Rotary Club of Plympton

  Plympton Cards

Rather than present club banners, the club have taken the step to produce our own gift cards featuring local landmarks photographed by our own David Mallalieu.  The International Committee will also be selling packs of these cards in aid of the Schools for All charity.

 

 Ted Osmond Trophy Presentation

 

At the latest meeting of the Rotary Club of Plympton, a special award was made.  Every year, the club awards the Ted Osmond Trophy to a deserving young person from the local community.  The award is named after a former member of the club and was set up 15 years ago in his memory.

The club were particularly pleased to see Ted’s widow, Doris, able to make the meeting and present the award to this year recipient, Jon-Paul Oxley.

Jon-Paul was not expected to survive past his third birthday due to Cystic Fibrosis.  He is constantly raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and is a fully qualified football referee. To date he has raised over £11,000 for Cystic Fibrosis through events such as a charity football match he organised for two teams from Derriford Hospital, held at Ridgeway School.  As well as this he is the goalkeeper for the Plymouth Argyle disabled football team.

Jon-Paul has amazed doctors and has to visit hospital every two weeks where he has to have physio to keep his chest clear and he spent a great deal of the summer in hospital.

Junior Vice-President of the club, Gustaf Eriksson, was pleased that the club could honour this young person who certainly lives up to (and exceeds) the expectations of our youth that Ted Osmond held so dear.

Young Photographer

 

In conjunction with "The Herald", "The Plymouth Post" and Lee Pengelly from "Silverscene Photography" we are running a local heat of the RIBI "Young Photographer" competition.  More details can be found by clicking the above image. 

THE DEADLINE FOR THIS COMPETITION HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO 7th JANUARY

Club members are pictured below at the official launch on the 16th October.

 

 

First Area Cluster Meeting The first "Cluster" meeting of the Plymouth area Rotary clubs proved to be a fantastic success with 95 Rotarians and guests in attendance. Antony Jinman and Prof. Iain Stewart gave talks under the heading "Under the Weather - The Science of Climate Change".  For a full report go to the speakers section of the website.

 

Thanks for Life 2010/11

The 2010/11 efforts towards the "Thanks for Life" campaign - Rotary's final push to eradicate Polio goes under the sub heading of "Focus on the Crocus".  Clubs all over the country are planting crocus bulbs so that there will be vast pockets of purple blooms next Spring.

Our club, together with the clubs of Roborough, Plymouth Albion and Plymouth Mayflower planted 4,100 bulbs in the Jigsaw Garden (next to Drakes Shopping Mall) on the 16th October aided by the Groundwork Trust and other volunteers. 

 

East Area Rotary Clubs Cluster Meeting

"Under the Weather - The Science of Climate Change"

Plympton Rotary Club are pleased to be hosting the first Cluster Meeting on Thursday 21st October at Boringon Park Golf Club, 7:00 for 7:30pm.

     

The speakers for the evening will be Professor Iain Stewart from the University of Plymouth and Explorer Antony Jinman.

There will be a 3 course meal with proceeds from the night going to St Luke's Hospice. 

Celebration of Youth Music & Song

 

The second "Celebration of Youth Music and Song" organised by the Rotary Club of Plympton and Soroptimists International Plymouth & District has proved to be a great success.

The evening marked the end of a week long collaboration between the two clubs, raising funds for the Children's Hospice South West "Precious Lives" appeal.  The previous week had seen a wishing tree in House of Fraser at which, for a small donation, people where able to place their wishes.  This was just the prelude to a great evening of music and song by some fantastic young performers from around the South West. 

BBC Spotlight news presenter Aysha Iqbal welcomed the throngs to the evening, which was opened by the South West Camerata with Tchaikovsky's "String Serenade Finale".

They were followed by Luke Faber, winner of this year's "Young Singer of the Year" competition – organised by the Rotary Clubs of Plympton and Torpoint Eddystone.

Luke was followed by the Ridgeway Singers, from Ridgeway School in Plympton who performed songs from the musicals "Wicked" and "Les Miserables".

Laura Deignan and Charlotte Evans, a clarinet duo from Devonport High School followed before the South West Camerata returned with a lively jig by Phillip Buttall.  The finale saw all the performers join together to perform "Circle of Life" from "The Lion King".

 

There can be no doubt, with many stories appearing in the news these days showing youngsters in a bad light, this concert showed that there is a lot to be proud of with the multitude of talent of our youngsters in the South West.

Clare Thomas from the Rotary Club of Plympton said "It was an outstanding success, a great atmosphere and the musical talent exceptional. Although, due to the recession we didn't make as much as last year, the audience had a superb evenings entertainment." These sentiments where echoed by Soroptimist Sylvia Bedbrook who said "We are so proud of all these young people giving up their time to help other youngsters not as fortunate as themselves.  And to produce such a glorious evening of music was a real bonus."

The two clubs are also pleased to report that this year approximately £4,100 was raised for Children's Hospice South West and the organising committee would like to thank, House of Fraser, the University of Plymouth, Brittany Ferries, Air South West and the Duke of Cornwall Hotel as well as all of the other companies who supported the event in various ways. 

 From Gin to Cognac

Club member Win Scutt is cycling from Plymouth to Cognac in September 2010 to raise money for St Luke's Hospice in Plymouth.  Cycling with him will be friend and colleague from City College Plymouth is Jeanne Milton who is raising money for Thames Valley Hospice.

Why Plymouth to Cognac? Well, they were going to cycle from Plymouth to Paris, but then heard how awful it would be to cycle through Greater Paris! Cognac was a similar distance and what an opportunity to celebrate two regional drinks, Plymouth Gin and Martell Cognac!

Win has chosen to raise money for St Luke's because it is such a brilliant local charity and is the chosen charity for our Rotary Club this year. He was also inspired by Jeanne's choice of Thames Valley Hospice who cared so brilliantly for her beautiful funny daughter in law Helen and helped her son, Richard, and Helen's parents at a difficult time.

This fundraising adventure all started with Jeanne trying to motivate a colleague to get cycling. Win, another colleague, jumped at the idea and the cycle challenge was formed. This isn't an organised cycle event but they are hoping to get some sponsorship along the way to make it a memorable event.

They departed from Plymouth Gin on Friday 3rd September waved off by a number of club members - sailing from Millbay at  with Brittany Ferries who have very kindly offered to cover the cost of the fare – and will return next week.

You can follow their  journey on their website http://plymouth-cognac.blogspot.com/ which Win plans to update daily.  

Win can also be sponsored online at:  http://www.justgiving.com/Plymouth-Cognac

                           

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 3^rd 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. 

 

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-28^th 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