Monthly Newsletter No 347 April 2023

Rotary Club of Stranraer 

Monthly Newsletter No 347

April   2023

Service above self 

Meetings – unless otherwise advised 

1^st and 3^rd Monday of month – 6pm 

2^nd and 4^th Monday of month – 1pm 

Message from President Gordon 

Welcome once more to our monthly Rotary newsletter.

And what a busy month we've had. At times it’s been like being back at school as we have been involved with entertaining young children on numerous occasions. And can I just say a huge thank-you to all Rotarians who go the extra mile to help make all our endeavours as successful and enjoyable as they are.

Our weekly meetings continue to provide a wide variety of interesting talks and I will just quickly run through them as we have a lot to read in this month’s edition.

Neville Wright spoke most entertainingly to us on the 6th and I think we were all amazed at Neville’s stamina when he visited Canada last year to enjoy Canadian hospitality with a wee bit of curling thrown in for good measure. The slides that accompanied his talk showed us all how hospitable Canadian Rotarians are not to mention how well-heeled they seem to be.

David Ewing (above) spoke to us on the 13^th. He is the director of the Loreburn Hub which is nearing completion in Stranraer. His talk showed us the variety of accommodation and facilities which will be available on the old Garrick Hospital site  there for disabled and disadvantaged people. We look forward to hearing about the project as it starts to be commissioned and perhaps Rotary will be able to have some input there in the future. Giving the vote of thanks, Vice-President John Ross said he had a particular interest as he had been born in the Garrick and had closed it when Chairman of the Health Board.

Elizabeth Breakey with Vice-President John and President Gordon

On the 20th we were addressed entertainingly by Rev Dr Elizabeth Breakey who has recently come to Stranraer to take over St John’s Episcopal Church in Stranraer as well as St Ninian’s in Portpatrick. She recounted her peripatetic adventures going from Aberdeen via the Far East and then for many years working as a corrosion engineer in Australia before being called to the church. We are delighted to welcome her here in our community.

And finally, our last normal Rotary meeting of the month saw all 12 local Primary Schools join us for the annual Young Person’s Lunch. Our own Heidi Hunt’s daughter Eloise was scheduled to talk but unfortunately fell ill. However, Heidi herself offered to stand in and thrilled us all, particularly the children, with an illustrated talk about her adventures keeping a huge variety of animals in the school she used to teach at in Liverpool. She convinced the audience that animals and teaching go together and I am sure many of the children will be badgering (geddit?) their teachers to get boa constrictors and tarantulas to help them with their studies.

The children were spellbound by her talk, as were the adults and more than one commented that they wouldn’t have liked to be her Head Teacher as she came up with more exotic creatures to bring into school. She has agreed to write a piece for next month’s newsletter.

As well as these regular weekly meetings I have also been busy outside in the community.

On the 21st Neil Fraser and I judged the Young Engineer competition for Primary Schools at the John Niven College. Apart from being late for the event and then immediately misidentifying a young boy as a girl I really enjoyed how sensibly the children behaved and how seriously they took the challenge to build a fairground

Heidi demonstrates the characteristics of her

praying mantis

attraction using Connect4 rods. The girls from Drummore came out as eventual worthy winners.

The next day I addressed Rephad Primary School assembly and talked a little about Rotary and what we do both locally and internationally. My talk was then followed by a video of wells being drilled for clean water in Africa and the children discussed what we can do to make the world a better place. It was very inspiring to hear the children talk.

The next day on the 23rd we had the Schools Quiz at Rephad and my sincere thanks go to all helpers but particularly Alastair McWilliam for the splendid job he did as MC and question master. Rephad won, but only just as all the schools impressed us with their knowledge.

And just to round things off we helped ONUS with a beach cleaning session at Sandhead on the 25th. Eight Rotarians helped (see below) and together we collected many bags of debris which is continually being washed up on our shores. No doubt we will be called upon in the future.

Phew, what a month…..

And now to expand on some of these events read on.

Stranraer Rotary helps an Oscar winner

Kirkcolm’s Richard Pickersgill with his Oscar-winning model of Pinocchio

A Kirkcolm man has become part of an Oscar-winning team at this year’s Oscars thanks to the help he received from Stranraer Rotary.

