The Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray were delighted on 26th February 2010 to be presented with a cheque from the pupils for £423.31 which, with some other small donations we have received from other kind donors, will pay the £490 needed to send another Shelter Box to people affected by natural disasters.

A Shelter Box contains all the living needs for a family of 10 people - including tent, cooking equipment and eating utensils, water purification equipment, carpentry tools, waterproof clothing, blankets, and even colouring books and crayons for the children.


Tent Shelter Boc Shelter Boc Cheque

Well done Long Field year 7s!

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Indian Evening in aid of the End Polio Now campaign

As part of the "Thanks for Life - End Polio Now" campaign across the UK, three of the Rotary Clubs in Melton and Rutland combined in a "Bollywood Evening" at the
The Dining Room Indian restaurant in Oakham.  55 members and friends of the three clubs enjoyed a wonderful meal and great fellowship, also raising over £500 towards the eradication of polio.  Many thanks to Amin, the proprietor of the restaurant and his staff, for looking after us all so well.

 
TFL Indian Evening
Indian Evening Indian Evening Indian Evening

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Thanks for Life, End Polio Now

To promote Rotary's campaign to "End Polio Now" the two rotary clubs in Melton Mowbray rented a stall at the Melton market on 23rd February.  This gave us the opportunity to tell people about the campaign and how close we are to achieving the goal of eradicating polio world-wide for ever.  We also took the chance to publicise the work we do with Shelter Boxes, Aquaboxes, and other Rotary programmes such as ICE.

Thanks for Life
TFL1 TFL2


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Anthony Smith - Our club's Group Study Exchange delegate to the Philippines

Anthony Smith one of the delegates for the 2010 District 1070 GSE team to the Philippines made an excellent presentation to the Club on 8th February 2010 covering his qualifications, vocational training and experiences.  The enthusiasm and presence of Anthony throughout the presentation fully justified the Club's nomination and sponsorship for a place in the GSE team.
Ant Smith
Anthony will be joined by three other delegates, all female, plus team leader Mike Brearley on their trip leaving at the end of the week for some 4 weeks in Philippines.  This is a return visit as the Philippine team visited our District 1070 in Sept/Oct of 2009.

President David on behalf of the club presented Anthony with 12 Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray banners and a cheque to value of £100 to assist in his expenses possibly for gifts to be given to host families etc.  All members of the Club wished Anthony every success in this unique opportunity and adventure, and hoped that he and the rest of the team would visit R. C. of Melton Mowbray on their return to present their experiences.

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Induction of new member, Julia Hinde, 8th February 2010

The Rotary Club of Harpenden acted as the formal proposer for Rtn. Julia Hinde to be transferred as a member of their Club to that of the Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray.  However President David requested that the honour of proposal and of induction be his, with due justification in that Julia's father, Rex Barber, a long serving member of our Club, introduced President David into our Club for the first time in the early 1980's.  Julia's mother Joyce also participates in the activities of Rotary, through Ladies in Rotary, and other social events of our Club.
Julia Hinde
Rtn. Julia has recently moved back into the area, now living in Burton Lazars.  Julia will initially join the ComVoc committee, but has in the recent past been involved with many Youth projects in her Harpenden Club.

All Club members extend their best wishes to Julia in her relocation and membership of our 'family'.

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Youth Speaks

Melton’s two Rotary Clubs sponsored three teams in this year’s Rotary Youth Speaks competition.

The local heat was held in November 2009 with the winners and runners-up in the intermediate and senior sections taking part in the district semi-finals in January and February 2010 at the Walton Girls’ School in Grantham.

Melton Young Farmers were the representative team in the intermediate section, ably coached by Emma Lovegrove, a past winner of the competition. They were by far the youngest team in the semi-final and although they didn’t progress any further in the competition, they will have learnt a great deal from the experience, especially if they choose to compete again next year.

King Edward VII / Interact team, and the John Ferneley College team participated in the senior competition and were supported and trained by Kathryn Bloodworth and Jon Beaver respectively.
KEVII John Ferneley Young Farmers
Young Farmers John Ferneley College King Edward VII / Interact 

The standard of public speaking in this year’s senior semi-final was very high, and although neither team made it through to the district final they acquitted themselves very well, speaking on the Nineties v The Noughties and Freedom and Responsibilities.

All the teams deserve much respect and also to be congratulated for speaking so confidently and with such aplomb to a critical audience of adults.

Linda Moore, Eric Sylt


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Burns' Night Celebrations

Another excellent night of fun and fellowship was enjoyed by 65 members, friends and guests at a Burns' Night dinner held on the 23rd January 2010 at Sysonby Knoll hotel, who again royally hosted the event with traditional Burns' fare, ambiance and genial hospitality.  Thanks to Ben and Claire Abbott, along with Club Service team for the planning and organising of the occasion. 

Members and friends of our Club were joined by guests of Sysonby Knoll, plus a group from Melton Round Tablers, to a most enjoyable evening celebrating the Life and works of 'The Scottish Bard Robbie Burns', as well as raising approx £250 for Rotary charities.

The event packed evening included: -

Burns Night Burns Night

A most enjoyable event, achieving all objectives set for the evening, Fun, Celebration of Burns, Raising cash for charities, allowing Scots in Club at least once a year a bit of freedom to show off their heritage.

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Christmas Food Parcels for the Older Needy People of Melton

Four local organisations participated both financially and physically in the annual food parcel project for the elderly needy of Melton, with over 500 parcels of food items being delivered on Monday 14th December 2009 as a result.

The four organisations contributing some £550 each plus many manhours of labour and organisation in the project are : -
The financial contributions were complemented by food collections at both Tesco's and Morrison's during the Friday and Saturday.  We thank the shoppers of Melton for buying that one extra item to put in our collection trollies - they make so much difference at this time of year.  The purchased and donated produce was sorted, stacked and packed ready for delivery over the same weekend.

This very rewarding project and worthwhile project has been undertaken for about 28 years, with Mike Pell (Lions), being the organiser for the last 20 years.

All the Service organisations involved are extremely grateful to the two supermarkets Tesco's and Morrison's who allow the collection of food products in their stores for this event.

Xmas Parcels Xmas Parcels Xmas Parcels
Xmas Parcels Stacking of soups, biscuits, tea, salmon,
     fruit, biscuits, mince pies etc

Mince Pie Mountain
    - guess how many (answer below)

Awaiting loading

The delivery crews
Xmas Parcels


The photograph shows approx. 3200 pies

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Flower Bulbs for Blind People

In the lead up to Christmas the President of the club, David Ward, and other members (Pam Wiggins, Bill Glancy) presented approximately 35 pots of hyacinths to the Vista group for the Blind, and their helpers, on 10th December 2009 at Gloucester House.

The bulbs, pots, compost and moss were obtained by Pam Wiggins from a variety of sources, including generous sponsorship from Gates' Garden Centre, Market Overton.  Pam spent a happy evening earlier in the week potting up the plants.  While the presentation was going on the ladies at Vista found Pam a job to do so as to re-soften her hands after her unaccustomed manual toil.

