Wow - what a weekend !!! As I write this piece I am still recovering from three hectic days of fun and marvellous fellow-ship with our friends from Kampen. The warmth that exists between our two clubs is almost palpable. I hope that we can keep the visits going for many years to come. The Kampen President-elect Wim Peters commented that we really ought to try to resurrect exchange visits between our children and grandchildren. Person-ally I am very much in favour of that.

I have written letters of thanks to all those who played a key part in making the weekend such a success, hopefully without missing anyone out, but if I have forgotten you, please accept my heartfelt thanks for being part of a splendid event. The main thanks go to two groups. Firstly International Chairman Robert and his committee, especially Bill Clifton, John Godden and Jeremy Cattell, who took up the baton when Robert was not able to be with us. The second group are the hosts, without whom the weekend would have been very much the poorer, notably those who stepped forward at short notice. I must also mention Mark Darnell for providing the splendid venue for the Saturday evening event and ask him to pass on our thanks to his staff.

Judith and I hosted for the first time this year and enjoyed it so much that we want our name to be at the top of the list in 2012. You will find reports of the various events and activities that took place over the three days elsewhere in this issue, which I hope will whet your appetite for the next time.

I am quite sure that come the end of my year, I will look back on last weekend with a great deal of pride in the way the club organised the whole event , and that it will stand out as the highlight of the year for me.

Please make sure that you see the beautiful prints that the Kampen Club gave to our Club as a gift. They will be on display at Club meetings for a few weeks. All we have to do now is to decide what to do with them. I was also lucky enough to be given a decanter as a personal memento, which is identical to those given to our Kampen friends, and I am ex-tremely grateful to the International Committee for this kind gesture.

Well summer never really arrived, and Autumn came in very quickly. As one who loves all the seasons of the year, I look forward to the long winter evenings with the promise of spring only six months away. The main holiday season is also over too, and I trust that you all had restful breaks away, and that the weather wasn't too unkind to you.

President Barry

Judith said I could go without a tie to Grafham as there was no soup on the menu. All photographs of what happened to the ice cream are censored.

Bits & Pieces.

Our President has become very reflective since having grandson Matt coming to live with them and reflects:

One good thing about kids is that they don‟t show pic-tures of their grandparents to everyone they meet.

Get your own back, live long enough to be a prob-lem to your kids.

Kids are a great comfort in your old age. They help you reach it faster too. Your kids will forgive you someday, probably after you‟ve died.

Always be nice to your kids, because they‟re the ones who will choose your rest home.

President Barry

President’s Blog:

Volume 6

Message from the President:

Issue 2

The Rotary Club of Rushden

Club News and Events

September 2008

The B

ulletin—

Club N

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nts

TH

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RO

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C

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Message from the Presi- 1

Club Assembly 2008 2

RYLA — Grafham 2008 3

Helpline to Cransley 4

GYL Update 4

Kampen Diary 2008 5

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Inside this issue:

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As Club assemblies go, it came and went, there was however a certain feeling in the air, not a wind, but a slight breeze of change. It wasn‟t exactly a watershed meeting, but you could feel the drizzle on the back of the neck. The road to our 74th assembly had been long and for some arduous, indeed, it had many changes over the past year with a constant flurry of new faces and no one could have predicted that President Barry would have been leading the proceedings from the chair.

The opening mood was good with the President remark-ing that “it was nice to see Jim (Osborne) being present for grace”, with Jim retorting that “he had forgotten how our meetings start”; (love all I think). We did however get a bespoke grace from Michael Tye, composed especially for the evening, literally about a minute before, which went “Lord bless this dinner, and make us thinner. And help our club to persevere, with the programme we are about to hear”. I must confess that it needs Michael‟s delivery to do it real justice.

A very good meal from John Whites preceded the busi-ness in hand which was commenced by a very confident JVP Richard (after receiving his Jewel of office from the President) setting out the programme for the Community committee which will include some favourites and some new ventures. Look forward to supporting the Milton Holidays, Kids Out, Calvert Trust, Stroke awareness, In Case of Emergency (ICE), Macmillan Nurses and a re-placement for Disable Transport; it is hoped that these community projects will be funded by the trolley dash, a summer ball or alternative, and a race night with a differ-ence.