Richard Pickersgill from Kirkcolm was able to go to Manchester Metropolitan University to study three-dimensional design thanks to a series of bursaries and grants from Rotary and other local community groups. While in Manchester he did a work placement with animated puppet makers Mackinnon & Saunders and later joined the company. Last month he was the leader of a team of four who created the puppets for the film Pinocchio, which won the Oscar for the best animated feature.

Richard told the Free Press that after his father John died in 1990  his mother Christine was determined to help him go to university despite being unable to access student loans when he left Stranraer Academy at 17. His mother contacted the then MP Ian Lang to ask for help as no funding was available for the foundation course at Manchester. Mr Lang, now Lord Lang of  Monkton, of Merrick and the Rhinns of Kells in Dumfries and Galloway helped secure funding and more help came from ourselves, the Prince’s Trust and Kirkcolm Church among others.

During the course Richard did a three-week placement at Mackinnon & Saunders and found some  of the skills learnt on his degree course were transferrable to puppet making. He went on to work on such film as Fantastic Mr Fox, Postman Pat, Pingu and Rah Rah the Noisy Lion before being taken on to work with director Guillermo del Toro on Pinocchio. His team combined  3D printing with traditional puppet making.

Richard wasn’t at the  Oscars but  the team also won the award for outstanding animated character in an animated feature from the Visual Effects Society and Richard and his wife Jennifer travelled to Hollywood to pick up the award.

Mackinnon & Saunders founder Peter Saunders said: “Richard is a world class puppet maker. The Pinocchio puppet has been built with ground-breaking metal printing technology

that Richard pioneered.”  

Three weeks of partying (and curling)

The 16-strong Scottish Rotary Curling team were kitted out by Sandhead’s WBS Signs

Although we were two years late because of COVID, the Scottish Rotary team certainly made up for lost time on our curling tour of Ontario,  writes Neville Wright.  Twenty-one days were spent staying with 14 different hosts and playing 13 games of curling last November.  The curling wasn’t the hard part, it was the home hosting and welcome parties, though once you got past the first two weeks the body seemed to get used to it.  And while we arrived in 28-degree sunshine we experienced blizzards with a temperature of minus 9 before ending in weather that was 10 degrees, overcast and cloudy -- just like being in Scotland! 

Along with the curling and partying we took the opportunity to visit        

Niagara Falls, the Vineland Winery, downtown Ottawa and the nearby Chateau Montebello Hotel, the world’s biggest log cabin. We also took part in a game called, believe it or not, Disc Golf. 

This was a totally new concept for a golfer like me, but when you got into it there were some similarities; instead of hitting a ball from the tees   to the 18 holes we had  14 different Frisbee discs which all flew in different ways, and instead of a hole there was a chain basket to catch the disc.  A game for all weathers including snow. 

Each venue was unique, some ice rinks were large fancy rinks adjoining a golf and country club and others were small stand-alone rinks with barely a bar and changing room.

 Our hosts in the town of  Fergus even went the extra mile by  having individual team outlets for the gents. The home hosting parties ranged from a small get-together with a couple of tourists and their hosts around a dining room table to a full-on barn party with a fiddle band.  As individuals and as a team we also put on entertainment, which varied from Scottish songs, to poetry and PowerPoint presentations. One of our company, Fergus Gillies was an excellent speaker and wherever we went he also gave renditions of “Tam O’Shanter” and “I am my own Grandpaw” (presumably inspired by Bill Wyman). The team also included Anna Martin, the current President of Perth Rotary who visited us in February.

Curling was probably secondary to the fellowship, a great opportunity to make new friends and cement old ones (having already hosted a number of the Canadians in the past).  One of our tour objectives was to raise money for charity so our squad decided to sell raffle tickets throughout the three weeks and draw the raffle at the final banquet.  Each of the Tour Team donated a prize to the raffle and $100 towards the pot.  We had bottles of whisky, tins of shortbread, curling brushes, tea towels, Scottish literature (poetry and cooking books) and a British Olympic curling top worn by my daughter Vicky and signed by the gold medal-winning team.  The raffle and donations made over $5,000.  The money was left with the Canadians to split between three of their chosen charities. 

The incoming Canadian Tour is in November 2024, when it is our turn to host the tourists, I am sure that we can repeat their most generous hospitality and arrange an exciting, engaging and full-on tour of Scotland when they return. 

 Home win at Schools Quiz                                                         

President Gordon is pictured with the winning team of Innes, Callum, Peyton and Struan

TWELVE teams of children from Primary 7 took part in this year's Rotary Schools Quiz at Rephad on March 23 and the result was a win for the home team. 