Bulbs Bulbs


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Christmas Tree Display in St. Mary's Church

The Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray displayed a Christmas Tree with “Rotary Activities” as the theme at the 2009 annual St Mary’s Church Christmas Tree Festival which was held between 4th and 8th December 2009.
 
Pam Wiggins, Kate Theobald, Adrienne Holland, Wendy Davies, John and Jane Horn all contributed towards getting everything organised including supplying the tree, tables, lights etc. and the artistic talents of all the helpers who made the decorations, obviously learnt from watching Blue Peter in their youth.
 
Many people from far and wide visited the festival and we hope that we have managed to let people know what Rotary is all about.

Thanks to Kate Theobald for co-ordinating this.

Tree

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Izaak Walton Visit 2009

Another enjoyable weekend on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border in Dove Dale was had by several members of the club in early December 2009, including a super walk on the Saturday morning followed by a compulsory visit to the local pub.

IW09 IW09

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Philippines Aid Container

The Melton Rotary Club was pleased to dispatch another container of goods to our friends in the central Philippines today, the 2nd December.  In exactly one month's time the Rotarians in Cebu should be receiving a large quantity of clothing and assorted medical, educational and other equipment for them to distribute to hospitals, health centres, schools and many other projects that they support in their district.  

A major reorganisation of schooling in Melton means that the secondary schools are disposing of computers, books (school text books including sets of encyclopaedias and some hymn books), classroom furniture, science equipment (including microscopes) sports equipment (gymnasium equipment including a pair of basketball nets and backboards) and other items which are not apppropriate to the new buildings and IT specifications.  More sets of encyclopaedias were donated by the Leicester Mercury.  A Melton primary school which was re-equipping let us have class-rooms' worth of infant-sized chairs. The donations will all support education at the schools we visited in February where computers were non-existent or at best very scarce, science equipment was scant, and books were fewer that most of us have on the bookshelves in our living rooms.

Through our contacts across the East Midlands many Rotarians and Rotary Clubs have donated  other goods: more PCs, books, clothing (especially children's clothes), folding chairs, children's soft toys and much more. We were fortunate to be given another ultrasound scanner by a Rotarian in Bedford; she is a vet, and they had an old but serviceable human-spec scanner no longer in use in their surgery.  Another Rotarian has a great variety of sources of aid materials, and was able to let us have, literally, pallet loads of children's toothpaste kits complete with a tube of toothpaste and brush; pencils and pens which can go to the schools; children's clothes; antiseptic wipes which will be of enormous help in the health centres.  We have also sent a few more bicycles, many unclaimed from the police pound where they store stolen and recovered bikes.
TheLoadingParty TheLoadingParty WhiteBoards
The Loading Party Bob Parfitt's contribution White Board and Basketball
David Ward John H David W
Books Yes John - more books Keep going with the books
Sasha Tony & David BaconSarnies
We decided to leave Sasha to it ... ... while Tony and David chatted ... ... and we ate the bacon butties
Nearly Full Closing Up Ready to go
Nearly full Closing Up Ready to go
We are enormously grateful to all the donors of what is going out to the Philippines.  Having visited the Philippines as a club earlier in the year we know how overwhelmed they will be by all you have given us.  So many thanks to you all, too many to mention here.  We also are very grateful to Tony and Sasha Lord, club members and also the owners of PP Removals, without whom the storage of it all and the logistics of the whole operation would not have been possible.

We are hoping to repeat this exercise in 2010, so please let us know if you have any items at all similar that we could include in our next aid container.

Addendum 3rd December: having just listed out all the equipment we've sent, to ward the Filipinos what's coming, I am including it here for the interst of all those who helped us:
1.    An ultrasound machine - a Hitachi (not the same model as the ones we sent last time, but suitable for pre-natal use) complete with two probes (a linear 7.5MHz and a curved array 305MHz).
2.    A single, very heavy box containing a range of medical (surgical, maybe laproscopic) instruments.
3.    Disposable "wet wipes" - again, another pallet load.  They should be useful in health centre and hospitals
4.    Boxes of tooth care kits - packs with a child's toothbrush and tube of toothpaste - several thousand I imagine - a full pallet load anyway. We remember well Jun taking us to a school where the kids were being shown how to brush their teeth.
5.    Computers (CPUs, monitors, etc) - probably (at a wild guess) about 60 CPUs and 60 monitors.  Many of the CPUs are from the schools, where they've been used in the school network.  They are not all that old - Windows XP era, and should work fine.  There'll be many others of varying ages and states of repair.   There is at least one laptop (minus hard drive unfortunately); maybe more.  We hope to send more laptops next time.  I've no idea what software they have installed.  There are bundles of mice, keyboards, network cables, and other bits,  Have fun sorting that lot out!  I'd like to think that several of the computers can go to the schools in Leyte that we visited in February (c/o Rico Rentuza and Jane Araneta) and in Boljoon and Granada (c/o Antoinette Gould).  
6.    Some printers and other computer peripherals
7.    At least one TV (though it will be a UK standard, so not sure if it will function in the Philippines - apologies if not).
8.    A fully working photocopier.
9.    Small amount of gymnasium equipment including a pair of basketball nets and backboards.  The basketball stuff all comes from a school gym - a complete, very professional looking set up.  It's in several pieces, so anything in the container that is a light blue piece of metal is probably part of it.  There are four sheets of board that all are part of it.  And, of course, two hoops and baskets painted dark yellow.
10.    Several boxes (maybe 40) of assorted books including secondary school text books, sets of encyclopaedias, some hymn books.  I'd like to think that a good lot of these can go to the schools in Leyte and Boljoon, as above.
11.    Boxes of pens (1000 per box) - a complete pallet load
12.    Some school science equipment (a few boxes of microscopes, a couple of boxes of chemistry lab equipment, and a few boxes containing some sort of electrical meters - not sure what they are for) - can some of this go to Leyte?  Rico knows which secondary school it was that we visited that particularly asked for science equipment.
13.    Several bundles of assorted clothing - much of it used to pack out the spaces in the container.  Much of it is children's clothing I believe.
14.    Several Disney character soft toys - for the REACH school, perhaps?
15.    Elementary school furniture (mainly desks and chairs for younger children) - about two classrooms' worth, I think
16.    Folding chairs (adult size), promotional items from a pet food company near us
17.    A few bicycles that we couldn't ship last time
18.    Some boxes, marked with a large red "A", which are Allan's and the rest of the GSE team's personal goods

Thank you to all who made such a wide range and large amount of stuff available. 

