August 2023 Newsletter

Early Summer sees one Rotary year ending and the new one starting.  So, your local Rotary club, the Rotary Club of Severn Vale, saw outgoing President Bob Roberts, heaving a sigh of relief as Nick Ellwood takes over.  We have maintained our regular breakfasts and ongoing community activities and social events while planning the new Rotary year’s events.

Accordingly, our elected incoming President, Nick Ellwood, was speaker mid-May out lining his agenda for 2023/24.  In essence the theme is to be ‘more in, more out’ building on the strengths and interests of individuals with a dedicated lead on community projects, social activities, youth, etc while making better use of social media to keep people advised of our activities.

The main charity, by no means not the only one, is to be The Spring Centre.  Their main aim is to support children and young people with special needs and disabilities to improve the quality of life for the child or young person as well as their family group.

At our following breakfast we welcomed Richard Wright who spoke about a little known WW 2 tragedy concerning RMS Lancastria.  This was a former cruise liner commandeered as a troop ship and engaged to evacuate our troops trapped in Northern France two weeks after Dunkirk.  Anchored some five miles off shore she became severely overloaded.  She was equipped to carry 2,500 troops and crew,  on that day it is estimated hat as many as 7,000 people were on board.  On departure, she received three direct hits during a bombing raid and sank within 20 minutes.  While over 2,000 were saved, it is thought that in excess of 4,000 lives were lost, making his the largest single ship loss in British Maritime history . . .  dwarfing those who perished on the Titanic.

Our next breakfast saw the formal handover from outgoing President, Bob Roberts, to his successor Nick Ellwood.  Bob summarised the club’s achievements for 2022/23 including having raised in excess of £11,000 for local community initiatives and charities.  Nick then brought the meeting to a close with a brief reminder of his hopes for next year together with a vote of thanks to Bob for his leadership over the last twelve months.

The first meeting of the new Rotary year we had the pleasure of one of our members, Joe Green, as our speaker.  In his working life in oil and gas Joe lived in Texas but he focussed his talk on where he lived as a teenager - Punta des Salinas, Ecuador.  He was able to enlighten us to the attractions of the country - its natural beauty, wildlife, climate, jungle and mountains. The subject then progressed to the Galapagos Islands and Charles Darwin which resulted in much discussion and questions. A most enjoyable presentation.

The meeting was closed with a vote of thanks to the many members who’d volunteered to clean boxes of toys for the local charity PhysioNet.  Everyone thought to be a particularly worthy exercise as these will go to children in need in those countries currently facing difficulties.  Our members have also been sorting and cleaning wheelchairs, crutches and other aids at PhysioNet’s facility at Berkeley.

We are again running The Arlingham Walk, a fundraising event for Longfield from Passage Farm, on 13h August . . . it proved very popular last year.  We have a Social BBQ coming up for members, families and friends.  We are also looking forward to once again providing volunteers for car parking duties at Frampton Country Fair 10^th September, whose earnings go to our chosen charity.

If you’d like to come along to one of our breakfast meetings on first and third Tuesday of the month at The Whitminster Inn at 07.15, are interested in attending one of our evens or would like to volunteer with us for one of our chosen charities, please visit www.severnvalerotary.org.uk or contact keith.rog@hotmail.com

With best wishes for a happy and healthy Summer from members of Severn Vale Rotary