Welcome to the website of the Rotary Club of Plympton
Welcome to the Rotary Club of Plympton Website
Rotary International is an organisation of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. It is a secular organsiation open to all persons regardless of race, colour, creed or political preference. There are more than 32,000 clubs and over 1.2 million members worldwide.
The stated purpose of the organisation is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian servicem encourage high ethical standards in all vocatiosn and help build goodwill and peace in the world. Currently Rotarians around the world are working towards the aim of Polio eradication through the "End Polio Now" campaign.
The Plympton Rotary Club is just one of 41 clubs in Rotary District 1290 (West Devon and Cornwall) and one of around a dozen clubs in or around the immediate bicinity of Plymouth. It was formed in 1954 and is twinned with the Rotary Club of Brest-Les-Abers (in France) and has a Rotaract club (for 18-30 years olds) associated with it.
We meet on Thursday evenings at 6.15pm at the Smithaleigh Hotel (near Lee Mill) except for nights when we have "partners nights" when we start at 7.30pm.
If you scroll down this screen you will find details of some of our recent events. Details of past and future speakers can be found by clicking on the "Speakers" tab on the left hand side of the screen. Likewise, via these tabs you can find copies of past club newsletters and other information on the club such as "old news stories".
To find out more about Rotary click on the Rotary Basics banner below to see the printable version of Rotary Intenational' "RotaryBasics" publication or go to the membership section to view the interactive documents.
“Gone camping……back in a month!”
Antony Jinman who spoke to our club back in July has set off on his 2010 trip to Baffin Island. Following his talk, our club has made a contribution to the trip to the Auyuittuq National Park – the land that never melts. The team aims to assess the effect of climate change on the landscape of Baffin Island and also on the Inuit people and wildlife.
Primary and secondary school students will be able to follow the expedition through our online blog and can ask questions free of charge to the satellite phone which we will carry out in the field. These questions will then be answered by sending text and photographs to the online blog. The team (some of whom are pictured here) will be making a series of films and educational resources which will be made available free of charge to schools, to make the classroom come alive, making it a fun and inspiring environment to learn in.
You can follow the teams’ progress by going to their website – www.baffinisland2010.wordpress.com
Latest Speaker
Michelle Chapman was our latest speaker talking about living with Alopecia. Men's baldness is a form of this illness which affects the imune system but for women it can be devastating. Michelle has suffered from Alopecia since the age of 5 and spoke of the issues she has had to deal with which has led to her forming support groups to help others. She mentioned how the wigs she was given back then looked like dead rats but how today, many of us could walk pass someone and not know they were wearing a wig. Indeed, during her talk, Michelle wet "topless" - pulling her wig off - much to the surprise of many of those present who had assumed Michelle's hair had grown back.
Celebration of Youth Music & Song
Sunday 19th September 2010
Theatre 1, Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth
The Celebration of Music & Song in 2009 was so successful in raising £5000 for Children's Hospice Precious Lives Appeal that is was decided to repeat the venture in 2010.
The concert starts at 7pm on the 19th September in the Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth. Tickets cost £12 available from the Box Office 01752 585050 and on the door.
The acts included on the bill are:
South West Camerata
A unique youth group of string players that offer creative opportunities in musical performance and professional development for all ages.
Clarinet Duo from Devonport High School for Girls - Laura Deignan & Charlotte Evans
The Ridgeway Singers - The Ridgeway School Choir comprises of approximately 50 girls and boys aged 11 – 18. They perform regularly throughout the year at events in and out of school; the most notable being the annual turning on of the Christmas Lights in Plymouth. They have also sung in the National Festival of Music for Youth 2008 and 2009 as well as performing at the 2010 Rotary District 1290 Conference.
Winner of the Rotary District 1290 Young Singer of the Year Competition - Luke Faber
Christine Carmichael, President of the Rotary Club of Plympton "This concert is a wonderful event to be repeating between the Rotary Club of Plympton and the Plymouth and District Soroptimists working in partnership."
More details are on the "Service Projects" section of the website or by clicking the above photo.
| Polar Explorer Kicks Off Plympton Rotary Speaker Programme
Arctic explorer Antony Jinman kicked off the new speaker programme with a great talk on his trek to the North Pole and his upcoming trip to Baffin Island and the International Scott Centenary Expedition. More details in the "speaker" section of the website. |
Well Done James
James Bennett is pictured receiving his RYLA certificate from President Christine following his participation on the 2010 course. |
Full Steam Ahead for the New Rotary Year
Left-Right: David Buchanan (Callington Rotary Club), Maxine Stoyel (District Governor Elect), John Makin (Saltram Rotary Club), Julian Greatex (Yelverton Rotary Club), Christine Carmichael (Plympton Rotary Club), Mike Doherty (Plymouth Albion Rotary Club), William Wills (Plymouth Mayflower Rotary Club) and Darren Hands (Assisstant Governor)
Not present: Geri Parlby (Tavistock Rotary Club), Alf Gurney (Drake Rotary Club), David Brown (Saltash Rotary Club), Paul Gray (Torpoint Eddystone Rotary Club) Geoff Booth (Plymouth Rotary Club) and Tony Adams (Roborough Rotary Club)
Several Presidents of the various Rotary clubs in the Plymouth area boarded the "Rotary Express" at the Plym Valley Railway on Saturday 3rd July to mark the start of the new Rotary year – a year in which the Rotary International President is asking Rotarians through his theme for the year, to "Build Communities and Bridge Continents".