“Richard did you put the tie on especially for me” asked Margaret,

“No” said Richard “the wife made me wear it because she thought soup was on the menu”

Next to the podium was SVP Mike who had been dele-gated a very difficult task in looking at and towards the future, noting that the change in the committee name from Club Service to Membership Services was not a token ges-ture, but a change in emphasis, stressing the need to ensure the continuity of the Club. Mike went on to say that a change in the way we look at ourselves and as other see us was needed, with less formality, less expense and a realisa-tion that lunchtime meetings were difficult for some to attend. Alternative approaches were suggested for some of our programmes and events such as ladies Night, Charter and President‟s Evening were mooted, but more signifi-cantly, the introduction on a trial basis of twilight meetings at least once a month. This matter being put to a vote, it was agreed that the last meeting in the months of Septem-ber, October and November be commenced at 6.00pm and the situation be reviewed.

Our next presenter was our very own Colin Read repre-senting the Vocational Committee for a second year, not-ing that he felt privilege to do so as he had enjoyed meet-ing and helping so many young people in the community over the past year and was please to announce that three of them would be coming back to make presentations during this Rotary year. Look forward to a full programme this year from the Vocational Committee with proposals to support RYLA, Young Musician, Life education, Young Achiever, Mock Interviews, Heartstart, an educational visit and a Vocational Award. In addition, we were informed that a new project of a junior schools quiz and the distribu-tion once again of the Usborne Dictionaries was proposed which had already been funded by an anonymous dona-tion. Colin had to report that unfortunately, the Euro-scholar project was not now being supported by Rotary, and the Global Young Leaders was a specialist venture, which relied upon a unique candidate coming forward; it was not intended to seek a candidate, but if one sought us then it would be considered on its merits.

Following searching questions from the floor it was noted that the funding of the programme would rely upon spon-sorship and the club levy of 15% from other fund raising projects, with the realisation that if funds were not avail-able, the programme would be tailored accordingly.

David Herbert presented the report on behalf of the Foun-dation Committee in the absence of Chairman Roy noting that RI and RIBI were once again seeing a donation of $100 per member and in addition, a further £500 to help match the $100M matching Grant from the Gates Founda-tion. The committee had every confidence in meeting this target, but were mindful of the need to have a balanced programme within the club and were proposing to aug-ment the club levy of £20 paid in the annual subscription with the continuation of the weekly draw and the possibil-ity of a speaker evening early in the new year.

John Godden presented the report on behalf of the Inter-national Committee in the absence of Chairman Robert which was dominated by the imminent visit from our twined club from Kampen, when a full and exciting pro-gramme was envisaged. The committee also wished to

Club Assembly 2008:

3

raise monies to establish an emergency fund of £1000 and to support the Leonard Cheshire Uganda Project to the sum of £300. A trip to Guernsey is planned for May 2009 and discussions are ongoing regarding a joint venture with Inner Wheel.

Following the reports from Committee chairman we heard from Graham Daniel about their current struggles in Ro-taract and from Jim Kearns about the progress being made with the formation club of Higham and Rushden. As you would expect, Jim could not let the occasion pass without one of his jokes; if he‟s not careful, he will soon have a reputation surpassing even Bob Seery!

“Oh Barry you’ve already got a Rotary Themed badge, you promised me that I could make your dreams come true” said Margaret.

“You already have” quipped President Barry with abroad grin on his face.

A brief summing up from President Barry concluded the Club‟s presentation of this year‟s programme which was commended to the club and then Barry handed over to ADG Margaret for the final verdict.

We had no need to worry, Margaret being no stranger to the club had been well fed and watered earlier in the eve-ning. Margaret was in an exuberant mood and started off by commenting on how well we had recovered from our low point earlier in the year with an excellent team and programme in place; a small comment about timing of assemblies was ignored. Comment was made on the va-riety of our various projects and stared that she was look-ing forward to the Kampen weekend and would be joining us for lunch on the Friday.

Margaret wished us well.

