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Recognising Long Service

Three long standing members of Swanage & Purbeck Rotary have been recognised for their service.

Doug Quayle has completed 25 years service to Rotary, David Pike more than 35 years and Mick Beck over 40 years.

All three were awarded long service certificates by Club President Dai Hounsell at our recent speaker meeting at Swanage Sailing Club and at home.

David will be familiar to many as the ‘techie’ often seen clambering around stage setups for events such as the Summer Fête and Christmas Market, as well as helping Santa with his sleigh.

Mick has been a stalwart of the December programme, often acting as the sorting office for the Christmas Mail as well as being involved in many roles within the club over the years including auditor and committee chair and member of many of the club’s committees.

Doug has had input into many areas of the club over the years, in particular the Christmas market.

Their recognition is well deserved and they are an inspiration to us all, but we hope they’re not finished yet as their wealth of experience will continue to be invaluable to the club as we go forward.

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Learning about Hearing Dogs

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Maggie Hardy reports on an enlightening evening:

Swanage & Purbeck Rotary was delighted to welcome Deb Fullbrook, husband Keith and hearing dog Elmo to its meeting on July 12th.

As a deaf person Deb spoke of the important role Elmo plays in her life and has done for the last 8 years. Deb said that deafness can be terribly isolating, leaving many deaf people without the confidence to leave their homes, avoiding social situations and feeling cut off from the world.

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Trained by ‘Hearing Dogs for Deaf People’, Elmo is able to respond to important sounds and danger signals such as the doorbell, alarm clock and smoke alarm and provide welcomed companionship and help to reduce the feelings of stress and anxiety. Members were charmed by Elmo, a handsome black Labrador who, in his smart burgundy working jacket, demonstrated some of his skills, enjoying a well earned treat as a reward.

His working uniform helps to bring visibility to Deb’s deafness which is otherwise a largely invisible disability.

Swanage & Purbeck Rotary was able to give a generous donation to Hearing Dogs, thanking Deb and her husband for an informative and interesting talk highlighting the work of their special dog Elmo.

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The Times They Are a-Changing!

Handover Time!
Time to handover the reins!

It’s that time in the Rotary year where we start looking at our priorities for the year ahead (starting 1st July) and hand over the reins to a new Club President.

Firstly came the Club Assembly in early June. This was the occasion where incoming project leads identified their proposals for the year ahead, funds permitting, and laid out where they would like the money that the club raises to go. Of course, nothing is cast in stone as there may be additional requests that come to us during the course of the year, but this at least gave us some initial guidelines for our future efforts.

Then, this week, we had the handover, where the current President hands over the running of the club to the new President.

We held our handover event this year at a new venue (for us), which was Swanage Sailing Club, and over 30 Rotarians, partners and friends were present to see outgoing President Chris Le Fevre pass the mantle of responsibility to incoming President Dai Hounsell.

On a beautiful evening and nourished by a superb meal of chicken in white wine sauce followed by cheesecake, the formal handover was conducted with Dai confirming his priorities for the coming year.

Taking over as President Elect (President 2024/25) was Maggie Hardy, who was presented with her ribbon by the new President.

Also present was District Governor Bill Casey, who surprised one of our veteran Rotarians, David Pike, with a special award in recognition of his many years of loyal contribution to Rotary and the wider community.

So we’re off and running again into the next Rotary year and it won’t be long before our next event, the annual Summer Fête – more details available on our dedicated webpage here.

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‘Bouled’ Over!

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Competition in full flow!
Boules Competition 24/05/23
Boules Competition 24/05/23

Swanage beach was the venue for the inaugural Club Boules competition this week, superbly organised and run by one of our new members, Helen Hardy.

More than 30 Rotarians and guests assembled on the main beach, competitive juices flowing, for the event held on a beautiful late May evening with sunshine a-plenty and virtually no wind to spoil it.

Competitors drew partners from a hat (well, a tin actually!) and were split into four groups of three pairs teams. Each team played each other over 4 ends to decide the quarter final line up.

Boules Competition 24/05/23
Boules Competition 24/05/23

The knockout stage saw the eight remaining teams battle it out, leaving just two to contest the final.

President Chris LeFevre and his partner, Rotarian Peter Davies, were the ultimate victors, defeating husband and wife team Robin and Pam Briggs in what can only be described as a one-sided affair, winning 7-1.

Grateful thanks go to Helen for an excellently organised event and one which we are sure will be repeated.

Boules Competition 24/05/23
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Music to Our Ears

We were delighted to resume after our summer break with a talk from Tim Arnold.

Tim has been involved for many years in the promotion of music for younger people in the Purbeck area and especially in local schools. Seeing the problems specific to our area in terms of a shortage of both teaching resources and instruments, Tim, together with representatives ‍of ‍Purbeck ‍Art ‍Weeks, ‍Swanage ‍& ‍Purbeck ‍Rotary, ‍the ‍Purbeck ‍Instrument ‍Loan ‍Scheme ‍and ‍other ‍educational ‍organisations, has set up Purbeck Youth Music in order to try and help and encourage young people in our area to take up music.

And early results are very encouraging. To date there has been a healthy take up by youngsters interested in leaning brass instruments which has resulted in a series of brass beginner groups. There are now plans for similar presentations for strings and woodwind to schools across the Purbeck area throughout the autumn.

Tim’s passion is very apparent and it is hoped that this initiative will help to stop the decline in young people taking up music in our area and identify hidden talent that can be nurtured in the years ahead.

Anyone interested in learning more about PYM and how they may be able to help should go to their website for more information.

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Summer Fête Hotspot!