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Youth Speaks in Melton

On Saturday 21st November the young people of Melton excelled themselves in the Youth Speaks competition organised by the two Rotary Clubs in the town.  President David Ward writes:
    • Another excellent display of youth talent, all participants contributed to a most enjoyable display of confidence, presentation skills, with a varied and interesting range of topics, unfortunately there has to be winners : -
    • Seniors - winners John Fernley C. speaking on 'Freedom and the Right to Vote', team of Antony Walker(chair), Kimberley Anderson (speaker), and Amiee Barratt (vote of thanks)
    • Seniors - runners-up KEV11 Interact team speaking on 'Generation 'Y' is born', team of Jessica Wing (chair), Natalie Grindey (speaker), Ralph Hardisty (vote of thanks).
    • Seniors - third place KEV11 team, speaking on 'Teenagers, Villains or Victims', team of Jessica Spencer(chair), Gemma Callaghan (speaker), and Lucy Starbuck (vote of thanks).
    • Intermediates - winners Melton Young Farmers speaking on ' Archies Menagerie', team of Sarah Lovegrove (chair), Archie Herrick (speaker), and Charlotte Hammond (vote of thanks).
    • The top photograph shows all contestants, plus adjudicators who were John Horn, Shirley Morley and Rhona Tomblin.
    • Questionnaire and presenter of trophies was David Ward.
    • Joint Youth committee of organisers  with Linda Moore as MC, Humphrey Davis timekeeper, Eric Sylt, Brian Sollitt and Jenny Foreman supporting.
Teams
John Ferneley Interact KEVII Young Farmers

Thanks are owed to the adjudicators, organisers, and above all to the participants who showed just what talent exists in our town.

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Twin Lakes' Polar Bear helps to Eradicate Polio

Over Christmas 2009, and with the kind help of Twinlakes' family theme park, their polar bear is helping to raise funds to support Rotary's challenge to eradicate polio world-wide:
Polar Bear 1 Polar Bear 2

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Remembrance Day

The 8th of November 2009 was Remembrance Day.  It was a bright sunny day and drew the largest turn-out to the town parde that the President of the British Legion could remember for a long time.  The Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray were represented by our President David Ward and other members.
Remembrance Day 09 Remembrance Day 09
Remembrance Day 09 Remembrance Day 09

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Rifle Shooting Evening

Our President David Ward organised an enjoyable evening's shooting at Holwell rifle club on 27th November 2009.  16 members of the club and friends & family came along and had good fun (and some success).  It was all hosted by the very hospitable members of the Holwell rifle club - thank you to them.

To summarise the results:

    • Ladies outright winner, and overall fourth place -  Jenny Howling.
    • Prone or Bench, First - Gavin Howling 98, equal Second James Green and John Dehnel 97.
    • Standing Lightweight Sports Rifle, First - Phil Bendall 156, Second - Gavin Howling 149, Third - David Ward 148.
Overall winner, First - Gavin Howling 247, Second - Phil Bendall 239, Third - John Dehnel - 232, Fourth - Jenny Howling 229.

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Shannon Trust

Our speaker at the Melton Rotary Club's meeting on 21st September was Roger Outram, the Eastern Regional Co-ordinator for Shannon Trust.

Roger became involved with Shannon Trust, following his retirement as a Prison Governor in some of the country's toughest establishments. He explained that Shannon Trust runs the Toe by Toe Reading Plan, an award winning mentoring programme, which encourages and supports prisoners who can read to give one to one tuition to prisoners who struggle to or who cannot read.  In 2008, it provided resources to teach over five thousand new learners in prison.

He went on to describe how Shannon Trust works with prisons to set up and maintain the Toe to Toe reading plan. They do this by supplying prisons with:

  • Trained volunteers to help staff and prisoners set up and maintain a reading plan that is tailored to the needs of the specific establishment
  • Copies of the Toe to Toe reading manual to every learner and every prisoner involved in mentoring others
  • Promotional resources to raise awareness and attract new Learners
  • On going support


The aims of the Shannon Trust is to

  • To engage EVERY non- reading prisoner early in their sentence
  • To support the prison staff to run the Toe by Toe reading plan in EVERY prison and Young Offenders institution in the UK
  • To promote the benefits of peer –mentoring in prisons


Shannon Trust recognises that:

  • Without the ability to read, it is almost impossible for prisoners to take the positive steps necessary to address their offending behaviour; or to engage in the further learning and training that they need to acquire employment skills in order to lead fulfilled and pro social lives
  • Many prisoners have had negative past experiences of learning, and are therefore reluctant to engage with the formal learning opportunities available within prisons.  Those with poor reading skills in prison are the most difficult group to reach


Shannon Trust provides both the Mentor and Learner with a copy of the Toe by Toe reading manual.  The manual helps Learners to develop the skills they need to decode written words using phonetics.

Toe by Toe book


A Mentor may have more than one or more Learners and will meet each for just 20 minutes daily, 5 times a week.  Together they will work through the phonetics exercises and record progress using the grid system in the manual.

The club were all impressed with the approach and the outcomes described by Roger.  We wish them well in their endeavours in a vitally important field.


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Melton Victorious Again - "We blew them away" (from our totally unbiased captain)

Melton Rotary Club's  under prepared, under pressure, Minor Sports team did it again, in a frankly breathtaking display of skill that left one of last year's "semi finalists" reeling.  In a classic Minor Sports confrontation on 15th October 2009 the Melton team, despite all the injury worries & last minute withdrawals, had the look of a hungry team & gelled well from the outset.  Watch out the more established prima donnas, they may well find there places up for grabs.  The usually slow starting Melton team got off to a flyer with the first round of conkers going to Big Ben in a matter of minutes (about 20).  There followed some grimly determined bouts with no shortage of flare & panache, the conkers round was all but conceded before the break, all the while the Pea shooting was ticking over nicely in the background with the two sides fairly evenly matched ... Then came the fireworks with Gattling Gavin Howling smashing Chris Muris' long held lead with a astonishing display of power & accuracy which I feel finally broke the spirit of the Grantham team & buoyed the rest of the home side - with the notable exception of the embattled Captain whose form was once again less than impressive, apart from his last gasp effort in the power play that could possibly have made a difference.

Once again it must be noted that the President was spotted in the crowd & when asked stated he & and the management had full confidence in the Captain...... we all know what that means!

So yes they did it again even after all the shenanigans & boundary changes during the closed season & with a laughable transfer budget compared to some of the nouveaux riches clubs out there, the Pork Pies march on to the next round with a hopefully kinder draw for last year's fighting finalists.

Until next time...... keep blowing, keep winning.

Thanks to all involved (especially Grantham Kesteven) for making this such an enjoyable night of Fellowship.

Tony (last gasp) Lord

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District Conference, Eastbourne, 2009

The 81st Annual Conference of RI District 1070 was held over the weekend of 2nd to 4th October 2009 in Eastbourne.
The weather was kind, in that the rain was sparse, the temperatures acceptable, the wind tolerable all but for those venturing along the cliffs or attempting picnics on Beachy Head.
 
Melton fielded an intrepid 27 delegates, who contributed significantly to the friendly aura that pervaded the formal and fellowship elements of the conference.  In a small way the team also helped to alleviate stress on the shelves of many of the hostelries in the vicinity.
 
Simon Weston OBE the keynote speaker was the Conference highlight, he was outstanding with an inspirational and humorous talk, detailing his physical and physiological challenges. Sample of his humour: -
•    As a Youth I was not well informed - more commonly known as 'Thick'
•    I was not particularly intelligent, I couldn't drive a tank, but I could carry one on my back.
The last speaker, Pat Langham OBE, Principal of Girls only Schools spoke eloquently and humorously, on her perception of the many differences between men and women. The talk was unfortunately riddled with fact, mainly truthful, but given with a female perspective which clearly nullifies the balance.
 
