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Tag: Swanage Town Band

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Rotary Honours Community Contributors

President Dai Hounsell reports on a day of celebration:

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At the Swanage Bandstand last Saturday (19th August), two townspeople were honoured by Swanage & Purbeck Rotary for their invaluable contributions to the community. 

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One was Alan Houghton, who has led with great energy and thoughtfulness the appeal for funds to restore the Bandstand to its former glory.  The Bandstand, now meticulously renovated in its original Edwardian colours, has become once again one of the iconic sights of our seaside town, and fondly cherished by the local community. 

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The other was David Cook, highly accomplished leader and conductor for many years of the acclaimed Swanage Town Band, which brings together talented local musicians of all ages. This summer, as in previous years, the Band has performed a series of public concerts on the Bandstand, regularly attracting large and appreciative audiences. 

Both men were presented with the Paul Harris Fellowship, an international Rotary award for distinction in services to the community. The Fellowships were presented by Dai Hounsell, President of Swanage and Purbeck Rotary, and the Chair of its Paul Harris Fellowships Panel, Vice-President Maggie Hardy .

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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.

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Rotary Announcements

Support for the Victims of Grenfell Tower

Rotarian Maggie Hardy reports on a fantastic local response to a recent tragedy

On 21st June, a week after the Grenfell Tower blaze, the Swanage and Purbeck Rotary Club organised a street collection for those affected by the disaster.

The swift response to this tragedy was once again supported by our wonderful community who helped us to raise £1500.

The Swanage Town Band who held a concert at the bandstand on the same day helped to swell the amount by a further £500 making a total of £2000.

Swanage and Purbeck Rotary Club is working with the Kensington and Chelsea Rotary Club who have been asked by a Nursery, once held on the ground floor of Grenfell Tower, to replace equipment lost in the fire and Swanage Rotary will also be supporting London Fire Brigade workers who have been affected by the fire.

The money for the nursery will be sent to The Kensington Club once “bona fides” have been completed.

Organiser Rotarian Maggie Hardy would like to thank all those in the community who supported this collection and the members of Swanage Town Band for their fantastic support.

Swanage Rotary was also very grateful to past members of the Swanage Lions club who helped with the collection.