Gentlemen all we now have to do - is deliver!

A not so innocent bystander

RYLA—Grafham 2008:

It was one of the hottest days of the summer (?) when, to-gether with Vocational Chairman Colin and our ladies, I went to visit our RYLA candidate Rebecca White. Sun hats, sun cream, shades, and cold drinks were the order of the day.

It was my first visit to the Grafham Water Centre and I was surprised by the extent of the facilities on offer. RYLA takes up only one week at the centre, but it is in use all year round for a variety of Royal Yachting Association courses such as seamanship and boat handling.

When we arrived the 44 youngsters on the course were out on the water in a variety of craft such as canoes, kayaks, and small sailing boats and they were busy going through the all-important safety drills. Sadly there was almost no wind so everything was very calm. It would have been so much more fun for them and us, if they had had to practice Es-kimo rolls in a stiff breeze.

We sat in the shade watching their efforts for an hour or so, and had little difficulty in picking out our candidate, Re-becca, since she is about 6 feet tall. I think the word is statuesque. but whatever the word is, it‟s the exact opposite to a physical description of me.

Training over, they came ashore, packed away their equip-ment, and then after group photographs, joined us for the speeches. We were delighted to hear that Cambridgeshire County Council have awarded the centre two and a half million pounds to extend and improve the accommodation and training facilities on offer.

President Barry, Rebecca and Colin on Parade

I left Grafham more than happy that our money is very well spent on sending a suitable candidate on such a challenging and well run course.

If you get the chance I recommend that you visit the Water Centre yourselves. You too will get a very pleasant surprise. I look forward to Rebecca‟s visit to the Club to recount her experiences to us all.

President Barry.

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As spring threw off her cloak of climatic indifference and welcomed the embryonic approach of summer, so we were favoured by the elements on the evening of the 13th June.

Wellingborough Golf Club was once again the venue for our third Summer Ball and those attending were the re-cipients of a first class meal and excellent music provided by „Pure Genius‟.

Our thanks must go to all those who contributed to the Raffle and the Silent Auction and the generosity and pa-tronage of those at the Ball. The evening generated a profit of £4226 and of this we were able to nominate the sum of £3050 to Cransley Hospice.

It is the Club‟s usual practice to invite a guest speaker to one of our normal Friday lunches to enable us to make a presentation (make them sing for their supper as it were) and this project was no different, with Diane Patrick join-ing us on Friday 25 July. Many of us of course, will have heard about the Cransley Hospice, based at Kettering Hospital and unfortunately many of us will have had first-hand experience of the care and help they give not only to cancer sufferers but also help and support for their fami-lies.

It did however take the skill of Diane Partrick to explain the history of how the hospice became established, why it is one of the few that receive upto 80% of its funding from the National Health Service and why there was a continuing and expanding need for voluntary and financial support from the community.

Past President David was able to present a cheque for the aforementioned amount to Diane Patrick to aid and assist with the ongoing work of the Hospice.

Our final thanks must go to Frank, Helen and Jane with-out who help and enthusiasm the above event would not have happened and this report would not have been writ-ten.

Joshua Loombucket

It has been some months since we last saw Paul and Jo at the Ascot evening, but we have kept in contact. April and May was a busy time for them both, having to swot hard for their „A‟ levels which was quite a strain, but not as bad as the tension of waiting for the results.

Their long awaited trip to New York and Washington took place in June and was an experience that they wish to share with Club members. Unfortunately, diary dates have been a problem; fixing up a mutual time in the hope that their presentation to the club could be achieved at a time when we could invite other guests along.

“Any idea who the Chap in the hat is?” asked Paul

Like most of these things, fate has intervened and we learnt that both Paul and Jo had been successful with their A Levels (was there any doubt?) and have secured their chosen places at university, Paul to Cambridge to read Modern Languages and Jo to York to read Archaeology. With their start at university imminent and our speaker diary full until October, we will have to wait until Christ-mas/ New Year to hear how they got on in America.

There is no doubt that this will be a meeting not to be missed!

