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)
The 9th Christmas Tree Festival was a community
event
with over 200 organisations, schools and businesses taking part.
A total of 457
trees were on display for the 5 day festival which was visited by 6,500
paying
adults and an equal number of children for whom admission was free.
The Parish Church feels that this is
one of the greatest
outreach events drawing so many from the town in participation and
visitors.
The Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray
were joined this year
by the new Aurora Club and many other Rotarians took part with their
companies
submitting a decorated tree.
Melton
Santa Fun Run -
another great success 11th
December saw the running of what is fast becoming a Melton tradition -
the Melton Santa Fun Run.
This year 336 runners and walkers of ages 6 to 86 registered for
the run. The
weather held fine, despite a gloomy forecast. Our healthy elf
warmed everyone up beforehand with a fun exercise routine.We
were pleased to have our MP Alan Duncan setting off the Santas for
their 5km tour of the Melton Country Park. So
far as we know, all completed the course, some running it (the first
person to finish completing the course in 15 minutes 31 seconds), some
taking a more leisurely walk. But we hope and believe everyone
had a great fun time.
The event has raised over £10,000 for
local charities. 75% or more will go to charities chosen by the
individual entrants. The remainder will go to support Melton
Rotary Club's work supporting communities locally and overseas.
Many thanks are owed to the country park managers, the managers of the
park cafe, all our sponsors, the many Rotarians who worked so hard on
the day and over the weeks ahead of the event, but of course also to
all those who joined us as runners or walkers for this fast-growing
Melton event.
Next year's Melton
Santa Fun Run
will be on 9th December. Put it in your diaries now, and keep an eye on
www.meltonsantafunrun.co.uk
and Facebook for further information. Some
photos of the event are below, all from the professional photographers
who were at the event - see www.grumpyjag.photoshelter.com for the originals
of these and many more photos of individual entrants.
Mark Twittey has uploaded a gallery of photos onto the
MeltonMowbrayPeople web site at this link. Many more are on the home
page rolling slide show. And also on Facebook.
Peace Fellow speaks to
the club, and PeaceJam introduced The
club was fortunate to have one of this year's Rotary Peace Fellows from
Bradford attending the club as our speaker on 5th December 2011.
Paul Nyibek escaped from Sudan as a teenager,
after witnessing horrors that no-one, let alone a child, should see.
He spoke movingly about his life; his experiences, his
achievements;
his ambitions; his visions. His visit, which was introduced by
District Peace Fellow co-ordinator Trevor Davies, gave the club a
good insight into the Peace Fellowship programme of Rotary
International. It was also an opportunity for the peace and
conflict
resolution programme called PeaceJam to be introduced to the Rotarians
and visitors.
Paul is studying at Bradford University under
their Peace and Conflict Resolution programme. An extract
from his CV
is as follows:
Paul
Nyibek is a scholar, a human right advocate, and a community organizer
with intense commitment to global politics and peace and security
issues. This commitment stems from his personal story and background.
He has seen first-hand the dire consequences of lack of security and
peace growing up in South Sudan. Many people were fleeing their homes
due to the violent conflict when the lives of a ferryman and family of
three whose boat had capsized while crossing the river depended on his
swift action. Audaciously, he rose to the challenge despite the fact
that he was just a child. This incident shaped his life and accounted
for his long-time fascination with politics and war and peace issues.
Some
further information on Peace Fellowships and PeaceJam was given to all
members and visitors.
How does
The Rotary Foundation promote World Peace?
In April 1999
a plan was approved to establish centres in leading universities
worldwide for studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution. At present
there are six such centres: University of Bradford in England,
Duke with North Carolina University, International Christian University
in Japan, Universidad del Salvador in Argentina (applications for this
centre will no longer be accepted after the 2010-2012 cohort)
,University of Queensland in Australia, and Uppsala, Sweden.
Candidates
are put forward by Clubs to their District, which must approve the
application. If approved, it is then forwarded to Rotary International
which will select up to sixty people worldwide to participate in the
programme each year. Applicants undertake a Master?s Degree
course and must show a commitment to the promotion of peace, goodwill,
conflict resolution and world understanding.
In February 2005 a
further programme was approved for a shorter course at the
Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. Twice each year up to thirty
participants are enrolled to undertake the three-month professional
development Certificate in Peace and Conflict Studies. This
course is of a more practical rather than academic nature, with
participants coming from occupations closely related to fields where
study of conflict resolution would be particularly beneficial.
The
Rotary Foundation funds the costs of these Fellowships, so that there
is no cost to any District. To date over four hundred Fellows have
taken part in the Master?s programme from over seventy five countries,
and seventy Fellows from twenty nine different countries in the newer
and shorter programme.
More recently a related programme for
young people from 5 to 19 years of age has been set up: PeaceJam Peace Jam is an
international peace education programme run through schools and youth
groups that brings young people into direct contact with Nobel Peace
Prize winners. The goal of PeaceJam is to inspire a new
generation of young peacemakers to make themselves, their local
communities and their world more peaceful. It operates in several
countries around the world.
The PeaceJam project is run from the
University of Bradford by its Department of Peace Studies.
Several of the Rotary World Peace Scholars currently studying in
Bradford are closely involved with the development of the PeaceJam
project.
The curriculum helps the PeaceJam groups explore issues
related to peace, violence, social justice and oppression. The
young people study the lives and work of 12 Nobel Peace Laureates and
the strategies they use to address pressing global issues.
Participating young people create and implement their own PeaceJam
Global Call to Action projects, becoming creative leaders who are
committed to solving the most difficult problems facing our world.
Opportunities
for Rotary and schools:
Youth
conference on
3-4th March 2012 with Nobel Laureate, Costa Rican Oscar Aria Sanchez,
who was presented with is award in 1987 for his efforts in the Central
American peace process
200
young people attend
the PeaceJam Youth Conference in Bradford next Spring (£200 sponsors
their attendance)
Set
up a PeaceJam group in
school or local youth club
'The
prospect of Minor Sports
glories in 2011/12 was brought crashing to the ground on Tuesday
evening 29th
November 2011, at the refurbished skittle alley of the Carington Arms
in Ashby
Folville. The little fancied Rutland team literally destroyed the
odds-on
favourites of Melton within the first two legs of the competition,
Rutland now
progress to the next round.
The
evening was one of excellent
fellowship, brilliant banter along with the usual nervous
performances.
A
further rubbing of salt into
our wounds occurred when our own 'Killer Legend' John Horn failed to
take the
monies in the 'killer' finale losing to Sue from the
Rutland team, allowing her to take the £2.30 spoils back to
Rutland.
