CHAT JULY 2017 2ND EDITION - Rotary Club of Rushden Chichele · Wicksteed Park went well. Our guests from the Higham Gateway Club and their carers seemed to enjoy themselves and came

THE ROTARY CLUB OF RUSHDEN CHICHELE JULY 2017

PRESIDENT ALLISON BEGINS

OUR NEW ROTARY YEAR On Monday July 10th, Rotarian Allison Du Toit became Rushden Chichele’s first lady President.

Allison comes from a strong Rotarian family in South Africa and had belonged to the Rotary Club of Drakenstein before she came to England last year.

Allison was determined to follow in her father’s footsteps and began her year by emphasising the importance of Rotary’s 4 way test. She said, “My father lived his life by these tenets and I intend to do the same myself. I shall draw the Club’s attention to the banner advertising the 4 way test at every meeting.

Allison took over from David Kendrick who had served a two year term when a willing President was hard to find.

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WHAT’S ON THIS MONTH?

17 July - Presentation of Cheques Evening

24 July - DG Chris Davies Vist NB LIGHT BUFFET ONLY-

31 July - Guest Speaker - Gaby Steele who raised money at our Classic Car Show for a trip to Uganda will speak about her time there and how that influenced her career pathway and University choice.

1st August CLUB COUNCIL

6th AUGUST CLASSIC CAR SHOW all hands to the carburettor

7 August Business Meeting

14 August President’s BBQ at Rushden station, 7pm slow train platform 2

21 August Past President’s Night

CHICHELE CHAT

ROTARY - SERVICE BEFORE SELF


CLUB ASSEMBLY AND HANDOVER

In her address to the club, President Allison said that she would like to support four charities in particular which had a relevance to her personally.

Chichele has given on-going support to Rushden MIND and Allison wished for this to continue. In addition she wishes to support Redruk a charity that equips humanitarian aid workers with the knowledge and skills needed to safely deliver aid to the most vulnerable people in some of the most hostile locations. The trainers are very professional and experienced. The brave medics who go into Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria to deliver the Polio vaccine to children are aid workers of this kind. as are those who go into the disaster areas we send aid to.

Allison has recently been diagnosed with chronic eczema and knows first hand the difficulties those who treat the condition are under, so she would like to help the Eczema Society.

And locally Allison would like us to find ways of supporting Food Banks.

In South Africa Allison saw poverty and deprivation on a scale we cannot imagine and she would like to support a project that does the simple thing of providing tooth-brushes and basic hygiene to small children who then go home and instruct parents how to follow their example.

The Club agreed to support Allison in her endeavours and the District Governor’s representative, Trevor Davies, who was our guest commended the wisdom of her choices and went on to praise the club for its excellent work during the previous Rotary year of service.

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KIDS OUT

The Kids Out 2017 Event at Wicksteed Park went well. Our guests from the Higham Gateway Club and their carers seemed to enjoy themselves and came back at the end of the day looking worn out. Thanks to Julian for sorting out the paperwork and finding the sponsors. Alan for driving the minibus. David Wilson, John Hustwait and John Houghton for help on the day. Also to Susan (my wife) for helping to prepare the packed lunches early in the morning. Thanks to Asda and Waitrose who provided food items for the packed lunches. Yours in Rotary Service Stewart

Thanks from Gateway

Hi All I would like to thank you all on behalf of the Higham Gateway members who went to Wicksteed Park last Wednesday. The feedback we have had is that they all had a wonderful time and really enjoyed themselves. Also the sun shone as it seems to do on this Wednesday every year. Once again many thanks with Kind Regards,Steve Willmott Club Chairman.

The District organiser wrote: Kids Out on the 14 June was an outstanding success entertaining over 2300 children to a fantastic day out. Once again the sun shone and Wicksteed had expanded some of its attractions. Although we had only 35 clubs attending, there was a significant increase in numbers – up about 400! This meant that we received more from the Kids Out charity and once again we had tremendous support from clubs that could not, attend. Donations from these clubs not attending totalled £1025! So overall it only cost the District in the region of £100.

Of course we will have to take a view on club subscriptions next year based upon the cost of using Wicksteed Park.

Ready to enjoy KIDSOUT at Wicksteed Park


LOOKING BACK over David Kendrick’s two year presidency.