Stop Press: After some difficulty in agreeing a mutual date for Paul and Jo to visit us, complicated by them now having differing term times, it would now appear that we are on for the 19 December 2008. I know this is the run up to Christmas, but I sincerely hope that as many Rotari-ans as possible will be able to attend this meeting as I am sure that their account of their visit to the Global Young Leaders conference will be interesting as well as informa-tive.

Colin Read On behalf of Vocational Committee

GYL Update: Helpline to Cransley:

5

Kampen Diary 2008: tional Committee, under the guidance of Chairman Robert Langley, which will include a Friday evening meal and en-tertainment at the Pizza Venezia, an optional visit to the Police firearms unit on Saturday morning, followed by a meal and entertainment at Aspers Night Club and Casino in the evening. On Sunday a trip is planned to Rocking-ham Castle, followed by a farewell meal at the same venue.

“Look you can see the shadow of the Rotary Wheel burnt into my

Heart. What won’t I do for Rotary, this is really ’Service above self’”

Plenty of action then! Who really cares about the weather?

Friday Evening at the Pizza Venezia:

Outside it was a fairly chilly evening. Inside it was a noisy, warm, friendly and boisterous atmosphere, with the wine flowing freely and very good food on offer. The en-tertainment was the same Italian singer we have been deafened by before, but we joined in with gusto, singing 'one more cornetto' as loudly and as often as we could.

A good job Rodney was on hand for some translation skills

A great time was had by all, and some might even have been able to remember it come the cold light of dawn.

Friday Lunch at John Whites:

Perhaps we British are obsessed about the weather, but with some justification after these past few months, being some of the worst since records began, but the anxi-ety levels always rise when you are in the process of organ-ising events, particularly when you are expecting a contin-gent of international visitors. Not you understand, that the Dutch don‟t know a little about water problems and their control themselves, but was it coincidence that on Friday 12 September, the rain was coming straight over from the North Sea and the Hoek of Holland?

The Kampen group comprising nine couples, arrived safely at John Whites, when old and new friendships were acknowledged and cemented. The atmosphere in the room with just under 70 Rotarians, friends and partners which included ADG Margaret Morley and Andrew Will-mott President of Chichele was palpable as we all enjoyed a buffet lunch. A light hearted hub-bub pervaded the room as our visitors were spread evenly over nine tables each with a host family at the head.

Who are all these people trying to take my Rotary Wheel?

I hope Margaret Morley is taking notes!

The feasting finished, the serious business of the day be-gun by President Barry proposing a joint loyal toast to the respective Queens of Great Britain and the Netherlands, followed by a formal welcome to our friends from Hol-land. With earlier expert help from a friend, our very own President Barry gave a short speech in Dutch which was more than well received by all, particularly from the Kampen contingent, who gave much praise to the deliv-ery, to the extent that their Leader Wim Peters thought President Barry was a Dutch local (all our locals knew it was just the Rushden accent). In response, Wim said how pleased they were to be back in Rushden and how much his group were looking forward to sharing the weekend with us.

An exciting programme has been planned by the Interna-

6

Saturday at Leisure.

A small but select party gathered outside the Tactical Firearms Training Centre at Wootton Hall by 10.15am on Saturday morning, which was almost a miracle considering the excesses of the previous evening. At 10.30 precisely we were allowed inside the compound and greeted by our guide P.C. Gary Nicholson who was about 9 feet tall and dressed in military style black riot gear. We began in a classroom with a talk about the different types of weapons the police use and the training methods that produce some of the best qualified armed police in the world. The facili-ties at Wootton Hall are so good that other forces pay to have their firearms units trained at Northampton.

After tea or coffee and biscuits (courtesy of the ratepayers) we next went to the 50 metre range, where we were con-fronted by two tables full of assorted guns. We had to say if they looked real or fake. Needless to say we were wrong more often than not. Even after handling some of them we still couldn't tell the difference.

Two vehicles were on display in the range, the first being one of the Armed Response cars. Two of these are on pa-trol in the County 24 hours a day, one in the North and one in the South. The equipment and weapons they carry were laid out on the floor of the range for us to see. Apart from the fearsome arsenal of guns, there was a mind-boggling mass of assorted kit to cover almost any scenario they might encounter. It was difficult to see how they were going to stow it all back in the Volvo estate car, let alone find what they wanted when they had done so. The second vehicle was an ex-army, fully armoured Landrover; very sinister looking.

