March
Shaftesbury Health Centre
The first meeting of the month on the 9th March was hosted by John Warner with guest speaker Elaine Wickham, Senior Nurse at Shaftesbury Health Centre. She spoke to us about the life saving action of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), this was followed by member participation.
Business Meeting
Our business meeting was held on the 16th March and monthly reports were given by the committee chair persons and officers of the club.
Shaftesbury School – Youth Speaks Final
Rotary President Mike Farrow was delighted when Headteacher Mark Blackman readily agreed at short notice to host the South West, South and Channel Islands Finals on 21st March. The school’s Hospitality Course provided an excellent lunch for all competitors, and Rotarians acted as timekeepers and questioners.
8 teams of three competed in intermediate and senior age groups of 11-13 and 14-17 years old. Each team member took one of three roles: chairperson, speaker, and vote of thanks. Rotary clubs sponsored their local area winning schools from Andover, Chippenham, Guernsey, Helston, Taunton, Tavistock, and two schools from Exeter.
Results :
Intermediate – West End School Exeter
Senior – Castle School Taunton
Best Speaker – Owen Atkins, West End School Exeter
The judges said that the standards achieved were very high.
The winners go forward to the National Finals at Brentwood, Essex on 10th May.
Prostate Cancer UK
Following the highly successful Golf day organised by Richard Shean and team, the club hosted and presented a £1,000 cheque to Mr Trevor Rogers for the Prostate Cancer UK charity on the 23rd March. Trevor gave a personal account of his journey from being diagnosed with Prostate cancer to being in remission.
New Forest Mystery Tour
We had a great day out on the 24th of March with some 35 senior citizens from Chubb’s, King Alfred’s, Spillers and Butts Mead, sheltered accommodation houses and some individuals from their own homes.
The mystery tour (New Forest) took in all of the attractions culminating at Haskin’s Garden Centre near Poole for cream tea and some shopping.
Thanks to Eddie and the community committee, Bernard and Sheena and Peter. Particular thanks to Trish who organised the Grosvenor Travel coach.
Guest Speaker
As tradition, the 5th Monday of the month is the opportunity to invite our best supporters (namely wives and partners) and on this occasion the guest speaker was our past Rotarian President John Upshall, who gave a humorous presentation on his stint as Father Christmas at the Center Parcs resort in Longleat Forest.
Also, the 100 club winners for the month were Sian Thomas, Mike Eliott and James Robertson.