David had not been long in Rotary when he accepted the role of President. The club had been begging and pleading for one of us to take on the job for months if not longer. All kinds of inducements and promises had been made but to no avail when David said “per ardour ad Astra, I’ll do it”.

Little did he know at that time that no one would accept the job after him so, after putting all the options before us and no one accepting, he accepted the Presidential role for a second year.

What a sigh of relief when three ladies joined us - Allison transferring from Drakenstein in South Africa and Judy and Elizabeth from the sadly defunct Rushden Higham Club.

In the months that followed, Allison had agreed to follow David as President and Elizabeth had agreed to follow her. Not only that! Colin soon afterwards agreed to be our Vice President. So a succession has been agreed and the Club can breathe easily and promise full support to our officers. A very good start!

David Kendrick was not content to be gap-filler. He was soon involved in everything from litter-picking to poetry writing. He soon showed that he had demanding ideas and plans for us. He and Carol had been staunch supporters of the British Heart Foundation (and still are) so it was not surprising that not only were we as a club supporting the charity but we were also being given tuition in resuscitation. The Prince’s Trust in Rushden was another of his designated charities and we have continued that support, even after Dan Freeman moved on. David committed himself strongly to membership - both new Rotarians and Friends of Rotary and to fund-raising. The Car Show under Roy and John’s guidance continued to be a great success and David’s own mulled wine and Quiz sheets sold well enough to raise thousands of pounds. David supported everything the club took on and our only concern was that he might suffer ‘burn-out’ but he was made of stern stuff and fought on till the end. To add to his Rotary work, it was a difficult time for his family with Carol going through serious and debilitating treatment in hospital.

On Hand-over night the Club showed its appreciation for David’s efforts in the usual way but then in a surprise move, new President Allison asked him to stand and receive a well deserved Paul Harris Fellowship for his long Presidential service and the commitment he had given to our club at a time when our future was far from secure.

Thank you David for all your work and commitment to our Club and to Rotary.

MORE CLUB NEWS

GOLF DAY 2017

JUNE 30th and the weather forecast had been far from encouraging all week. On the day however, although it was not wall to wall sunshine, it was warm and dry and a day to encourage good scores.

Our two organisers, Alan Armson and Bill Randles had drummed up support from 14 teams - that’s as many as the Rushden Club can cope with in their snug clubhouse for the apres golf food and presentations. In addition 21 sponsors had supported our event. We are very grateful to them all for contributing to the success of the day.

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Alan and Bill can rest easy The Golf Day will be another success


Rushden Golf Club look after us very well - nothing is too much trouble - and they arranged coffee and sandwiches on arrival, a course in good condition for our teams and a tasty meal afterwards. They also put a team into the competition and knowing the course well, they usually come in as winners or close to it. Our raffle is always a success. raising in excess of £300 every year. There are so many prizes nearly everyone present takes something home - the only snag is that the draw takes so long the older players fall asleep and the more active ones have gone home before it is all complete.

President Allison presented the prizes to the winning teams: Rushden Golf Club with 126 points (the score verified by a professional scorer) were the winners; Airgead Financial were second with 119 points and Dats Print Services were third with 116 points.

We gave each golfer a “Bill Silver Biro” before they went out and the chance to buy raffle tickets when they came in (thanks to the ladies for selling the tickets). John Sturgess took photos of each team and rushed off to a distant BOOTS to have them printed The pictures were given to each team at the end of the day. John also drew the Raffle - a marathon effort - with prizes including a very nice carpet and dozens of bottles.

But the whole point of the Day was to support two local, worthy charities and President Allison was able to introduce representatives of Zachary’s Shack and Crazy Hats and tell them that they would benefit to the tune of £1000 each. Their responses expressed their gratitude to Rotary and the organisers for their help.

The real cheques were presented at our Presentation and Buffet Evening on July 17th.

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YOUTH SPEAKS 2017

We held the first round of our local Youth Speaks competition on Monday 10th July at Huxlow Science college in Irthlingborough.

Three teams took part - from Huxlow, Rushden Academy and Ferrers School, (Raunds again unfortunately not replying to our invitation). Elaine Brooker from Rushden Academy was very helpful to the club, contacting the schools in the area and making arrangements for the time, date and venue of the competition. I am very grateful to her for her help.

