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Celebrating Our Community

Presentation Night (1)

Rotarians and members of our community came together in Mid March to celebrate the achievements of the past 12 months.

Presentation Night (2)
Presentation Night (3)

Swanage and Purbeck Rotary’s Presentation Night is an opportunity to recognise everything that has been done with local groups to try and make things better for the community.

Representatives of many of the groups who have helped or been helped by Rotary attended and we were delighted to welcome Swanage Town Mayor Tina Foster and some of our Business Partners too.

After enjoying a sumptuous buffet, lovingly prepared by our very own ‘catering dream team’, attendees sat down to hear about the key arms of Swanage and Purbeck Rotary’s activities – Community, Youth and International – the chair of each committee highlighting their major events from the past year.

Presentation Night (5)
Presentation Night (8)

Then it was the turn of International and Foundation Chair Maggie Hardy to deliver the annual ‘surprises’ of Paul Harris Fellowships (the highest honours in Rotary) to members of the community who had demonstrated going above and beyond.

Incoming President Dai Hounsell concluded the formalities with an overview of the way in which Rotary interacts with so many other groups in the community, following which many remained to network with other groups (and make sure that the buffet didn’t go to waste!).

Many thanks go to everyone who attended to make it such a positive evening. Rotary is now starting preparations for the next 12 months of service and looks forward to seeing many more people out and about in the coming months.

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Silver Saturday Success

Swanage and Purbeck Rotary were delighted to host their annual Silver Saturday event at the end of February, celebrating the older members of our lovely community.

A gathering of over 100 people, including guests, Rotarians and entertainers, assembled at the Emmanuel Church in Victoria Avenue, our usual venue for this event, to enjoy a sumptuous afternoon tea, with sandwiches, cakes and other goodies a-plenty, lovingly prepared by our catering dream-team!

Entertaining those present was renowned local magician and entertainer Kevin Burke, who amazed those present with his sleight of hand, and the Ukelele Band, playing many of their favourite tunes. We were delighted that Swanage Town Mayor Tina Foster was also able to join us and cut the cake celebrating the 118th birthday of the Rotary movement.

Town Crier Andrew Fleming was on hand to ensure that everyone knew what was happening.

Generous donations amounting to over £320 were collected from the attendees, which will go towards local good causes supported by Rotary.

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Celebrating our Senior Citizens

Our annual Silver Saturday event took place at Emmanuel Church this weekend, celebrating the more senior members of our community.

Over 50 guests joined Rotarians, partners of Rotarians and friends for an afternoon of fun, fellowship and, most importantly, a wonderful afternoon tea with sandwiches, cakes and other goodies!

Rotarian Maggie Hardy started proceedings by welcoming everyone to the event and explaining what it was all about. She then invited President Steve Parsons to say a few words. The event coincides with Rotary’s birthday, 115 years old this year, so the President then cut a cake to mark the occasion and everyone sang Happy Birthday!

We were then treated to some music by Dave Arnold who played many old favourites, with many of the assembled audience joining in. Then the main business of the afternoon started, with trays of meat, cheese, egg and vegetarian sandwiches and beautifully adorned cake stands being brought to tables. Conversation was flowing well as everyone tucked in to their tea.

After everyone had had their fill, Dave Arnold again provided further entertainment and there was no stopping some from getting up to dance. The final few words were afforded to Mayor of Swanage Mike Bonfield, himself a member of Swanage Rotary, who highlighted the contribution that our senior citizens make to the local community.

A most enjoyable afternoon was had by all and Swanage Rotary very much looks forward to the next occasion.

More photos are available on our Facebook page.

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Celebrating our Young Musicians

Storm Ciara was not enough to stop our young musicians coming out to take part in the local heat of the Rotary Young Musician competition, held on Sunday 9th February at Swanage Methodist Church.

The competition was in two parts, with the key stage 2 candidates first to take to the stage. Competitors showed off their skills on violin, guitar and there was also a vocalist. The quality on display, even at that young age, was most impressive.

After a short break, it was the turn of the key stage 3, 4 and 5 competitors to take to the stage, and we heard a variety of genres of music played on the trumpet, saxophone and piano, which delighted the audience present.

We were extremely grateful to our adjudicators Dilys Thomas, Tom Davis, Philippa Topham and Simon Lole for their expert assessment of the candidates in the two classes, and special thanks as ever to accompanist Jay Buckle. We were also delighted that Swanage Town Mayor Mike Bonfield was able to attend to help present the prizes.

In the evening, their was a Celebration Concert, at which the prize winners took to the stage again and were joined by the Swanage Big Band and the Purbeck Youth Choir. During the concert MC Tim Arnold also highlighted the new Purbeck Youth Music Initiative which it is hoped will maintain and develop music in our area and encourage more young people to take up music.

