Welcome to Rotary Club of Dawlish Water
Rotary is all about bringing people together to make a difference and make connections
Protecting the environment
Rotary’s newest Area of Focus shows our commitment to protecting the planet.
Rotary on the brink of ending polio
The eradication of polio is Rotary’s most significant humanitarian goal.
About us
Dawlish Water is a very friendly club that welcomes new members - men and women - who feel they would like to 'put something back into the community.'
We like to have fun, combined with great fellowship and the satisfaction of helping others.
The wide range of activities includes speaker evenings and fun sports such as boules, bowls, skittles, golf and sailing. There are also regular social events including special evenings for wives, husbands and partners.
Fundraising supports numerous local and Rotary charities - a twice-yearly pub quiz and other major events form the backbone of this. Regular support is given to ShelterBox - the successful emergency aid charity - Teignbridge Young Carers, Dawlish Community Transport, Assist Teignbridge, FORCE, the Children's Hospice South West, Chestnut appeal, Hospiscare, Devon Air Ambulance, the Strand Centre as well as other worthy causes. Substantial support is also given to other critical overseas projects such as polio eradication and provision of clean water and in recent times housing help for families made homeless by Russian agression in Ukraine.
In the community, the club provides support for many §local organisations, and has close links with local schools. The club each year donates over £300 in cash prizes to schools taking part in an annual schools' quiz, liases with schools an annual shoebox collection for Moldova and Uhraine, and runs a Young Chef competition to encourage local students keen on a catering career. Support continues to be given to local young people in many other ways.
We use our skills and enthusiasm to help others and raise significant amounts of money for those in need of help - practical or otherwise.
If you would like to find out more about Rotary or membership, please contact: Richard Hayes, secretary, Dawlish Water Rotary Club on 01626 438761 or email: a2r4hayes@talktalk.net
You can also find out more by visiting the Dawlish Water Rotary Club Facebook site.
Rotary: Inspiring young people
Donations by Dawlish Water Rotary Club continue to help enrich and expand the experiences of local children and students.
Pictured with students at the handiung over of the Chances donation, from the left are: Gordon Peacock, Dawlish Water Rotary Club President, Stephen Allen, the club’s Youth Committee Chair, Steve Evans, Deputy Head, Chances School and Gary Hayes, Head Teacher, Chances School.
Celebrating 36 years of service.....Dawlish Water Rotary Club reached a new milestone last year - completing an incredible 36 years of service to the community.
NEW PRESIDENT - NEW CHALLENGES
After anoher busy year, outgoing Club President Chris May (above left) has handed over to the new President Gordon Peacock who is ready to take on new challenges with the help of club members.
Gordon, who spent his career in Education, says: " We are a successful club and support many local charities as well as international projects. We will continue this valuable work and join with other clubs where appropriate to spread this support even wider."We also need to keep the focus on attracting new members and increasing our skill base."
CHRISTMAS SHOEBOXES
Once again Dawlish College students enthusiastically competed in the annual 2024/25 nationwide Rotary Young Chef competition run by Dawlish Water Rotary club.
The Judges were Malcolm Protheroe, chef at the Anchor, Cockwood and Ed Mclaughlin, previously of the Swan Inn, Dawlish. They praised the cooking standards of all the competitors and commented that any of the three winners would be worthy of a place in their kitchens.
It was a close contest, but eventually the winner was declared as Beatrix Bowery (BELOW), with joint second runners up Taya Lovell and Tilly Vowden. All three winners received certificates and prizes and Beatrix received a trophy presented by Dawlish College Head, Sam Banks. Beatrix will now have the opportunity to go through to the next round at District level to be held in Tavistock next year.
Food Technology teacher Lisa Mort said “Not only was this a fun and challenging competition for the students, it was an excellent rehearsal for their GCSEs, especially with the invaluable feedback from the judges.”
ROTARY AWARD FOR COMMUNITY 'HEROES'
Pictured above: Geoff and Jill King receiving their awards from outgoing Dawlish Water Rotary Club President Chris May.
Two more 'amazing people' have been celebrated as Community Champions by Dawlish Water Rotary Club.
Joint Dawlish Carnival Presidents Jill and Geoff King received the Community Champion Awards for 2024 from Chris May, outgoing President of Dawlish Water Rotary Club who, like other club members, praised the incredible work that both have done in the local community.
Geoff and Jill moved to Devon in 2010 from Derby. Jill was a medical receptionist in her working life. She became involved in the Dawlish Carnival in 2016 as a volunteer and is now joint Carnival President with Geoff. She is also an avid volunteer with Assist Teignbridge, as well as offering help and support to others within the local community.
Jill has been a stalwart and Trustee of the Friends of Dawlish Hospital since 2012. In her leisure time she sings in Dawlish Rockwaves.
Geoff has been Chair of the Friends of Dawlish Hospital since 2012. Without him, the hospital would not have the support it has had for projects and equipment which the NHS could not fund. He is the person who spearheaded the Dawlish MIU reopening and is now campaigning for extended hours.