Fortunately
the battle pains did not
last long, summarised by the casual comment of: - ' I have
known Sex
last longer than this'.
The Melton
team on paper looked
outstanding, in experience second to none, in fitness a sight to
behold,
unbelievably focused, with a brilliant team spirit, what more could an
'interim
Captain' have wished for before handing over to an 'interim,
interim
Captain?
Houses of Parliament Visit Our
president Pam Posnett arranged an interesting and informative day to
replace our normal club meeting on
Monday 28th November 2012. Through
her many political contacts she obtained an invitation for 38 members
of the club and friends to visit the Houses of Parliament, something
most had not had the opportunity to do, certainly in such style.
We were guided, with very knowledgeable employees from the HoP,
around Westminster Hall and both the House of Lords and the House of
Commons. We all, I am sure, learned much about the history and
current workings of our system of government. The day culminated
in tea on the terrace, attended by our MP, Alan Duncan.
Many
thanks to Mr. Duncan for facilitating this visit, and to President
Pam for her organising it so successfully.
Over two
weeks in November 2011, Belvoir High School, Long Field School and
John Ferneley College have taken part in the opening rounds of the
Rotary Young
Chef competition cooking and serving a healthy meal, suitable for two
people,
within the cost and time limits allowed.
All
threeheats were hotly
contested and the worthy winners were Lydia Swiftat
Long Field School,Tom Mallenderat Belvoir
High School and HannahDigbyat
John Ferneley College.All
three will now attend the Masterclass generously provided by David
Ellams at
Stapleford Park Country House Hotel before competing in the
Rotary District
Finals in Leicester on January 21st.
Youth Speaks Out The local heat of the
public-speaking competition organised jointly by the Rotary Clubs of
Melton Mowbray and Melton Mowbray-Belvoir took place at Quorn Lodge
Hotel on 16th November.
Youth Speaks is a team event and the
teams from Catmose College in Oakham this year triumphed in both the
intermediate and senior categories. Melton Mowbray Young Farmers were
worthy runners-up. Topics discussed ranged from Can't Buy Me Love and
The Amazing World of Pizza to snail racing and streaking.
The
successful Catmose College teams comprised Timothy Rhys-Williams,
Philippa Brown, Danny McKay, Talek Semmens, Isaac Costa and Timothy
Pearse. Melton Young Farmers were represented by Archie Herrick,
Charlotte Hammond, Rosie Cass, Sarah Lovegrove, Charlotte Perfect and
Katherine Lovegrove. All four teams will compete in the next
round of the competition to be held on 17th and 24th January at MV16 in
Melton.
Halloween Night Club
Meeting Halloween night this year
happened to be on a Monday, so the club meeting was set to be a spooky
affair. Jenny and Gavin Howling dressed the hotel in true Halloween
fashion with jack-o-lanterns, ghouls and ghostly beings of all sorts,
low lighting, castle dungeon walls, complete with bats flying
around. Our speaker was a gentleman officer from the 19th century
who fascinated us with tales of his spooky and ghostly
adventures. We all proved our inadequacies in our knowledge of the
traditions of Halloween with a "spooky quiz" set by Ben Abbott.
Many thanks are owed to
Jenny and Gavin for a super evening at the Sysonby Knoll Hotel.
On 26th September 2011 we
were pleased to welcome the district governor for the year, Linda May,
at our weekly meeting. Linda spoke eloquently about Rotary's
theme for the year, "Reach within to Embrace Humanity". We all
join Rotary to make a difference to our communities, and this plea from
Kalyan Banejee reinforces that wish.
Linda also talked through
the themes of "family", "continuity" and "change" as a basis for our
programmes and thinking within the club.
The eradication of
polio continues to be the number one priority for Rotary, and we are
close to completing the $200 million challenge set to us by Bill Gates
in 2008. We have currently raised $185 million in Rotary world-wide
since that date, and with the help of all clubs will achieve the $100m
by the end of this Rotary year, in June 2012. Much as we would wish,
polio will not have been eradicated by then, and the fight will go on.
Public
relations remains a need for all clubs and Rotary overall, and Linda
promoted some ideas to widen the scope of our PR. This included
news about the Young Citizen award and the publicity that brings us
through the link with the BBC. Our district's Young Citizen will
feature at the district conference this coming weekend.
On 19th September 2011 our
speaker was Lucy Pugh, from the Coping with Cancer Time Out Group in
Melton. This is a group operating in the Melton area for people
with cancer or familes coping with someone with that disease.
Lucy writes:
"Free Complementary Therapies for anyone
affected by Cancer.
Are you affected by cancer? If so
Coping with Cancer: Time Out, would like to help to support you.
Time
Out is a very relaxed and informal general cancer support where you can
meet and chat to other patients and carers over a cup of
tea.
We have a separate tranquil space where you
can enjoy complementary therapies such as Aromatherapy massage,
Reflexology, Indian Head Massage and Reiki.
As a charitable
organisation there is no charge for refreshments or therapies however
donations are greatly appreciated.
We meet on the 1st
and 3rd Tuesday of the month 10am-1pm at the Samworth Centre, 8 Burton
Street, Melton Mowbray, LE13 1AE
No need to Book, Just turn up!
For
more information please contact Lucy Pugh on 0116 2230055 or e-mail
timeout@c-w-c.org.uk"
On 28th August 2011 the
International
Federation of Flying Rotarians met for the last of this year's Air
Commodore's lunches, this time at Fife airport on the edge
of Glenrothes town. Rotarians John Dehnel, James Wiggins
and Geoff
Goodwin flew up from
Melton Mowbray up to join
them, accompanied as in our previous flight by Chris Hall.
We met eight other Rotarians, including some from the Rotary Club
of Glenrothes -
not fliers, but the local club were kind enough to meet us for lunch.
One of their members took the afternoon to drive us up to the
local
conservation town of Falkland. The town has an impressive James
IV
castle and many well-preserved historic buildings around the town
square. An very enjoyable diversion which also gave us the chance
to see some of the Scottish countryside from ground level too.
Our
route up to Fife we went across the mountains of Derbyshire
and Yorkshire, over
to the Lake District (where we caught a glimpse of Scafell Pike - the
scene
of the second our our Three Peaks climbs last year), then on to
Carlisle. At Carlisle we took a short stop to stretch our legs
and swap around seats, then on to Fife. The flight
back was in one leg. We were lucky enough to get permission to
fly right over the centre of Edinburgh, and then set off to the coast
at St. Abbes Head. From there our route took us down the coast to
south of Sunderland, inland to York, thence
to the Humber and the Trent, over TwinLakes and Melton, to our
base at
Leicester airfield.