Highlight of the fellowship occurred at Gala dinner when a group of disgruntled, late booking Clubs, obviously relegated to fringe tables at the rear of the hall, attempted to storm those tables in better positions.  Their pathetic attempts at raids using long balloons, were soon put to nought by a well disciplined military march and rifle display, in the manner of 'Sharpe's Chosen Men', by the Melton Team, led by mercenary James Wiggins ex Grantham, and draftees from other Clubs - see photo for those involved.

Ballons The Group Popper Wars
 
A great time was had by all involved.

We were lucky enough to have the GSE team from the Philippines staying with around the time of conference, and took them down to Eastbourne with us.  They presented themselves, their home country and their vocations to all the conference delegates, finsihing with a traditional Filipino dance:
GSE
 
David Ward

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... and Back Again.  Bob McCord Does it the Other Way.

Having done Le JOG (the Lands End to John O’Groats cycle ride) in September 2007 (see the story on our history page), Melton Rotary Club member Bob McCord decided to see if it was any easier the other way.  Read his story below:

"Some folk have a party to celebrate their 70th but I had this odd idea that cycling John O’Groats to Lands End would be a good notion and a way of ignoring this milestone in my life!

Family and friends thought I was mad the first time so imagines their reaction to this latest trip! So here are a few memories of the journey.

Training done in the rolling hills of Leicestershire and Rutland, Gill and I set off for John O’Groats to start my ride on Sept 1st.Taking a slightly more direct route this time down the east coast to the out skirts of Edinburgh across country to Lockerbie and from there the A6, A49, A38, A30 - 891 miles in all.

Day one was windy but dry and I had forgotten the climbs that I was going to encounter apart from the dreaded Berridale Braes and Helmsdale. Head winds didn’t help.

John O'Groats Berridale Dornoch
John O'Groats - Its a long way from here Berriedale Braes - I remember this from last time - big big hills Dornoch - The end of day 1 only 9 to go

Dornoch was lovely but uppermost in my mind was the climb out of Inverness up to Slochd Summit – bad enough in a car but only day 2 for my legs was a tough task but achieved on my 70th birthday.

Cromarty Birthday cake Slochd
Fine way to spend a birthday -  climbing hills out of Cromarty Firth How on earth am I supposed to hold this - please don't light the candles I've been having nightmares about climbing Slochd Summit

Rain, rain and more rain for the next section of the ride through what would have been some of the most stunning scenery along the A9 and on to Kinross where I arrived wet through  - thanks to the kindness of the hotel owners my kit was all dried out for the next day. More rain and flooded roads didn’t make life any easier but by the time I got to Lockerbie conditions had improved a bit.

Lockerbie and south took in Shap Summit and more hard climbs (definitely harder in this direction) pretty windy too but at least the road was fairly quiet. It doesn’t help the moral or legs when you have to actually pedal down steep hills because of the head wind!

Shap Downhill
Never ending Shap - wish the wind was helping In Devon, the suns come out at last - thought I'd never get the shorts on

Down through Kendal and on to the busier stretch through Lancaster, Preston, Wigan and Warrington, we were making progress but the weather wasn’t improving much.

Southwards and on towards Gloucester and Bristol and probably the worst piece of road for a cyclist – the A38 – it was good to leave that behind and head for Crediton and Okehampton to join the A30 for the last part of the ride.

Days 9 and 10 brought out the sun at last and certainly helped spur me on. Devon and Cornwall have not got any flatter than the last time I rode but at least the end was near and the spirits were rising. My team car support and manager persuaded me to maybe add a half day to my ambition of completing the ride in 10 days but the final day was going so well that I decided to go for it. I had forgotten that the last 14 miles or so were very challenging!

Lands End almost in sight – 2 miles or so to go and a so far the incident free trip was almost put paid to by badly marked road humps – despite almost taking off I managed to keep upright and complete my journey in the time I had set myself. North to south is definitely harder but End to End was achieved!

Final climb Nearly there The End
Hope this is at last  the final climb Still some power in the legs  -  Lands End here we are! Does this jersey mean I've got to start again
 
This will be my last big ride as my manager and support car driver resigned as soon as I reached Lands End!

However I would like to say a big thank you to all who sponsored me, spurred me on my way and helped me raise around £1600 for The Prostate Cancer Charity."

Well done Bob,  A splendid effort, both the ride and raising money for such a worthwhile cause.  Are you sure cycling does not damage your prostate?

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A Showcase of Melton Young Musical Talent

On Saturday 26th September an inaugural showcase concert was presented by the town’s two Rotary clubs as a big thank you to those young people who, in the previous twelve months, had entered and achieved success in the wide variety of Rotary competitions on offer annually. Monies made on the evening will be used to fund the coming year’s youth opportunities programme.

The large and enthusiastic audience was enthralled by singers and instrumentalists who performed to the very highest standards.  In addition presentations were made to:

  • Sophie Gowans, on behalf of the winning King Edward 7th School Youth Speaks team (Sophie Gowans, Beth Cortese and Katie Hale).
  • Winner of the Young Designer competition (Krishan Patel).
  • Georgina Roberts Senior Solo Vocal Winner, Young Vocalist - District Final and RIBI Multi-District Finalist
  • Last year’s Interact club president Sioni Platts-Kilburn received a presidential citation for the community work done by the club under his leadership.  This Rotary sponsored club, for fourteen to eighteen year olds, is based at the King Edward 7th School.

Highlight of the evening was a rapturously received performance, by the Youth Group of the Melton Musical Theatre Company, of excerpts from their recent, highly successful production of Les Miserables.  Following their performance a memento and Rotary community achievement award was presented to their musical director Sandra Tebbutt

To complete a thoroughly entertaining evening Sheila Aston a prominent, local music teacher and an organiser of the evening was presented with a Paul Harris Fellowship, Rotary’s highest accolade. This award was made to Sheila, a non Rotarian, in recognition of her long and enthusiastic service promoting and supporting music in both Melton and the Rotary District over many years.

Showcase1 Showcase2 Showcase3
Past District Governor Ian Vernon with Sioni Kilburn-Platts Presidents Tony Wallis and David Ward with Sandra Tebbutt and some the Youth Group of the Melton Musical theatre Company Presidents Tony Wallis and David Ward with Sheila Aston
  

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ShelterBox news from the Philippines

This ShelterBox aid is provided to the Botolan province, about 90 miles north-west of Manila, so not directly affecting the areas our club supports - but tragic nevertheless.

ShelterBox Response Team meets Philippines' President

A further 118 ShelterBoxes have arrived in the Philippines as ShelterBox continues to help people rebuild their lives after Typhoon Morakot.

An initial 224 ShelterBoxes arrived in the country in the immediate aftermath of the typhoon. They were sent to provide emergency shelter for close to 2,000 people who lost their homes when a 1km section of the 5km Bucao Dike collapsed.

The initial ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) members Peter Pearce (AU) and Ross Mackenzie (NZ) were joined by Lizzy Treglown (UK) and Denise Ho (USA) last week. With the help of the local government, the Philippine Army, the police, the Red Cross, local Rotarians and local students the team set up the first ShelterBox camp.