Ray Klinginsmith, the Rotary International President, in his address to Rotarians at the start of the year said "Rotary is the best in the world at linking people of goodwill around the globe and then gaining their cooperation and support to make the world a much better place to live and work. Rotary lives and breathes in our 33,000 clubs, and it is the clubs that improve lives by Building Communities – Bridging Continents. If we succeed in helping clubs to become Bigger, Better, and Bolder in the next year, then it will be clear that the best days of Rotary are still ahead. Together, we can make the world a better place!"
And that is certainly the aim of the clubs in the "East Area" of Rotary District 1290 – West Devon & Cornwall.
The 12 clubs are all very active and will be building on this in the year ahead. Working together they will be pushing the international Rotary campaign to "End Polio Now" – a campaign that has seen Polio reduced to just 4 remaining pockets around the world – and as part of this will be planting crocus bulbs in the autumn so that next spring there will be areas of purple blooms on show.
Throughout the year, a major campaign will be undertaken to raise awareness of Rotary’s activities – which will hopefully lead to clubs growing in size as well as several other events which will see clubs working together.
Clubs will also be doing their own events with charities such as St Luke’s Hospice and Children’s Hospice South West among those being supported over the coming twelve months. December will also see the various clubs undertake the annual Christmas activities with collections of varying forms taken place.
If needed, the clubs will also undertake collections for Shelterbox – which was formed by one of the Rotary clubs in our district.
The six Presidents present - David Buchanan (Callington Rotary Club), John Makin (Saltram Rotary Club), Julian Greatex (Yelverton Rotary Club), Christine Carmichael (Plympton Rotary Club), Mike Doherty (Plymouth Albion Rotary Club) and William Wills (Plymouth Mayflower Rotary Club) - were joined by District Governor Elect Maxine Stoyel and Assistant Governor Darren Hands at the Plym Valley Railway in Coypool, Plympton with some of the volunteers of the railway on hand to explain about the railway – its history and their plans for the future. This led to one of the Presidents arranging a club outing there and then with the other clubs thinking of ways in which they can help - which it is hoped they will be able to do over the coming year.
The Plym Valley Railway is a little gem hidden away in this corner of Plymouth and for several of the Rotarians present, this was the first time that they had actually visited the Marsh Mills Station. The railway operated limited passenger train trips throughout the summer although the Railway Centre is open most Sundays from 11.00. Please check out their website – www.plymrail.co.uk for more details.
The "East Area" clubs would like to thank the Plym Valley Railway for opening up especially to allow us to mark the launch of the new Rotary year and look forward to working with them in some form in the future.
End of 2009-10 Year
The last meeting of the 2009-10 year saw a great evening of fun and fellowship for the club.
Our guest speaker was David Fitzgerald from the BBC (a report on Fitz’s talk can be found on the "Speakers" page of the website) and a number of presentations made after the meal. As had been planned, Peter handed over the chain of office to Christine but not before he had been presented with a Presidential Citation from District Governor Ken Edmonds. Peter also had a surprise in store for Darren Hands – to whom he presented a Paul Harris Fellowship.
Shyampti Water Project
A mini website has been set up for the Nepal Water Project which compliments the details shown on our website. It also contains a facility to donate money online towards the project which we have also added.
The mini website can be found here:
To donate online click here:
Gates encourages Rotarians to keep up fight against polio
In a video message to Rotarians, Bill Gates, cochair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, thanked Rotarians for their hard work in the effort to eradicate polio and congratulated Rotary for surpassing the halfway point in meeting Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge. "The work you're doing to raise funds for the program is critical, especially given the tight government budgets and increasing costs for a very aggressive polio program," Gates said. "Your work as advocates is also very important. We need to keep this fight high on the world's list of priorities." Rotary has been a leader in the fight against polio since the launch of the PolioPlus program in 1985. Recently, the Gates Foundation awarded two grants totaling $355 million to Rotary in support of its work in eradicating the disease. In response, Rotary pledged to raise $200 million. To date, Rotary has raised $117.5 million.
End Polio Now - Update
One of the objectives of the recent Thanks for Life project was to raise £1 million from the Thanks for Life – End Polio Now challenge during the period around the celebration of Rotary Day on 23rd February 2010.
Thanks to the fantastic response from clubs throughout RIBI, on Friday 26th March David Hodge, Chairman of the T4L project team, was able to announce the excellent news that, with one more District still to report, the total raised stood at £1,004,983. These are the known sums reported by clubs to the DGs in their own Districts and a number of clubs have still to file their returns. In addition many events are still happening and further funds are expected to be coming in over the next three months. This achievement is all the more remarkable in view of the millions of pounds collected by Rotarians only a few weeks before for the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
The funds raised from T4L will go to swell the total of US$114.5 million that Rotarians throughout RI had raised as at 28th February towards Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge.
At the RIBI Assembly in Birmingham over the weekend of 27th-28th March RIBI Vice President Jim Moulson announced that the District Governors for 2010/11 had decided that they would continue with the Thanks for Life project. It will again be based around Rotary Day on February 23rd and will continue to raise funds for polio eradication.
2010-11 Rotary International Presidents' Emphases