We're all looking forward to next Spring for
yet more IFFR expeditions.
Fund Raising Lamb Roast On 28th August 2011 Alison
Blythe opened up her home to the club for a barbie with a difference.
On behalf of the International committee Alison arranged for a
whole lamb to be roasted on open coals, as the centrepiece for a truly
enjoyable meal in the grounds of Tresylllian House, Melton. About
35 members of the club and friends came along, to a largely sunny but
not very warm day, to enjoy the food, drink and fellowship.
Relatives for Janet Shortland, visiting from Tasmania, even
commented that the day beat even an Ozzie barbecue - a true measure of
its success. The event raised a significant sum of money towards
the International project efforts of the Rotary Club.
Many thanks are owed to
Alison for her hospitality and all her hard work, supported by members
of the international committee.
Flying Rotarians
visit Wales The International
Federation of Flying Rotarians organised a fly-in to
Welshpool on 27th July, and a good assortment of Rotarians and
friends make the journey. Two
Rotarians from Melton Mowbray went, John Dehnel and Geoff
Goodwin. We
were pleased to be joined by Chris Hall, who was one of the
team that had
made up the 3 Peaks Challenge walkers last year. Partly because
of our
affinity (if that is the word!) for Snowdon after that challenge and
more recent visits by Geoff and Chris, we decided to take a detour on
the way to Welshpool. We flew up to the north Welsh coast , along
from
Colwyn Bay to Llandudno and Bangor, then returned to Welshpool flying
overhead Snowdon on the way.
Although the weather was overcast
with low cloud when we left Leicester the forecast was for better
conditions in Wales - and the met office did not let us down. By the
time we crossed the border the sun came out, and we had a glorious
flight around north Wales. In Welshpool it was hot and sunny,
making for a pleasant but sticky walk to the garden centre nearby to
sample the fare at the cafe.
Colwyn
Bay and the Llandudno Peninsula
The Conway River
The
Conway River
Llanfairfechan coast
Llanfairfechan
coast
Approaching the Menai Strait
Approaching the
Menai Strait
The Menai and Britannia Bridges
Chris
at the controls
The Welsh Hills
Snowdon
The Pyg
Track up to the summit
The
other easy way up - the rail station
The IFFR crowd at lunch
The
crew and the PA28 G-USSY
A good day out, and an
example of some of the breadth of activities that Rotarians get up to!
Eric Hall joins the
club A
new member joined the Rotary Club on 4th July 2011, Eric Hall.
Eric is well know to several members, partly through long
connections with Scouting in the town. We we pleased to welcome
Eric, shown here at his induction:
Presidential Hand-Over The formal hand-over of the
Presidency of the club happened on 4th July 2011. John Horn
summarised what all in the club agreed had been a successful and
enjoyable year. We look forward to Pam Posnett continuing with
the success engendered by John during his year as President.
Julia Hinde has taken on the role of President-elect, supporting
Pam during the coming year.
Induction of Bill
Hill We
were delighted to welcome Bill Hill, a very experienced Rotarian, to
the club in June 2011. Bill has transferred to RC Melton Mowbray
from Wellingborough Hatton as a result of his house move to Langham.
Safari Supper 2011 The Club held its annual
Safari Supper this year on the 11th June. Absence on holidays
reduced the numbers attending, but 19 members, partners and friends
enjoyed the traditional format of an evening spent in 4 different
locations, for starter, main course, dessert and cheese/biscuits with
coffee, and in ever-changing company. This year's arrangements saw all
meeting for drinks and canapés on Dalby Road, scattering elsewhere in
Melton and as far as Ashwell for their main course, returning to Ab
Kettleby and Melton again, before ending up reunited in Hamilton Drive.
All
agreed that it had been a most enjoyable social event, also adding £90
to charitable funds. The President warmly thanked all who had provided
hospitality and attended.
Kids
Out 2011
The annual Kids Out day was held on 8th June 2011,
when
Rotary Clubs from around District 1070 took 2,223 disadvantaged
children to Wicksteed Park in Kettering for a day's fun and
enjoyment.
The Melton Mowbray club took 100 children from Birchwood, 30 from St.
Mary's and 34
from Swallowdale
schools, along
with several school teachers and helpers
from the Rotary club. This was part of
a nationwide day out, with some 540 clubs across Britain and Ireland
taking part, with an estimated 25,000 children enjoying a day
out. The club was pleased to receive
excellent feedback. The schools reported that the
children were extremely well fed with lots of choices with their lunch
and snacks. The supervision was great and all of the children had a
wonderful time and were positively buzzing when they returned to school
at the end of the day. The plastic capes kindly donated by Phil Bendall
at Twinlakes came in very useful when we had the first and only
downpour shortly after arriving at Wicksteed. After that first 15
minutes the weather held fine all day. All schools thought that the
package of the tee shirts, back packs, plastic capes and baseball caps
was excellent.
These photos illustrate some of the fun had by the children:
Several
"Thank You" cards were received by the club:
Presidential
Citation Awarded At the club
meeting on 16th May 2011 Assistant Governor Garner Roberts presented
the club with the Presidential Citation for 2010-11, which was
received with gratitude by President John Horn. Both Garner
and John paid tribute to the hard work and successes of the club in
achieving this award.
Ben
Abbott Awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship President
John Horn was pleased to take the occasion of our Annual General
meeting on 16th
May to ask Assistant Governor Garner Roberts to present a Paul Harris
Fellowship to Ben Abbott in recognition of his excellent service to the
club, with many events being run under his guidance.
President John particularly mentioned Ben's successes
in involving the community in the club's activities.
Jim
Schofield
joins the Club The 11th
April 2011 saw the induction into the club of another new member, Jim
Schofield, who has transferred from the Melton Mowbray Belvoir club to
the "lunch time club" following changes in his personal
commitments.
The
President of the Melton Rotary Club was pleased to welcome and
induct Jim and wished him well with us.
The
Big Duck Race, 2nd May 2011 The
Easter and May Bank Holiday period once again saw the Rotary Club of
Melton Mowbray hard at work fund raising at Twin Lakes. This
is
the
second year that Twinlakes has been kind enough to open their park to
us for the Duck Race
in order to raise money for Rotary charities. In this case the main
beneficiary will be the annual 'Kids Out' event which sees local
Rotarians taking deserving children to a leisure park for a day.