After identifying the need for more ShelterBoxes, the team requested a further consignment be sent. They specifically requested eight ‘Classroom in a Box’ boxes as many schools were also destroyed when the dike collapsed. The 110 ShelterBoxes and 8 Classrooms in a Box arrived in the Philippines at the weekend.

The ShelterBoxes were packed and shipped from ShelterBox HQ in Helston, Cornwall, UK with Tony Treglown, Lizzy Treglown’s father, joining the team of volunteers to help pack the boxes that were met by his daughter in the Philippines.

On Monday, August 24 SRT members Lizzy Treglown and Denise Ho met Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who was visiting the affected area where ShelterBox tents have been set up.

Lizzy said: ‘We met the president briefly this morning and talked with her about ShelterBox. The local government have been a great help, the locals have cleared a large area of land for us, they’ve brought earth to fill in holes and raise some of the land for the tents.’

SRT member Ross Mackenzie has now returned to New Zealand but SRT member Hans Van Dyk (AU) has joined up with the rest of the team.

http://www.shelterbox.org/news_article.asp?id=156

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CiCLE Challenge 2009

The good news: 12th July 2009 saw a dry start to the morning after heavy overnight rain
The less good news: the aftermath of the rain front was strong easterly winds

Nevertheless, 150 cyclists gathered at the King Edward VII school to undertake the Pork Pies and Pot Holes CiCLE Challenge, 2009, organised by Colin Clews of the Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray.  The following photos show scenes at the start:
CiCLE Start CiCLE Start
CiCLE Start CiCLE Start

and, less fresh looking, at the finish:
CiCLE Finish CiCLE Finish
CiCLE Finish CiCLE Finish

Many thanks to Colin, Ron, and the fund-raising team for a most enjoyable day out for all.

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Interact BBQ

On Friday 10 July 2009 Melton Interact hosted a barbecue at Twinlakes Adventure Park in Melton Mowbray, courtesy of Rotarian Phil Bendall. Most of their current members attended plus a number of their friends.
 
Members of Long Field School Council also attended. This group of young people are considering the formation of a second Interact Club in the town and the contact with Melton Interact helped to develop real friendships between the two groups and the promise of future joint projects.  As a result Melton Interact President Ellie Groves has been invited to speak to the Long Field group at one of their meetings at the beginning of October.

 Members of the Rotaract Club of Melton Mowbray were also present, plus Ahmed a member of a Rotaract Club in Egypt who is visiting Leicester.
 
The evening was well supported by members of the Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray of which 15 members were present, many with their wives.
 
The head cook on the night was Jim Green who deserves special recognition for his service: "well done" would be a very appropriate way of applauding his efforts!

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Presidents' Handover, July 2009
Handover
The new President of the Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray for 2009/10 David Ward, receives the chain of office from last year's president Mike Rowe at the Club's lunch meeting of 6th July 2009. David Ward becomes the 82nd President of the Club founded in 1928.
  • At the same meeting a new member Chris Muris a Solicitor from Whissendine was inducted into the Club.
  • The Club's programme for the coming year will be a mixture of Local and International projects, with a variety of fund raising events - the first of which the CiCLE Cycling Challenge took place on 12th July 2009, and raised over £2000, this was reported in Melton Times on  23rd July 2009.
  • Other Fund raising events will include:-
    • Musical Spectacular of talented young musicians on 26th September at Baptist Church.
    • Golf day, Burn's Night, Race night, Quiz nights, themed events.
  • Service projects for the year, many organised jointly with the Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray Belvoir, will range from:-
    • Youth Opportunities, in Young Chef, Musician, Photographer, Writer, Designer, Youth Speaks 
    • Development of Interact Club for 14 - 18 year olds, with a BBQ and open evening at Twin Lakes on 10th July 2009.
    • Local Community projects of Christmas parcels for elderly, Flowering bulbs for the blind, Kids day out at Wicksteed park, Stroke Awareness.
    • International projects a few examples, such as sending a container of redundant school equipment to Cebu in Philippines, collection of redundant spectacles for reuse, and the Polio challenge of Polio eradication supported by our local fund raising efforts and the financial support of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

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International Federation of Flying Rotarians

Post-Convention Fly-Around of the UK, June-July 2009

Following the Birmingham Rotary Convention in June 2009 several of the International Fellowships of Rotarians arranged get-togethers of their members.  The International Fellowship of Flying Rotarians organised a fly-around of England and  Wales.

Rotarian
and IFFR member John Dehnel describes the event:

What a wonderful example of Rotary Fellowship!  As a new member of IFFR and a relatively new pilot I was delighted at the immediate friendship and support that prevailed throughout the IFFR group at the post-convention fly-around of the UK.

Firstly we all met up for dinner at the Motorcycle Museum on the Sunday before the flying began.  This was my first opportunity to meet Tom Johnston, who was to be my close companion for the flying tour.  I had been pleased to hear earlier in the year of Tom’s wish to join me in the fly-around, hoping both to enjoy his company and to benefit from his considerable experience.  These were both well borne out.

We next met on Thursday 25th June in Coventry airport and (as was to be the case several times during the fly-around) drank several coffees while waiting for the skies at our destination to clear.  Eventually we were on our way and, being in my local area, I was able to route overhead my home in Saxby and show Tom some of the classic English countryside around that area.

Saxby

A straightforward flight up the River Trent to the Humber and towards York kept us out of the Doncaster airspace, into the Church Fenton MATZ, and we had plenty of the 3000m runway to spare as we landed at Elvington AD.  The base was home to RAF Halifax bombers and the Free French Air Force in the Second World War, and was designated by NASA in its list of possible landing sites for the space shuttle – so we felt in good company.

Elvington  Victor

We were last to arrive, but found as the days progressed that was to be a common occurrence.  Tom seemed to be coping with my flying ability, and was pleased to start getting the feel of the plane.  We both were enjoying seeing the sights and flew, whenever reasonable, at low levels.

The event was not just about flying from A to B.  At every opportunity the IFFR committee had made sure that there was interest on the ground too.  At Elvington we visited the aircraft museum, with a wide mix of war-birds and aviation history.  And by now it was late final for lunch in the NAAFI.

Bus, hotel, dinner, prepare for tomorrow’s flying.

On Friday the weather over the Pennines up to the Lake District in the north-west looked flyable, so we set off, initially at about 1500 feet.  It soon became clear that passing close to the eastern edges of the RAF stations at Linton, Dishforth and Leeming we would be better at higher levels.  I was able to make use of the unique British IMC rating to climb above cloud for the transit over the Pennines.  There was much discussion in the plane and in the bar later about this sub-IR rating – not designed for take-off, flight and landing entirely in cloud, but certainly allowing us Brits to do any of those legally where safer flying is the result (albeit with more conservative minima than with a full IR rating).

The clouds cleared as we broke into what we were later informed by incoming IFFR president James Alexander is “God’s own country”, and Tom and I were both able to see the delights of Lakeland flying (my first time, although I have tried and been defeated by the weather a number of times before).

Windermere  Kendal

 I was most impressed by the idea of parking the planes in the pub car park.

