Dec 032014
 

Donations were made to several charities at the Age Concern Day Centre in Gravesend on 3rd December. The cheques were presented by the Mayor of Gravesham Cllr John Caller. The other man with a chain round his neck, but a brighter jacket, is club president John Baker.  The money came from the Club’s annual sponsored On Your Bike cycle ride in April. Later, on the 8th December, EllenorLions Hospices’ chief executive, Claire Cardy, was presented with a cheque for £7,000.

Nov 132014
 

Past president Peter Torres and Marion for the British Legion were selling poppies in Gravesend Asda with Rotarian Chris Keeble.

“The response from the public was superb and we hope to beat the £7000 raised last year” said Peter.
Young Archie Munns at 5 weeks old didn’t know he was probably the youngest one wearing a poppy in the town.

Bob Denby

 

Oct 162014
 

Rotary clubs in the Southeast have supported the rev Ken Berkin who has been helping orphans in the Ugandan township of Kigezi for several years.

Recently our club gave him £600 towards building a clinic and on October 6th 2014 Ken visited our club with Rachel Harris his chairman of trustees to tell us of the latest developments in its construction and show us how our contribution had been spent.

Kigezi is in an area known as Little Switzerland and lies “beyond the tarmac” way out in the bush at the western end of the African Rift Valley.

Southeast Rotary club’s support is helping Ken’s charity “The Friends of Kigezi” who have worked tirelessly to bring water, education and sanitation to the local families and children in temperatures of up to 42 degrees.

The photos show the clinic building and our president John Baker with the rev K Berkin

Bob  Denby

 

Oct 152014
 

District governor 2014The Rotary Club of Gravesend is part of district 1120 which includes all  of Kent ,  part of Sussex and (recently) Gibraltar.  To keep in touch with clubs and their members the District governor, Martin Williams, visits all 85 clubs in the district and the photograph shows him(on the left) with our president John Baker during  his recent visit  to  Gravesend.

Jul 142014
 

Photographic competition 2014


The theme of this years photographic competition was ” What I like about Gravesend” and was open to all the infant and junior schools in Gravesham.

On Monday July 4th the Mayor of Gravesend Councillor John Caller with the Mayoress Sue Caller welcomed the winners to the Mayor’s parlour in the Civic Centre and awarded the prizes.

  • First prize went to Ruby Wells aged 7 in year 2 at St John’s school  (see photograph.. Bottom right, fair hair in plaits) The school was awarded £100 towards arts equipment and Ruby won a £50 voucher.
  • Second prize went to Angel Bridle aged 7 in year 2 at Holy Trinity School.  (Bottom right blue jumper) Angel won a £50 cheque for the school and a £25 voucher.
  • Third prize went to Tavleen Sandhu aged 11 in year 6 at Cecil Road School  (Bottom row left dark hair light blue dress) Tavleen received a £25 cheque for the school and a voucher for £10

The children told the Mayor what had attracted them to their particular subject and how they had composed their picture.

The Mayor said “how encouraging it is to see the younger generation taking an interest in their local environment. Gravesend and its multicultural society has so much to offer to so many people. All children who took part in the competition are to be congratulated and hopefully next year there will be even more entries..”

He thanked Rotary for organising the competition and for the many ways it served society.

Bob Denby

May 212014
 

Presidents dinner 2014 (3)As well as working to make their town a better place and helping those in need, our members  also relax and enjoy a good meal and entertainment.  This year  the president and members of our club together with their wives and partners, guests and friends. were at the Manor Hotel in Gravesend and  after dinner  were treated to Henry VIII’s  personal account of life with his six wives.

Appropriately dressed  for the occasion his majesty gave us insights into his courtship and marriages that  we had never considered before and which we will hold in our memories for a long time to come. The period was brought so vividly to life that the swish of the axe and sword  could almost be heard…but luckily not felt. It was generally agreed that with a history teacher of the same calibre as our speaker we would all have been far better educated! ”

Pictured is his majesty with six  “wives”  drawn from  club members, Inner Wheel, personal and club guests.

Bob Denby

Apr 292014
 

790 riders took part in Gravesend Rotary Club’s 28th annual sponsored bike ride on Sunday (27 April) and were greeted by a cool but unexpectedly dry day. Almost half took the 45 mile route which went first round the Hoo Penninsula and then joined the others who rode either the 30 or 15 mile routes in the countryside south of Gravesend.

OYB 2014 CP4 Gravesend Rugby Club 3

Gravesend Rugby Club’s team at checkpoint 4

As usual, thankfully, the day went smoothly and we received many compliments for the organisation and signposting. That could not have been achieved without the help of other organisations including Gravesend Cyclists Touring Club, Raynet, St John Ambulance, Gravesham Council, local Rotary and Lions Clubs and many others. Above all our thanks to the riders many of whom came a long way for the ride; some came form Norfolk. We hope to have raised around £12,000 for the EllenorLions Hospices and other, mostly local, charities. We will not know how much till all the sponsorship money is in so if you are a sponsored rider please collect you sponsorship money and send io to us!

 


For more pictures click on the thumbnails in the gallery below to see larger photos and more details in a slide show.

More information about On Your Bike

PHOTO  GALLERY

Apr 182014
 

Etchinghill golf

Purrrrfect. That was how the day started. Beautiful clear morning where you could see forever with the sun drying out the overnight dew. No great hurry as we were teeing off at just after 11:15 so down the M20 to the lovely club of Etchinghill where we joined some 90 other Rotarians and their friends. Andrew Hong of Hythe Rotary Club who had organised the day was here, there and everywhere putting the final details in place before WE WERE OFF……

Although the weather was fantastic and the course was immaculate, I’m sorry to report that our golf would not have got us in to the U.S. Open. Maybe we were enjoying the fellowship too much to concentrate on our game although some of us came within a couple of feet of “nearest the pin” .  Dispute our awful play we did soldier on and finally made the 19th. A quick shower, a lovely late lunch and with a couple of raffle prizes packed into our golf bags we bid farewell to Andrew and all our other friends. All of us golfers from Gravesend promised Andrew… WE’LL BE BACK.

John Dyke

 

Feb 062014
 

Our speaker on 3rd February, Chris Hare, explained that his career in “light entertainment” was a proper job, in spite of view to the contrary. Following in his father’s performing footsteps and saying that he had is mother’s legs (unproven), he had brushes with many a famous actor/actress. Telling jokes and reminiscing over humorous encounters with the likes of Eric Sykes and Peter Sellers, etc. meant that Chris beguiled us, one and all.

John Dyke