CLUB HONOUR FOR FORMER PRESIDENT
Former Dawlish Water president, secretary and committee chairman Ray Williams (right) has received Rotary's highest individual award, the Paul Harris Fellowship ( named after Rotary's founder) in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the club.
SHELTERBOX BOOST
During the last Rotary year the club donated over £2000 to ShelterBox and was presented with their Bronze Award to mark the achievement. One member also sold unwanted items from their house refurbishment and , with Gift Aid, this contributed a further £1500.00.
OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS
Dawlish Water club have made a number of donations last summer including: £100 to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and £100 to the Children's Hospice South West
The club also enabled the Alice Cross Centre to fund their new lift to bring back into use the two upper floors of their building. This was done in co-operation with the Teignmouth Rotary Club.
TOP ROTARY AWARD FOR CHARITY LEADER
For more than 25 years Dawlish Water Rotary have been co-ordinating a collection of Christmas shoeboxes for children and families in Moldova and paying towards costs for transporting these and a huge range of other goods including clothing, toys and medical equipment.
HELPING OUR YOUNG CARERS
Many families are facing a range of difficulties with extended lockdowns - and it has been a particularly hard time for the small ’army’ of South Devon young carers that Dawlish Water Rotary Club has actively supported for several years, mainly through its Speed Pool competitions.
- In line with a national need to support more disadvantaged children who do not have ready access to computers. Dawlish Water Rotary has donated one of its laptops to Westcliff Primary Academy in Dawlish and also earmarked a £150 donation to help Gatehouse Primary Academy with their computer needs and on-line learning.
The crocuses are the symbol of Rotary’s greatest achievement, tackling polio - their purple colour matching the dye painted on the fingers of children who have been immunised. Hundreds of the purple crocuses were planted along the lower half of the stream and in a large circular bed nearby in the form of the Rotary roundel.Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a paralysing and potentially deadly infectious disease that most commonly affects children under the age of five. The virus spreads from person to person, typically through contaminated water. It can then attack the nervous system. At its peak in the 1940s and 1950s, polio would paralyse or kill over half a million people worldwide every year, including the UK.Rotary spearheaded the campaign at a time when there were over 1,000 polio cases a day in 125 countries, paralysing and even killing children. Today, the number of cases is down by 99.9% - an amazing achievement.
Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan but it is crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could affect as many as 200,000 children each year.
Polio eradication is now a hugely successful partnership between Rotary, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the US Center for Disease Control & Prevention and, more recently, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
Dawlish Water Rotary Club is continually supporting this worldwide effort through regularly fundraising for the Rotary Foundation.
Dawlish Water Rotary Club has been actively giving aid to the Teignbridge Food Bank for many years - and this work has become even more vital with furloughing of staff and lockdown restrictions.
The local food banks also help people in poverty by providing additional support to help them resolve the crises that they face, and, of course, they rely on the support of local communities to provide these needs.
ROTARY AWARD FOR COMMUNITY 'HERO' PAUL
Local ‘hero’ Paul Lentle, Manager of the popular Strand Centre in Dawlish, was voted Rotary Community Service Champion 2020.
"The Rotary Club of Dawlish Water, which has continued to meet by Zoom on the internet, chose Paul for this club accolade because of the tremendous amount of work he has done to support particularly the elderly and vulnerable over a long period, not least during the coronavirus lockdown,” said President Anne Harrison.
The Rotary club had donated £400.00 to the Strand Centre, recognising it as a vital community hub. Paul also received a further £100.00 donation following his award. Paul for 7 days a week continued preparing and cooking meals, which he sends out to the vulnerable, elderly, and self-isolating people of Dawlish. He is arranging to do shopping and collecting/ delivering prescriptions as well as delivering food parcels.
He works in the centre alone and has a couple of people to come to the door to collect the deliveries. He is currently sending out about 20 meals a day. Three years ago, the Strand Centre became aware that people on their own that go to the Christmas lunch (which has been running for some time) were just as likely to be on their own in the week following Christmas. As a result, each year they run the Lighthouse Project when the Centre is open from early morning till after lunch each day for older people and for families in need of support at that time. Paul has worked with the Centre in providing games and other entertainment. Everyone has a free lunch because they know many who attend cannot afford a hot meal in the middle of the day.
"The success of this venture reflects the reality that Dawlish is the third most deprived community in the county of Devon,” added Anne.
The trustees of the Strand Centre have decided to build on the experiment held last autumn to have a weekly afternoon club which would follow the Inspire cafe lunch period, and would be open from about 3.15 pm for families identified by the local schools, to provide activities and a free hot evening meal…meeting a very real need in the community.
In addition, Paul noticed that several homeless people come to the Strand Centre and on his own initiative, started voluntary collections of clothes and food for distribution.
In our photo below:Socially-distanced, Rotary’s Anne Harrison presents Paul Lentle with his well-deserved Rotary community award.