Kirkbride

I concluded later that afternoon that it was our good fortune that the weather closed in.  We all had such enormous lunches that we would all have challenged our weight and balance calculations on take off.  The coach back to York was the safer option, and allowed a few Lakeland beers to be sampled before departure.

 I’ll leave our visitors from overseas to comment on the delights of York that we saw on the Saturday - the Minster, the Jorvik Centre and the railway museum each showed some of what Britain’s heritage has to offer.

York  York Minster

By Sunday the flyers were ready for some more, and coached back to Kilbride.  Again the weather cleared just as we broached the top of the Pennines into Cumbria, much to James’ delight.  As there was no fuel at Kilbride (other than some very dirty-looking diesel at the truck pull taking place on the edge of the airfield) hasty calculations led many to plan re-fuelling stops; the next leg to Caernarfon and Gloucester looked a challenge.  Tom and I planned a stop at Manchester Barton, but 20 miles north of there the strength of the Grob team’s thinking skills came through.  We realised, and double-checked each other’s calculations, that we could make it to Caernarfon with just one hour’s fuel to spare.  So a quick right turn took us over the Liverpool docks – again a first for the “local” boy (I will admit I’ve never even been to Liverpool on the ground) – and a flight along the north coast of Wales into Caernarfon.

Lunch here was rather late, but it was good to see everyone getting in to the AD safely having had good flights.  Again we were last in!  But we still had time to enjoy lunch and have a look around the small aviation museum there.  Saturday evening saw a beautiful flight down the Welsh coast and round to Gloucester.  The changing character of the British countryside held Tom in awe.  There’s no prairie farming in this part of the world!

Welsh coast  Welsh coast

Guess what Monday morning brought us.  That’s right: “Let’s wait and see if the weather will clear”.  And boy, did it clear.  But not until we approached Bodmin moor in a descending cloud base and ascending ground.  “Let’s get over this” – my IMC rating again came to the fore.  At FL50, just when thinking about how to let down for Perranporth I suddenly saw a break in the cloud and a large airport through the very first hole – we were overhead Newquay.  Within two minutes the clouds completely disappeared and we had a straight in approach from 5 miles into Perranporth.

The next part of our journey was the highlight of the fly-around for me and, I think, Tom.  The assembled crews piled into the coach for a visit to the Eden Centre horticultural displays.  Splendid though they are, Tom and I felt a flight over Land’s End and on to the Scilly Isles 25nm further on was a more attractive option.  So, although Perranporth had no fuel we realised we had enough for the flight.  The Scilly Isles comprise about 18 islands with one fixed wing AD, one heliport, and a number of harbours.  We had lunch in the sun overlooking the old town harbour on St. Mary’s, then a couple of hours to walk around the main island, round the headlands, into the town centre, and back to the plane.

Scilly Isles  Scilly Isles

 Scilly Isles  Scilly Isles

A short flight back to Land’s End saw us overfly Svend Andersen’s plane rounding the headland below us after he had returned from the Eden Centre.  The stop for fuel had only one drawback – they refused to discount a hefty landing fee even though we took on a minimum-to-full-tanks load of fuel.

The south coast east from Land’s End is glorious, so we could not miss the opportunity to fly, often at some quite low levels, to see the beauties of the Cornish coast, Dartmouth, the Jurassic Coast, and many others.  A quick diversion inland by couple of miles allowed us to overfly the Eden Centre – so we didn’t miss out entirely. 

Eden Centre  Dartmouth

Things were rather quiet on our arrival back at Gloucester, other than my mobile phone beeping to tell me Rodney was looking for assurance we were safely back (we were very last this time!).  A feature of the whole event was the care for a safe fly-around shown by all the organisers.

Tuesday was a second break day from flying, and we took the coaches to Bristol.  The SS Great Britain display has developed way beyond how it was when I saw it 20 years ago, and remains as impressive as ever.  Having professional guides to various sites such as the Clifton suspension bridge adds a lot of colour even to those who’ve seen it all before.

Wednesday dawned bright enough for no major delays, so we all got away for the flight to Chichester/Goodwood.  Our routing was due south, past the white horse at Westbury, via a helpful Bournemouth CTR, and out towards the Needles.  Both Tom and I are sailors, so the Solent and its many harbours and racing buoys were of real interest. 

Needles  Portsmouth

After sightseeing at Portsmouth, a landing at Goodwood took us to another lunch in the sun.

From Goodwood eastwards there seemed to be a stack of IFFR aircraft at about 5 different levels at one stage, all heading over Shoreham AD and towards Beachy Head.  We took the route from the Detling beacon up the Thames past the QE2 Bridge, with sights of Canary Wharf before we had to skirt around the City and Stansted Airport zones, overhead Duxford into Cambridge.  We weren’t last this time (but those we beat did try to claim they’d stopped for tea with friends on the way).

By this time we were all getting a bit bored of our aircraft, so the IFFR team arranged for us all to fly up to Gamston, near Nottingham, to place orders for our club fleet of Diamond DA40s.  I trust everyone did sign the order forms before departure – the next IFFR fly-in will be an impressive sight if so.  Various routes were taken home; Michael Graves and I (Tom had deserted me in favour of spending his 49th wedding anniversary with Anna) took in the famous English seaside resort of Skegness, over the Wash (carefully avoiding the bombing range danger areas), and overhead the north Norfolk coast before heading south to Cambridge.  I had been doing well with the radio calls to then, but was glad to have an interpreter when we flew over Lakenheath – a US airbase.  I absolutely could not tell whether the instruction was to remain clear of their MATZ, or that MATZ penetration had been approved.  Michael came to my assistance, and we were able to descend into Cambridge through their MATZ.

Friday the 3rd was the third and last day off from flying.  We all went into Cambridge where guided tours had been laid on in the morning; even those who had connections in Cambridge learnt much from the guides.  We managed to avoid having anyone fall into the Cam during the punting in the afternoon.

Cambridge  Cambridge

The whole event was brought to a splendid close on the Friday evening when those participating in the fly-around, many who had been at the first Sunday dinner, and several more members and friends of the IFFR met for dinner at Jesus College.  The fellowship was great after so many exploits together.  Herman Hassinger reminded us of the highlights if the tour in what I understand is a traditional poetic offering.  And of course thanks were given by all to the organisers, primarily by Colin, Ian, Rodney and John, but assisted by a good number of others at the various points on route.  I should like to add my thanks, as the newbie, for a truly memorable 10 days.  All we need now is some even newer members (but don’t tell them until the end that it is down to them to write up the trip for the bulletin!)

On the Saturday coaches and planes departed in all directions, with friendships made and renewed.

John Dehnel

[Photos all courtesy of Tom Johnston]

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2009 Convention Hosting Event at Rutland Water

As part of Rotary International's Convention 2009, held at the Birmingham NEC, on 22nd June 2009 several Rotary clubs in the Midlands hosted various events to greet and meet our visitors from around the world.  The Melton Mowbray club, in conjunction with 9 others from district 1070 invited Rotarians and friends to join us at Rutland Water, near Oakham, for an evening of fellowship and entertainment.  As well as a great hog roast, there was a variety of musical entertainment, including the Ono Band from Grantham Rotary club and the Leicester City Male Voice Choir.  
Guests Guests Hog Roast
Male Voice Choir Morris Dancers Ono Band

The Event was sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Rutland, Uppingham, Stamford Burghley, Stamford St Martins, Melton Mowbray, Melton Mowbray Belvoir, Grantham, Grantham Kesteven, Spalding Welland Centenary and Boston.  Members of other Rotary Clubs in the immediate area who attended also came from Stamford, Oundle,  South Holland, Loughborough Beacon and Peterborough Werrington.