It would do us all good to hear these young people speaking on a subject of their own choice with knowledge, thought and some genuine passion. This year, once again, we organised the competition in the same format as

the National Rotary Youth Speaks Competition - i.e. we have a team of three students: a chair person, a principal speaker and someone to propose a vote of thanks. In fact it is the usual format for most society and club meetings with have a guest speaker.

Our teams all had excellent speakers :(William Parker spoke for Huxlow Science College, Chloe Turner from Ferrers asked “Should 16 year-olds have the right to vote?” - and decided that they shouldn’t, and for Rushden Academy Gaby Steele (a young relative of the late Mike Steele) spoke on “The Spirit of Uganda”). With three really excellent speeches it was the way the chairmen and women dealt with the whole procedings and the way the Vote of Thanks was proposed that was to make the difference between the teams.

In some ways the Vote of Thanks is quite difficult for young people because they will not have had much experience of listening to them in real life and even in Rotary we find it difficult and tend to go on a bit!. In the event, our judges thought there was really only a mark or two between the teams but that on balance it was Rushden Academy that just came out on top.

I am very grateful to President Allison, Colin, Richard Abington and Mick Hill for agreeing to act as adjudicators and my assistants (Mick even carried my briefcase!) Without this help we could not run the competition which we all agree is a positive contribution to the experience of the students.

President Allison presented the trophy and cheques for £20 each to the winning team who have already decided that they wish to go forward into the next round - the semi-final - of the District competition to be held in January. And Gaby is our Club speaker on July 31st.

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The winning Rushden Academy team


MORE CLUB NEWS

DRAGON BOATS FINAL UPDATE Final figures have now been published. £29,235 has now been distributed. The 2017 event is well on the way and 48 teams are expected to take part although some have still to confirm.

ATTENDANCEBarry reports that attendance is a bit hit & miss at the moment. There are regularly between 10 -15 apologies every week and for meetings in June numbers are well down and will need to be discussed. Our Masonic brethren do not meet in the summer months which may be something for us to think about?

It does seem from our experience that events like President’s Night. Ladies Night, Handover Night which have been poorly attended this year may need to be re-arranged for a less busy time of the year. Question: is it that many members are on holiday? OR is it that in the summer months members just do not wish to attend an indoor meeting? OR is it that in the summer months we need to think about doing more outdoor activities (like the Oundle Treasure Hunt) with excursions to other venues? THINKS… would members want outings to happen every week or two?

Perhaps members would tell a Council Member why they apologise more often in the summer months so that we can plan for better attendance. Our most important meetings are Business Meetings and Committee Meeting when financial and charity matters are planned and discussed, yet they are among the worst attended.

SICK NOTES

Mac is very poorly. He has spent more than two weeks in hospital recently and at the time of writing is still there.

Peter has thanked the club for offering him Honorary Membership and regrets that he cannot attend meetings but he has expressed a wish to continue to contribute to Foundation.

Carol is making slow progress but we hope that after all she has been through she will begin to see some benefit from her treatment.

Alan Mossop is to go in to hospital very soon to have work done on his heart. He had a little relapse last week but is back home now.

The Club sends its best wishes to all our members and Friends who are less well than they would like to be. Geoff is working on producing our own Chichele Get Well card and we thank him for that.

ROTARY CLUB CENTRAL HAS RECORDED THAT RUSHDEN CHICHELE HAS:

Active Male Members 30 Active Female Members 4 Honorary Male Members 3

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Our Age profile is 40 - 49 = 3 50 - 59 = 2 60 - 69 = 6 70+ = 22


THE NOT-SO-GOOD-CLUB-NEWSIt was with great regret that the Club received the resignations of two of our valued members. Alan Hatton had not been a Rotarian with us for very long but had joined in our work and had also been asked to act as our assistant secretary on Council so that he could become more involved and learn more about Rotary workings. He said that we had been very friendly and welcoming to him and was disappointed that circumstances had caused him to resign. The club will keep in contact with him through our Newsletter and welcome him to future meetings whenever he would like to come.

