10 January 2013 Auschwitz - A Talk by Dunblane High School Pupils

The first meeting in 2013 was well attended by members, 5 visiting Rotarians from Grangemouth Rotary and 3 pupils accompanied by teacher Anne McEwan.

Welcomed by President Iain Smith, Anne introduced Megan Priestly and Eilidh Wright who gave a talk on their visit to last September as part of a schools programme set up by the Holocaust Educational Trust. This charity was set up in 1999 and to date, 60% of schools have taken part.

The girls spoke movingly of their reactions to the sights at Auschwitz- Birkenau and of the 'horrible experience' of a visit to the remnants of a gas chamber and crematorium. They are returning to the area later this year as part of a school project to further their understanding.

They continued their presentation by talking about the work of Amnesty International and how they had set up a local group in the school.

After a wide range of questions, well answered by the girls, Jim Gardner gave the vote of thanks for a very well delivered and thought provoking talk.

Also visiting from Dunblane High was Sarah Kelly who will be travelling to next month to take part in Rotary's Euroscola project.The Euroscola day is hosted 10 times a year by the European Parliament in or . The day is led by officials of the Parliament and is structured to ensure all young people participate to the full. It is a prestigious event with the young people being treated very much as MEPs: sitting in the main debating chamber; using electronic voting etc. Sarah is looking forward to her trip and will talk to the club on her return.

The Grangemouth Rotarians were visiting to collect an auction prize for their forthcoming Sportsmans Dinner. This prize of a used tennis racquet was donated by Andy Murray through his grandad, Roy Erskine, who is a founder member of the and Dunblane club.

Iain Mitchell from Grangemouth Rotary explained that their dinner raises 20k and hoped Andy's racquet would add substantially to their income.