What We’re Doing

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Club Meeting – Birch Thompson Memorial Fund

The Birch Thompson Memorial Fund was established in memory of two former teachers at Colton Hills Community School, Graham Birch and John Thompson, who both died of heart attacks in 1980.

The Fund maintains Gelliwig, a residential centre in Porthmadog, North Wales. Gelliwig can accommodate up to 30 people and is used by the school and by youth groups and other voluntary organisations in Wolverhampton – thousands of local children have benefited from the Centre since its opening in 1989.

The Tettenhall Club has been a long time supporter of the Fund and when it became aware that money was needed for a replacement minibus to take children to the Centre Eric Johnson and Doug Evans arranged a fundraising bar-be-que which raised £700 towards the total. We were joined this evening by Keith Berry who accepted the donation on behalf of the Fund and who confirmed that they would shortly be taking delivery of the new vehicle.

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New Vice President

It was a pleasure this evening to be able to present Ian Rigby with his chain of office as an officer of the Club for the remainder of this Rotary year.

Ian is in his second year as our Club’s sports officer and he has taken the Club’s sporting achievements to new heights – Tettenhall are now District Croquet and District Darts champions. Not content with these achievements Ian has agreed to take on the role of the Junior Vice President and will serve as President of the Club for the 2012 -2013 Rotary year. Congratulations on your appointment Ian – you will have our full support over the coming years.

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V Festival Tent Collection

Gerry Turner and Doug Evans reported back to the Club on their involvement with the Charity Tent Collection which takes place each year following the V Festival at Weston Park.

The collection, which is co-ordinated by the Rotary Club of Brewood and District, is now in its fourth year.

Over 250 volunteers helped to collect in over 1000 tents on the first day of the clean up alone. These tents which have been left by visitors to the festival and which otherwise would end up in landfill are distributed by the International Aid Trust Charity to be used in connection with disaster relief.

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Wombourne Crawl 2010

Our August Fellowship month came to an end this evening with a walk around the beautiful Staffordshire Village of Wombourne.

Clearly focused on the liquid refreshment awaiting us at the Red Lion members showed a truly amazing turn of speed completing the circuit in a record time.

Our thanks to Fellowship officer Mike Kilvert who has kindly organised this successful series of August events.

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Pakistan Floods – Disaster Relief

Working with other Rotary Clubs and with the World Water Works charity the Tettenhall Club has helped to ship 200 Water Survival Boxes to the flood affected areas in Pakistan.

These boxes are filled with new items that people who have lost everything would need to survive – including mugs to drink out of, cooking pots, bowls to eat from, spoons, anti-septic spray, cotton materials and needles and thread, basic tools, tarpaulin and bungee cords to make simple shelters.

The Water Survival Box itself is a rigid, reinforced 54 litre plastic container that becomes a receptacle for water when emptied of these survival items, it includes a filtration pack including chlorine tablets – enough for family of 4 for some 4 months.

Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) has launched an appeal to help the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the Pakistan floods. Donations will be used to aid the long-term rebuilding of communities in the affected areas. If you’d like to donate to this appeal follow the link here.

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District Darts Champions

As a result of the rigorous training regime introduced by Club Sports Officer, Ian Rigby, the Club’s sporting success continues.

Following a tightly fought battle with the Kidsgrove club – only settled by a shoot out between the team captains – Tettenhall emerged victorious as District Darts Champions.

Well played Kidsgrove and congratulations to our team on the night – team captain Ian Rigby, Bob Archer, Paul Westwood, David Eaton, Doug Evans and John Whitten.

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In Memory of Keith Parker

It was with great sadness that we learnt of the death of Keith Parker OBE, a former member of the Club, over the weekend.

As former editor and managing director of the Shropshire Star and the Express and Star newspapers Keith championed the cause of the local press and he paved the way for the Express and Star to become the country’s largest selling regional paper.

Keith was a true gentleman whose passing will be mourned by all who came into contact with him and our thoughts are with his wife and family.

Keith’s funeral will be held at St Michael & All Angels Church, Church Road, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton WV6 9AJ at 2.00p.m. on Wednesday the 11th August. There will be family flowers only at the funeral, but donations to Compton Hospice can be made c/o Harry Edwards & Sons, Funeral Directors, 1 High Street, Wellington, TF1 1JW.

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Club Meeting – Bowls Competition

The Tettenhall Club takes a break in August and in the place of our regular formal meetings we hold informal fellowship events which offer members further opportunities to strengthen their friendship with other members of the Club.

A traditional part of the August break is the meeting at the Pennfields Bowling Club in order to compete for the honour of being named the Club Crown Green Bowls Champion for the year.

Whilst the evening saw some solid play from most members the end result was never in doubt with Greg Instone rightfully taking the Championship for another year and with Izeham Che Dan leading the rest of the pack. Congratulations on your victory Greg.

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Tom Warren City Fellowship Meal

Each year the five Rotary Clubs of Wolverhampton come together to celebrate the life of Tom Warren. A member of Wolverhampton Rotary Club Tom was Rotary International Association for Great Britain and Ireland ‘s President in 1937-38 and Rotary International President 1945-46 – the second of only five Britons to hold that office.

As president of Rotary International Tom had a reputation as a great mediator and was a tireless campaigner for world peace both during and after the Second World War.

This years event was hosted by the Rotary Club of Wolverhampton – our mother Club. We were pleased to welcome one of Tom’s successors, immediate past Rotary International President John Kenny, as the keynote speaker. In his first official function since stepping down as President John paid tribute to the work which Tom had carried out and spoke of the inspirational work of ordinary Rotarians which he himself had witnessed during his year of office.