THE ROTARY CLUB OF THE NEW FOREST

This page shows details of past activities only . Future activities and other items of general interest will be on the 'Diary'  page.

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WALK AND BBQ AT CLIVE AND SHIRLEY'S 15 August 2010. Another brilliantly organised event. CLICK HERE

WHISKY GALORE AT BURLEY SATURDAY 7 AUGUST 2010 . A good day out with £320 of tickets sold.  Well done all helpers,

SAILAWAY TO GINS. 1 August 2010. Another annual event that went with a swing. See report and 22 pictures CLICK HERE

HANDOVER NIGHT MONDAY 5 JULY 2010 This was the evening when President Alan became Past and when Senior Vice President Tim dropped his Senior Vice. For report and pictures CLICK HERE

COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD 28 June 2010 On the last 'normal' Rotary evening before Handover President Alan was delighted to present a Rotary Community Service Award to Robin Mair. He explained how Robin came to Lyndhurst in 1992 to work for the Forestry Commission. Previously a scout leader he became the 1st Lyndhurst Scouts'  leader in 1993 and he has held the role since then, in addition taking on responsibilities as an Assistant District Commissioner.  In recent years he was very active in raising funds for the now newly built Scout headquarters in Lyndhurst. (You may remember our donation of £1,000 not long ago). Robin also coaches one of the junior football teams in Lyndhurst, is an active bell ringer and helps others in many practical ways in the village. A very well deserved recipient.

SAFARI SUPPER 26 June 2010.  This year the Safari Supper took place in the summer for the first time and Rotary couples criss-crossed the Forest going to various venues for starters and main courses before descending on Brockenhurst. Martin organised the venues and travel and for his report and pictures CLICK HERE

SOLENT DOLPHIN ANNIVERSARY DINNER 23 June 2010 A thoroughly enjoyable evening and a super fund-raiser to help pay for the future Alison MacGregor CLICK HERE

RAILWAY GARDEN June 2010. For the second year runnning President Alan's friends David and Sue Fleetwood opened their unique garden in Everton for a New Forest charity event. Their miniature railway, hand built by David, is a magnificent achievement.  At the end of the  day £250 had been raised for 'Gift of Sight'. As an extra treat they allowed Alan to have the controls at one stage.

ISLE OF WIGHT WALK 13 June 2010 Clive Rutland organised another successful walk from Yarmouth to Freshwater, a distance of 12 miles. Ten members and spouses took part and all thoroughly enjoyed it. The weather and of course the views were magnificent and a relaxed evening in a pub completed the day.  Return was actually not until 10.30 pm - they enjoyed themselves so much.

KIDS OUT 9 JUNE 2010 : Clive Brace reports: "A small but intrepid bunch risked the weather forecast, and entertained ten children from Foxhills Infants School last Wednesday. Unfortunately Peter Clayton was unwell on the day so yours truly and Frank Letch provided the only Club participants, and therefore a major thank you is due to our ladies : Freda, Carole B, Pat, Shirley, and Caroline for their great efforts with the children. Needless to say all the kids had a great time and the day seemed to pass very quickly". The lunch break is pictured.

COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD 7 JUNE 2010. At our regular Family and Friends Night President Alan was pleased to surprise one of the guests by presenting her with the club's Community Service Award. Mrs Jacki Keeble, is chief Executive of the New Forest Disability Information Service and her contribution to the community has been outstanding. She was instrumental in setting up the New Forest Disability Information Service (NFDIS) towards the end of 1998, and has been committed to it ever since. Like many organisations it ran into financial problems when Lottery Funding ran out and Jackie has been the major influence in building it up into a thriving unit which now offers a service to those with disabilities both within Lymington hospital, and within the community.  More info on www.newforestdis.org.uk  

NEW FOREST CLEAN UP 2 June 2010  The Club didn't litter pick across the whole Forest but took part with many other groups.  We were allocated the Pig Bush Cark Park area on the Beaulieu Road and Maurice organised the evening.  The pictures by Peter Clayton show Maurice briefing and demonstrating how to pick up unmentionables with the kit provided.  The first  volunteers to arrive gave a hearty cheer, pictured, and set off with gusto. More volunteers arrived and joined the activity and the area was soon spick and span.  It was rather disappointing how much litter there was - or rather how little there was - and it was apparent that the visitors who use this area were better than most at taking their rubbish home. The Beaulieu Hotel was next to be visited and all relaxed there and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

LADY HONORARY MEMBER Congratulations to Carole Blaylock who has been elected as an honorary member of the Ambleside Kirkstone Rotary Club.

