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Tag: Rotary Club of Wareham

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Medieval Night Was Legendary!

In spite of the ongoing crisis surrounding the Coronavirus outbreak, it was decided that President’s Night should continue as planned, and a merry band assembled at the superb Kingston Country Courtyard for an event rather different to the norm.

Joined by members of our daughter club Wareham, and visitors from Swindon Old Town Rotary, Ashford (Kent) Rotary, Swanage Rotarians partners and guests, Medieval Night saw a wide variety of knights, peasants, “men of the cloth” and other outfits start the evening with a mead cocktail before being called through to the dining hall for the feast by none other than Swanage Town Crier Andrew Fleming.

And what a feast it was. Starting with a locally sourced vegetable soup, ladelled from large pots by waiting staff equally bedecked in medieval costume, the meal progressed to whole chickens and large pork joints carved at the table with a variety of vegetables and rich gravy in large brown jugs. We then progressed to ‘Britain’s Oldest Dessert’ – custard tart with a fresh rhubarb topping.

Entertainment followed the meal, provided by ‘Kevin The Court Jester’, who entertained everyone with medieval dancing, illusion, some magic and feats of bravery such as the bed of nails.

Huge thanks must go to Rotarian Deirdre Selwyn for her selfless dedication to ensuring that the event still went ahead and to Tony Edwards, the chef and all the staff at Kingston Country Courtyard for putting on a magnificent evening.

In these uneasy times, and with no certainty about anything that might be happening over the coming weeks, this was a welcome distraction and was well received by all present. More photos are available on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

As advised on our home page, Swanage Rotary will now go into lockdown for the next few weeks. Further details regarding our future activities will be provided via our social media pages so please return to them regularly for updates.

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Signing To Help Understanding

Swanage & Purbeck Rotary and Wareham Rotary held a long overdue joint meeting at The Springfield Hotel in Wareham this week to learn all about Signing.

Our presenters for the evening were Ken Ebbens from the Rotary Club of Southsea Castle and Kris Burrows, a professional Signing Interpreter. Ken explained where his initial interest in learning to sign came from and how his local Rotary club were supporting an initiative to improve access to services.

He then handed over to Kris. She brought the subject to life, explaining how we all tend to make our first judgements about people based on appearance and, because hard of hearing and deafness is usually invisible, fail to appreciate the issues faced by those unable to hear well. Kris explained the background to sign language and how it has been around in various forms for longer than people would think. She also explained that there is no universal form of sign language and it differs by country. In the UK we use British Sign Language (BSL).

In Britain it has only been recognised as a proper language by Government since 2004. Shamefully, in the decades prior to that, people who were hard of hearing or deaf were encouraged to try to speak instead, sometimes using draconian methods to force that to happen.

Kris taught us all some of the basics of Signing – including the alphabet and some of the more commonly used phrases that save people from having to spell out every word. As a result, it is hoped that we may wish to take things further following this presentation and follow the lead set by Ken and his club In developing services to those who need it.

There were several questions from the floor and an impromptu informal discussion at the end of the meeting. All present felt that this had been a very valuable use of their time.

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A Good Foundation

The Rotary Foundation celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 2017

Our speaker this week was Rotarian Maurice Turner from the Wareham club. Maurice came to speak to us about The Rotary Foundation (“TRF”), our very own charity.

The Rotary Foundation was founded in 1917, twelve years after the start of Rotary with a meagre $12 or so. To date it has provided in excess of $3 billion worth of grant aid.

TRF has five areas of focus under which all its work operates:

  • Peace and Conflict Prevention and Resolution, under which Rotary Peace Centers have been established and train scholars in peace studies. These scholars now work across the globe in many different vocations;
  • Disease Prevention and Treatment, under which the eradication of Polio Wordwide is the most high profile project;
  • Water and Sanitation, where the emphasis is on ensuring a clean water supply for all by providing pumps to remote villages, building sand dams in hot countries to store vast amounts of water and providing proper toilets;
  • Maternal and Child Health, aiming to train and educate mothers in bringing up their children and look after children from war torn communities;
  • Education and Literacy, where efforts have been made to build schools in poorer countries, provide tools such as literacy boxes and assist people with disability to gain an education.

But TRF does so much more. A lot of work is going on with economic and community development, including the use of modern technology. Sustainability is also key, to ensure that what Rotary puts in will still be there many years from now.

Much of the funding for the TRF comes from Rotarians, either through donations to the Annual Programmes Fund or specific donations to some of the specialist areas that are supported such as End Polio Now or Rotary Scholarships. Around $70 million is returned to club projects from TRF every year.

Questions were asked from the floor, following which Rotarian David Chalcraft gave a vote of thanks to Maurice for his superb presentation and for reminding us all of the importance of our own charity, The Rotary Foundation.

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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