Visit to Coesfeld

The Melton Belvoir Rotary Club is twinned with the Rotary Club of Coesfeld (Germany) and exchange visits take place every two years. This year it was our turn to travel to Germany. A good party of Rotarians and partners made the journey, which was meticulously organised by Rtn Kim Kettle.  Here are the thoughts of one of our members, Rtn David Brown, who was making the trip for the first time.

This was my first Rotary exchange visit and I was unsure what to expect.  The arrangements made by the Coesfeld club for our visit were excellent from our arrival in Germany to our departure three days later.  They had organised two interesting visits, one to the town of Munster and the other to a coal mine heritage site in Essen.  The visit to Munster was wonderful, mainly because it is a town full of seventeenth century house, but they were all built on the 1950′s following heavy bombing during the second world war.  It just shows what can be achieved when the local council consider the opinions of the residents.

The visit to the coal mine which closed for business some years ago, was interesting because the site has been maintained as a visitors centre, and yet it still retains most of the infrastructure of a working mine.

On the Saturday we were taken to a schnapps distillery in a small town called Schöppingen where samples of the various flavoured schnapps were offered, and not wishing to offend we graciously accepted them.  At the end of the tour there was a long queue of people at the shop wanting to take home some full bottle samples.

Following this visit we were taken to the Town Hall in the same town for a formal dinner.  The building was set in a small square and dated back to the 1600′s and is now used only for functions.  We had a  most enjoyable meal and as much wine, beer and spirits as one wished.  A simple method of accounting the drinks was used whereby everyone was given a small card on to which the waitresses marked down the drinks served.  These cards were then handed to our hosts and the total bill for the evening was settled by the host club.  Simple but very effective.

All in all this was a fantastic experience, the hospitality was wonderful and the friendliness of our hosts was excellent.  I feel that I was very fortunate to have stayed at the home of Clemens and Claudia Heddier together with Humphrey Davies, because Clemens is a classic car fanatic and has the most excellent collection of classic cars and memorabilia.  The sight of his collection left me salivating.  I can’t wait to go again

Only 4 years to go, David!

 

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St George’s Day Extravaganza!

On Monday 23rd April, members of the club held a celebration of St. Georges day at the Quorn Lodge Hotel.  The evening began with the presentation of a cheque for £250 to the local Scout Camp following three break-ins to their camp premises near Holwell village.  The evening continued with the investiture of a new member to the club, Mr, Harry Mann, owner of the Quorn Lodge Hotel.

A typical English meal of Roast Beef followed by Apple Crumble was then served and then the fun began.  This consisted of a number of members each doing a brief act relating in some way to the English heritage.

• Richard Trevarthen described the history of the Cornish Kilt.
• Tony Wallis reminded everyone of the things that England has given to the world.
• Keith Yates told the tale of the Lambton Worm with everyone invited to repeat the chorus and with the whole story being told in a very broad north east accent, this was some challenge!
• A sketch depicting the English class culture was the acted out by Humphrey Davies, David Brown and Keith Yates taking the places of John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbet in the well known television sketch.
• Barry Cragg had prepared a twenty question quiz about various things relating to England, its history and culture.
• The famous speech from Shakespears Henry V about the battle of Agincourt had been recorded by Tony Field who was not able to be present and was played with animated actions given by David Brown.
• Dennis Hurst and Richard Holton then gave a hilarious Morcambe and Wise type sketch which inevitably involved making fun of various club members.
• The evening ended with a communal singing of Jerusalem and the English National Anthem.

In all fifty five people attend the event and the general consensus was that it was a great success.

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Bangers and Bikes

This Monday, the Club moved from its usual venue to The Eating House in Sherrard St for an excellent evening of home-cooked bangers and mash to raise funds for the Draisin Bike project at Birch Wood Area Special School, which caters for students with moderate and profound learning difficulties.The project aims to raise money for two specialist “bicycles”, that can be used by children who are not capable of riding on a two wheels, to provide exercise, physical and coordination development … and a huge amount of fun!