Other charities supported are a literacy project for
children,
bulbs for the blind at Christmas, and Christmas parcels for older and
needy folk in the Melton community.
This
year's event was the second Duck Race to be held at Twinlakes
Park
and it
took place on Monday 2nd May in glorious sunshine and, thankfully, a
strong breeze. The latter at least made sure the ducks blew
to
the shore in a record time. This followed a 12 day
period of
Rotarians asking visitors to the Park to sponsor the ducks and be
allocated with a Duck Number - visitors from all over the country (and
a few overseas) were generous in their support. Support
was so great again this year that over 2500 duck numbers were
sold.
This meant that once again the prize money had to be tripled since
there are only 1000 ducks in the race and each duck could have up to
three 'owners'. This
year duck 'sales' reached a staggering £3,868.50 and with the addition
of some very generous donations the total income was almost £4,000. On
'Race
Day' a large crowd gathered at the lake to cheer on their ducks.
Rotarians David Ward and Gavin Howling devised a
magnificent Duck
Launching system, releasing the 1000 plastic ducks from a cage in
the middle of the lake. It was then down to wind-power to
propel
the
contestants across the lake to the designated finishing line. The
only
challenge the wind gave us this year was that it made towing the launch
cage out to the middle of the lake in a rowing boat a tough assignment
for Gavin Howling. But with James Howling's assistance he
made it
successfully and the ducks were off. This was a year for
yellow
ducks. They outstripped the blues and pinks, and very shortly
the
first three ducks quacked into the winning tape.
Duck
number 663 reached the finishing line first, winning its three owners
£75 each. The second and third place ducks were 982 and 26
respectively with prize money of £50 and £25 going to their owners.
The
generosity and willingness of the visitors at Twin Lakes to sponsor the
ducks made all of our efforts worthwhile and the Rotary Club of Melton
Mowbray would like to thank them all for their support. Thanks
are
also due particularly to Pam Wiggins, and also to the
many
members of the club who sold
tickets and helped with the race itself. We are grateful to Twinlakes
Director, Phil Bendall, himself a member of the Melton Mowbray
Rotary
Club, who supported the event and
made
the park facilities available to the club members.
List of Winners
1st
Place
Duck - Number 663 - each winning £75
Rachel
Tuff from Leicester
Carol
Sinclare from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria
Paul
Hasbury from Bourne, Lincolnshire
2nd
Place
Duck - Number 982 - each winning £50 (only
2
owners with this number)
Wendy
Cheung from Keyworth, Nottinghamshire
Kenneth
Saddington from Barry, South Wales
3rd
Place
Duck - Number 26 - each winning £25
Chris
Shreeve, from Calverton, Nottingham
Laura
Smith from Peterborough
David
William from Nottingham
PS:
For our technically-minded readers, the inventor of
the duck
launcher supplied the following confidential information:
'SPECIFICATION
FOR DUCK
LAUNCHING
EQUIPMENT'
Scientifically
designed to
utilise the inherent bouyancy of 1000 plastic ducks to balance the
gravitational force related to the duck's constraining structure.
This state of
equilibrium
is maintained until the application of a tensional force to
the
release mechanism, which immediately puts the whole system out of
balance.
The gravitational
force then becomes dominant, immediately initiating the
removal
of the duck's constraining structure, and
simultaneously
releasing the 1000 ducks into freedom, to seek plastic duck
heaven.
The
Rotary
Clubs of Melton Mowbray and Melton Mowbray Belvoir joined forces to
raise awareness of the dangers of high blood pressure, by offering free
blood pressure checks and advice from professional nurses to the people
of Melton Mowbray. 181 blood pressure tests were carried out
during the day. Of these, 66 people were advised to consult
their
GPs in the next 4 weeks, and one person was advised to see his GP as
soon as possible. This remarkably high percentage illustrates
just how many unknowingly have high blood pressure,
which has
significant correlation to the risk of suffering a stroke. Thanks are
owed to the nurses
who gave up their time to support this important health initiative in
the town.
This
year's competition elicited 71 entries in the Junior section. All
entrants submitted a piece of prose or poetry. The theme was "Community
Spirit". The winner attends St Mary's Primary School.
Presentations are on Friday April 15th. The runner-up attends Asfordby
Hill Primary School and a Grove Primary school entrant was Highly
Commended. The pictures show the presentations at the Grove School on
Tuesday April 12th.
Container of
Aid Goes to the Philippines Today
saw the
culmination, at least for the Rotary Club of Melton
Mowbray, of several months' work collecting items of educational and
medical value, all donated by various schools, charities and
individuals in support of the poorer communities in Cebu province in
the Philippines. Over the past year many changes have taken
place
in the Melton schools, and much redundant equipment was likely to be
scrapped. However, what we consider to be out-dated
still
has much value to those schools and hospitals in the third world that
have so little. The club has been well supported,
particularly by
Long Field and John Ferneley schools with donations of computers,
school books, sports and music equipment. St. John Ambulance
were
having to dispose of boxes of dressings no longer of the type useful
for their work, but still of great value to others. Many
individuals donated clothing, other school equipment such as pens,
children's clothing and school bags, and a friend in the
Philippines persuaded his contacts in the publishing world (Ron Watson
and David Luper) to donate
two pallets of books. All too many to name individually, but
you
know who you are, and can be proud of helping those less fortunate than
ourselves.
See where the container has
reached: click
here, then click on "Map": The
pictures show
the items boxed up and being
loaded onto the container, which will arrive in Cebu in mid-May.
The Rotarians in several of the clubs in Cebu will do their
usual
wonderful and committed job in ensuring this all goes to people who
will benefit greatly from it.
Inauguration of
Melton Aurora Rotary Club, 24th March 2011 The
Rotary Club of Melton
Mowbray Aurora was inaugurated on 24th March. Below
is the
article published by the Melton Times, the copy of which we thank them
for.
President
Jean-Marie
Vernon receiving the RIBI banner from RIBI President Jim Moulson
Charter
Night, March 2011 Melton
Mowbray Rotary Club held its 83rd annual charter dinner, celebrating
its founding in 1928, at Scalford Hall on 21st March 2011.
Hosted
by President John Horn and attended by 105 guests from Rotary
clubs and other service organisations from around Melton and further
afield, we heard of some of the successes of the Melton Club
in
achieving its Rotary ideals. Toasts were given and responded
to
by President-elect Pam Posnett, District Governor Roger McDermott, and
President John Horn. The guest speaker, Warren Smith from the
Leeds Rotary club, gave us insights into the life of a theatre promoter
and of the many stage stars he has met over his career.
