Our monthly fellowship meeting this month was held at the Halfpenny Green Vineyard near Bobbington.
Members of the Club were treated to a tour of the Vineyard’s production facilities and learnt how the wine is produced and how an Englishman is really to thank for the invention of champagne.
Growing from a small half acre plot the vineyard is now amongst the largest in the UK producing prize winning wines which the members were pleased to sample.
Thanks go to Ken Swash and Mike Unwin for organising the evening.
Wightwick Hall School caters for students with a wide range of individual needs from the ages of 11 to 19 and since September 2008 the school has been a Business & Enterprise Specialist College.
For the second year running Tettenhall Rotary Club has been pleased to sponsor the 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 I am sure that the team at the school will continue to build on this in years to come.
Through the week members of the Tettenhall Club were involved in judging the businesses which the students had developed prior to the prize ceremony on Friday when I was joined by BBC Apprentice finalist Claire Young to award the trophies to the winning contestants.
The School held a BBQ event in the evening where the students had the opportunity to test the market with their products and which was well supported by members of the Club.
Thanks go to Chris Kraushar, Brian Barnwell, Eric Johnson, John Lochhead, Ernie Edwards, Derek Evans, John Whitten, Bert Finch, David Eaton and Doug Evans for their work in making the competition such a success for the students and special mention to David Cave who stepped in at the last minute to help the School with photography
It was a pleasure to visit 1046 Squadron again today.
Over the past few years, thanks mainly to the work of Club member Les Bouts, we have developed a close relationship with the Squadron helping with the purchase of a minibus for their activities and supporting their overseas trips.
The ATC aims to encourage a spirit of adventure and to develop qualities of leadership and good citizenship – aims which the Rotary movement shares and which the Tettenhall Club looks to encourage. I was pleased to be able to hand over a £500 cheque to help the squadron along to reaching its fundraising target for its next visit to the Battlefields and Service Cemeteries of Normandy – which I know from previous visits has a great effect on the Cadets.
Thanks to Les Bouts and Ian Rigby who accompanied me on the visit.
Each year Rotary celebrates the work carried out by young people with the Rotary Young Citizen Awards. The awards are run in association with BBC News and celebrate the positive citizenship and vital responsibilities assumed by many young people.
The members of the Tettenhall Rotary Club were pleased to propose Ami Whiston for the award in recognition of the her work in Tanzania. With the assistance of the Club Ami, a trainee nurse, visited Tanzania and worked along side local clinicians in one of the country’s rural hospitals. Whilst there Ami forged a connection with a local orphanage which she has continued to support following her return to the UK.
The judging committee recognised Ami’s personal qualities and her community spirit and we had great pleasure in awarding the certificate of recognition to her.
Thanks to Derek Evans for his work in submitting the Club’s proposal.
We were pleased to welcome Alan Reynolds, the owner of the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway, to our regular Monday meeting.
For over a century Bridgnorth Cliff Railway has been transporting the people of Bridgnorth up and down the 111 ft sandstone cliffs that separate Bridgnorth High Town from Low Town and the River Severn.
Alan explained the fascinating history of the railway and brought with him the original company minute book – a real piece of local history and well worth a visit.
Our thanks and best wishes to Alan and his team for their continued success in preserving and operating England’s only remaining inland electric funicular railway.
The Cricket Club is a great venue for events such as this and there was the added bonus of fine summer weather and the Club’s second team taking on Wombourne.
With meats supplied by our local butcher John Whitten the Club certainly has started eating better since John joined us – special mention for the chilli suasages.
The BBQ was a great opportunity to catch up with some old friends of Rotary and for fellowship within the Club – as well as being an enjoyable way of raising valuable funds for local and international charities. We hope that this will be the first of many
Thanks to Doug Evans and Eric Johnson who organised the event and to John Francis, John Whitten, Chris Bowyer and Paul Westwood without whom the BBQ would not have happened.
The second handover meeting of the day – this time at our mother Club, Wolverhampton.
Wolverhampton is the largest of the 5 Clubs in the City and it was amongst the first Rotary Clubs in this country.
We wish every success to new President Kewal and to all of the members there. This is Kewals second spell as a President of a Rotary Club so we can be sure that our mother is in safe hands.
Its always a pleasure for me to visit St Georges – even if it does involve a 7.15 breakfast.
The Outgoing President, Nick Wynn-Williams, is one of my Partners at Rees Page and I have to congratulate him on completing a successful year at the same time as keeping all the balls in the air at work as well as being in post as the President of the Wolverhampton Law Society.
I know the Club will go from strength to strength with new President Sylvia Morgan and it was great to see a new member inducted at her first meeting.
It was an honour to take over as the President of the Club for the next year this evening.
Izeham has done a great job over the last year building on the already strong fellowship within the Club and I’m sure that we’ll be continuing this into this year.
My thanks to all of the members of the Club who have agreed to serve on Council with me and to all of those who have offered their help – needless to say I will need it.
