Welcome to the website of the Rotary Club of Worcester South
Welcome to the RIBI web page for Worcester South Rotary Club. We’re an active club of 32 members, most of whom take part in Club activities.
Weekly Meetings
We meet at the new Graeme Hick Pavilion of Worcestershire County Cricket Club, New Road, Worcester, mostly on Wednesdays at 1pm. Wives and partners join us in the evening on the fifth Wednesday of any month (Ladies’ Evening). Occasionally the Pavilion is not available on Wednesday lunchtimes because of cricket matches(!) and on these weeks we meet on a Tuesday lunchtime instead or at another venue. Please check Meetings.
Meetings Activities
Club meetings include a Business Meeting on the first Wednesday in the month, where committees report on activities and planning and budgetary decisions are taken.
Other meetings include guest speakers or talks from members which may be informative, educational or just amusing.
Local Club Activities
· On Sunday 23rd August 2009, we held the first ever Worcester Pétanque Festival in association with Worcester Pétanque Club on Pitchcroft in Worcester as part of the Worcester Festival.
· We held a Dragon Boat Festival every year on the river Severn in Worcester in association with GableEvents where teams of ten paddlers and a drummer competed for the many prizes on offer. This was a hugely enjoyable event and many hundreds of local people took part. Sadly, 2008's Dragon Boat Festival had to be cancelled due to lack of interest, but during the five years the event did take place, over £50,000 was raised for local charities.
· Worcester’s Victorian themed Christmas Fayre attracts over 100,000 people to the city in late November. For years now we have been selling mulled wine and mince pies to visitors who come looking for us every year for a delicious hot drink and tasty mince pie. Over the four days of the Fayre last year (2009) we sold nearly 5,000 cups of mulled wine and mince pies and raised over £6,000 for our charities.
· In 2006 we had our first Shrove Tuesday Pancake Racing competition outside the Guildhall in Worcester and it proved a great success. Teams of four from organisations around the city competed for the Peplow Trophy. Last year's Pancake Racing was on Shrove Tuesday 24th February and we had some more flipping good fun raising money for Acorns Children’s Hospice, County Air Ambulance and Maggs Day Centre! What an enjoyable day this was for everyone taking part! The picture shows former Worcester Mayor, Ian Imray enjoying himself.
This year's event (2010) was held on Shrove Tuesday, 16th February, where the winners were HSBC for the second year running!
· Senior Citizens of Worcester are invited to a New Year Party every year where sherry, tea and entertainment is enjoyed by all. One lady aged 103 looks forward to this event every year!
· Senior Citizens have a Pensioners' Spring Outing to look forward to every year. A coach is hired and a trip to a place of interest with lunch is provided. This is a great favourite for a number of elderly friends.
· In association with Worcestershire Youth Music we purchase musical instruments every year for use in Worcester Schools by children who may not be able to buy or hire an instrument from the County Music Service. This scheme, called Music for Youth, is much appreciated by staff and pupils alike, and has been running for 25 years. There are now over 100 instruments ranging from violins to guitars and even steel pans and drum kits in the scheme.
· We continue with a literacy project at Dines Green Primary School in Worcester. Members of the Club and some wives help pupils with their reading on a one-to-one basis for just an hour a week. Staff at the school are delighted with the progress of the project. ‘Many of our pupils are from single parent families, so contact with adults is so important to them’ says Head Teacher Steve Gough.
· All five Worcester Rotary Clubs combine every year to provide Christmas Parcels for the elderly and needy of Worcester. House to house and supermarket collections provide food parcels for over 800 people which are distributed around the city.
International Club Activities
· Many thousands of pounds have been raised by the club for Rotary ShelterBoxes. Each box, costing £500, contains a tent for ten people with thermal blankets, cooking equipment, basic tools, water purification and protective clothing. Many thousands of the boxes were used after the Tsunami in 2004, many thousands more have been sent to Haiti and stocks are always kept in Cornwall and other places around the world ready for shipment to wherever they are needed in the world. Worcester South Rotary Club has been given a Gold Award by ShelterBox, for providing funds to buy more than 100 ShelterBoxes. The Club is one of only five clubs in RIBI to be given this award.
· A second hand Hereford and Worcester Ambulance was shipped to Masindi in Uganda to replace the only ambulance which had failed serving a population of over half a million people.
· When Worcester had a new hospital built, club members managed to acquire a huge amount of redundant hospital equipment, and this was shipped in a 40 foot container to Masindi in Uganda. The shipment included 25 hospital beds, wheelchairs, refrigerators, clothes, curtains, crutches and much more. This picture shows Worcester beds in the Maternity Ward of Masindi Hospital.
· Encouraged by Club member Allah Ditta, former Mayor of Worcester, the club shipped a container of blankets, warm clothing and equipment to Pakistan after the recent earthquake.
· A container full of Braille books has been shipped to South Africa. RNIB New College, Worcester, found they had a huge number of Braille books no longer required. These were shipped to a blind school in Cape Town where they were very much appreciated.
· We have given funds to WaterAid to provide safe water supplies desperately needed in Tanzania.
· On 13th October 2009 we despatched a 40 foot container full of hospital equipment to the Moughal Foundation Hospital in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir. This was a joint venture between Worcester South Rotary Club and the Worcester Pakistan Association to help people in Kashmir get back on their feet after the 2005 earthquake. The equipment came from the former Nursing and Midwifery in Newtown Road, Worcester. The picture shows equipment being loaded at Manor Farm in Worcester.
Meet the President of the Rotary Club of Worcester South
This year's President is Peter Kendrick.
Want to know more?
Contact Worcester South Rotary Club Secretary Mike Newton on 01886 832180.
Or email us at contact.wsrc@virgin.net
The Black Pear
Queen Elizabeth I visited the City of Worcester in August 1575, and tradition says that during her progress through the Foregate she saw a fine specimen tree of the Black Pear heavily laden with fruit. Her Majesty was so struck with its appearance that she bade the City to adopt the pear as their City emblem, and add it to their Arms. Thus the three black pears were added and form part of the Worcester City Arms to the present day. The Black Pear really is almost black and can only be eaten after much stewing! There are still several trees in and around Worcester – one in Cripplegate park planted by HRH the Prince of Wales.
Worcester South Rotary Club has its own President’s jewel specially made in the shape of the unique ‘Black Pear of Worcester’. It was a gift from Worcester Rotary Club, its Parent Club, on the Chartering of Worcester South Club on 22nd April 1968. The Black Pear is also used as the club's emblem.
In the next 30 days..
08/09/2010 Club Weekly Meeting - Kathy Leather, Worcester Warriors.15/09/2010 Club Weekly Meeting - Bernard Mills, the History of Kays. Meeting at BowlXtreme, Perdiswell.
22/09/2010 Club Weekly Meeting - Paddy Green, to be confirmed.
29/09/2010 Club Weekly Meeting - Ladies Evening at the Spires Restaurant, 6.30pm for 7pm. Time to be confirmed..