Julian Swailes has been an exemplary Rotarian himself and has had great support from his family. Not only has Julian organised KidsOut for the Club but his whole family have been involved in our most popular and successful Quiz evening- the Alan Matthias Memorial Quiz for Foundation Funds. Glynis has been Question Mistress, Julian has done all the running about and the younger members of the family have used their profession cooking skills to provide the refreshment - a real family effort that has raised well over £1000 recently. Julian himself was an Iron Man - a Triathlon performer in the older sections of the National and International event. This year he had won through to a European event but he put family first and declined the invitation.

Julian, we are very sorry to lose you. You will always be very welcome to join us whenever you feel able and we shall keep in touch through the CHAT. Thank you for all you and your family have done for our club, for Rotary and for the great Rotary Foundation Charity you all worked so hard for.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

As a final Ho, Ho and Hurrah, for his final President’s Night entertainment David Kendrick produced a Murder Mystery script in his free time while waiting for Carol at Leicester Hospital. A good turn out of members, partners and Friends of Rotary cross examined an interesting array of characters which included a Rotary Club President - Tom Dicken-Harry a Club Secretary - Dick Shenry; A rank and file Rotarian of dubious moral fibre - Dan Gleebitz; a Chair of Vocational Committee - Ivor Sweet-tooth; and a Chair of Youth Services - Sally Cowe.

It was a hot night so the interrogation took place on the patio at Knuston. Members slowly cottoned on to the scenario that the murder was related to the circumstances surrounding a Youth Speaks competition and the culprit (discovered by only a couple of detectives) was Ivor ( a barely disguised characterisation of John Hustwait, the Club’s champion pudding-eater.

A very good night was enjoyed by all.

AND ON ANOTHER MUCH LIGHTER NOTE … Rushden Chichele Rotarians please note

Much has been made recently, especially in the USA, of the practice of “man-spreading”. Apparently it is something that regularly happens on trains when men endeavour to embarrass women by sitting in an open posture and taking up more than their fair share of seat-room.Our model here, nameless to preserve his modesty, shows how the situation works. Rotarians will be mindful of their duty of care and service to others and preserve the dignity of the organisation.

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ROTARY NEWS CUTTINGS

CHICHELE’S 2016 Team of Youth Speaks girls from Huxlow school were successful in their university and college applications last year. The girl who took the main speaker role, Jade Thurnham, gained a scholarship to the University of California all expenses paid. In the UK we pay £9000 a year - they pay anything around $40,000.. Jade was a very talented girl who is going places! Beth and Santhi, the two supporting girls both obtained the grades they needed to go to the Colleges of their choice. Well done girls. Rushden Chichele wishes you all every success.

BILL GATES said, “Another thing I wish I had understood much earlier is what true inequity looks like. I did not see it up close until my late 30s, when Melinda and I took our first trip to Africa. We were shocked by what we saw. When we came back, we began learning more. It blew our minds that millions of children there were dying from diseases that no one in rich countries even worried about. We thought it was the most unjust thing in the world and we couldn’t wait to get involved.

AT THE DISTRICT COUNCIL MEETING: It was pointed out that the decline in membership numbers will cause a rise in Rotary subscriptions in the future. In the past, declining numbers have been absorbed (Chichele has always absorbed increases). But from now on you can expect your subs to rise to £65. Sorry chaps but Membership IS the big Issue.

Our Guest speaker on July 3rd was Mary Coulson an animal photographer. President Allison was specially pleased to welcome her as a fellow Southern African - Mary is a wild lady who has little time for hotels or even tents. Her best photographs arise from her instinctive knowledge of animals and her ability to get up really close - something you DO NOT DO unless you have her experience, knowledge and courage. Mary now takes small parties of photographers on specialist holidays and for relaxation takes portraits of domestic pets in their home. Elizabeth introduced her and gave our vote of thanks.

This same day was the birthday of our editor who is currently in training for the John Hustwait Pudding Eating Competition. The Pavlova was no real test for him this week but next week it is Rice Pudding and Raspberry Jam - John’s favourite - so David will have his work cut out.

David also gave a live demonstration of how to applaud a speaker while taking a sly nap. Full marks for that!

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NOTABLE ROTARIANS JOHN SEVER— Not to be confused with the John Sever who was labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood before Claire Short.

The John Sever I want to tell you about is a Rotarian and friend of Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin who developed the Polio Vaccines we use today. John Sever was a District Governor in Washington DC and head of infectious diseases at the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Diseases and Stroke at the National Institute of health.