Next came the fun bit, and don't kid yourselves chaps, the ladies enjoyed it just as much as we did. This involved a small range with three video screens, although one was enough to cause us problems. We went in one at a time, but after we had taken our turn we were allowed to stay inside to have giggle at those who followed. From a wide range of scenarios, film of a threatening situation was shown on the screen. One had to decide whether to shoot a supposed baddie. We were armed with a pistol almost identical to those in everyday use by the force but firing compressed air pellets instead of live bullets. It is fair to say that most of us would have been killed by the bandits, all except Judith who got round the problem of having to de-cide by blazing away at anything that moved. Please, please, make sure she never gets her hands on a real gun.

Finally we had a demonstration of the use of a Taser gun. the lights were turned right down so that we could see the results. The Taser was fired at a model covered in tinfoil, and the sight of 50000 volts dancing all over the model was quite spectacular as well as frightening. We were so ab-sorbed in the whole thing that we didn't realise that we had been in the Centre for 3 hours. It was fascinating and thor-oughly enjoyable. If you get the chance to go don't miss it. Come to think of it an Industrial Visit to the Training Cen-tre would be an absolute winner.

Salcey Forest and the Tree-Tops walk.

Following the visit to Wootton Hall, Jeff and Jean Cal-laghan and the President and Judith took Tjebe, Piet, Mar-greit, and Annie for lunch a typical village pub. The pub in question was at Hanslope, and we enjoyed an excellent repast sitting in the garden in warm sunshine. Following lunch, we drove our guests to the visitor centre in the for-est. The President was by this time feeling somewhat jaded, and he declined to go climbing about in the trees on the arial walkway.

“Can you see Barry?” said Judith

On their return the rest of the party said that it was a most interesting and enjoyable experience, with some spectacular views. It was deemed to be a good place to take one's chil-dren or grandchildren on the rare occasions when it is not raining.

Aspers.

Saturday evening at Aspers

Classier venue, classier food and an excellent jazz trio set a different tone to Saturday evening.

Mark and his very attentive staff had allowed our party to take over the restaurant for the event and the same volume of chatter around the tables again demonstrated the level of enjoyment.

7

The musicians were struggling to make themselves heard over hubbub and those of us at the far end of the room thoroughly appreciated their efforts. Following an excel-lent dinner, President-elect Wim produced a sheaf of pa-pers, donned the Presidential chain of office, which he had borrowed for the occasion, and embarked upon a very good speech in English, during which he presented the Club with the gift of 3 prints depicting a Puffin standing, landing, and flying.

Puffins invade Northampton Casino!

One of the Kampen members, Johann Van Den Noort is a well known artist in the Netherlands and as a means of raising funds for an orphanage, he produces limited edition prints to sell to the public. Anyway, we now have a set of three which we are free to use in any way we choose.

Our President had thought that he was off duty for the evening and hadn't prepared a reply, but he stumbled through words of thanks for the generosity of the Kampen Club. The prints will be on display at our own meetings for a few weeks. The evening ended with a few of our number going into the casino to take up Mark's very generous offer of £15 free credit per head to have a bit of fun on the gam-ing tables. Our President was seen to be crawling into bed at about 1.0.am, dog tired but happy and very pleased with the progress of the weekend.

Sunday at Rockingham Castle:

Surprisingly, Sunday came around quite fast, poking a nose outside the front door revealed a tinge of autumn in the air and the prospect of a fine sunny day for our trip to Rockingham Castle just outside Corby. Arriving just be-fore 10.00am, Rotarian cars slowly began to appear and by ten we were assembling outside the castle in two groups for our personalised guided tour.

Congratulations must go to both of the tour guides who gave an interesting and somewhat personalised commen-tary of the history of the castle, which unlike many build-ings of this type is still family home. The origins and his-tory of the castle were of interest and the way it came into private hands, but recent history regarding the association with Charles Dickens was new to most of our group. Robert (Langley), a reluctant volunteer, was invited to play the grand piano situated in the long gallery and entertained

us with an excerpt from „Red Robin‟.

