My 39 Years in Rotary by Forbes Lockhart

Member Forbes Lockhart gave an account of his 39-year involvement in Rotary at the club’s Zoom meeting.
Forbes was almost 18 when he joined fledgling Carluke Rotaract, a branch of Rotary for younger people.
With fellow school and youth group friends, the club undertook many fellowship activities such as raft racing and ceilidhs with encouragement to involve other local organisations.
Forbes said Rotary opened up many opportunities for travel and friendship with both local and national events with other Rotaractors.
In 1987, Forbes moved to this area and joined Dundee Rotaract Club which had a strong university student membership. It was a different structure to Carluke with the students there for only part of the year and it was sometimes a struggle to retain members.
However, it was good for making connections with people from all over the UK.
Forbes said that the annual Rotaract 4-day conferences were great fun affairs with fancy dress events and wide-awake meetings which lasted from 10pm until 8am. Attendees needed another week to recover!
Forbes became the club president and also served on district and national committees. He was involved in fund-raising for many charities including Arthritis Care, RNLI, End Polio and children’s hospices.
One of his Rotary highlights was attending the international conference in Glasgow in 1997.
Forbes enjoys international travel and has witnessed Rotary’s humanitarian work in Africa, in the favellas of Rio, and projects in Jordan, Israel, Sri Lanka, India and Japan.
Forbes joined Kilrymont Rotary in 2004 and he said it was great to see that Rotary was changing in the 21st century casting aside a somewhat perceived stuffy image to now being seen active in supporting communities.
In St Andrews, members have been helping at the foodbank, assisting painting work at the new St David’s centre hub and being involved in environmental projects at the West Sands.
In addition, fund-raising activities continued despite Covid challenges and this week £2000 was handed over to Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS).
Before Forbes gave his talk, two young athletes each received £250 awards from the club. Cameron Hemphill, from Ladybank, a member of the Scottish Swimming Para Club, and Connor Brown, Dunfermline, a sprinter with Fife AC and also a leading physically-impaired karate exponent, joined the Zoom meeting to tell about their sporting achievements and also to say thanks for the bursaries.
They were introduced by Richard Brickley, president of Disability Sports Fife, who is also an honorary member of Kilrymont St Andrews Rotary Club. Richard thanked the club for its continuing support for DSF athletes.
The meeting ended with Irene Walker proposing a vote of thanks.