October 2017 - 90th Charter Anniversary

ODE TO ROTARY

The Ro-tary Club of Ri-pon, as all of us here know,

was founded by our for-bears just ninety years ago;

For they were men of vi-sion and gave us here the chance-

To serve our ancient Ci-ty and world-wide peace advance.

Our Object shows quite clear-ly the purpose of our cause:

To serve our local peo-ple and those on fo-reign shores;

To help the poor and nee-dy, the young and old as well,

And through our actions make this a bet-ter place to dwell.

We meet on Tuesday lunch-time in Ri-pon Spa Hotel,

Where many kinds of spea-kers have var-ious tales to tell.

Here we conduct our bus-iness to take us through each year

Of fellowship and ser-vice and many deeds of care.

The daffodils are plan-ted and Ro-tary Way maintained,

The Food Bank is sup-por-ted, the homeless are sustained.

With re-spite aid for car-ers and RYLA for the young,

We have a var-ied pro-gramme, of which there's much unsung.

Our membership is thri-ving, with members old and new.

We’ve Honor-ar-y mem-bers and Friends of Ro-tary too.

Good fel-low-ship is fo-stered in ma-ny dlffer-rent ways:

Through din-ners, sports and ou-tings and celebration days.

So let us thank our Foun-ders who set us on our way;

And strive long to con-tin-ue the work we do today;

That those who join us la-ter may reap a worthwhile gain

And through their acts of ser-vice our Charter still maintain.

Barry Kay

October 2017