Welcome to the website of the Rotary Club of Callander & West Perthshire
WELCOMEA very warm welcome from President Hugh to the Rotary Club of Callander and West Perthshire. Our club is set within the Trossachs one of the most beautiful and scenic parts of Scotland. We are easily accessible from the central belt being just 1hr. from Glasgow and 1hr.20mins.from the centre of Edinburgh. This area is described as "Scotland in Miniature" and visitors to our meetings and events are assured of true Highland hospitality within a scenic setting. |
Based on an original water colour by Anne Ferguson |
Hot Topics
These are just a few of the things we have been up to recently or will be up to soon.....
Ben Ledi Walk - Saturday 5th June 2010
The key feature of this sponsored walk is that all participants can choose any good cause that they wish to support. For example: a local charity such as CHAS; a national charity such as Help for Heroes; local good cause; school funds; youth group; etc.
If you would like to support a cause of your choice, the Ben Ledi Walk, organised by the Rotary Club, is an ideal vehicle to enable you and your family / friends / colleagues to find sponsors and raise funds. All money raised goes to charity - 80% of the funds you raise goes to your cause, while the other 20% goes this year to - The Nepal Trust, Killin Mountain Rescue and Callander Youth Project. Last year 135 entrants raised over £6.500 for some 28 good causes.
Ben Ledi, at 879 metres not far short of a Munro, is a challenging but not too demanding climb. In our previous events, there have been participants from every decade from under 8 to over 70 who completed the course. Regular hill walkers find it an easy climb. Some, who take little strenuous exercise, find it quite tough.
Volunteers from Killin Mountain rescue team are at check-points and in radio contact with each other and at the Start / Finish base. Walkers have to be properly shod and clad, keep to the marked route, reporting at all check-points and at the Finish. Those under 16 may only walk as members of family or other adult led groups. Registration (Start) on Saturday 5th June is between 8.30 and 11 am.
Entry and Sponsorship forms can be downloaded by clicking on the links at the start of this sentence or you can enter on-line by clicking here.
Shelter Boxes for Haiti
On hearing of the appalling tragedy of the Haiti earthquake, the Club was determined it should do its bit to help out. After some discussion it was decided we should attempt to raise sufficient money to fund the purchase of a Shelter Box to be sent to Haiti (click on link to find out more about Shelter Boxes). It was decided to use the then upcoming Burns Night to raise the funds. Members donated a number of good quality prizes to be raffled on the night and our guests and members surpassed themselves, buying an incredible amount of raffle tickets - £410 worth. On top of that an anonymous benefactor had undertaken to match £1 for £1 the amount raised by the raffle, making a total of £820. In addition a number of club members made individual but anonymous donations to our fund meaning tha we raised a total of £1,100 - sufficient to purchase two Shelter Boxes and contribute to the purchase of a further one.
WELL DONE to everyone and a BIG THANKS to all those who bought raffle tickets and to our anonymous benefactor and donors.
Bag Packing at the Co-op, Callander
A big thank you to all who contributed to our collecting buckets while we were packing bags at the Co-op in Callander on 30th and 31st December 2009. Thanks to Callander's residents' generosity, we were able to raise £963.63 for the Mercy Ships charity. We'd also like to record our thanks to the Co-op for allowing us to do the collection.
RYLA Student
Clare Melia was our sponsored RYLA student this year. Clare presented on her experiences at our meeting on 18th August 2009. Click here to find out more.
Golf Charity Day - 8th August 2009
A great success ..... this was our first attempt at holding one of these events. See below for more details.
New Team at the helm ....
At our meeting on 29th June 2010 outgoing President Peter invested Hugh
Nelson as our new President. Hugh took the opportunity to welcome to
thank Peter for his work in a very busy and successful year. He then
welcomed new Secretary Jen Shearer to her role and went on to confirm
Ken Stewart and Bill Geddes as Senior Vice and Junior Vice
respectively. Neither Ken nor Bill were able to attend the meeting,
but Ken received his Vice President's regalia the following week.