The various heats were sponsored by Dawlish Water Rotary Club with the generous co-operation of Dawlish College.
The judges were Giles Maling, Hospitality Operations Manager, and Rob Doidge, Head Chef, at Exeter University. A very experienced and successful chef, Rob, who is also a Dawlish resident, mentioned in his introduction that, on her visit to Exeter University, he had cooked a meal for HM The Queen. His two children had attended Dawlish College.
Rotary District Governor, Simon Wood, was also there to present the prizes.
The winners will now all go through to the Regional Final, which takes place on Saturday, 28 March at Havant and South Downs College, Waterlooville, Hants.
Rotary co-ordinator Robin Buchanan says: ” Our thanks go especially to the welcoming, committed and very professional staff of the Design and Technology Department of Dawlish College, who arranged for the college to be open on the day, and gave up their time, and to Rachel Wickham, the Head, who made it all possible.
“Dawlish Water Rotary Club looks forward to continuing to work closely with the college in the future. And not least, our grateful appreciation to the parents and supporters, most of whom travelled long distances on one of the wettest and windiest days on the year!"
CELEBRATION OF QUIZ SUCCESS
Dawlish Water Rotary Club celebrated more than 25 years of fundraising through its quiz with a special gathering at Teignmouth Rugby Club.
Present at the celebration were the three organisers over the years, Adrian Acton, Garry Adams - and Peter Harrison who currently organises the event. There were also presentations by local groups who have benefitted from the quizzes over the years - including FORCE, AIMS, ELF Dawlish Community Transport,Teignbridge Young Carers.
Guests also included quizmasters, including those from other Rotary clubs, who actively support the quizzes
On the night cheques, each for £500, were also presented by Dawlish Water President Brian Hodge to Dawlish Community Transport and Assist Teignbridge.
Two past presidents of the club, Richard Hayes and Robert Coates, were also presented with certificates to mark their 30 years as founder members.The event was attended by District Governor Graham Carey from Dawlish club.
Richard is currently secretary of the club and Robert, founder treasurer, is currently honorary auditor.
During its 30 years, Dawlish Water Rotary has helped scores of local community groups as well as having a significant role in overseas projects. Overall, these groups and charities have benefitted from hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Below in our picture: Richard Hayes and Robert Coates cut the first slice of the anniversary cake.
Dawlish Community Transport were presented with a cheque for £250.00 by Rotary organisers Eunice Everard and Robin Buchanan.The money will help them to continue to provide accessible, affordable transport services for those who are unable to use public transport over a wide area including Dawlish, Cockwood, Teignmouth, and Shaldon.
Devon Young Carers, the HITS food bank project and AIMS, the Dawlish group for families who have special needs, have each received £50.00.
"Many thanks to all those who came along to the sale. We are delighted to have been able to support these local charities that do so much for other people in the community," said Rotarian Eunice Everard.
In our photograph below: Rotarian Eunice Everard presents the cheque for £250 to the Dawlish Community Transport Manager Sally Preston. On the left is Marion Phillips and on the right Paul Cooper.
A group of schoolchildren from Westcliff School in Dawlish also turned up to help although their efforts were a little hampered by the conditions and higher seas whipped up by the wind.
Nevertheless, the rubbish collected - including quite a lot of it plastic - filled four wheelie bins provided by Teignbridge District Council.
Dawlish Water Rotary club will be considering further beach clean initiatives this year to maintain the momentum.
Rotary organiser Gordon Peacock says: " The extent of pollution of the oceans and beaches, particularly by plastic, has horrified many people. It seems unbelievable that plastic is being ingested by wildlife in such remote places as Antarctica. It really is a wake-up call to us all.
"We are delighted to be doing our bit to clean up local beaches and supporting voluntary efforts and we hope others will follow."
A total of 10 silver birch, 10 alder trees have already been set in Crockwells Meadow in Exminster through the offices of the Parish Council, who are developing this area as a forest zone with many trees. Rotary's contribution will add to that and we have yet to plan in 10 oaks, 10 beech and 10 hornbeam.
A few of these will be used to replace damaged trees in public spaces.
Rotary spokesman Gordon Peacock says: "We are keen to find ways of supporting our communities and work jointly with them to improve our local facilities.The trees have been supplied free under the OVO Energy 'I Dig Trees' scheme - a national scheme by this new energy provider where they have set half a million trees nationwide over the last three years.
"We also welcome potential new members who may join us in these activities and feel they can contribute in a wider sense. We meet weekly at the Mount Pleasant Dawlish Warren on a Tuesday at 1930. Supporters can follow us on our Dawlish Water Rotary home page or Facebook page."
Meetings & Venue
Where and when:
We meet on Tuesdays at 18.30
(3rd Tuesday meeting on Zoom August meetings away from Mount Pleasant Inn) Mount Pleasant Rd.Dawlish Warren
Dawlish
EX7 0NA (01626) 863151
W3W: ///stall.dented.cackling
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