Young
Musician Semi-finals, March 2011 Melton
Mowbray again hosted the Rotary 1070 District Northern Semi Final at
the Baptist Church on Saturday 5 March. After an excellent
competition the certificates were awarded by Rotarian Terry Gooding,
Assistant District Governor. Standards were very high with
many
talented young instrumentalists and vocalists taking part presenting an
exacting challenge to experienced adjudicator Stuart Corbett.
Winners are now qualified for the District Final stage of the
competition which will be held at Melton Theatre on April 3rd.
The
quality of the performers is quite fantastic and if you get the chance
to attend any of the competition events you will not leave without
being impressed by the talent that the young people demonstrate. The
photographs show a mixture of winners and participants receiving their
certificates:-
Holywell
Brass
Ensemble (Winner; Junior Group)
Montrose
Violins
(Winner; Intermediate Group)
Danielle
Grange,
Frances Gibson, Naomi Edwards & Alexander Considine
(Participants,
Senior Solo Instrumental)
Isabella
Young,
Grace Garner, Megan Wood & Sarah Holbrook (Participants,
Intermediate Solo Instrumental)
Leicester
High School
for Girls (Winner; Senior Choir)
Sam Dye
&
Avishka Edirisinghe (Winners, Intermediate Solo Instrumental)
Thanks,
as ever,
go to Sheila Aston, whose exceptional commitment to this competition is
a significant factor in its ongoing success.
The
2011 national
final will be held at Bedford School, Bedford, on Saturday 21st May.
Four New Members
Join the Club The
President of the Melton Rotary Club was pleased to welcome and
induct four new members to the club at the meeting on 14th March 2011.
The four are:
Richard
Abbott, a
semi-retired neurologist, most recently working at the Leicester Royal
Infirmary
Jane
Abbott, a
home-maker, who was also a local government officer in an earlier life
Penny
Hancox, a
retired primary and special educations needs teacher who recently moved
to Melton from the North-East, and
James
Wiggins,
husband of existing member Pam, transferring from Grantham Kesteven to
join Pam in the Melton club (young love - ahhh).
James is
a management consultant.
The
Club's
Annual Fun
Shooting competition was held this year on Wednesday 2nd
March 2011 at the Holwell Rifle Club, Asfordby Hill. As in
previous years
the event was well supported with 13 Rotarians, family and friends from
our own
Club, plus a contingent of 6 travelers from the Rotary Club of
Rutland,
stalwarts from the 'good old Dick Turpin' days. The members
of
the
Holwell Rifle Club again acted as superb mentors, organisers and hosts.
Even
the
organiser's best efforts to
yet again change the rules, and to arrange the date so as to prevent
previous
'Champions' such as 'Dead Eye Dehnel', 'Mad Scot Manderson',
and
'The
Carrington Kid' from attending couldn't get him into a higher
finishing
position than 15th place.
With
a
backcloth of aggressive
rivalry and fierce banter, the 19 competitors shot 15 rounds
(5 @
three
targets), in a seated position, aimingto
achieve the tightness spread on the target. This
being followed by
the arm
aching LSR (the oxymoron of Light Weight Sports Rifle), shooting 20
rounds at
a standard, allegedly static
scoring target. All
followed by a
buffet and drinks when the results were announced and matched to the
earlier
excuses.
The
results were as follows:-
Seated, tightest
spread
First
-
Gavin Howling, Second - Phil Bendall, Equal Third - Malcolm Mann
(Rutland), Brian Fenwick (Rutland), and our own James Howling (within
4mm spread of his dad Gavin, and yet to learn not to beat his
mother Jenny by so much)
Standing LSR
First
-
Phil Bendall, Second - Gavin Howling, Third - Peter Knowles
Overall Results
Club Champion -
Gavin
Howling and Phil Bendall, Joint Winners for 2011
Melton Mowbray
Young
Musician of the Year
The Melton Rotary Clubs' Young Musician Heats, sponsored by the Melton
Mowbray Building Society, took place on the 5th February at the Melton
Mowbray Baptist Church. The audience was treated to a feast of good
music across the age ranges, with all performers doing well.
Entrants each played two pieces of varied style and length,
depending
on their age. They were judged by experienced adjudicator Roy Abbey.
The event concluded with the announcement that Hannah Bailey is Melton Mowbray
Young
Musician of the Year 2011.
All the following will appear at the Rotary 1070 District Northern Semi
Final to be held at the Baptist Church on Saturday 5 March.
Junior Solo Instrumental
Winner
Alicia
Boothroyd
Clarinet
Runner-Up
Emma
Woodward
Piano
Junior Ensemble Instrumental
Winner
Gaddesby School Recorder Trio
Intermediate Solo Instrumental
Winner
Megan
Wood
Flute
Intermediate Solo Vocal
Winner
Ilea Cavner
Runner-Up
Hollie Johnson
Senior Solo Instrumental
Winner
Sara
Hall
Clarinet
Runner-Up
Danielle
Grange
Clarinet
Senior Solo Vocal
Winner
Hannah Bailey
Runner-Up
Stefan Gackowski
The Young Musician Of The Year was Hannah Bailey and
The Young Ensemble Of The Year was The Gaddesby School
Recorder
Trio
The photographs show Tinotenda and Tinashe Msipa with Roy Abbey; the
Mayor of Melton, Margaret Moore and Young Mayor of Melton, David
Downing with Sara Hall, Megan Wood and Hannah Bailey.
Young Chef -
District Finals On
Saturday
February 5th Beth Warner and Erin White set off for the Samworth
Academy in Leicester to represent Melton Mowbray in the
District
1070
Young Chef final.
They had prepared very thoroughly with a
number of trial runs and a second session in the kitchens at Stapleford
Park Hotel, ably supported by head chef David Ellams and his team. Both
girls performed very well indeed. The progress that they had each made
as a result of the coaching sessions was very much in evidence. We were
very proud of them.
In truth though, it is a tough challenge.
Standards are high and they were up against older youngsters with much
more experience on all fronts. Unlike other Rotary competitions there
is no Intermediate class in Young Chef. Judged from this perspective
their achievement is without doubt impressive, but unfortunately the
prizes went elsewhere! They were understandably disappointed but they
are still looking back with pleasure on what has overall been a very
exciting, beneficial and enjoyable learning experience for them.
The photographs show Erin and Beth making final preparations,
their
impressive 3 course meals and their fellow competitors.
