Category: Community

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Stroke Awareness

May is stroke awareness month  Every five minutes in the UK someone has a stroke and more than 40% of these could be prevented if high blood pressure was controlled. It’s the highest risk factor for stroke.

Working with our NHS partners members of the Club today joined Rotarians from other City Clubs in Wolverhampton’s Wulfrun Centre to help to tackle this statistic by promoting a Know Your Blood Pressure event and encouraging shoppers to take a range of simple tests including blood pressure, blood sugar and body fat tests to help establish if they were at risk of Stroke.

The event was a great success with over 500 people tested and in a further 10 venues across the greater Black Country area over 1250 people were checked. Over the 9 years the event  has been taking place 13 thousand people have now been tested helping to save lives and to reduce the burden of this disease on the NHS.

Our thanks go to the management of the Wulfrun Centre for their help in staging the event and to the many NHS volunteers who gave of their time to administer the tests.

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A Santa Sleigh Record

Christmas is a busy time time for members of the Tettenhall Club as in addition to our normal meetings we take on the role of Santa’s helpers and take Santa and our sleigh out and around the streets of Wolverhampton. For many members it’s one of the most rewarding things that we do as it brings a bit of Christmas magic to children in parts of the City who otherwise are unlikely to have the opportunity to see Santa Claus.

The Club’s Christmas supermarket collections also give us the opportunity to raise money for local Rotary charities. Despite the difficult economic conditions, the generosity of the people of Wolverhampton was overwhelming this year. As a result, the Club raised a record total of £7,097.75 in aid of Compton Hospice, and other Rotary Charities.

Our thanks go out to everyone who made donations which totalled £1,319.45 when we took our sleigh around the streets of Bushbury, Claregate, Blakeley Green, Low Hill, Old Fallings and Fordhouses. In addition we raised £252.22 at the switching on of the lights at Upper Green, Tettenhall whilst the day time collections outside Sainsburys at Perton raised £4,655.57 and outside the Coop at Codsall we raised £870.51. So, a big thank you to the shoppers at Tettenhall, Perton and Codsall.

The Club’s thanks also go to Terminus Contract Hire in Wolverhampton, to Sainsburys of  Perton, the Midcounties Co-operative at Codsall and to the Blakemore Trust, for their support. In particular the Club’s appreciation goes to sleigh co-ordinator Chris Bowyer who worked tirelessly in order to achieve our record success and to Robert Archer who ably assisted him.

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Santa at Sainsbury’s

Santa and his helpers from the Club will be at Sainsbury’s on Anders Square in Perton in the run up to Christmas. Santa will be looking to find out what the boys and girls want for Christmas this year whilst his Rotary helpers will be collecting on behalf of Compton Hospice and other Rotary Charities.

We’ll be there on:
Friday 16th December from 10 until 6
Saturday 17th December from 10 until 4 – thats our Church Choir day when we’ll be joined by local choirs to entertain us with Christmas Carols
Tuesday 20th December from 10 until 4
Wednesday 21st December from 10 until 4
Thursday 22nd December from 10 until 4
Friday 23rd December from 10 until 12
Saturday 24th December from 10 until 12
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We’re helping Santa Claus get ready for Christmas

It’s that time of year again and all of the members of Tettenhall Rotary Club are looking forward to helping Santa Claus as he visits the children of Wolverhampton to find out what they would like him to leave in their stockings this year.

You can follow Santa on his new website www.wolverhamptonsanta.org.uk or on his twitter account @WolvesSanta.

Santa’s sleigh will be following these routes:


Saturday 17th December 2011 – CLAREGATE

Starting 5 o’clock at Aldersley Avenue, Pendeford Lane, Claregate Island, Blackburn Avenue, Burland Avenue, Aldersley Avenue, Lynton Avenue, Blackburn Avenue, Derby Avenue, Crossland Crescent, Blackburn Avenue, Aldersley Road, Green Lane, Blakely Rise, Blakeley Avenue, Green Lane, Pilot Pub.

Sunday 18th December 2011 – LOW HILL
Starting 5 o’clock at  Leacroft Avenue, Whitgreave Avenue, Neve Avenue, Perry Avenue, Neve Avenue, Leacroft Avenue, Hill Crest Avenue, Low Hill Crescent, Walker Avenue, Wingfoot Avenue, Goodyear Avenue, Thorne Avenue, Showell Circus

Tuesday 20th December 2011 – OLD FALLINGS
Starting 5 o’clock at  Annan Avenue, Dickinson Avenue, Old fallings Crescent, Fourth Avenue, Humphreys Road, Hawksford Crescent, Fifth Avenue, Goodyear Avenue, Thorne Avenue, Showell Circus.