The RI President in 1979 was Clem Renouf and he had just been reading about a project which had eradicated smallpox for relatively little cost. He rang Sever to get his advice about a large project that would fit Rotary’s “Health, Hunger and Humanity - 3H” Grants Programme. After consulting Salk and Sabin, John Sever recommended that Sabin’s oral vaccine for Poliomyelitis (at only 4 cents a dose) had the potential to save 350,000 children every year from this crippling disease all over the world.

At that time the 3-H programme was in its infancy - it was the first time Rotary had committed to new projects beyond the capacity of one club or District. And so the first project, which began in 1979, focussed on bringing the polio vaccine to the children of the Philippines. Sever knew that Rotary was a big international army of volunteers which could work with governments across the world to assist with immunisation and also provide financial support and social mobilisation. It was Sever (a Rotarian from the Potomac Club) who persuaded Rotary’s leaders that the organisation could tackle the disease. Most Rotarians would have dismissed the idea out of hand but Sever was uniquely qualified by his personal and professional reputation and succeeded in convincing the Rotary Board of 1979 - 80 that the goal of a polio-free world should be the major emphasis of the 3-H programme.

Sever was the son of a Chicago doctor and he remembered his father caring for children with polio. Families would go to vaccine clinics on what were called Sabin on Sunday events. Now, we call them National Immunisation days- NIDs. Sever and some fellow experts used their knowledge of Public Health politics to get the programme on the road and in 1984-5, Rotary President Carlos Canseco appointed the committee that would set out the long term strategy to immunise all the children of the world against polio by Rotary’s 100th birthday.

And that’s how Rotary’s Polio Eradication Project began.

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This week marks the untimely death 200 years ago of Jane Austen on July 18th 1817. The quotation on the new ™10 note is regularly made by educated Rotarians - “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading.” (Pride & Prejudice.

Bill was saying only the other day, “ooze this jamie Austin then? Dis ‘e invent the motor car? And weren’t there a tennis player called Austin an’ all?”

However, Richard Abington was at his side to put him right. “Surely William,” using his best Kimbolton Sixth Former accent, “surely you remember from A level English that Jane Austen’s name never appeared on the covers

of her books - probably why your first edition doesn’t mention her - she published them all anonymously. And there’s no mention of her even being a writer on her grave in Winchester cathedral.” “Cor,” quoth Bill, “Never noo that!”

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THE ROTARY CLUB OF RUSHDEN CHICHELE

Meets at KNUSTON HALL, Irchester, NN29 7EU

On Monday Evenings at 7.00 for 7.30pm Apologies to Barry Nutter by 10am

PRESIDENT: Allison DuToit

SECRETARY: Mick Hill 01933 317849

ROTARY is the World’s largest Service Organisation. It is open to men and women from all walks of life and is non-political and non- religious.

ROTARY is committed to being TRUTHFUL and FAIR in its dealings with others. Its efforts aim to be BENEFICIAL to all concerned. ROTARY aims to build GOODWILL and FRIENDSHIP ACROSS THE WORLD.

The ROTARY MOTTO is

SERVICE BEFORE SELF

SIR – The rush to vaccinate 320,000 children in Syria after a serious outbreak of polio last month is by no means an over-reaction. The virus is deadly and robust; we can never allow complacency to creep in.

War is the ideal breeding ground for polio, as it leads to interruptions to medical supplies and vital vaccination programmes. Not vaccinating en masse would risk polio gaining a foothold when we are so close to total global eradication of the disease.

Many who have had polio are left with the legacy of post-polio syndrome (PPS): a neurological condition that causes various symptoms, including new weakening in muscles previously unaffected by the virus. The 120,000 polio survivors in Britain with PPS are all too familiar with this. We need to support the efforts of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and try to ensure that war does not extend the tragic polio story for future generations.

Ted Hill

BIRTHDAYS THIS MONTHJULY 25th Josie Murphy AUGUST6th John Walker13th Arthur Hollomon13th Richard Abington16th Sue Wiles17th Paul Needle19th Naureen Nutter


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CHAT JULY 2017 2ND EDITION - Rotary Club of Rushden Chichele · Wicksteed Park went well. Our guests from the Higham Gateway Club and their carers seemed to enjoy themselves and came