Jenny
Foreman
The
sequence of events in this year's local Young Chef
competition came to a conclusion this week (March
16th 2011).
Joint winners Bethany Warner from
John Ferneley College and Erin White from Long Field School were
presented with
their trophy in separate school assemblies. The girls are pictured
receiving
their award from Rotarians Eric Sylt and Jenny Foreman.
Humanitarian
Projects in the Philippines - 3 Projects Completed
The
Melton Rotary Club has supported work in the central Philippines for
several years, and during December 2010 finalised three wide ranging
projects, supporting communities there in educational, health and
livelihood projects of all sorts. The three projects are
described briefly below. We are grateful for the support of The Rotary
Foundation in helping to finance all these activities. Full
details are in the final reports to the Rotary
Foundation, linked from each project as below.
Items
of medical equipment were purchased by members of the Rotary Club of
Melton Mowbray both in the USA and in the Philippines. These were
shipped and/or given directly to the recipients in the Rotary Club of
Siquijor and to the mayor of the province of South Leyte, both in the
Philippines for use in the local health centres and hospitals.
The Melton Rotary Club put £540 into this project, matched
with
£500 from The Rotary Foundation.
The
project, which has been running since January 2008, addressed several
of the basic health, education, skills training and livelihood
of
the rural folks in the Visayas. This included:
Birthing
station for mothers
Dental
facility in Souther Leyte
Cataract
operations
E-skills
centre for out of school youth - this incorporated a computer
laboratory with installation of e-learning courseware, network
administration and computer maintenance training to support
GALS
(alternative learning system) training
An
alternative learning and community
resource
centre
with reading programme
Coral
reef
rehabilitation programme, including launch of
the ?Adopt
a Reef Project?, to support
livelihood
Farm
fishing for community livelihood
Rural
youth leadership development through leadership
training
for street children and a Scouting program for out-of-school
youth
Skills
training for deaf adults
Deaf
awareness and training seminars for empowerment
This
project was sponsored by the Melton Rotary Club with $5,000
(about
£2,400), the Philippine Rotary Club of Mandaue North and district 3860
contributed $10,100, and this was all matched with a further
$23,550 from
The Rotary Foundation.
This
project was
started in mid-2008 to provide a wide range of mainly education-based
support for the area:
Skills
training for 28 out of school youth from rural communities with
transportation allowance, board and lodging for one year on Home and
Restaurant Services and Vocational Skills Training, leading
to on
the job placement in Banilad Professional Center for Development and
CITE-ACTEC Training Center.
Setting
up of Cognitive Neuro-feedback Simulation Center for 100 children with
special needs to address language and cognitive skills in PRIME Center
Foundation.
Eye
glasses for 240 elementary children and check up under the Sight For A
Child program.
Children
and Youth Development program on numeracy for 100 Grade VI pupils.
Leadership training for 30 University Student-leaders.
Character
formation for 150 street kids and 30 volunteer?s training in Sugbu
Study Center.
E-learning
courseware development and multimedia production for out of school
youth.
Skills
training and interactive and creative learning materials for children
and youth.
Securing
used hospital equipment and other useful items including storage and
transportation costs to assist clubs in the district in expanding their
programs on health, education and empowerment of the poor through
livelihood.
This
project was
sponsored by the Melton Rotary Club with $5,000 (about
£2,400),
the
Philippine Rotary Club of Cebu East and district 3860
contributed
$10,100, the Village Aid programme started by David Collins in Bohol
donated $4,500, and this was all matched with a further
$24,800
from
The Rotary Foundation.
Melton
Rotary Club is delighted to have helped the hard-working Rotarians in
Cebu, Siquijor and Leyte in achieving so much to support their local
communities. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Rotary
Foundation in these activities.
Pam Wiggins, chairman of
the Community and
Vocational Committee writes:
Christmas has arrived with the start
of the
Christmas Tree
Festival at St Mary?s Church. I was grateful that the roads
between
Grantham and Melton had been cleared to enable me to assist
the
Community and Vocational
team prepare their latest masterpiece of
decoration. In
mid-October our Blue Peter training came in
useful. Decorations were created, glue was covered in glitter
and
Kate
had the nightmare job of trying to remove all the sparkly bits from her
cream
carpet.
Today was the day that all the hard
work by Kate,
Pam, Ian
and Julia could finally be put on display. My husband James
decided that he would come along to support
our efforts. I can only say that without him we would have
been
in real
trouble. Julia arrived with the brand new Christmas Lights,
provided by a
fellow Rotarian, only to discover that we had been given Icicle
lights.
Great if you are working on a flat surface but hardly suitable for a
10ft
Christmas Tree. If anyone has been to our house over the
Christmas
period you would realise that I have a genius in James when it comes to
Christmas lighting. Not to be beaten, he set about making the
light
system work for us. After about an hour of tweaking
this
and
tweaking that we were in business and ready to adorn the tree with our
home
made decorations, baubles and beads.
The
theme was to let the community know
how we
raised funds
for our projects this year, and how the money has been spent. The tree,
therefore, has plastic angel ducks, cut out big ducks, paper golf
balls, photographs
of the 3 Peaks Challenge, Cicle race along with photographs of Youth
projects,
Kids Day out and Interact. We believe that the
finished
article was worth all the
effort and a number of people who passed by were also very
impressed. In addition to the tree Kate
managed to
locate a
mannequin. It is now wearing a Santa outfit to promote next week?s
Santa
run. Julia had a chat with a mother and son who were very interested in
taking
part and her young son wanted to buy his Santa outfit there and
then. Let
us hope that the display generates more entries for the Santa Run.
I would like to extend my most
sincere thanks to
Ian, who
provided the Tree, Julia and Kate for all their hard work to promote
Rotary in the Community. I hope that as
many of you as
possible will take the time to
visit St Mary?s, not only to see the Rotary Christmas Tree, but to
appreciate
the amount of effort that other organisations put into making this
event so
successful.
The two Melton Rotary
Clubs staged the
first round
of Youth
Speaks ? a public speaking competition for young people aged 11-18 ? at
Quorn
Lodge Hotel on 27th November 2010.
The winning teams were Melton Young
Farmers and
King Edward
VII Interact Club.
Representing the Young Farmers were
Archie
Herrick, Sarah
Lovegrove and Charlotte Hammond. They delivered an address entitled The
Curse
of the Crocs.
The KE7 team included Emily Pooley,
Rosemary
Dymond and
Laura Masterman. They posed the question: Water ? an infinite resource?