Wednesday 21st December 2011 – FORDHOUSES
Starting 5 o’clock at  St Anne’s Road, Marsh Lane, Winchester Road, Sandon Road, Patshull Avenue, Harrowby Road, Winchester Road, Marsh Lane.

Thursday 22nd December 2011 – BUSHBURY
Starting 5 o’clock at  Rushall Road, School Lane, Fairfax Road, Northwood Park Road, Ireton Road, Carisbrook Road, Cromwell Road, Northwood Park, Egerton Road, Lauderdale Road, Hamilton Gardens, Egerton Road, Pendrill Road, Wentworth Road, over Grifford Road, Hellier Road, Staffordshire Volunteer Pub

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Wightwick Hall School Business and Enterprise Week

Throughout the last week schools from throughout South Staffordshire have been taking part in competitions as part of Wightwick Hall School’s Business and Enterprise week.  The competitions aim to build students confidence and to give them an opportunity to appreciate in a practical context the challenges and opportunities of running a business – hopefully inspiring some to go on to become the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

As well as the Club providing financial support for the programme a number of Rotarians brought their own business skills into play and acted as guest judges for the events. All of our judges were impressed at the enthusiasm and commitment shown by the students as well as by the high quality of their work.

The week was rounded off by a celebratory BBQ and fete run by the students of Wightwick Hall School. The BBQ was attended by Rotarians and by students and their families as well as by local MP Gavin Williamson who once again showed his support by attending the event. Despite the variable weather the evening was a great success. Our congratulations and thanks go to all of the students and staff who took part in the competitions and especially to Raphael James under whose direction this event continues to go from success to success.

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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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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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Santa Sleigh

Tettenhall Rotary Club’s Father Christmas Sleigh aims to bring a little magic to children and communities at Christmas and at the same time raise funds for good causes. But as organiser Roger Timbrell said ‘the real magic this year was how the Christmas spirit, generosity and warmth of welcome of the people in the communities we visited shone through the inclement weather’

Although the weather forced some cancellations over £5,000 was raised for Compton Hospice, Midlands Air Ambulance and other Rotary charities. This included £237.29 at the switching on of the lights event at Tettenhall, £3971.81 collected outside Sainsburys at Perton, £366.04 outside the Co op at Codsall and £389.83 during the three evenings that they visited the communities of Fordhouses, Low Hill and Old Fallings. The Club wishes to apologise for not being able to visit Claregate, Blakeley Green, Aldersley and Bushbury as planned on Saturday 18th and Wednesday 22nd December. Heavy snow and ice forced them to have to cancel for safety reasons.

Our thanks go to Stratstone Land Rover in Wolverhampton for loaning the tow vehicle for the Father Christmas Sleigh and David Gregory, the manager of Sainsburys Perton for his support and for donating sweets. In addition, Blakemore’s Cash and Carry and the Co-operative also kindly donated sweets for Santa to give out to children.

We are also grateful to the school choirs of Codsall High School, Bilbrook Middle School, Perton Middle School, Perton First School, Perton Sandown First School and Smestow School who sang carols around the sleigh outside Sainsburys, Perton, throughout the day on 10th December.

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Wightwick Hall School – Young Enterprise

As we’ve previously mentioned in this blog July saw the Club once again sponsoring Wightwick Hall School’s Young Enterprise competition.

This competition aims to help students develop confidence, ability and ambition to succeed – qualities which will help them as they move into the world of work.

The success of last years competition had encouraged many more schools to enter the competition and the Rotarians involved were greatly impressed by the work and attitude of the students. For those who weren’t able to attend the School has now produced a couple of videos of the event to give a flavour of what went on.

Wightwick Hall School – Business & Enterprise Week from Be Inspired Films on Vimeo.

SEN Enterprise Resource Pack from Be Inspired Films on Vimeo.

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Rotary Dictionary for Life

The promotion of literacy has been an emphasis of Rotary International since 1986.

Each year the Tettenhall Rotary Club supports this by distributing free dictionaries to local school children who are leaving their primary schools.

The Rotary Dictionary 4 Life helps children to develop their language skills. By using dictionaries efficiently children explore spellings, meanings and derivations for example by using alphabetical order, abbreviations and definitions with understanding. One of the most positive aspects of being able to use a dictionary is that it helps to develop autonomy and confidence — one of the core goals of education.

Throughout this week members of the Club have been visiting local schools to distribute the dictionaries and my thanks go to Ray Hill, Izeham Chedan, Bert Finch and David Earp for the giving of their time and to Brian Barnwell for his work in organising this years distribution.