The Swanage Christmas Market took place on Saturday 2nd December. Read all about it here.
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Christmas Market Delights
We’re delighted and honoured to have been awarded Gold Partnership status by ShelterBox for the fundraising that we have been able to carry out with our community and as a club.
Swanage and Purbeck Rotary is one of just 17 Gold Partner clubs.
Of course, none of this would have been possible without the support of our wonderful local community who have turned out time and time again to support our fundraising efforts. In particular, recent appeals for help with victims of the war in Ukraine and the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria generated a truly amazing response and has contributed heavily to the funds that we have been able to donate.
From us to you all, many thanks for your ongoing support to the millions of people who are suffering around the world and would be in an even worse situation without your support.
Once again we are looking for the local musicians of the future through the local heat of the Rotary Young Musician competition.
Click here for all the details
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.
We’re sure that everyone has been shocked at the enormous impact of the earthquake in Morocco and the devastating floods in Libya, where the number of deaths is multiplying almost by the hour.
Swanage & Purbeck Rotary CIO is well aware of the requirement to act quickly in situations like this, as was the case previously for the Türkiye / Syria disaster, and made a decision this week to fund up to five ShelterBoxes (such as the one pictured above) from its own funds (some of which were raised at the recent Summer Fête).
You can see more of the work that ShelterBox are already doing in the affected areas here and on their YouTube channel here.
If you would like to contribute to this initiative, please scan the QR code below where you can donate directly to our fundraising effort.
The Shelterbox charity, originally founded by a Rotary club in Cornwall, is always one of the first organisations to get to disaster zones when they happen around the word, and the boxes can literally be lifesavers in the first few days following an event such as an earthquake or flood.
Please give whatever you can to help.
President Dai Hounsell reports on a day of celebration:
At the Swanage Bandstand last Saturday (19th August), two townspeople were honoured by Swanage & Purbeck Rotary for their invaluable contributions to the community.
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.
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 .
Despite all the recent wet weather threatening to spoil the Rotary Community Summer Fête, Thursday 10th August dawned with clear skies and a very positive forecast, allowing all of the planned entertainment to take place.
With a later start time of 12 noon this year, there was more time to ensure that everything was ready to go and organiser Helen Hardy, taking charge for the first time, ably assisted by Mike Bonfield, ensured that Sandpit Field was looking splendid in the sunshine and ready to welcome locals and visitors alike.
As well as the later start time, the site had a new layout and there were stalls galore for people to visit, offering everything from skittles to Cornhole, hoop-la to ‘Splat-the-Rat’ and numerous craft stalls alongside the more traditional bric-a-brac and tombola.
As ever the refreshment tent and barbecue did brisk business throughout the day and the commercial and food stalls were also doing good trade.
Under an eventual cloudless sky, music was provided by acts as varied as the Allsort’d choir and Jurassic Rock’n Roll, fresh from their recent appearance at Swanage Carnival.
The raffle was drawn at 4:30pm with generous cash prizes going to the first three tickets drawn followed by a plethora of interesting prizes from many of Swanage & Purbeck Rotary’s Business Partners and friends, amongst which were tickets on Swanage Railway, a Jurassic Cruise with City Cruises, meals at The Grand, The Black Swan, Harlees and The Cabin, golf at Isle of Purbeck Golf Club and chocolates from Chococo.
Swanage & Purbeck Rotary CIO would like to thank everyone who came along and spent their hard-earned money, which will help to support the many good causes that we are hoping to help this year.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