CAN YOU SEE THE PRESIDENT?  Yes, that's him on the left but have another try by clicking  HERE and go to President Alan's new fund raising initiative.

HORSE AND CYCLE CHARITY EVENT 1May 2010  A great day out for riders of horses and cycles. Hard work but good fun for rotary. Report and over 40 pictures CLICK HERE

NIGEL'S BIG TRIP. From 25 April. Nigel Calvert and three Rotarian friends have set off to cycle from Land's End to John O'Groats a mere 1000 miles plus. All their kit is in the cycle panniers as they are travelling without a support team - instead they are supporting others, including our President's charities. Follow their challenge on the route on their website  www.silverriders.co.uk


NEW MILTON SAND AND BALLAST . 23 April 2010. A really interesting morning Vocational visit organised by John Bloomfield. 14 of us were mini-bussed between two on the sites.  We started near Hurn Airport where the most enormous set of machinery shaped like and octopus (pictured left) was being run by one man and a computer - grading, washing, sifting and sorting sand and gravel from the local workings.   We visited the rest of the site and then transferred to Pennington where more massive machinery was working on the recycling side of the company.  This was not newspapers and plastic bottles but mainly construction skip refuse including concrete, bricks, timber etc. It had us all absorbed and we then had to recover for a couple of hours over an excellent pub lunch. (Click on the pictures to enlarge)

  HAPPY EASTER FROM 1000 HILLS.  Our friends in the orphanage at 1000 Hills
Community Centre, Kwa Zulu Natal sent us Easter Greetings and two photos via Peter Stewart.
(CLICK ON THEM TO ENLARGE )

YOUNG WRITER AND YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER.  PRIZE AT THE ECHO. March 2010 The winners of our competition spent a day with The Southern Daily Echo. For more CLICK HERE.

NEW MILTON MUSIC FESTIVAL20th- 21 March 2010 A very successful weekend and excellent work by Rotarians and families who assisted in running the event with New Milton Rotary and Highcliffe Rotary and Lions clubs. The Saturday was devoted to the judging and guidance of all entrants.  A great range of instrumentalists and vocalists of all ages took part. The Gala Concert took place on the Sunday evening and was a sell out with a varied programme of a wonderful selection of singers and musicians from the festival classes.  An innovation this year was the incorporation on the previous Saturday on the Piano Festival run by Highcliffe Rotary for the past 21 years. This added two superb pianists to the Gala Concert.  The finale of the Gala was an 8 person accordion band, all the way from Swindon, which played classical music and brought the house down.  Well done all who helped, particularly Charley Fay and John  Bloomfield who organised.  .

PRESIDENTS NIGHT 13TH March 2010. A thoroughly enjoyable evening. See who wore a golden crown and which guests were refused entry.  Just CLICK HERE.

GATEWAY BINGO 23 February, 2010 Another very successful annual event, This has always been popular with the Gateway Club members and on this occasion it was probably a record with 40 members, with lots of supporters Maybe Clive Brace's skills as a caller have spread. A good clutch of rotary members and wives were also there to help and to enjoy themselves too.

STROKE AWARENESS DAY 30 January 2010 Clive Rutland organised a Stroke Awareness session at Asda in Totton. It was rather restricted in time as only one doctor was available on the day but nearly 30 members of the public had their blood pressures tested. One in four gave enough cause for concern to be referred to their GP.

TOTTON COLLEGE 'Purple Pinkie Day' You will remember that on 16 November some students from Totton VI Form College gave us a presentation after we had supported them on a journey to help children in the Rift Valley (see below). They have now borrowed one of our display banner to help raise support for the Purple Pinkie PolioPlus campaign. 