The Rotary Young Musician competition now moves on to the District heat, which will take place at Bryanston School on Sunday 16th February. Winners from that will proceed to the South West Regional Finals in Taunton at the end of March.

More photos of yesterday’s event and some of the winners are available on the Swanage Rotary Facebook page.

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Diamond Geezers!

The great and the good from Swanage and Purbeck, including Club members, Business Partners, Friends of Rotary, Past members and other Rotary clubs assembled at the Knoll House Hotel on Wednesday 20th March to celebrate the Club’s 60th Charter.

Amongst those present to commemorate all those years of fun, fellowship and service to the local community were our mother club Bournemouth, our daughter club Wareham and representatives of seven other Rotary clubs. We were honoured to also welcome RIBI National President Debbie Hodge and District 1110 Governor Allan Smith to the event as well as Swanage Town Mayor Mike Bonfield.

President Elect Steve Parsons and Teresa with Roy & Jill Parkinson and Dick & Julie Mattick from Swindon Old Town (Steve’s former club)

RIBI President Debbie, proposing a toast to the club, spoke warmly about the Club’s history and achievements. In response, PDG David Pike further detailed some of the more memorable events from the club’s past. Then Club President Linda Winter, proposing a toast to the guests, explained how important the local community and visitors to our community are to the club’s ongoing success.

District Governor Allan Smith responded on behalf of the guests and highlighted the important place that Swanage & Purbeck Rotary holds in the life of District 1110.

The event was a joyous occasion and we were delighted to welcome so many people to join our celebration. More photographs are available on our Facebook page


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Fundraising Success!

Club members gathered with organisations who have been supported by Swanage Rotary, and organisations that have supported the club’s activities, on 13th June to commemorate another successful year of fundraising, with almost £21,000 raised up to the end of April 2018.

Over 65 people, including Swanage Town Mayor Mike Bonfield, crammed in to Swanage Conservative Club to enjoy a sumptuous buffet laid on by Rotarians Sue Whitton and David Pike.

This was followed by an on-screen presentation highlighting the events and activities of the year, including the Summer Fête, Santa Sleigh, Christmas Market, Young Musician and Young Chef competitions, Swanage Walks and the Purbeck Pirate Festival amongst many others. Even the ‘Beast from the East’ got a mention!

While a significant amount of our fundraising has already been distributed, we were able to present a number of cheques on the night amounting to over £4,000 to Swanage Foodbank, Barry Audley on behalf of Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, Swanage & Purbeck Development Trust aka The Centre and Admiral Nurses.

                    

We were also proud to be able to award a Paul Harris Fellowship to Kim Gallagher for her sterling efforts over many years to The Centre in particular and the youth of Swanage in general.

During the evening, Rotarian Hubert Pierce was presented with a certificate marking 50 years as a Rotarian.

The night concluded with a networking opportunity for those present to find out more about the various activities that Rotary is involved in, amongst which are Foundation, Community and International.

All agreed it was a most successful evening and a good showcase for Rotary’s contribution to the community

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Walking for Dementia Awareness

Rotarian Maggie Hardy, Community Committee Chair and event lead, reports on a wonderfully fulfilling day in the sun!

SWANAGE WALKS, held on May 5th 2018, was organised and run by the Community Committee of Swanage and Purbeck Rotary Club in support of Dementia Friendly.

From an original idea of Rotarian Hubert Pierce, the Rotary Community Committee organised a walk for all at the King George’s Playing Fields in Swanage.

Supported by the Swanage Area Dementia Friendly Community team, Swanage Town Council and Swanage Carnival Committee, a sub group was formed to facilitate the event for Dementia Friendly, the charity of this year’s Town Mayor Mike Bonfield and our own Rotary Club President Ro Clark.

The event attracted generous support from the Swanage Town Band, Kevin Burke (Children’s Entertainer), pupils from the Swanage School, who designed and painted a Dementia Friendly design on the graffiti wall at the field, and ‘Scooby Crew’ who provided a bouncy castle.

A Treasure hunt, organised and led by Rotarian Dai Hounsell, provided an excellent focus to the Walk around the half mile radius of the field which highlighted the lovely views across the Purbeck hills and the steam trains of the Swanage Railway.

The excellent weather of the day encouraged more people to the beach than to the walk so the hoped for donations to Dementia Friendly were not great BUT the increased profile to wide areas of the community and the coordinated working of several organisations made it a memorable and happy occasion which could be repeated in future years. We were delighted that our newly appointed Admiral Nurse Rachel was also able to pop in and show her support.

The “icing on the cake” for me was the invitation to attend an Assembly at the Swanage School which focussed on Dementia and the effects on individuals. The event also celebrated the Dementia design painted on the graffiti wall by two school pupils and which received so much interest from school members.

A whole school is now aware of dementia – a priceless benefit of community groups working together!

Rotary was privileged to lead this event and thanks everyone involved in raising awareness of Dementia.