Newsletter 311 - April 2019

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Rotary Club of Stranraer

Monthly Newsletter No 311

 April 2019

Service above self


Meetings – unless otherwise advised

1st and 3rd Monday of month – 1pm

2nd & 4th Monday of month – 6pm

Imminent Activities

Mon 1st April – Fellowship

Mon 8th April – 6pm – Bob Fryer will be telling us about ‘Gavin Maxwell and me’

Mon 15th April – CLUB A.G.M.

Mon 22nd April – Penny Halliday will be giving her autobiographical talk titled ‘The life of a child of Gypsy Travellers’

Thurs 25th April – Primary Schools Quiz

Mon 29th April – New Members evening

Dates for your Diary

17th May - Annual Christian Aid Lunch

28th June – Golf AmAm

7th to 13th July – Skiffe World Championship in Loch Ryan including raft race on evenings of 11th & 12th July.

Recent Events              

Mon 4th March – Fellowship which included discussion about membership.

Mon 11th March - From 7 to 13 July coastal rowers from , , USA Tasmania Europe and the will descend upon Stranraer for the Skiffieworld Championships.  Stranraer won the right to hold the event against stiff competition from around the country. 

At the weekly Rotary club meeting in the the project manager Wendi Cuffe together with Rotarian Dr Gordon Baird gave Rotarians a very comprehensive presentation on how the event will be run and what it will mean to our town. The event is held every 3 years, the last one in 2016 being held in Strangford Lough in . 

The boats are St Ayles Skiffs, open boats rowed by a team of 4 plus cox. The Stranraer Rotary Skiff Project built their first boat, , which was launched in 2018, and the second boat was launched on 23 March. The Stranraer Water Sports Association (SWSA) will run the World Championships and it is expected that 70 clubs will take part, with a number of teams from each club.  Three years ago in Strangford 48 teams took part and some 26,000 people attended the event. The SWSA is a non- profit making organisation and is in the process of applying for charitable status. 

The Rotary Club is heavily involved with the SWSA and the big event in July.  Dr Baird has devoted much of his time to this project and he will be supported by his fellow Rotarians in the build-up to July and at the event itself. It is hoped the event will bring many thousand visitors to the town and the town should reap the rewards for the work done by the Rotary club and members of the SWSA

For further information on the SWSA, their website is http://www.stranraerwatersports.com

Mon 18th March – Alec Cairns gave a very interesting talk on the subject of community buyouts. He said he had recently visited Eigg where 20 years ago islanders bought out an absentee landlord, who had only been interesting in shooting and had not invested in anything that benefited the community. The difference had been amazing and the population had doubled in the intervening years. Successful community buyouts have also taken place in the Rhins with those at the Mull of Galloway and proving highly successful. A retired Church of Scotland minister, Alec said a shortage of clergy meant there was also a situation where congregations were increasingly having to run the churches themselves and were being supplied with services and sermons from the Church’s headquarters at in . He went on to mention Ardwell Community Kirk where villagers including Rotarians Chris Brewis and Gordon Baird had preserved the church after it stopped being supported by (though typically he didn’t mention his own leading role as the first Chairman of the Kirk Committee!) Thanks to Chris Brewis for this report.

Mon 25th March – evening – Donald McColm entertained us with an excellent talk about his ‘60 years in farming’ from 1954 – 2014. This was a period of great change with horses being replaced by tractors and ever larger machinery and much larger sheds etc being necessary. As well as a dairy enterprise and growing wheat, the farm had a great reputation for producing early potatoes. The many slides well illustrated the changes made over the years.

Coastal Paths – abbreviated version of report by Tom Stevenson

We are delighted to advise that Stranraer Coastal Path Group has been awarded a further grant of £9,300 from Kilgallioch Community Fund to enable us to carry out improvements on the Loch Ryan Coastal Path at and adjacent to the March Burn. The improvements will greatly enhance the safety and make it very much easier for walkers on this part of the path.

We received a grant last year of £9,740 to carry out improvements on the verge north of Clashwhannon, at Dyemill and in Longrigg Plantation. The works will certainly improve the safety for walkers and also make it much easier to negotiate the steep slopes at Dyemill and Longrigg.

It is really good to be able to obtain wind farm funding which should make the trail even more attractive to locals and visitors. This year there have already been several requests for leaflets from walkers from outwith this area and the trail is certainly benefitting local businesses.

Agreement was recently reached with the Criminal Justice Department for a programme of strimming over the spring and summer months on various parts of the trail. The workers will also pick up litter where required. Their help is very much appreciated.

‘Supported by Kilgallioch Community Fund with funding from ScottishPower Renewables’ Kilgallioch Windfarm.’

Community Service Award

We are looking for nominations for this Award.

New members

We are keen to recruit new members. Please advise Gary Small of any suitable candidates.

                

Our group of supporters and friends make good use of their season tickets to watch Glasgow Warriors. All of our group of 10 renewed their season tickets and were joined by 2 new supporters bringing us up to 12. 

They make their tickets available to Club members for individual matches which they themselves are unable to attend.   In particular 2 of our supporters are unavailable for quite a few matches as they are working for spells in the . It is essential that Tom Mitchell is contacted at an early stage before spares are offered to others.

Contact Tom Mitchell if you are interested in attending any match.

The Calcutta Cup, retained by after their recent magnificent second half fightback against at Twickenham, was on display in the Clubhouse at the Warriors match against Cheetahs. Malcolm, Peter, Jock and Tom are pictured with it below.

Websites etc

 Roger Johnson continues to manage our site.  

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

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

http://www.mullofgallowaytrail.co.uk/  

Tom has also ensured that the MGT is listed among ’s Great trails

http://www.scotlandsgreattrails.com/

We are on Facebook with 21 members.

It would be appreciated if members who use Facebook would join the group and forward any new content to their friends thus helping our public profile.

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 and in our District Magazine on a regular basis.

And finally…………………….

Easter cartoons, Easter cartoon, funny, Easter picture, Easter pictures, Easter image, Easter images, Easter illustration, Easter illustrations 


Easter cartoons, Easter cartoon, funny, Easter picture, Easter pictures, Easter image, Easter images, Easter illustration, Easter illustrations

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