ROTARY WINDOW IN LYNDHURST  February 2010 Once again Kevin managed to persuade the owner of a vacant shop to let us use the widow to advertise ourselves. Mike C and Tim spent many happy hours decorating it with banners and posters, this time showing the range of activities we are involved in, our Business Partners, Polio  Plus and Shelter Boxes among others.  The window is immediately in front of you as you exit the Village car par by car or on foot - a prime position. Click on the picture to see more detail.

PAST PRESIDENTS' LUNCH.  7 February 2010  An excellent affair at the Burley Manor Hotel.
Click here for pictures etc.

Rotary Young Chef Competition. The local New Forest heat was held at Hounsdown School and was a great success.  See story and pictures CLICK HERE

GATEWAY CLUB CHEQUE PRESENTATION 11 January 2010 At the Club meeting President Alan introduced Val Bishop, the Brockenhurst Gateway Club's Assistant Leader, and Matthew Cole one of the  members. Mike Clarke was also present in his capacity as Chairman of the Gateway Club as well as a member of our Club. Alan reminded us of the very successful Gateway Sports held on 10 October (see below) and of our participation in the organisation on that day and our sponsorship. He was delighted to tell Val and Matthew of our continuing support and presented them with a cheque for £1,000.  The evening was obviously a special highlight for Matthew, particularly the chocolate pudding!

ASDA BAG PACKING, TOTTON. 23 and 24 December 2009 Santa's Rotary elves were at it again and raised £1,537. See the pictures and more details of both the Asda and Morrison's collections  CLICK HERE

MORRISONS SUPERMARKET, CALMORE, 19 and 20  December 2009. Our Rotary elves were hard at it at Morrison's with collecting buckets and came away with £1,309. For pictures and story CLICK HERE

CHRISTMAS PARTY 14 December 2009. Shirley, spotted here launching a balloon, thoroughly enjoyed herself - as we all did.  Full details CLICK HERE

ROTA TREE 11-13 December 2009,After a gap of three years the Friends of Lyndhurst Surgery held a Christmas Tree Festival in St Michael and All Angels Church in Lyndhurst High Street. About 20 local organisations were responsible for a tree each and these they decorated on the Thursday. Frank and Freda, Maurice and Pat and John R did the work and it has received much praise and interest. Apart from the usual decorations there were many Rotary wheels which, on the backs, had photos of us fundraising and of the charities we had helped at home and abroad.

POLIO WINDOW. December 2009 Lyndhurst High Street usually seems to have at least one vacant shop somewhere and Kevin seems to have cornered the market on sales and letting. A brainwave meant that Kevin got permission from the owner of the vacant shop next to his business and Tim and Mike Clarke set to and covered the inside of the window with Rotary posters and banners drawing attention to the Polio campaign 'Thanks for Life' and to our Club. It will stay there for two weeks and after Christmas it is hoped to move the display to another empty shop window. What a great idea!  Click on the picture to see it full size.

LADIES CHRISTMAS DINNER, 7 December 2009 See the fun at 'Berties' CLICK HERE

1000 Hills Community Centre, KwaZulu-Natal. South Africa. IPP Peter Stewart visited the Centre while on holiday in November. This Centre was the last Rotary year's Group 3 project and £5,250 was raised to provide sorely needed washing machines and facilities. The Centre's aim is to improve the lives of HIV/Aids infected and affected children and adults through treatment, clinics, feeding schemes, counselling, home-based care, crèches and support groups. Peter and Petite have been very impressed with the  work there. Peter has told us that the Group 3 Project was hugely appreciated and the funds had been well used.

BROCKENHURST WHISKY GALORE 4 DECEMBER. Fred, Jim and Beryl organised the whisky Galore stall at the Brockenhurst Fun Evening and raffled seven bottles in the two hours. A good result and it brought the whisky Galore receipts for this Rotary year above the grand total for the whole of the previous year.

LYNDHURST FUN DAY. whisky GALORE 29 November 2009 This year the Fun Day was a longer event and earlier in the season, set to mark the turning of the Lyndhurst Christmas Lights. A total of 26 volunteers, including a good number of wives, worked in shifts and had an excellent day selling raffle tickets and drawing every twentieth ticket sold for a bottle of spirits. A total of 25 bottles were raffled and  over £500 taken - this included the sale of some donated bunches of mistletoe.  This meant excellent profit of about £250. It was a very cold day and everybody wrapped up well and only stopped selling when a torrential downpour hit the High Street. Clive with Shirley organised the day and were there for every minute of it. Well done!! They added a raffle for a large bright orange stuffed Tigger toy, won by Serena from Calmore. This raised an additional £35.50 which will be donated to the Lyndhurst Village Lights Fund. Pictured is one of early winners, Davinia from Honeyfords the Butchers ( she hand-makes the best sausages in the Forest).

