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News Stories from the 2011/12 Rotary Year...

 

Stroke Awareness Day

Saturday 28th April saw the club repeat its now annual Stroke Awareness Day on the Plympton Ridgeway. 

This is part of a national Rotary campaign in partnership with the Stroke Association where by taking peoples' blood pressure the medical staff on hand can advise if they should see their doctor.  By doing so, lives have been saved. 

Full Report to follow shortly… 

Progress of Our Young Chef Winner

The younger members of our society often get a bad reputation caused by the few.  Rotary's youth projects and competitions help to show the positive things our young get up to.    A prime example is James Crotty, the winner of our Young Chef competition.  James may not have reached the national finals, but Peter Gorton, one our judges was so impressed by James’ commitment and enthusiasm that he has since given James a job on Saturdays in his restaurants’ kitchen. 

Read all about James' journey by clicking on the photo 

Plympton Rotary Club's Darren Hands scoops PR Award at RIBI Conference

Club member Darren Hands was recognised for his work on the local variataion of the Rotary "ThisClose to Ending Polio" campaign posters at this year's national conference.

This year, there were two exceptional PR campaigns which the judges felt were both worthy of recognition so in an MPRC first, the PR Trophy was a joint award.

Darren created a localised This Close campaign in our district by contacting local celebrities and asked if they would donate their support and time to help create posters and also be active participants in the campaign. Aysha Iqbal from the BBC signed up along with Olympic hopeful Tom Daley, BBC Radio Devon presenter David Fitzgerald as well as a host of other well known faces. Having recently discovered his mother suffered from Polio as a child, Darren is passionate about the Polio campaign and the need to End Polio Now. The award was shared with the Rotary Club of Grantham's Paul Wilson and the Rotary Swimarathon he organised - also in aid of Rotary's Polio efforts. Click on the image to see the full news story on the district website.an and  

The Moor Fun Day – Learn a Little, Laugh a Lot

We are teaming up with the Dartmoor Search & Rescue Team (Plymouth) to organise an exciting event in the beginning of July. The first Moor-Fun Day will take place on Saturday 7th July at Harrowbeer Airfield, The Rock, Yelverton. The DSRTP will be setting a series of challenges for teams of up to 8 people to undertake. The emphasis will be on fun whilst learning a bit about safety on the moors. Click on the image for more details. 

Rotary International signs project partner agreement with ShelterBox

Rotary International and ShelterBox have recently signed a project partner agreement, allowing the two organisations to collaborate more closely to provide relief and temporary shelter to survivors of natural disasters. The agreement will build on the strengths of both organisations in responding to disasters all over the world. Click on the photo to read more. 
 

 The Rotary Club of Plympton and Soroptimist International Plymouth & District are once again working in partnership to organise a charity concert – this year in aid of the Homeless – Shekinah Mission and ShelterBox.

Gathering young people from Plymouth and surrounding areas to celebrate their performance; this year we are handing over the floor to budding local talent under the direction of Musical Director Trevor Farrow. The audience will enjoy a varied range of music and drama from the performers. Click on the link for more details. 

 

Welcome to New Members

At out meeting on 8th March the club inducted not one but three new members.

Welcome to Rotary Jeff Horgan, Alan Poole and Sue Poole (pictured with President Malcolm).

To see how you can join Rotary, please contact the club via the contact tab at the top of the page or call the District 1290 mobile phone. 

Club Recognises Operation Hernia Surgeons

Rotary clubs in Great Britain & Ireland use the Paul Harris Fellowship – named after Rotary’s founder – as a mark of outstanding contribution above and beyond the norm. In many cases these are awarded to Rotarians but occasionally clubs award them to non-Rotarians. Such was the case recently at the Plympton Rotary Club, when for the first time in the clubs’ history an award was made outside of the club. What made it even more special was not one but two “Fellowships” where awarded. For their work with “Operation Hernia”, Professor Andrew Kingsnorth and Dr Chris Oppong became Paul Harris Fellows. 

District Conference - We Won Best Club Website in D1290!!!!

