Club Chronicle

11 April 2024: Fellowship Meeting

Today we were at the Great Baddow Millennium Community Centre for a Fellowship Meeting. We met just to chat and enjoy a meal together. The Millennium Centre looked after us well and the food was excellent. President Francis again joined us from Spain on Zoom. (See the photograph.)

There was no formal agenda but we did discuss at some length possible future arrangements for the second Thursdays of each month. Members put forward a variety of suggestions including a visit backstage to the Chelmsford Theatre, a visit to the Essex Police Museum, coffee mornings and visits to charities. A show of hands was taken on each on to gauge the extent of support and our Secretary made a note of the results.

We also talked about the possibility of returning to the Millennium Centre. The main obstacle is the shape of the room, which is not particularly suitable for meetings where we have speakers. We would also need to have the tables arranged in a different configuration so that it is easier for members to talk to one another.

Once future arrangements have been made for second Thursdays details will be placed on this website as usual.

Rotary Young Musician District Final

The District 1240 Final of Rotary Young Musician was held at Brentwood Cathedral on Saturday, 2 March 2024. There were nine competitors sponsored by Clubs around the District, including three sponsored by us. Others in attendance included the Mayors of both Brentwood and Chelmsford, the District Governor and District Governor Elect (our own Anne Moriaty), many other Rotarians and others who had come to support competitors.

The performers’ standard was very high indeed. The adjudicators had a difficult task deciding on placings. The winning vocalist was Rose Buggle (sponsored by us and by the Rotary Club of Brentwood). The runner-up was Katherine O’Hanlan (also sponsored by us). Our instrumentalist was unplaced.

Writtle Christmas Tree Festival

We again entered a Christmas tree into the annual Christmas Tree Festival at All Saints Church, Writtle. This took place over the weekend of 2-3 December 2023.

We didn’t seek to impress with the beauty of our tree or the design that went into placing the decorations. Instead we used the opportunity to publicise our Club’s concern about the disposal of used blister packs from pills and tablets. We loaded the tree with decorations handmade from blister packs.

An accompanying display card explained why we had done so and the extent of the problem caused by the difficulty of recycling blister packs. (We had to close our own recycling project due to the increased cost.) It certainly created some interest. Hopefully it also made more people aware of the situation.

Santa’s Grotto

We ran Santa’s Grotto at Chelmsford Cathedral’s Christmas Fair on 2 December 2023. Our thanks to everyone who helped set up and run the Grotto, particularly our leading men, John Knott and Rhys Tilsley. Santa spoke to some very excited children. Seventy-nine children came to see him, each going away with a small present and great memories. We raised £395 and also sold 13 Christmas Quiz sheets, raising another £39.