What is the
President wearing?
Both
teams spoke confidently and with an assurance that
belied their years. They now proceed to the Rotary District semi-finals
in
January representing Melton.
Four
local schoolgirls aged between 11 and 13 cooked
for Head Chef David Ellams at Stapleford Park Country Hotel last week.
The
girls were the winners and runners up of the local heats of the Rotary
Clubs?
Young Chef Competition. The girls quickly rose to the challenge of
working in a
professional kitchen under the watchful eye of experts in the field.
The
visit was arranged in order to help to prepare two
of the girls for the next stage of the competition. This will be held
in
Leicester in January and will involve the planning, costing,
preparation and
presentation of a 3 course meal for 2. Fellow competitors may well be
16 or 17
years of age!
David
and his pastry chef, Simon, will spend another
morning with the girls before then. This time the professionals will do
the
cooking, showing Bethany and Erin how they can use their chosen
ingredients to
further develop their already impressive culinary skills and hopefully
wow the
judges.
The
pictures show Bethany Warner, Erin White, Isabelle North and Elizabeth
White in
action.
Erin
and Lizzie, from Long Field School together with Bethany and Izzie from
John
Ferneley College were thrilled to be given this opportunity. They were complimented
by David on the quality of their meals
and their careful work in the kitchen, which bettered the standard
achieved in
previous years. Parents of the girls were also delighted commenting
that the
girls were really benefiting from such a unique experience.
Thank you to Stapleford Park Hotel for helping
the girls with
this
unforgettable experience.
Visit
to Projects in the Philippines
Club member John Dehnel visited several of the projects we are
supporting in the Philippines in October 2010. He
writes:
Over the past year the club has undertaken a project to buy
and
ship
various items of medical equipment, such as digital thermometers,
bandages and blood-pressure testing equipment, to supply to hospitals
and health centres in the Visayas region in the central Philippines.
During a visit to the beautiful island of Siquijor, just
south of Cebu, I met the members of the Rotary Club of Siquijor Island
to whom some of this equipment had been sent. Past-president Shirley
Creasey was very
kind in meeting us on arrival and arranging the visit overall.
She and several of the members of the club took us around the
island to see the main hospital and various health centres.
We also met the Provincial Governor and the Mayor of
Siquijor, where we were able to discuss the work the Rotary Clubs are
doing on the island and how the local government can work with them in
this endeavour. On Siquijor we also met recently inducted
member of the Rotary Club, Honey Grace Samson, who was a member
of the GSE team to visit district 1070 in Autumn 2009. It was
as a result of her visit that we now have such good contacts with
Rotary on the island.
Siquijor
Hospital
Siquijor
Hospital
Siquijor
Health
Centres
Siquijor
Health
Centres
Siquijor
Health
Centres
We
attended the Rotary Club of Siquijor Island's meeting and they
showed us round the island.
Rotary
was in
evidence in several places across the island - the
Rotary Club is clearly very active, seen here at the small
dock where we landed after a scuba diving trip (no, it wasn't all
Rotary work!). Rotary's
End
Polio Now
campaign is still in full swing in the Philippines - in the very
district that was one of the pilots for starting the whole programme
back in 1985 - evidenced by these signs at the ferry port to Siquijor: The
last photo here is of our meeting with the Provincial governor.
Rotary
erected the waiting shed at the dock
Meeting with the
Provincial Governor
End
Polio
Now posters at the ferry port
During
our
time back in Cebu City I was able to visit the offices and
warehouse of Berovan, one of the local medical suppliers, to pick up
some previously ordered sphagmomanometers (blood pressure testing
equipment). It was Halloween night on the day I picked up the
equipment; hence the rather unusual costumes worn by the staff! I was
pleased then to be able to meet old friends Rico Rentuza and Jane
Araneta from the province of St. Bernard, to hand over the equipment
for use in their health centres on Leyte.
Collection
... and Hand-Over
Our
visit
to Cebu was facilitated enormously by the hard work of
Rotarian Allan Limas, who had been the GSE team leader for the team
from the Visayas mentioned above. Thank you Allan. We met several other
Rotarians and visited a number of Rotary clubs during our 5 day stay in
the city. This included the charter night of the Cebu Fuente
Rotary Club - held in the local casino with all the food and
drinks sponsored by Paggcor, the casino owners - now there's
an idea for a UK club's charter night!
Dinner
in the Casino
Past
and present
Presidents entertain
Rotaract
members
Rotaractors
entertain
Over
the past few
years the Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray has shipped a number
of
containers of educational and health equipment to Cebu, donated by
schools, hospitals and Rotarians n Melton and across District 1070.
It was
in
evidence in several places, including the science equipment at the
Mactan school and the sewing machines in the training centre.
High
School in Mactan
Microscopes
from King Edward VII School, Melton
A
well
equipped computer room, supplied by
another charity
Elementary
School
High School
Gardening
lessons - using sticks in place of
garden trowels
Water
supply,
provided by Rotary
More
Microscopes
from KEVII
Kids
Training Centre
Sewing
Machines at Kids Training Centre
Another
GSE link was
our visit to the pre-school facility set up and run by Nancy Berame,
a member of the GSE team visiting the UK in 2009. This school is a
truly
wonderful initiative providing much needed support to local children.
Nancy is seen here, with some of the equipment provided by
the Melton Rotary Club and the play equipment funded by Melton Mowbray
Ladies in Rotary:
The
Rotary Club on Mactan Island has its own club house! It
persuaded
the local governor to give it the land and pay for the building in
return for all the good work it does in the area. They use it
for
their club meetings, but also for training programmes for out-of-school
youth and job training for aspiring IT employees in the local economic
enterprise zone.
And
right at the
end of our time in Cebu I had a chance to meet Gail
Bitancor, the dentist who was the other member of the same GSE team as
mentioned above, and the District Foundation Chairman Yumi Espina:
In
total this
was a fascinating visit to a Rotary district
that is working hard to overcome the deprivations suffered by an almost
overwhelming proportion of the local population. It brings home how
much we can do to continue to help them in the great work they are all
doing.
Aspiring and
enthusiastic youngsters entered the Young Chef heats in November 2010
at Long Field School and
John Ferneley College. They chopped, baked, stir-fried and
whisked their way to competition success in a bid to be selected for
the next
round.
Judges Ros Eggleston (Inner Wheel), Jenny Foreman (Rotarian)
and
Ann
Evans (Food
technologist) sampled all the entries and chose Erin White and Bethany
Warner as
the winners.
