Chesham Rotary 75th Charter Anniversary Dinner
A great time was had by all at Chesham Rotary's black tie dinner on Saturday 22nd April
On Saturday the 22nd Aptil the club celebrated the 75th anniversary of the grant of its Charter. The black tie dinner was attended by 72 members and guests.
President Laurence Sharp presided over the event and 'entertainment' consisted of a humourous review, in the form of a 'Two Ronnies' sketch, of the club's activities over 75 years presented by John Harding and Mervyn Edwards. This review was in two parts between courses of an excellent three course dinner. Mervyn also gave a very informative and enjoyable after dinner talk about his time in the firearms division of the police force.
A good time was had by all.
Below the photos is the presidents speech which set out some of the clubs achievments in the last year:
Chesham Rotary 75th Charter Dinner 22nd April 2023
President Laurence Sharp
Good evening everyone. It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to tonight’s 75th Charter dinner. Considering what we have been through over the last couple of years it would have been terribly difficult to have done this over Zoom. Being here tonight—sharing this celebratory evening with all of you—is truly a privilege.
Robin Ketteringham will say a few words shortly concerning Inner Wheel and the guests of Inner Wheel, however, I would like to extend a special welcome to all of Rotary’s guests including our District Governor Andy Calvert and his partner Alan as well as Ray and Liz Payne.
Firstly, a thank you to those Rotarians that made this event happen. It is going to be a great evening with some great entertainment from Mervyn and John.
Chesham Rotary has been around now for 75 years. It is a testament to Rotary as a whole that we are still going strong after 75 years. I am not going to go through our history with you. Mervyn and John will be dealing with some of that later and you will see our fantastic booklet in front of you which has more information on our history and is yours to take with you at the end of the evening. Many thanks to Helen and Tony for putting this together and to Andy for financing it.
Although tonight is about 75 years of Chesham Rotary I would like to just mention very quickly what we have been doing over the past year. You will see just how much has been done. You only need to multiply that by 75 to see how much Chesham Rotary has contributed to the local community and worldwide through Rotary Foundation over the years.
When I started to prepare this speech and started to investigate what we have done as a club this Rotary year I was amazed at the number of schemes we have been involved with, the number of donations made, the number of organisations that have benefited from our work, the number of events we have been involved with in the town and the number of Rotary projects that we have endorsed such as the Young Musician and Young Chef competitions and the Technology Tournament.
I am just going to list out some of the events we have been involved with this year, although this is not a complete list:
· Hats off to Chesham 9th July
· Rotary Dementia Walk on 4th September
· Peace in the Park on 17th September
· Dictionaries distributed to all year 5 pupils in local schools
· Young Chef Competition 19th November
· Frog Night 19th November
· Christmas in Chesham 25th November
· Christmas Sleigh Collections
· Chesham Music Festival in February.
· Technology Tournament on the 24th February
· Youth Awards ceremony on Sunday 16th April
It isn’t the end of this year yet. We still have coming up:
· Coronation Celebrations on the 7th May.
· Stroke awareness day on the 13th May
· Italian Car Show on the 28th May
· Chesham Carnival on 10th June
· Kids Out visit to Whipsnade on the 14th June
I asked David our treasurer for a list of our donations for just this year. It is a long list so I won’t read it out, however, over 35 organisations and individuals have received the benefit of our help financially.
As I said earlier in my speech, we only need to multiply this by 75 to see just how much Chesham Rotary contributes as an organisation.
I would like to thank all Rotarians for their hard work this year and over the past 75 years.
I am proud of the work we have done and privileged to be Chesham Rotary’s President in this its 75th year.
Thank you very much everyone and I hope you enjoy this evening.
'What We Do' Main Pages:
The Rotary Club of Chesham promises to respect the confidentiality of any personal data members or supporters share with us.
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Rotary recognises the service given by one member of the Chiltern Chamber of commerce who has given unselfish support to the community for many years.
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On Wednesday 17th June, President Jeremy Wyman arranged for a special event to mark the end of his Presidency. A VIRTUAL CREAM TEA !!!
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In Christmas 2017 Chesham Club pushed the technology barrier and used an Online Tracker System to pin point the actual location of Santa directly onto the club website as it was happening.