The children answered mostly multiple choice questions set by Alistair McWilliam on a series of themes including geography, science and technology, and entertainment. Some of the questions proved easier for the children than their elders such as "What was the first webcam used for?" and "How many sisters does Kim Kardashian have?" 

Runners-up were Sandhead a point behind with Kirkcolm half a point behind in third.   The final round did not offer multiple choice so when some teams were asked: “What is the capital of Australia?” their answer of Cambria earned them only half a point.

The winners will go on to the West of Scotland final, which will be held near Kilmarnock. 

Gordon is pictured with runners-up Sandhead and third placed Kirkcolm

Spring cleaning starts early in Sandhead

Gordon Wemyss, John Mowat and his son William are pictured with organiser Karin Smith, her father Alex Whannel from Stoneykirk Community Council, Alan Brown and Michael Worsley  looking suitably miserable about the amount of rubbish in the village.

Several members including 90-year-old Alex Cairns took part in a litter pick at Sandhead.  Following a suggestion by Donald McColm we teamed up with ONUS (Oceans Need Us) who are conducting a series of litter picks from March 17

to April 17 as part of Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Spring Clean.

As well as the shoreline the most significant difference was probably made by Donald McColm who tackled the litter on the road into the village from the north and by Chris Brewis and Gordon Wemyss who filled three carrier bags with the litter on a 20-yard stretch of the road into the village from the south. John Ross, Davy Campbell, Alan McLachlan, John Mowat and his son William were also among those who volunteered.

ONUS do a beach clean somewhere in the county each Sunday but have also tackled less attractive areas such as the Blackparks Industrial Estate. They would like to tackle the verges of the A75 and A77 as would we but have been advised by the Council, understandably perhaps,  that it’s not safe to do so.

The litter at the junction of the A75 and A751 is particularly shocking, presumably much of it lorry drivers heading to or from the boat and one can’t help feeling and fines for those caught on a well-place camera could be quite a moneyspinner.

A more radical plan would see everyone’s DNA taken at birth so the perpetrators could be tracked down and made to pick it up.

·      On March 31, Neville Wright spoke on behalf of Rotary at the Wigtownshire Sports Council Awards and on April 1 we handed over a wheelchair for disabled bowlers to Portpatrick Bowls Club. More on these two events in next month’s newsletter.

Forthcoming meetings

Monday, April 7, 6pm: Mandy Heaton gives her job talk

Monday, April 10, 1pm: Fellowship

Monday, April 17 6pm:  AGM

Monday, April 24 1 pm: To be confirmed

Other dates for your diary.

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Wednesday, May 10: Collection at Morrison’s

Friday, May 17: Christian Aid Bread and Cheese lunch, Stranraer Baptist Church, Bellevilla Road

New members  

We are always keen to recruit more and now we once again have women members we hope this will encourage more to join. Please advise Ian McIntyre of any suitable candidates.  

 Websites etc  

Our Club website is looked after by John Mowat      

http://Rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.php?ClubID=1383  

Tom Stevenson continues to look after the Mull of Galloway Trail site  

http://wwwmullofgallowaytrail.co.uk/  

Tom has also ensured that the MGT is listed among Scotland’s Great Trails and internationally through the Appalachian site. 

http://wwwscotlandsgreattrails.com/  

https://iat-sia.org/2021/03/07/news-from-iat-scotland/ 

Press Officer   

Members should get in touch with Chris Brewis in his role as Press Officer, if they have anything they wish included in the Newsletter or reported in the press. He particularly wishes photographs for publication and/or Club archives.  

We have articles in the Free Press and in our District Magazine on a regular basis.  

And finally… 

Quiz question of the month: Which Premiership footballer’s initials are IBET?

Answer below

This from Jock Smith, who was told it by a  German Polizei Direktor, equivalent to a Chief Constable.

HEAVEN is where the police are British

The cooks are French

The mechanics are German

The lovers are Italian

And it is all organised by the Swiss

HELL is where the cooks are British

The mechanics are French

The lovers are Swiss

The police are German

And it is all organised by the Italians

Our German contributor’s famous sense of humour may be tested more by the observation of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who used to practise his multilingual skills by speaking Latin to God, Spanish to his ministers, French to his wife, Italian to his mistress and German… to his horse.

Answer: Ivan (Benjamin Elijah) Toney