Mercian Mutterings June/July 2015

All Change: June and July are significant months in the Rotarycalendar as they mark the end of one year and thestart of the next. The club has been busy throughoutwith no opportunities yet for taking it easy.

President’s Utterings

I was delighted to be elected asthe President of RCEM for theyear 2015 to 2016 and evenmore pleased to be supportedby Steve, the outgoing Presidentin his new role as Honorary Secretary.The Handover Dinner on June 22nd was very enjoyable; as was the rather fancier one I attendedin Bulgaria the following week - I plan to have alittle folk dancing at the Handover to John O in2016! Maybe we could learn to Strip the Willowon one of our social evenings.The next year looks both busy and interesting (seecalendar). I hope the club will go from strength tostrength and continue to be original and innovative.One of our prime aims is to raise money for goodcauses locally and internationally - we are proud ofthe marvellous community of Eccleshall for givinga stunning amount to our Nepal collection - we canassure you that all of the money (including GiftAid) has gone to help families in the disaster areareturn to a normal happy life. That's what makesRotary so special. - President Alex

Ironman 70.3 - Staffordshire

Our first departure from the normal Mondaymeeting schedule in June was to do a bit ofmarshalling for the cycling section of the IronmanChallenge on Cannock Chase. This did involve gettingout of bed at ascarily early hour on aSunday morning toensure that we arrivedat our designated marshallingposts beforethe roads were closedoff. We then waited and waited for the first ridersto appear. After that, it was at times chaotic, requiringat least 3 pairs of eyes each to make sure thatyou were watching for riders, spectators and thefew cars drivers that thought “Road Closed” didnot apply to them.The weather was kind to us and the riders appreciatedour support (That’s the most important bit).

School Leavers AssembliesThis year all the school leavers assemblies, wherethe club provides Usborne Dictionaries and/orEndeavour Award prizes were squeezed into threedays so the presenting was shared out betweenAlex, Steve, Hilary & Brian E. We were all madevery welcome and even had a message of thanksfrom a happy parent on our facebook page.

Sporty JulyDistrict Sports were back on the agenda at thebeginning of July with a trip to Wellington on the7th to play crown greenbowls against WrekinRotary. It was a closematch but we emergedvictorious and reallyenjoyed our sandwichesin the club house after.Buoyed by the bowls victory and a homeadvantage we played our first croquet match of theseason against Sedgley & Wombourne on the 22ndat the Eccleshall Cricket Club. Although ourplayers all produced some memorably skilful shotsat times, unfortunately so did the visitors and theywon the match. An excellent varied BBQ was providedby the cricket club after and everybody enjoyedthe (surprisingly rain free) evening.

Attention Speakers!We have enjoyed some very good speakers in thelast two months, thanks mainly to the efforts ofJohn & Brian.These have included:-

·         The Army Engagement Team (2 servingsoldiers) who gave us a presentation entitled“Your Army” and supplemented this with theirown anecdotes. They certainly engaged withthis audience.

·         Medical student Claire Hemmingway joined usfor the Handover meal and talked about the 4week voluntary project that she was about undertakein Malawi, taking sports equipment intosome of the poorest villages.

·         Shaun Farrelly gaveus an illustratedhistory ofJames Brindley -The father of Britishcanal engineeringand was it surprisinghow knowledgeablesome of our memberswere on certain aspects of his talk.

·         Harpreet Rayet from Stafford and Rural Homestalked about the range of housing that the trustmanages and how they are helping to providemore local accommodation at affordable rents.

·         Gabrielle Hadley gave us aninsight into the RowingChallenge that she recentlycompleted between TowerBridge in London and theEiffel Tower in Paris. Themarathon row, in aid of TheDonna Louise Children’sHospice raised over£300,000

Thames Pathway Walk Is ImminentAfter months of planning, Sylvia has now arrangedovernight accommodation for every stage of her185 mile walk along the Thames, from the sourceto the Thames Barrier. She will be staying with Rotariansfrom 15 of the Rotary Clubs that she will bepassing on her waydownstream. All sponsorshipmoney collectedis being divided equallybetween End Polio Nowand Guide Dogs for theBlind. Her progress canbe followed atwww.virginmoneygiving.com/eccleshallchallenges

Santa’s Sleigh DatesFor those that like to plan ahead the dates for theDec 2015 collections have now been decided:-7th Tittensor; 9th 10th & 12th Gnosall;14th Swynnerton; 16th Woodseaves;19th & 20th Yarnfield; 21st 23rd & 24th Eccleshall