Author: Jim Murphy

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Rotary Kids Out Day 2011

40 children and staff from Wightwick Hall School enjoyed a fun-packed day as the Club’s guests at Drayton Manor Park today, joining over 20,000 other disabled, disadvantaged and special needs children at events held across the country as part of the Rotary ‘Kids Out’ Day.

Drayton Manor Park – Photo by Tony Charnock

This annual event, organised by Rotary, enables children who are underprivileged, disabled or have special needs to have a great day out for free. Rotary has been providing days out for children with special needs since 1990 with the Drayton Manor event being organised by our colleagues in Rotary District 1060. Its a tremendous amount of work for them but it was obvious from the reaction of the kids that it was time well spent.

George Bryan OBE, founder of the award-winning theme park, helped to conceive the idea for the annual Kids Out Day to be held at the park and our thanks go to all of the management and staff at the Park who helped to make such a great day for the kids.

The kids were a credit to their School on the day and everyone enjoyed the huge number of rides and attractions at the theme park, with the new Ben 10 ride proving to be a particular hit with the kids and with Rotarian Greg Instone.

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Club Assembly

The Club Assembly is an important part of every Rotary club’s calendar.

With one Rotary year drawing to an end and another about to begin the Club Assembly is an opportunity for our incoming president and his team to set out their objectives for their year and to engage the support of the members of the Club.

Incoming President John Francis and his team have put an impressive amount of planning into their year and there’s little doubt that this will translate in to an exceptional year ahead of the Club in terms of its fundraising, its community service and its fellowship; amply fulfilling John‘s aim of ‘Fun with a Purpose‘.

The Club Assembly was also an opportunity to hear about the direction set for the movement by the incoming Rotary International President, Kalyan Banerjee, at the Rotary International Convention in New Orleans

ROTARY THEME 2011/2012 – REACH WITHIN TO EMBRACE HUMANITY

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Stroke Awareness Day

Today is Rotary ‘Stroke Awareness Day’. Every year, in Great Britain and Ireland, over 100,000 people suffer a stroke for the first time; and 70,000 die. Stroke is the largest single cause of severe disability and at any one time, affecting over 300,000 people.

High blood pressure is the largest single preventable cause of stroke and it is estimated that 4 out of 10 deaths due to stroke could have been prevented if only their high blood pressure had been diagnosed and properly treated.

In an effort to reduce these figures, Rotary Clubs around the country, in collaboration with the Stroke Association, today held their ‘Stroke Awareness Day’. Members of the Tettenhall Rotary and Inner Wheel Clubs offered shoppers at Wolverhampton’s Wulfrun Centre the opportunity to have their blood pressure and blood sugar levels tested by qualified health practitioners.

Over 240 people took up the opportunity and were tested and those with higher than normal blood pressure were referred onto their GP for treatment.

Our thanks to all of the medical professionals who volunteered to give up part of their weekend to make the day possible, to the management and staff of the Wulfrun Centre for their help in staging the event and to Rotarian Brian Barnwell who organised the event on behalf of the Club.

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Rotary Young Writer Competition

The promotion of literacy is one of Rotary’s core objectives. Each March Rotary Clubs around the world recognise the importance which literacy plays in helping people to play a full and active part in their society, in improving economic development and in helping to reduce illness and disease by highlighting literacy and education issues in Rotary Literacy Month.

Once again this year the five Rotary Clubs in the Wolverhampton celebrated Rotary Literacy Month by joining together and inviting local school children to enter a writing competition. 234 entries were received and we were pleased this month to recognise the winning entries with the presentation of gift vouchers and Certificates of Achievement.

Our congratulations to the winners listed below:

Years 3 and 4

First: Subhaan Khan- Woodthorne PrimarySchool

Second: Reuben Lal – Woodthorne PrimarySchool

Third: Dean Collins – Woodthorne Primary School

Years 5 and 6

First: Lola Gregory- Christchurch Junior School

Second: Ethan Boachie – Woodthorne Primary School

Third: Morgan Phelps – Woodthorne Primary School

Years 7, 8 ansd 9

First: Emma Moulding Kings School

Second: Navneet Benning – Deansfield School

Third: Karis Weightman – Deansfield School

Years 10 and 11

First: Nisha Fishlock – Kings School

Second: Maryam Jiva – Kings School

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Charity Golf Day

14 Teams braved the blustery, high winds at Worfield Golf Club to support our Charity Golf Tournamment today but the scenic surroundings inspired some excellent golf, together with the occasional watery graves on the 9th and 18th holes!

With 18 holes of golf, pre-match bacon butties, post match dinner and entertainment everyone enjoyed a great day, which was rounded off with the award of prizes for the Best Team Score, Nearest the Pin, Longest Drive and a Booby Prize. But the real winner was Rotary International’s Foundation Charity Polio Plus Fund which benefited from the day’s proceedings to the extent of £2,250.

At the Prize Giving, when thanking all who had taken part and contributed to the financial success of the day, the President of The Rotary Club of Tettenhall, Jim Murphy explained that the day’s proceeds would be used towards the Club’s ongoing efforts in support of the Rotary Foundation Charity ‘PolioPlus‘ programme which aims to eradicate polio from the world and which to date has raised some $163.4 million towards Rotary’s latest US$200 Million Challenge.

These contributions will help Rotary raise $200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $555 million will directly support further immunization campaigns in developing countries. Since the PolioPlus program’s inception in 1985, more than two billion children have received oral polio vaccine, with only 4 or 5 countries throughout the world still reporting cases of Polio.

