Newsletter-274-March 2016

Rotary Club of Stranraer
Monthly Newsletter No 274
March 2016

Service above self



Imminent Activities      

Mon March 7th – Alex Cairns will be talking about Sir Walter Scott. A donation of £500 will be handed over to our local YMCA to help them set up and equip their new premises.
Mon March 14th – 5.30 for 6pm – presentation of a donation to Turning Point and autobiographical talk by Peter Baird
Thurs 17th March – 6 pm - Curling with our friends from Newton Stewart Club and our local Probus Club.
Mon March 21st - Fellowship
Mon March 28th – David Brinton or his guest will be speaking.

Dates for your Diary

Fri 20th May – Christian Aid Lunch
Sat 11th June – Mull of Galloway Trail Marathon  
Fri 24th June – 10th Annual Golf AmAm
Mon 4th July -  Presidential Handover – this is a change of date.

Recent Events    

Mon 1st Feb – Glenda Dewar, Project Co-ordinator at Stranraer YMCA, brought us up to date with  their local activities. Our local YMCA makes a valuable contribution to our community having 1482 children, aged 3 to 16, involved in various activities last year. They are moving to larger premises in Ashwood Drive.

Tues 9th Feb – Dave Kirkwood provided a very interesting and humorous talk about the history of policing in Stranraer. Contrary to what we constantly hear about 'the good old days' our community seems to be much better behaved nowadays!

Mon 15th Feb - Fellowship

Mon 22nd Feb –  Presentation of cheques to charities – see below.

Mon 29th Feb – Bob Fryer entertained us with an interesting talk about real ales (unfortunately no samples) and slides of old pubs with literary, film or TV connections.

Galloway Talking Newspaper – appeal for help!
I am pleased to advise that the appeal has produced one definite volunteer while another member is also interested.
GTN could still do with more volunteers!

Stranraer Watersports Association
Gordon Baird, helped by Steve Dampney, is driving forward a project to involve young people who would not otherwise be involved in watersports in the building and racing of a skiff. It's great to see our members involved in such activities. They can count on our support if required!

Young Chef Competition
We participated in this competition for the first time.
Our candidate, 17 year old Kerr Ingram from the John Niven Centre,  acquitted himself well finishing 3rd. The College is keen to repeat their involvement next Year. Well done to John McClintock for getting this activity off the ground. Hopefully it w ill be repeated annually!

Mull of Galloway Trail marathon & walk etc
We have had a good response so far to the Marathon Trail events entries and Gordon Baird has requested our help in obtaining more.

Rugby                      
After Glasgow Warrior’s fantastic performance last season 6 of our members and one member from Kirkcudbright bought season tickets for this season as have 2 of our regular guests. Other members are welcome to join in for individual matches if tickets, which are in short supply for most games, can be obtained - just contact Tom Mitchell.
During February 6 members and 2 guests, hopefully potential members,attended Glasgow's home game against Munster , which was switched to Kilmarnock, because of pitch problems.
There are 3 home games in March – Sunday 6th v Cardiff Blues, Friday 18th v Leinster and Friday 25th March v Ulster. Public tickets for the latter 2 games are likely to be scarce.

Donations

Rotary Youth Scholarship Award

Two Stranraer Academy pupils were each presented with a cheque for £250 having been nominated by their school as excellent candidates and worthy recipients to receive our Annual Youth Scholarship Award.
Lauren is an amazing young lady as she was born with a severe hearing impairment that has not hindered or prevented her from wanting to help others.  She has been a reader in the Scotland Reads Programme for the last 3 years and in S6 Lauren has helped out in Aird School’s Learning Centre.
She has also participated in and graduated from Columba 1400.  She is currently working to achieve her Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award.

Jack Dunn is one of family triplets, being Stranraer Academy’s Head Boy this year.  Jack contributes
an enormous amount to the life of Stranraer Academy and also to his local community.  Jack’s exam
results in S5 ranked him number 1 out of 128 students.  With results such as these, it goes without saying that he is highly motivated, totally focused and extremely hardworking.  Jack is also a talented
musician performing in Regional orchestras and the local Stranraer Brass Band as a percussionist.  He has, this year applied through the Sutton Trust to gain entry to University in the USA and just
before Christmas was awarded a full scholarship study at the prestigious Dartmouth College in New
Hampshire (a member of the Ivy League).  He does not have to choose a specific single discipline to study initially but is likely that Jack will eventually specialise in Maths and Physics.


Marys Meals
We have also recently donated £500 to Mary's Wheels and £537, being the proceeds of the raffle at our Burns Supper, to Polio Plus and Polio Now.
Donations(cont'd)

Disability Sports
A donation of £800 has been  handed over to Stevie Beggs, Disability Sport Development Officer, accompanied by 3 young Wigtownshire athletes who will complete in the British Olympics in Sheffield in 2017, namely swimmer Cameron Hunter, and athletes David Stuart and Alistair Stuart

Press Officer
Members should get in touch with Tom Mitchell, 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 on a regular basis and expect to have several more in the next few weeks. Another article has been submitted to the District Magazine.


Our websites are
http://rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.php?ClubID=1383
http://www.mullofgallowaytrail.co.uk/

We now have a presence on Facebook - thanks to SteveDampney for organising


Easter Humour
A man was blissfully driving along the road when he saw the Easter Bunny hopping along the middle. He swerved to avoid it but unfortunately it jumped right in front of him. It was knocked down and its basket of eggs scattered all over the place.
The driver, being a Rotarian, did the decent thing and got out to see how the bunny was. To his dismay it was dead.
He felt guilty but a woman had also stopped. She saw how upset he was but reassured him. She reached into her hand bag and pulled out a spray can and sprayed the entire contents onto the little furry animal.
Miraculously the Easter Bunny came back to life, jumped up and gathered its eggs. It waved its paw at the 2 people and hopped on down the road. After 50 yards it stopped, turned round and waved. After a further 50 yards it stopped and again turned and waved and diappeared into the distance repeating this process every 50 yards!
The man was astonished and said to the woman 'What in heaven's name is in your spray can?' The woman turned the can around so that the man could read the label. It said ' Hair spray. Restores life to dead hair. Adds permanent wave.'