.... and a few last words from Immediate Past President Peter
My presidency comes
to a close with genuinely mixed feelings. At one level, yes – it will be good
to join the ranks again and
not to constantly monitor proceedings, ensure that
convenors have my support and to liaise with the secretary and treasurer as
needed on administrative matters. On the other side of the coin, we have had a busy
and I believe, very successful year and I have thoroughly enjoyed my small part
in that.
This is now the
time when I have the opportunity to record my thanks to the many people whose
contributions to my presidency have been essential to its function .... more.....
So what does our Rotary Club get up to?
Well, we have a variety of events in our Programme for the next year which will ensure the opportunity for socialising, fundraising, community involvement and supporting the wider community of Rotary International. Here are some of the events we plan:
- AM Am charity golf competition
- Ben Ledi Walk
- Burns Night
- Highland Dancing in the Square
- Bag Packing at New Year
- Theatre Visit
- Junior Highland Games
- The full programme of events for 2009/10 can be found by clicking here.
AM AM Charity Golf Day
On Friday 7th August 2009, we held what we hope was the first of many annual charity golf days. Our annual Ben Ledi sponsored climb has, for many years, been our major fundraising event. Now our second major fundraiser still involves a good walk, but also incorporates the undoubted pleasure of sinking a few balls on the beautiful Callander golf course.
Each year we select a charity or charities that will benefit from this event, this year it was CHAS and Strathcarron Hospice (see details below).
This first year looks as though it was a great success. While we have still to reach a final tally of the amounts raised for these two worthy charities, we can say it was a wonderful day - 15 teams of four took part and every one of the holes attracted a sponsor; the weather was great and all taking part said what a great day it had been.
Credit for the success of the day must go to Arthur Leask and his team who worked tirelessly to get this event off the ground and to those other members who brought in sponsors or helped out on the day.
We fully intend to repeat this event around the same time next year and once again we will invite organisations or individuals to sponsor a hole and/or put together a team of 4 to take part in the competition. It's never to early to indicate your participation - to find out more contact Arthur Leask on 01877 330713 or by email
- CHAS - a Scottish charity committed to providing hospice care for children with life-limiting diseases and support and services to their families
- Strathcarron Hospice - a Scottish charity dedicated to providing specialist palliative care to patients with active progressive illnesses
The Pirates of Callander
Callander as a community is noted for the vast amount of musical talent that exists in the town. Well Callander Rotary has its fair share too. In early March the Callander Amateur Operatic Society (CAOS) presented its production of 'The Pirates of Penzance' and 8 Callander Rotarians took part. Four of the eight were on stage, one (Jen Shearer) was the prompt, Richard Cooper was the Stage Manager and Paul Prescott and Bill Sutherland were part of Richard's stage crew. The show has been hailed as a great success and the Rotarians taking part enjoyed every minute of it. Roll on next year when CAOS presents 'Hello Dolly'.
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From left to right:
(Bill Sutherland wasn't on duty the night the picture was taken |
So how does the website work?
The link below will take you to a PowerPoint presentation developed by Alistair West of District 1010. Although it's slightly out of date, deue to vaious changes made to the template in recent times, it is still an excellent presentation and gets the message accross very effectively. Click http://www.rotary-ribi.org/tutorials/index.asp and you will go to the appropriate page on the 1010 website. Then just scroll to the bottom of the page to find the link tha downloads the presentation.
In the next 30 days..
03/08/2010 Club Weekly Meeting - Speaker's Host - David Bennett: Door - Ron Henderson: Visitors' Host - Arthur Leask.10/08/2010 Club Weekly Meeting - Speaker's Host - Peter Bennett: Door - Trevor Hipkin: Visitors' Host - Brian McKay.
17/08/2010 Club Weekly Meeting - Barbecue - Harbour Cafe: Door - Derek House: Visitors' Host - Dan McKirgan.
24/08/2010 Club Weekly Meeting - Speaker's Host - Roger Bradley: Door - Dorothy Kinloch: Visitors' Host - Paul Prescott.
Click here for 