Our thanks go to all who sponsored and supported this very worthwhile event and in particular to our main sponsors Decantae Mineral Water, TATA Steel, Business Report, Keith Bradshaw and Barclays Business and to the organisers of the day David Cave and Chris Kraushar.

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In Memory of Paul Whitehead

The Club today celebrated the life of Paul Whitehead, one of our number who has sadly passed to higher service.

As well as his membership of Tettenhall Rotary Club Paul was involved with many local societies – The Old Tettenhallian’s Club,  the Old Tettenhallian’s Golfing Society, South Staffs Golf Club, Oxley Wanderers Golfing Society, Old Tettenhallian’s Rugby Club, Wolverhampton Rugby Club, Wolverhampton Lawn Tennis and Squash Club, Tettenhall Round Table and Tettenhall 41 Club – and it was a testament to the high regard in which he was held within the area that it was standing room only for many at the Service held to celebrate his life at St Michael’s Church.

Paul will be greatly missed by all at the Club and our Fellowship the lesser for his passing.

The Club extends its condolences to Paul’s wife Sue and to all of his family.

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Rotarians Tackle Wolves Fans

Football fans were urged to dig deep for a charity that provides powered wheel-chairs for disabled young people when they arrived at Molineux for the local Black Country derby clash with West Bromwich Albion today.

Wayne Hennessey, Rachael Hayhoe Flint, Mick McCarthy and Marcus Hahnemann join Eric Johnson of Tettenhall Rotary and Jaymi (CORR) Portman to promote the bucket collection at the Wolves v Albion match.
COPYRIGHT GAVIN DICKSON/ EXPRESS & STAR03/05/2011


A collection was made by members of Tettenhall Rotary Club in aid of the wheel-chair charity, Power Pleas. This was the 17th time that Tettenhall have arranged such a collection at Molineux. During that time, more than £36,500 has been raised, of which over £20,000 has gone to Power Pleas. In the last three seasons, six wheel-chairs have been provided for Wolverhampton youngsters like Penn Hall School pupil, Jaymi Portman, 16 above. In addition, some £14,000 has been donated to Compton Hospice as part of Tettenhall Club’s continuing commitment to the Hospice.

For some years now, Tettenhall Club has received tremendous support from Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club. This year’s collection raised £2,004 and Tettenhall Club were delighted to be told that this year, the amount collected was to be doubled by a generous donation from the club’s own charity, Wolves Aid.

So, another very successful day in Tettenhall’s fund-raising activities thanks to the continuing generosity of Wolves fans and of Wolves Aid who were richly rewarded with a vital win over the Albion on the day – much to the disgust of the Club’s several Baggies supporters!

Our thanks also to the Express and Star for publicising the collection in advance of the day and for their kind permission to use their photography in reporting this event.

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Club AGM

Following on from our wonderful Ladies Weekend in Cambridge it was back to business tonight at the Club Annual General Meeting. As well as receiving reports from this years committee chairs the Club also approved the appointment of the Committee Chairs who will take post from the 1st July.

To ensure that our Club can provide service to its community, retain members, and grow we have to make sure that we operate efficiently. Our Club committees are charged with carrying out the Club’s long-range and annual goals.

Our congratulations and thanks go to:

  • Mike Unwin – Fellowship and Social Chair
  • Roger Timbrell – Community Service Chair and Protection Officer
  • Chris Kraushar – Money Raising Chair
  • Chris Bowyer – Sleigh Committee head
  • David Eaton – Programme
  • Brian Nicholson – Membership/Retention Chair
  • Ivan Hill – Communications Chair
  • Izeham Che Dan – Foundation Chair
  • Doug Evans – International Chair
  • Derek Evans – Youth Activities Chair
  • Greg Instone – Attendance Officer
  • John Whitten – Sports Officer
  • Wasil Buczkowski – Regalia Officer
  • Bert Finch & Sammy Chung – Family of Rotary
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Ladies Weekend 2011 – Cambridge

Our weekend was rounded off today with a walking tour of Cambridge. Given the quality of much of the architecture we’ve seen in the City it is truly amazing that so many of the buildings which the various colleges have erected in the last 40 years are in this context nothing short of eyesores – and hanging the skeleton of a dead whale under them does nothing to hide the fact.

Thankfully what was there before more than makes up and after a tour of the grounds of Queens’ College we were simply blown away by the splendour of Kings College chapel which definitely was the icing on the cake for us- so familiar through the Christmas Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols but in the flesh so much more imposing.

Blessed with fine weather and good fellowship we’ll all take away happy memories of our visit to Cambridge and look forward to our next Ladies Weekend in 2012.

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Ladies Weekend 2011 – Dinner

A traditional part of every Ladies Weekend is the Saturday black tie dinner. This year we were based at the University Arms Hotel in Cambridge and our dinner was held in its Newton Rom which overlooks Parker’s Piece – its a perfect venue for this type of occasion, the food was good and the staff really took care of us so our thanks to all of them.

The toast to the Ladies was formally proposed by President Jim in recognition of all of the invaluable support which they give to the members during the year – a vital part of this Club’s success. The Presidents Lady, Alison, thanked the members for all of the support which they had given to Jim and herself during his year of office and for making it such an enjoyable time before the ladies toasted the members of the Club.

Clearly weekends such as these don’t just happen and the success of this Ladies Weekend is due to the hard work of Peter and Pat Maddox who put a tremendous amount of time into preparing the event and selflessly gave of their time during the weekend to make sure that everything ran smoothly. Alison and I, together with the other members attending, are all extremely grateful to them for making such a great weekend and leaving us with such happy memories.