“How do they say it in English Wim. Is it a pie or a bun in the oven”?

After these heady heights of entertainment, we were in-vited to go up the tower to observe the four aspects of the magnificent views across the country side and the mani-cured gardens of the castle and once back down to earth we were off to the castle‟s restaurant for our salad lunch.

No sooner had the day started, the time had come to make those last closing speeches; not for the first time President Barry rose to his feet to give a heartfelt thanks to all, par-ticularly to Robert and his committee for organising the weekend, and to the host families. President Barry went on to say a little about his own experiences during the visit, but was overcome by emotion.

“Lovley decanter, I wonder if I can get a single malt on the ferry” mused Wim

To round off the day, Barry presented each couple with an engraved decanter and as a surprise, Robert presented

8

Printed and Published by the Rotary Club of Rushden

Editor Mark Darnell 01933 358707

email mark@fesq.freeserve.co.uk

The Progress:

Since Rotary made polio eradication its top priority in 1985 and joined forces with the Global Polio Eradication Initia-tive in 1988:

Polio cases have fallen from 350,000 a year to 1,315 in 2007

125 endemic countries has been reduced to just four; Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan

Rotary International is the largest private sector con-tributor to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative

Rotary members have raised £376 million ($700 million) to fund polio immunization activities

Rotary clubs in Great Britain and Ireland have do-nated £10.5 million (US$20 million) to polio immunization initiatives

Two billion children have so far been protected from the disease

5 million have been spared from disability

250,000 deaths have been averted

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative, whose partners include Rotary International, World Health Organization, UNICEF and the US Centre‟s for Disease Control and Prevention, works to:

Hold national immunization drives for all children un-der age five in endemic and high risk countries

Maintain high levels of routine immunization

Track possible incidences of the disease

Re-immunize all areas with reported cases

Improve public health infrastructures worldwide to strengthen the fight against other infectious diseases

The Challenge:

Challenges faced by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative include:

Funding

Political commitment

Weak infrastructure in developing countries

War and internal conflict

Lack of health services

Difficult-to-reach refugee, migrant, and displaced

populations.

Press release from RI and RIBI

Polio Facts and Figures:

Barry with a similar gift on behalf of the club. President elect Wim rounded off the formalities by thanking every-one, and issuing an open invitation for members of our club to visit Kampen in two years time.

And so we all tumbled out of the restaurant into the bright sunlight ready to say those last goodbye as our visitors made their way back to their cars and the journey back home to Kampen

An epilogue:

The visit from our Dutch friends may have started out in the pouring rain, but never once during their stay was there really a damp moment; it was sunshine all the way! As an added bonus, we as a club managed to stay in budget, but we must acknowledge the input from the host Rotarians whose attention to detail ensured that „Rushden‟s Rotary Flag‟ was flying higher than the one on Rockingham Cas-tle.

A composite report from our Roving Reporter And our Foreign Correspondent

What is Polio?

Polio is the shortened name of poliomyelitis which is the crippling disease caused by the poliovirus. One in 200 cases result in paralysis, which leads to the limbs of the victim becoming limp and disfigured. Among those para-lysed, 5-10 percent die when their breathing muscles be-come immobilized.

The poliovirus can strike at any age, but affects mainly chil-dren under five years of age. It is passed through person-to-person contact, via oral-faecal route. The virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine. Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck and pain in the limbs.

In the parts of India where polio is still endemic, mass im-munization campaigns are being held 8 times a year to break the chain of infection.

Polio knows no borders and carriers frequently move from one country to another. Therefore, the virus can reappear in previously polio free countries. In 2007 there were cases of polio in 9 African countries although polio is only en-demic in one of them.

We have not had polio in United Kingdom and Ireland for a long time now, yet many people aged 60 and over will remember warnings about the use of swimming pools or swimming in the sea in hot summers and also the pictures of victims in iron lungs.

There are still polio victims living in our communities – they have stories to tell. Polio is only an air flight away from the United Kingdom and Ireland.