Together with
runners-up Lizzie White and Isabelle North the girls will now spend two
mornings working with David Ellams, head chef at Stapleford Park
Country House
Hotel to further develop their skills. He will also treat them to lunch!
In February 2011 Erin and Bethany will now go on to the next
stage
where they will
compete against Young Chef winners from other clubs.
The pictures show all four girls and fellow competitors with
their
certificates.
District
Quiz
Two
teams represented the Club in the annual District Quiz. Jenny Foreman,
Linda Moore, Mike Rowe and David Ward were Team A, Wendy Davies,
Adrienne Holland, John Horn and John Redwood Team B. Battle was joined
at the usual venue, the White Horse at Quorn. The buffet caught at
least two of us by surprise ? remembering the quality last year we had
eaten before, and hence could not do full justice to that provide this
year. You never know what a change of management will do!
Quizmaster
Graham Cooper was his usual jovial but strict self, brooking no
argument over the slightest deviation in an answer. Even giving extra
information ws penalized. The questions were difficult, demanding some
very specialist knowledge ? Team B were lucky to have John Redwood on
Science. A few could be regarded as unfair. For instance a question on
a mode of Transport in the T.V. series the Simpsons seemed to be in the
wrong category.
The Leader Board changed regularly. Loughborough
with an impressive 10 in the first round ( only the 2nd 10 in the whole
District series ) later scored 0 in another round ( I think this was
the first in the District). After 3 rounds Team B were in the
lead, but flattered to deceive, peaking too early, fearing more
difficulty in later rounds, particularly the Picture Round. Eventually
Coalville A came 1st, our Team B were joint 2nd, with Team A in
mid-table. However, we were pleased to discover that of the 3or 4 Clubs
who had entered 2 teams we were in the lead on aggregate !!
The
evening closed with Coalville President David Knight thanking the
organizers for another successful and enjoyable competition. Perhaps we
could enter 3 teams next year.
GSE -
Ant
Smith's report to the Fire Service
Ant (Anthony) Smith's Group Study Exchange visit to the Philippines in
April 2010 clearly made an impression on him. This is his
report
to the house journal of his employer, the Leicestershire Fire aand
Rescue Service. Thanks to Ant for preparing this report.
The
82nd
Annual Conference of our
Rotary District ,1070, took place in Bournemouth between 24th and 26th
September 2010, with the sun shining all through the weekend onto the
15
apparently righteous delegates representing our club, and the
event being
hosted by District 1070 DG Roger Mc Dermott in his unpretentious
friendly
manner.
The
Hotel arrangements, the
Miramar, organised by Club President John Horn were excellent,
the
Conference Arena was well located but lacked tiered quality
seating and
the obvious coffee in the breaks that has already received much
discussion
time.
Conference
had a
'Dementia' theme, with a brilliant presentation by John Suchet
detailing his personal story and the impact on his
life caused
by his wife Bonnie's,
tragic deterioration with
dementia.
John recommended the charity 'Admiral Nurses' as a major
support
for
carers impacted by this terrible disease, a
disease that
affects the
carers probably more than the patients.
There are some
820,000
dementia sufferers in the UK.
The
charity REPoD, Rotarians Easing
the Problems of dementia was covered by Dr. Geri Parlby, who as a
Rotarian and
Club President helps to provide items such as 'Memory boxes', or sets
up
'Memory Cafes' to help sufferers memory, website www.repod.org.uk
The
highlight of the conference, to
me, was the breath of fresh air about to blown across RIBI, in the form
of the
incoming President of RIBI Ray Burnan. Ray gave a clear
message
that
Rotary was all about the 'Rotarian', and that during his year he will
focus on
this hands on approach, allied to the necessary membership
focus.
David
Morris our own member received a resounding recognition for all of his
membership work both locally and across Districts. Well done
David.
Others
worthy of mention:-
- GSE team
presentation on trip to Philippines, well done to all, and our nominee
Anthony
Smith who has had published in the Fire and Rescue Service's 'Call Out"
monthly house journal, a report on his Rotary GSE trip (see article).
This
magazine is circulated widely in the Fire Service and other
Public
Service areas.
- RYLA
presentation by Tom Wallender, well received, note applications for
this year's
candidates required now.
- If anyone reads
as far as this, please log off after completing report, then
try
to spell WORLD backwards in your head, then
email me confirming
ability. (Test for persons NOT wanting to be Club President)
- Roy Walker
comedian who rounded up the event with a series of jokes, that I seem
to have
written down incorrectly, but available for
the price of a pint.
- Next year's
Conference is the Red Rose Conference in Southport 30th Sept - 2nd
October
2011. ABBA reunion band, but meals in own hotel.
- RI Conference
21st - 25th May 2011 in New Orleans USA.
Conclusion,
another excellent
weekend of fellowship for those attending, with a few speakers of
interest, no
overall message, but a few themes 'Dementia', 'Focus on the Rotarian',
'Membership', but
enjoy your involvement with the 'Family Rotary'.
Alison
Blythe's
Induction
The Rotary Club were pleased to induct our newest member, Alison
Blythe, into the club at their meeting on the 13th September
2010.
Alison is the principal in the international school in Melton
Mowbray. President John Horn introduced her to the club, and
Alison was warmly welcomed by all the members present.
Club
Visit to Launde Abbey
The Rotary Club held their meeting on the 6th September 2010 in an
unusual venue - Launde Abbey, south of Melton Mowbray. We
were kindly hosted by club member Ian Neale, who has undertaken a
challenging "retirement" project, leading the complete restoration of
the Abbey. After the successful Save Launde Abbey campaign in
2009 an ambitious programme of renovations is now under way which will
put the facilities of Launde at the forefront of retreat centres,
primarily for religious grouops but open to all groups, secular,
business, educational or others. The Abbey, originally built
as an Augustinian priory in AD 1119, was overthrown by Cromwell and
used as a private residence until the 1950s, At that stage it
returned to the control of the church, and has been a retreat ever
since. However it was in a rather dilapidated
state. It is now being transformed, within an overall budget
of £2,600,000. to a modern residence with up to the minute
facilities throughout. Ian Neale is putting his background as a
building surveyor and estimator to excellent use. We were
astonished at the amount of detail across many fields that need, to be
considered in renovating such an historic building.
The
club was warmly
welcomed by Nick Quinn, the business manager
and,
of course, Ian Neale. The kitchen staff fed us very well -
auguring well for the catering once the new impressive kitchens and
dining rooms are functioning. We look forward to seeing the
Abbey again when the project is finished later in the year.