President Chris LeFevre reports on a scorching hot day in Sandpit Field:

After a two year absence, we were delighted to hold our Summer Fête and Craft Fair on Sandpit Field on Thursday 11th August.

Temperatures were very high, but despite this we had a steady flow of visitors enjoying the wide range of stalls and entertainment on offer.

These included traditional favourites such as hoop-la and the tombola, as well as more recent innovations such as the Cornhole game.

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The refreshment tent and BBQ were on hand to sustain those attending and other options included vegan soups, craft coffee and, of course, Purbeck Ice Cream!

There were plenty of crafts on display too, as well as the ever-popular Boutique In A Bus.

Charities presenting included Sustainable Swanage, Planet Purbeck and the RNLI.

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There was no shortage of entertainment either. Kevin Burke did his magic show (when he wasn’t striding around the field on stilts!) and music was provided by Karen Grant, local musicians Jurassic Roll’n Roll and the Ukulele Band.

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The Grand Raffle was drawn towards the end of the day, with prizes, most of which were kindly donated by our Business Partners and other local organisations, presented to the lucky winners. Those winners not present will find their prizes delivered to them in the coming days.

All proceeds from this event provide valuable funds for the many good causes that we are supporting.

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Our most grateful thanks go to all those who have helped to support the fête this year, including Friends of Rotary, Business Partners, Harman’s Cross Fête Committee members and, of course, the members of our Rotary Group. Here’s to next year!

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Gold Standard!

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Since the beginning of 2021, our two ‘Angels of Mercy’ Maggie Hardy and Sue Whitton have stepped up to help in the mass vaccination programme at Wareham hospital.

In the period between January and October they have vaccinated an incredible 4,250 patients, protecting those individuals and the wider community from the threat of COVID-19.

Maggie and Sue are both retired medical professionals who have selflessly put themselves forward to help protect our community and justifiably have been awarded Gold Medals and Certificates for their superb efforts.

Here at Swanage & Purbeck Rotary we are very proud of Maggie and Sue and would like to add our own congratulations to them both.

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Disaster Response from Swanage Rotarians

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Our Rotarians getting down to work!

Swanage & Purbeck Rotary is proud of its fast response to disasters around the world when they happen.

So when the earthquake hit Haiti last week, it was “all systems go” to try and do something to help.

Thanks to Dorset Council granting us a Street Collection Licence in double-quick time, we were out in Station Road Swanage on 24th August collecting money for a ShelterBox to help those in Haiti who are in dire need.

The ShelterBox charity provides equipment that enables up to 10 people to have shelter and basic equipment to be able to survive the aftermath of a natural disaster until more permanent help is able to be provided. More details about the charity is available on their website.

Each ShelterBox is numbered so that they can be tracked wherever they go around the world and organisations like Rotary who raise funding for them can see exactly where the money that they have raised has gone.

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We were also indebted (as always) to Corbens Estate Agents, who once again offered to take donations in envelopes on our behalf. Total funding raised from the day so far is almost £900, from both cash and card donations, which is a fantastic achievement and we are incredibly grateful to the generous Swanage residents and visitors to our town who gave so willingly.

Grateful thanks also go to Rotarian Maggie Hardy who co-ordinated the day and to our Rotarians and friends who turned out on the day to help collect.

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A Traveller’s Life

We had a talk from our very own Susan Treadwell last week.

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Susan has had a fascinating life in the Business Travel industry. She has spent her career managing travel arrangements for everyone from senior business managers, to the BBC and even royalty!

It sounds like the perfect job, but it is clearly extremely hard work, often involving travelling to locations around the world and working whatever hours are required to keep customers happy. Susan has spent time in locations such as Hong Kong and the Caribbean during her career. Pictured to the left is Susan in the Arctic when the temperature dropped to -34 degrees centigrade!

It was a fascinating insight into an area that most of us have experience of, albeit through our summer holidays (when we could travel!) but very few would have had any awareness of what is involved in ensuring that things go to plan. Susan was at pains to point out that arranging business travel is rather different to managing the annual trip to the sun. Nevertheless, we were fascinated to hear Susan’s stories from her many years in the business.

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World Immunisation Week, 24th – 30th April 2021

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Rotarian Maggie Hardy reports on a real good news story:

Swanage and Purbeck Rotary has supported the Global Polio Eradication Programme for many years both financially and by the attendance of three club members at a National Immunisation Day in Delhi, India. Rotary members know the power of immunisation well and are delighted that this awful virus is now only endemic in two countries but recognise that this disease is only a plane ride away so every effort must be made to continue support and completely eradicate Polio.

Over the last year S&P has raised £2,000 for Polio Eradication which is an amazing achievement during the coronavirus. This amount will be trebled by the Bill and Melinda Gate ‘s Foundation giving a sizeable donation of £6,000 to Polio eradication.

And now as Covid -19 vaccines are distributed around the world the well- established infrastructure for Polio is being used to support the pandemic with every effort being made to promote the value of immunisation/vaccination which will be highlighted with greater importance this year during World Immunisation week at the end of April. 

In S&P Rotary our support continues positively with the ‘Jab it Forward’ campaign, devised by a local Rotarian and her nephew to encourage all those who have been given their Covid vaccines by the NHS to donate the sum of £5 per vaccine to a fund aiming to provide Covid-19 vaccines to low- income nations around the world.

                                                “No one is safe until we are all safe”  

And locally Rotarians have also been supporting the Purbeck Vaccination Centre in Wareham as members of the vaccinator team working alongside many other volunteers who wish to help with the important work of Covid -19 vaccination.