Tonight saw the Club celebrate its 30th Anniversary with a special dinner at the Mount Hotel in Wolverhampton.
Originally chartered in January 1982 President John paid tribute to those founder members – 14 of whom are still actively involved in the Club today- and to those members of the Rotary Club of Wolverhampton (our mother club) whose work had been instrumental in establishing the Club.
Picking out some of the highlights of the Clubs history President John noted the contribution of Honorary members such as the comedian Lenny Henry whose concert helped us to raise £135,000 in one night, the work which the Club carried out with Wolverhampton Wanderers collecting for local good causes outside of the Molineux Stadium and which has now raised over £40,000 over the 17 years that they have been running, the contribution which the Club has made toward education in the City with the mentoring programme which it runs with Smestow School, and of the success of the Club’s annual Santa Sleigh runs which as well as bringing some Christmas magic to the children of the city has also helped to raise over £40,000 to benefit local charities such as Compton Hospice.
Internationally President John acknowledged the work of founder member David Cave who over four years as the Clubs Foundation Officer raised £19,500 to help the Foundation’s work in eradicating polio from the face of the earth – work which is now showing real progress with no new polio cases in India for over a year.
With 58 members Tettenhall is one of the county’s largest Rotary Clubs and President John expressed his confidence that the current members would continue to build on the work which had been carried out over the first 30 years and that Rotary would continue to be at the heart of our community.
Tettenhall Inner Wheel President Lynne Cave brought the congratulations of the ladies of the Inner Wheel Club and the toast to the members of the Club was proposed by District Governor Barry Preen who presented President John with a certificate of recognition of the Club’s service from Rotary International President Banarjee.
Our thanks go to all those who joined us to help celebrate our anniversary and to Club member Mike Unwin for organising the event.