Welcome to the website of the Rotary Club of Aireborough
Welcome to the Rotary Club of Aireborough
R.I.P. ROY BARKER, PAUL HARRIS FELLOW EXTRAORDINAIRE
On July 6th, the start of the Rotary year, Roy Barker came to the Handover Meeting to take on the office of President of the Rotary Club of Aireborough for 2010/11. He accepted the chain of office with the same modesty, pride and courage he had consistently displayed since he became a Club member on 14 February 2006. Sadly, thirteen days later he finally lost his battle with the cancer he had fought so tenaciously and so long.
To all of us, Roy will be remembered as the epitome of Rotary, a man who lived and breathed ‘Service above Self’. As a former Headteacher he took most pleasure from working with young people whether through judging teams on the Technology Tournament, selecting Rotary Youth Leadership Award candidates, reading in a Primary School, presenting Dictionaries4Life, riding the Ultimate on Kids Out days at Lightwater Valley or attending local secondary school prize-givings.
Taking pride of place in his achievements, however, was his visit to India with his wife Sue to take part in National Immunisation Days on the End Polio Now world-wide project. This was hands-on Rotary, a field where Roy excelled. A fellow group member said ‘ I’ll remember how Roy never let anything get in his way whilst we were in India and fulfilled his dream to truly give ‘’Service above Self even though there were days when he was feeling terrible. Roy’s wicked sense of humour kept us all going and I’m sure that is what we will all remember Roy for’.
And along the way he set up and ran the Club website, played the leading role in the production of two Aireborough Club calendars, helped in the maintenance of Guiseley Cemetery and was always the first hand up when volunteers were called for. He also arranged a trip to Liverpool for a tour of the Ark Royal on which his son Peter was serving.
No surprise then when in December 2008 the Club awarded him Rotary’s highest honour - a Paul Harris Fellowship for a list of achievements of which any Rotarian of many years standing would have been proud.
This will continue to be Roy Barker’s year, the rest of us just hope we’ll live up to his expectations!!
REVIEW OF 2009/10 YEAR
The Club has been established since 1953 having its first meetings in Yeadon Aero Club. Aireborough Rotary Club is now based at Horsforth Golf Club covering the areas of Rawdon, Guiseley, Yeadon and Horsforth.
By January 1st 2010 Philip Livesey's year as President was already half-way through and following established trends members have continued to involve themselves enthusiastically in a variety of never ending activities.
Our Annual October Band Concert, featuring Frank Renton and the Rothwell Temperance Band was probably our best ever, providing a wonderful evening of music, humour and virtuosity for a full house at Yeadon Town Hall. As well as enjoying ourselves we also managed to raise over £4100 for charity, so everyone went home happy.
Money, however, continues to burn holes in Rotary pockets and by the turn of the year just under £3000 was already on its way to a clutch of local and international organisations and charities. By the turn of the year we had helped locally Guiseley Guides, Caring for Life, the Forget-me-not Dementia café, 15th Airedale Scouts, the Dogs Trust and AIESEC, which organises graduate exchanges. We also contributed prizes at Guiseley, Horsforth, Benton Park and St Mary's, Menston for pupils who had served their communities well. We also finished off distributing dictionaries to final year primary school pupils and have already ordered 300+ for summer 2010.
Other young people we supported who asked for help with projects included Rachel Pinn travelling to Montserrat to support Guides, Nicola Guy joining Raleigh International and archer Matthew Arnold whose training for competitions we still support.
Part of the reward is hearing them talk about their exploits on their returns, 'singing for their suppers' some may call it! Added to the list this year were Lucy Stevens from Horsforth School and Connor Brown from Benton Park. Hebden Bridge is not exactly the end of the world but what they gained from their week-long Rotary Youth Leadership Award Course had to be heard to be believed. Getting wet and losing sleep seems to have a lot going for it!
Our weekly speakers, most from outside but sometimes just as entertainingly our own members, have brought us new projects and shown us another side of life from wildlife projects in Leeds to music and learning disabilities from 'old age – what's the point?' to 'eliminating malaria'. We also hosted a presentation from the young Group Study Exchange team returning from Tanzania with Bill Kerr and Andrew Wilson putting in sterling work organisationally.
International projects also remained high on the agenda including - Mercy Ships, Hope and Homes for Children, Water Aid and Sightsavers but two hands on projects we supported also stand out. Di Oldam travelled to Tanzania to help bring a hospital in Mwanza back to working order as well as delivering mosquito nets to many families and we also heard from Leeds undergraduate, John McGuinness about Project Peru and his voluntary work in setting up a home for deprived children 'Casa Hogar'.
Though raising and distributing funds bring their own rewards we have also on occasions let our hair down, none more so than at this year's Southport District Conference where we surprised ourselves by winning the trophy for Best Fancy Dress on the theme of 'A Night at the Movies' as an unforgettable group of 101 Dalmatians, featuring Cruella and Pongo. We enjoyed a damp night's Bowls Evening at Esholt and travelled the length and breadth of Aireborough for our Safari Lunch. We joined raucously in Yeadon's 'Mother Goose' and more decorously celebrated our 56th Birthday with journalist, T.V. and radio reporter Tim Wyatt as our speaker. In all of these enterprises we have been joined and supported by the ladies of the Inner Wheel Club of Aireborough and long may it continue.
Like hamsters on the wheel there is little time to draw breath with the next challenge being what can we do for 'Thanks for Life' and Rotary's 100th birthday? Our answer is to open a charity shop on Yeadon High Street initially for 2 days – Thursday and Friday the 25th and 26th of February, showing the public what we do and encouraging them to support us. Wish us luck!!
New members are always made very welcome, this website well demonstrates our activities and 2010 promises to be another eventful year for the Aireborough 35.
In the next 30 days..
03/08/2010 Club Weekly Meeting - 'Events at Harewood', speaker Gerald Long.10/08/2010 Club Weekly Meeting - John Ellis 'Walking on hot coals' vote of thanks Peter Carlile.
17/08/2010 Club Weekly Meeting - Speaker's host is Dick Gillgrass.
24/08/2010 Club Weekly Meeting - Geoff Druett will speak on the work of Leeds Branch of the Samaritans. This will be a joint meeting with the Headingley Club.
Last Meeting
28/07/2010 Topic: Scarborough Rotarian John Walker will talk about his recent trip to West Africa, returning the GSE visitSpeaker's host Geoffrey Barton