The evening’s normal entertainment – betting on whether our esteemed Master of the Hot Tarts will correctly calculate the required number of puddings (there goes another 20p!) – was on this occasion replaced with a remarkable display of table-side magic. Has anyone been able to work out the trick with the two elastic bands? Answers on a postcard, please.

In thanking everyone for attending, organiser Rtn David Brown paid a special tribute to Steve and Mandy and the Eating House staff for an excellent evening and for their very generous donation of raffle prizes. In all, the event raised nearly £320, which will make a big difference to the Birch Wood project.

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Catch-up Ketchup!

It’s time to fill up those ketchup bottles and return them to President David! “I’ve had a few returned to me so far which is great, but I need to get the money in before the end of the Rotary year” he told me.

So, we have still got a couple of months to go, but don’t leave it too late!

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Festa Della Donna

This Italian festival, known as International Women’s Day, is celebrated each year on 8th March all over Italy and so 65 members of our club celebrated in style at La Torre Italian restaurant in Leicester Street.

A good time was had by all those present and a total of £377 was raised for President David Sharp’s selected charity “Life Education Melton”.  This brings to total amount raised during the current year for this charity to around £1,000. Special thanks go to Bruno and his staff for hosting the event and putting on the excellent food, to Mic Hurst who organised and ran the raffle and everyone who provided raffle prizes.

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Melton’s Young Chefs

Following their visit to Stapleford Park Country Hotel, where they had to rise to the challenge of working under the watchful eyes of head chef David Ellams, Lydia Swift of Long Field School and Tom Mallender of Belvoir High School, recently took part in the Northern Rotary Young Chef District 1070 Final in Leicester

With an age range of 11 to 17 the standard at the Final was extremely high and all competitors worked confidently to produce tasty and very professional three course meals.
Lydia’s meal, with a menu of curried parsnip and apple soup; filo pork with apricot stuffing and ratatouille and lime cheesecake cream on a biscuit base, won her the first place, a real achievement given that she was one of the youngest competitors.
Lydia will now represent Rotary District 1070 in the Regional Final to be held in Ilkeston on 24 March 2012.

Well done, Lydia and best of luck!

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Santa’s Sleigh Collection

Our major fundraising event of the year has now taken place with Santa and his sleigh appearing at Tesco and Morrrisons during the day and touring around Melton at night. Assisted by members of Inner Wheel and Round Table, Club members raised the amazing total of nearly £7000. Fundraising Chairman David Brown remarked,  “Once again the people of Melton have demonstrated their generosity by giving a record amount at a time when we are all facing greater demands on our finances.  The money raised will be used to provide help to many groups and individuals of all ages within the town.”.

While expressing his thanks to everyone invovled, President David added, “In addition to all those people who gave Santa such a tremendous reception throughout the week, the Club would like to thank sincerely, the organisers of the Victorian Market and the managers of the Tesco and Morrisons superstores for inviting Santa on to their premises, during the daytime“

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Melton Belvoir Charter Night

President David together with 112 guests and fellow Rotarians met at the Brooksby Banqueting Suite on Nov 14th for our annual Charter Celebration. The 32 members from  Melton Belvoir were joined by 51 Rotarians from 13 other Clubs and 6 members of Melton Belvoir Inner Wheel.  Joining President David were his top table guests, including Assistant District Governor, Garner Roberts, The Mayor of Melton Mowbray, Alison Freer, Senior Townwarden, Richard Sage and our guest speaker, The Reverend Ray Sowersby

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Rotarians Plant Hope for PolioPlus

During a 10 day period in mid October, Melton Belvoir Rotarians – ably assisted by groups of enthusiastic young volunteers – planted 13,000 purple crocus bulbs as part of the programme to raise the awareness of the work being done by Rotarians worldwide to eradicate polio. The bulbs were planted at the new Melton Borough Council offices and at 10 primary schools within the borough.

Organiser, Rotarian David Brown commented, ” The welcome and support we received everywhere we went was fantastic. The schoolchildren were very interested to learn about polio and what is being done to eradicate this dreadful disease“. Club President, David Sharp added, “This is a tremendous effort from David and his team. Well done to everyone who took part!”

I’m sure we all agree with you, David – but should you really be sitting down on the job?

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