District conference is over for another year but the title says it all. In the district competitions we won the Best Club Website award! We lost out on the attendance, photography and newsletter awards - but then we have won the newsletter one before! Photos from conference will be uploaded soon together with a report. 

 We recently hosted a local heat of the Youth Speaks competition which saw two teams from Mount Street School fight it out to be crowned the local “Youth Speaks” champions with the judging panel of BBC’s Jenny Walrond together with Peter Reid and Pat Constable having a tough time to decide the winner.

Please click on the photo for more details.

 

Other Youth Opportunities / New Generations Competitions

As well as the Youth Speaks competition, we also stage other competitions for young people. Some of these form part of national competitions - click on the above icons for more details on the local heats of these. We also stage a Young Artist Competition and a Celebration of Youth Music & Song concert. 

Gates Challenge Met

Plympton Rotarians are celebrating some good news with other Rotarians Rotarians all around the world. The reason for this is that on the 17th January, it was announced that Rotary International has succeeded in meeting the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s US$200 million target in funding for polio eradication, raising more than $202.6 million. A feat achieved six months ahead of the deadline set.

For more details click on the image of Fitz (right) to go to the news section.

 

Rotary Theme for 2012-13 Announced

RI President-elect Sakuji Tanaka will ask Rotarians to build Peace Through Service in 2012-13 it has been announced at the Rotary International Assembly.

Tanaka will also ask Rotarians to focus their energy on supporting the three priorities of the RI Strategic Plan – “Support & Strengthen Clubs”, “Focus and Increase Humanitarian Service” and “Enhance Public Image and Awareness”. 

Food, glorious food

Budding chefs served up an array of culinary delights on Monday 12th December as they commenced battle to be crowned Rotary Young Chef of the Year 2012.

With just two hours to prepare and serve a 3 course meal for two on a budget of £15, youngsters from Eggbuckland Community College and Notre Dame RC School served stunning dishes from Asparagus tips with goats and parmesan Cheese to Rigatoni and Beef Ragu.

To read a full report, click on the photo. 

Local Training Company Saves Christmas for Plympton Rotarians

Plympton based PSC Training & Development Ltd. came to the rescue of the our club by generously providing a vehicle for our annual Christmas collections in and around Plympton.

Collections also took place oitside Sainsbury's, the Co-opand at Plymouth Albion. Click on the photo for more details which can be found in the news section of the website.  

 

Visit from "The Boss"

Rotarians in the Plymouth area recently had a special visitor when Rotary in Britain & Ireland President Ray Burman paid a visit to the city.  This was part of his tour of District 1290 – West Devon and Cornwall.

Ray and the District Governor started their day in Tavistock visiting a Memory Café as part of the Rotarians Easing Problems of Dementia (REPoD) project and followed this by attending the launch at Plymouth Albion RFC of the local "This Close to Ending Polio" poster campaign.  The local campaign which has been organised by our own Darren Hands, was highly praised by President Burman who was amazed at some of the people featuring in the campaign.

Our club then played host to Ray and where joined by Rotarians from around the area.  Ray gave a very entertaining and motivational talk to the Rotarians present who also were treated to the premiere of the new district promotional DVD.  For a small district, Ray was left in no doubt that Rotarians in District 1290 punch above their weight.

Gates Challenge Met

Plympton Rotarians are celebrating some good news with other Rotarians Rotarians all around the world.  The reason for this is that on the 17th January, it was announced that Rotary International has succeeded in meeting the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s US$200 million target in funding for polio eradication, raising more than $202.6 million.  A feat achieved six months ahead of the deadline set.

The fundraising milestone was reached in response to $355 million in challenge grants awarded to “The Rotary Foundation” by the Gates Foundation. All funds have been earmarked to support polio immunization activities in affected countries where the vaccine-preventable disease continues to paralyze children. 

In recognition of Rotary’s great work, and to inspire Rotarians in the future, the Gates foundation is committing an additional $50 million to extend the partnership.  Rotary started the global fight against polio, and continues to set the tone for private fundraising, grassroots engagement, and maintaining polio at the top of the agenda with key policymakers.

This news came as Rotarians cautiously celebrated another major milestone in the global effort to eradicate polio. India, until recently an epicenter of the wild poliovirus, has gone one year without recording a new case of the crippling, sometimes fatal, disease.