A total of 354 persons attended the Event.  There were 84 guests from 52 Rotary Clubs in 11 countries: United States, Canada, India, Ethiopia, Australia, Japan, France, South Africa, Finland, Denmark and Egypt.

Other guests from less far afield came from Torquay, Richmond, Exeter, West Wirral and Llanfairfechan in Wales.

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International Federation of Flying Rotarians

Visit to Lee-on-Solent, May 2009

Four members and friends of the club took the opportunity of a fly-in to Lee-on-Solent organised by the International Federation of Flying Rotarians (IFFR) in May.  Lee-on-Solent is the base for the Hampshire Police air surveillance plane and the coast guard rescue helicopter for the south coast from Brighton to Weymouth.  It is the site of a museum housing hovercraft of all sizes.  The airfield also hosts an active gliding club.
G-EFIR G-EFIR

Flying from Leicester on a superb sunny day the flight to the Solent took just over an hour, flying around Portsmouth harbour and town, seeing the naval base, HMS Victory, and the (in)famous spinnaker tower on the final approach into the Lee-on-Solent airfield.  Once there we had a traditional all-day breakfast at the gliding club, then on to the police base.  
LoS Police 1 LoS Police 2

The police crew were enthusiastic to tell us of the way they operate, covering all of Hampshire and beyond, providing surveillance services in the pursuit of law and order.  They gave us several intriguing insights into the benefits of aerial surveillance - law-breakers beware!  Hampshire is one of very few police aerial units that use a fixed-wing aircraft, and it was interesting to hear about the benefits and drawbacks compared to the more usual use of helicopters.  

The coastguard rescue crews were equally keen to tell us of the work they do, and showed us over the helicopter in some detail, including the maintenance work on a second machine.  All fascinating to see, and reassuring to those of us who sail in and around the Solent to see such professional and well-equipped rescue services.  
HMCG1 HMCG2
HMCG3 HMCG3

The hovercraft museum held examples of the cross-channel  Hoverspeed machines, long out of service now, of course, and many, many machines down to the smallest, specified for "one small adult".  Although somewhat randomly displayed, there was plenty to marvel at in this part of transport history.  Housed in one of the buildings of the museum was a well-presented display by the Gosport Aviation Society of the history of aviation on the Gosport peninsula, dating back to the first World War and with a long-standing link particularly to the naval air services.
Hovercraft

In the meantime one of our party went back to the gliding club and had two glider flights (with an instructor) all courtesy of the Lee Gliding Club.

Thanks are owed to Rotarian Malcolm Barton who organised the whole splendid day out for the crew and passengers of the 10 planes that joined the fly-in - a busy day, but well worth the effort.  Thank you Malcolm.

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 Rotary and Round Table Charity Golf Day 

On 15th May the Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray and the Melton Round Table came together for the first time for an event of this nature, Melton Rotary Club being the oldest and the reconstituted Round Table the youngest service clubs in the area.

In spite of the adverse weather conditions, particularly in the morning, the event was a success with over 80 golfers from across the county taking part in a Betterball Stapleford competition for teams of two for the Keith Shortland trophy.  The competition was extremely close with three teams on 40 points vying for first place.  The winners, on count back, were Hugh Middleton and Marcus Twidale from Melton Round Table.  They were presented with the trophy by Mrs Janet Shortland.  In second place were Sean Keegan and Tim Redman, both from Stoke Rochford Golf Club.  Third placed were Suri Gudka and Ramesh Solanki from the Humberstone Golf Club.  The fourth place went to Pramod Shah and Dhiru Popat again from Humberstone Golf Club. 

The funds raised as a result of this event will be shared between the two Clubs and will support both local and international Charities.

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Young Musician Final, 2009

The final of Rotary District 1070's Young Musician of the Year Festival took place on the 3rd May at the Melton Theatre. The audience was treated to a feast of good music across the age ranges, with all the musicians performing showing amazing talent.

Congratulations to Georgina Roberts, who won the Senior Solo Vocal section and also took the title as overall solo vocalist.  Georgina will now go on to represent Rotary District 1070 (broadly, the East Midlands) at the Britain and Ireland multi-district final in Chelmsford Cathedral on 30th May.

Georgina Roberts

Entrants  to the District 1070 final each played in front of an audience numbering up to 360.  They each performed at least two pieces of varied style, and of a length depending on their age group (Junior 4 minutes, Intermediate 6 minutes, and Senior 8 minutes). They were judged by expert adjudicator Alijch Blackett-Howe.  When the results were announced the Melton Mowbray Rotary Club was delighted that Georgina , one of the competitors entered by the club, did so well. She sang Boublil and Shonberg's "I'd Give My Life For You" and  Loesser's "Adelaide's Lament" - both songs that the adjudicator pointed out are difficult songs to sing so well.

Well done Georgina.

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RI Convention Hosting - Rutland Water

To see details of the plans for hosting visitors from the RI Convention at Rutland Water on Monday 22nd June, click here to open the minutes of the latest meeting of the organising committee.

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Dick Turpin Trophy - shooting competition 2009

The 2009 Dick Turpin shooting competition between Melton and Rutland took place on 10th March this year.
A new format, Prone and Standing shooting, was adopted this year, as word had leaked that the Rutland Club 'were up for it', and using the 'Family of Rotary' to its full value.
A strong team of 13 arrived from Rutland, but the magnificient 7 1/2 shooting members, and 3 tacticians of the veteran Melton team held of the challenge, even though last year's champion 'Buffalo Bendall' was not present, having received a better offer in the nether regions of Devon.
The six best shooters of the Melton team scored 1461 points, compared to an extremely competitive 1366 points from Rutland, this being the agreed formulae for the competition.
A New Club Champion surfaced, in the form of Duncan Manderson, Duncan became the Club Elite by beating Gavin Howling into a close second place, who was closely followed by John Dehnel and Jim Green, previous Champions.

For the full gory detail of the scores click here to open the spreadsheet.

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Club Visit to The Philippines, February 2009

Eight members of the club and spouses visited the Philippines for two weeks in February 2009.  The visit covered:
•    Review of the existing projects we are supporting in the Philippines
•    Discussion of possibilities for future projects
•    Visits to local hospitals and health centres
•    Visits to local schools
•    Visits to the health centres and other areas affected by the Guinsaugon mud-slide
•    Review of preliminary arrangements for the GSE exchange between our districts in 2009-10
•    Visits to Cebu, Boljoon, Bohol, South Leyte

Anne Fisher's article below captures the essence of the trip.  To see Diana's diary click here (it's a large file, with pictures added, so it may take a while to download).

Anne’s visit notes.