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The Rotary Club of Chesham once again organised the annual Stroke Awareness Day on Saturday 12th May 2018
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The Rotary Clubs of Amersham, Chesham and Great Missenden extend their congratulations to all the winners.
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A Technology Tournament was hosted by the Chiltern Hills Academy on Friday 1st March organised by the Rotary Clubs of Amersham, Chesham, and Great Missenden.
morePlease use this link if you wish to donate to Chesham Rotary
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The Youth Council of Chesham organised the inaugural Chesham and Villages Young People Community Awards
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Thousands of youngsters take part every year in our youth competitions which in most cases take the form of regional heats followed by a national final. The majority are categorised into junior, intermediate and advanced age groups.
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Celebration of 25 years of the Chess Valley Male Voice Choir. Sponsored by The Rotary Club of Chesham 23rd March 2019
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On the 19th August members of Chesham Club and guests attended President Kalpesh Patel's Barbecue.
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The Rotary Young Chef competition was held on Saturday 12th January 2019 at Piper's Corner School
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At the end of June, The Rotary Club of Chesham presented two local people with the most prestigious award from Rotary Foundation and International – THE PAUL HARRIS FELLOWSHIP.
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Rotary Club of Chesham's Peace in the Park 2023: A Resounding Success and Celebration of Unity
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In May this year Chesham Rotary Club supported Mayor Emily Culverhouse in the Mayor’s Charity Water Slide Event held in Lowndes Park.
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The Mayor of Chesham, Rotary Club of Chesham and Chiltern Chamber of Commerce were delighted to present a Special Recognition Award to the students of Chesham Grammar School
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Looking for something fun and entertaining to add the “WOW” factor to your event whilst also allowing you to raise additional funds for your cause!! Look no further than using the Rotary Club of Chesham Games.
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A Technology Tournament was hosted by the Chiltern Hills Academy on Friday 24th February. This was organised by the Rotary Clubs of Chesham, Amersham, and Great Missenden.
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Chesham Rotary Club held the local round of the National Young Photographer competition, where local youngsters took photos based on a ‘Wild Nature‘ theme.
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Chesham Rotary Club members were pleased to be involved in this year’s Chesham Schools Carnival, the main event being in Lowndes Park.
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Chesham Rotary has one or two speakers or visitors each month during our meetings. Have a look at what has been happening recently.
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Silverson Machines Limited recognised for Excellence in Manufacturing and services to the Chesham Community.
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Rotarians Mervyn Edwards and Chris Marsh give their report to members concerning the Christmas 2021 activities
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Chesham Rotary has been around for 75 years. We are an organisation of practical action and we are proud of the Chesham community rising to the current challenge.
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Chesham Rotary Club would like to thank residents and visitors to Chesham who supported our Christmas Float over the Christmas period and made our collections for local charities such a success. You can donate here
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The Rotary Club of Chesham are supporting Chiltern Music Therapy and other local groups (who have or do support dementia suffers and carers). The walk in the beautiful Chiltern Hills took place on Sunday 4th September 2022.
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On Tuesday 17th July 2018 the annual titanic struggle took place between opposing teams for the 'Texas Scramble’ golfing match. This was followed by the putting competition and supper organised and hosted by Inner Wheel.
moreLetters of thanks received by Chesham Rotary
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Chesham Rotary took children and carers to Whipsnade Zoo on 12th June.
See the letters of thanks from the children on this page
This was an incredible show of local talent by children and adults from Chesham and surrounding area. The versatility, inspiration and professionalism shown by the artistes was absolutely amazing.
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Santa's Sleigh schedule is now finished for Christmas 2023. He has visited streets in and around Chesham.
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Santa's Visit Programme for 2021 has been finalised. He will be visiting streets in and around Chesham. Find the Santa Tracker here.
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Santa's Visit Programme for 2023 has been finalised. He will be visiting streets in and around Chesham.You can get to the Santa Tracker from this page.
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Some of the photos that were taken during the christmas in Chesham celebrations held on the 24th November 2017
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The Technology Tournament for teams of Secondary Schoolchildren. The 2018 Technology Tournament took place on 23rd February at the Chiltern Hills Academy, Chesham.
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