         

Local Training Company Saves Christmas for Plympton Rotarians  

         Plympton based PSC Training & Development Ltd. have come to the rescue of the our club by generously providing a vehicle for our annual Christmas collections in and around Plympton.Press officer of the Rotary Club, Darren Hands said, "Back in the summer there was a very serious possibility that the club would not be able to undertake this annual fund raising event and give the children and people of Plympton a chance to see Santa before Christmas. Thanks to Mark Boulting and the staff at PSC Training though we are once again able to take Santa around the streets of Plympton in the weeks leading up to Christmas and bring some festive cheer to the streets of Plympton".

The Rotary Club of Plympton's collections start on Wednesday 7th December.

These rounds will also be supplemented with static collections on Wednesday 14th December at Sainsbury's (9.00-5.00) and Saturday 17th outside the Chaddlewood CO-OP (9.00-5.00).

The club would like to thank in advance both Sainsbury's and the Co-op for allowing the static collections to take place, the various local groups who are helping with the collections – which once again include the likes of Gables Farm, Woodside, The Plympton Civic Society, Plympton Cricket Club, Plympton Guides and Chaddlewood Minors football team along with others – and of course especially PSC Training. 

 

Speedway

 

The 8th August saw 21 members and guests make a trip to the Plymouth Devils Speedway.  Although the Devils lost to Newport, a good night was had by all with many members relishing the opportunity to try something they had not previously considered going to.

Our thanks must go to Mike Bowden who offered the club this chance when he spoke to the club recently.

 

 

 New President

Our club meeting on the 30th June saw President Christine hand over the reigns of the club.  She did not have too far to go though, handing the chain of office over to husband Malcolm who will be guiding the club over the next year. 

 St Luke's Presentation

2010/11 Club President, Christine Carmichael's wish for the year was to raise £1,500 for her nominated charity St Luke's Hospice.

At her last meeting in charge of the club she was able to present a cheque to St Luke's for £3,700.

Young Artist Exhibition 2011

The sixth annual Plympton Rotary Club "Young Artists Exhibition" launched on Thursday 7th April has come to a close. 

Continuing our work in promoting the great talent and achievements of the youngsters in the Plympton and Plymstock areas of Plymouth, the Rotary Club of Plympton were pleased that the Lord Mayor was able to host the prize giving for their sixth annual Young Artist Competition.  Click on the image for a full report.

 Ted Osmond Award 2011 

The Rotary Club of Plympton are pleased to announce that 18 Year old Rachel Moran is the 2011 winner of the Ted Osmond Trophy – an award dedicated to a past member of the club and which honours the achievements of a young individual from the Plympton area.  For more details click on the image.

 Young Photographer 2011

Despite a couple of false starts and a change of theme, the Young Photographer Competition has been a great success.  

Lewis Eason won the Junior section and Libby Ward the Intermediate section.  For more details click on the image. 

 

  

 

Gold Medal Talk to Plympton Rotarians

 

Commonwealth Games Lawn Bowling champion, Natalie Melmore has become the latest person to speak to the Rotary Club of Plympton and she gave a Gold Medal winning talk in more ways than one.

Natalie who is youngest woman to win the national singles title has been using her success in last year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi to try and attract a younger generation to take up the sport.  It is a task made harder by the lack of media coverage here in the UK – explaining that it is a vicious circle.  The sports' governing body cannot pay to get TV coverage, but without TV coverage they cannot attract sponsors to cover the costs of getting the TV companies to support it.  She went on to say that this is the opposite to Australia where it is one of the most popular sports and is watched by many every Saturday afternoon.

Undertaking three jobs and a Law & Criminology degree at Plymouth University, it is hard to see where Natalie can find the time to practice but her dedication bore fruit last year.  As well as explaining how she has been trying to promote the sport, Natalie also spent part of her talk showing a clip of the final in Delhi telling the club members why she played certain shots and what was going through her mind at the time.

All of the club members where thoroughly entertained by Natalie's talk and all felt it is a travesty that the sport of lawn bowls is not recognised by the Olympics.