The Filipinos certainly put the flags out for us. From the Philippine flag waved during their national anthem and played on numerous occasions during our visit, the Rotary welcome banners hanging outside every project venue, through to the patrol flags of the newly formed scout troop for street children. Our group of 6 Rotarians and 2 spouses were given a rapturous welcome at every opportunity and our leader, John Dehnel, was promoted to “Sir” and afforded royal treatment. Abundant supplies of delicious food awaited us everywhere we went so our waistlines were under pressure the whole trip…..well it would have been rude to refuse, would it not?


After a brief stop in Manila to see the sights of Intramuros, we arrived in Cebu city, where we joined with representatives of District 3860 who were welcoming a GSE team from the USA. Beverley Hills Community Centre (yes there really is a Beverley Hills in Cebu) was an appropriate venue! The next morning we ignored our jet lag and visited Sister Anne at the Blessed Sacrament aid centre situated in the middle of the slums around the port area. We were humbled by this modest woman, who with the support of Rotary, a skeleton staff and some volunteers was running an amazing operation: feeding over 1200 malnourished children every day, caring for young children in a nursery so that their mothers could learn to sew and ultimately earn a living, providing therapy for severely disabled children and running not one but two schools covering classes for underprivileged children as well as children with autism and Downs syndrome. There was even a computer room for teenagers who had dropped out of school for alternative learning with a view to reintegrating them into the school system. Sister Anne seemed to take everything in her stride, even the ten muggings she has been subjected to. How could we not offer to help her?

Our deputation attended a lunch meeting for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between District 3860, PRISM (Private Sector Mobilisation for Family Health),Phil Health, US Aid and the Association of Midwives with the purpose of reducing infant and maternal mortality. Every day 12 mothers die in childbirth in the Philippines. Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray was asked to officially witness the agreement.


In keeping with the morning’s event we moved on to a midwives clinic in Lapu Lapu, Mactan Island. One of the two ultrasound machines we shipped from QMC Nottingham had been installed here the previous day with the help of Kathryn Manderson. After the handover ceremony, the first scan was attempted on a pregnant mother but after a brief glimpse of a healthy baby’s heart the machine shut down. We suspected problems with the heat and humidity (we weren’t functioning too well for the same reasons) and the rather dodgy electrical feed to the clinic (20 houses fed from a set of wires you would be reluctant to use for a reading lamp).

The second ultrasound machine had been shipped to Bohol Island and we followed it by ferry with some trepidation after the experience in Lapu Lapu. We needn’t have worried; the machine worked a treat and scans by sonographer Kathryn revealed two healthy babies. One was definitely a girl and the other kept his or her legs tightly together…. to be revealed at birth. The welcome given to us at Tubigon, Bohol, both by the newly formed Rotary club and the midwives, was second to none, and we witnessed a very tearful thank you speech from Corazon Paras, head of the midwives association, for the help given to the clinics by Melton Mowbray

The slowest ferry imaginable took us to our next stop, our third island, Southern Leyte. We were privileged to be invited to the 3rd. Anniversary Commemoration of the Guinsaugon landslide in which 2000 people were buried and died in 2006. After the memorial service many people crossed over the river, wading through the water to Ground Zero. Here a stainless steel monument inscribed with all 2000 names was blessed by the Archbishop of Maasin. The scarred landscape loomed as a backdrop to the ceremonies and served as a reminder of the harsh reality of what had taken place at that same moment exactly three years before. The fortitude of the people in the St. Bernard region in which the village of Guinsaugon once stood was very evident, and we were all struck by the fervent will to rebuild and move forward from the horror of what had happened. However nothing could have prepared us for the courage shown by a group of orphans from Guinsaugon who performed the finale of the day: an outdoor re-enactment of the landslide and the ensuing horrors of the aftermath and the two and a half years in the evacuation centre. We were in awe of these children and there wasn’t a dry eye in the group. We will do what we can to help them and the whole school system which has emerged run by a group of dedicated hard working women, very worthy of our support.

Visits to the midwives clinics and community hospital in St. Bernard brought our trip to a close. The staff at all of them were truly grateful for the beds and supplies which had been sent from Melton Mowbray previously, shortly after the disaster, and were proud to show us the beds from St. Mary’s hospital being fully utilised. They had prepared simple hand written lists of the most basic supplies which they couldn’t get, and which hopefully we can do something about.

    

A very memorable trip, charged with emotion, and a truly humbling experience.

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Young Musician  - northern semi-finals, March 2009

On Saturday 7th March 2009 almost seventy talented young musicians from across the East Midlands gathered in Melton’s Baptist Church to take part in the Northern District semi final of this prestigious, Rotary sponsored, annual competition.  Each one had successfully come through their local heat.

A wide range of musical skills represented the time and dedication not only of the young musicians but also of their schools and teachers.  The musical talent, so professionally presented, included not only impressive vocal skills but impressive instrumental skills from piano and violin to clarinet, cello and saxophone.  There were soloists, ensembles, choirs and a jazz band.

The difficult role of adjudicator was taken on by James Norden whose playing career as a trumpeter includes working with the London Festival Ballet, CBSO, Royal Shakespeare Company, D’Oyly Carte, Welsh National Opera and the Orchestra de Camera.

Presentations were made to all winners and participants by Assistant Governor Rotarian Chris Knight.
 
The pictures show:
 
Georgina Roberts:    Winner of the Senior Vocal section who sang ‘I’d Give my Life for You’ - Boublil & Schonberg and ‘Adelaide’s Lament’ – Loesser.

Emily Fionda, Danielle Grange and Sara Hall who together perform as ‘Clariti’ a clarinet ensemble.  They participated in the Senior Ensemble instrumental section ('Serenade to the Holy Family' - Berlioz and 'Leaps and Bounds' from the Nutcracker suite - Tchaikovsky)

Ellie Slorach:        Plays piano and entered the Senior Instrumental section
('Notturno Op54-4' - Grieg and 'Sonate II' - Soler).
 
Lucas Ward:        Solo vocalist who participated in the Junior Solo Vocal section
('Food, Glorious Food' - Bart and 'here is Love?' - Bart).
 
Flora Slorach:    Solo vocalist who also participated in the Junior Solo Vocal section
('Doll on a Musical Box' - Sherman and Sherman and 'Chim Chim Cheree' - Sherman and Sherman).
 
Jennifer Greene:    Solo Vocalist who p
articipated in the Senior Solo Vocal section ('Oh, Mr. Porter!' - Le Brunn and Le Brunn and 'The Wizard and I' - Schwartz).

Gaddesby School Choir:
    Participants in the Junior Choir section ('Hey, Mr. Miller' - Machell and 'Many Shads of Blue' - Williams).

Georgina Roberts
Georgina Roberts
Clariti
Clariti
Ellie Slorach
Ellie Slorach
Lucas Ward
Lucas Ward
Flora Slorach
Flora Slorach
Jennifer Greene
Jennifer Greene
Gaddesby School Choir
Gaddesby School Choir

The winners of each section, including Georgina Roberts representing the Rotary Clubs in Melton Mowbray, will go on to the final of the Young Musician Festival for Rotary District 1070 (which covers broadly
the East Midlands), on Sunday 3rd May at the Melton Theatre.

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