TOTTON VI FORM COLLEGE IN KENYA 16 November 2009. Three students and their leader came to our meeting and gave an excellent presentation on their recent visit to two schools in Nakuru in the Kenyan Rift Valley.  In August we had helped them with funds to take classroom necessities such as exercise books, pens and pencils etc (see below). The three 17 and 18 year old girls girls were part of a group which raised their much of their own expenses.  They described the two weeks as really eye-opening and also as the hardest work they had done in their lives. They were working in an orphanage school and a charity project with the most deprived children. Among other projects they taught English to large classes of 6-7 year olds - all desperate to learn but no easy task when there was  no teacher in the room and the only people who spoke English were the students themselves. They assisted and dressed the wound of a young boy who had a badly cut head after a fall, finding that none of the teachers would touch him because of their fear of catching aids. There was no first aid kit and one was was later purchased by the students and given to the school. An extremely valuable project and a splendid presentation. Pictures are (from left) Gemma, Hanna, Heidi and June the student leader.

SHOE BOXES 16 November 2009.  Nick Darby reported that the Club had donated 35 shoe boxes for the campaign for deserving children in Albania, Romania and other Central and Eastern European countries. Foxhills School had again supported us and the children came up with an extra 42 boxes to make our total 77.

TRAFALGAR DAY CHARITY EVENT 2 NOVEMBER 2009  A charity event at the Royal Southern Yacht Club replaced our regular evening meeting.  Report and pictures CLICK HERE

BUSINESS PARTNERS' EVENING 26 OCTOBER 2009. Our regular Monday meeting was rather special as we designated it a Business Partners' Evening and invited all our Partners.  For report and pictures CLICK HERE

DISTRICT CONFERENCE OCTOBER 2009 President Alan writes as follows:- "13 intrepid travellers attended the 79th District Conference this weekend in Torquay. The Conference was the usual mix of inspirational speakers and some not so !! There was a superb evening show based on Ireland and the Gala Ball on Saturday was a showcase for John "twinkle toes " Bloomfield to strut his stuff. We were blessed with super weather and we enjoyed a weekend of good fellowship . It was also good to see many of our old chums from across the District. Janet and I extend our warm thanks to our friends who joined us for the weekend." (Pictures left "New Forest closeness couples with Scottish thrift - bed sharing kept the cost down." Picture right "The DG in day wear addresses the Conference." CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO ENLARGE THEM.)

FENWICK HOSPITAL PRESENTATION 13 October 2009
IPP Peter Stewart and a group of Rotarians went to the Fenwick 2 Hospital in Lyndhurst to present a cheque for £2,000 raised in Peter's year. Report and Pictures CLICK HERE

GATEWAY SPORTS DAY 10 October 2009 John Thomson reports "The annual Gateway Games at Brockenhurst College on 10 October was a successful and record breaking event - 120 participants, 12 team games, and Gateway Clubs from as far as Aldershot, Andover and Winchester. Rotary again supported this worthy cause with funding and helpers. In presenting the trophies (winners Winchester) President Alan was particularly impressed with the participants' enthusiasm and enjoyment. Special thanks go to our Ladies who helped out - and to our own Peter Clayton, a goalkeeping star in the making." For a report by Mike Clarke and loads of pictures CLICK HERE

AMBLESIDE KIRKSTONE ROTARY CLUB FRIENDSHIP VISIT 3-5 OCTOBER 2009 A very successful weekend. CLICK HERE
 

NAOMI HOUSE CHEQUE PRESENTATION AND VISIT. 2 October 2009 The fruits of the Horse and Cycle Event were presented to Naomi House by IPP Peter Stewart and a team from New Forest Rotary.  CLICK FOR REPORT AND PICTURES

ANNUAL CHARITY GOLF CHALLENGE September 2009 Another brilliant day and nearly £5,400 raised for charity.CLICK HERE