To give you a flavour of our Club, here are some of the activities that we have been involved in this year. :
To go back to the current year 2008/09
Despite it being Father's Day, 9 of us made our way to Detling near Maidstone to the Kent County Showground, donned the red District 1120 stewards tabards and helped direct members of the public and meet and greet dignitaries at this biennial event. Some of us helped man the gates and take the money, several of us stewarded the main arena, and Mark got to look after Bob The Builder and Fifi & Bumble (you need to watch CBeebies to appreciate this) who were both great crowd pullers. Several Rotary clubs had fundraising stalls, from Bromley-Bickley's face-painting and Chatham's 'Tossing the Caber' to Maidstone's 'Christmas in June' complete with Santa, mulled wine and presents!
We had an excellent evening at Sophie's Choice, Sidcup, joined by several members of other local Rotary club and our speaker, Mr Aiden McDowell from the British Board of Film Certification. After dinner Aiden spoke for about 90 minutes with the aid of several film clips about how they go about certifying a film. We all seemed to wince at some of the more violent scenes, although most of the sex scenes made us laugh! We all had a very good time and the club raised £186.00 for the 'Holiday Venture Group' to help an underprivileged South London child have a holiday this year.
Once again we held a charity fair at Passey Place, Eltham. Due to poor weather the event was not very well attended, but we will be back at Christmas and indoors this time!
The club collected and presented 34 Easter eggs for the children who would be in the refuge over Easter.
We held our now annual party for GWA for all the children who have been victims of domestic violence. There was lots of yummy food, presents and, of course, a visit from the man in the red suit... All the children and their mums thoroughly enjoyed that disco and karaoke from Jo at Going-4a-Song. We will be back next year!
Club members helped with the Hospice's annual party at Charlton Athletic Football Club. A good time was had by all!
Club members collected on both days, ably assisted by the man in the red suit. Watch this space for how much was raised.
For the first time the Club set up it's Christmas Sleigh outside Peacocks in the High Street. We handed out hundreds of glow sticks supplied by Greenwich Council. Santa Claus helped to open the new Demelza Shop before taking the lead in the big parade to celebrate the lighting up of Eltham's Christmas lights. Club members rattled their buckets to collect money for Greenwich & Bexley Hospice and for Demelza CHILD. Kevin helped the Fire Dancer with his equipment and the Brazilian Samba band kept up a good rhythm (and noise) to keep people moving and therefore warm on the night. To finish it all off there was a fantastic firework display with plenty of bangs and colours. We'll be back next year!
It was a cold but dry day for the Remembrance Sunday ceremony. President Sarah and five other members of the Club took part in the march from the Conservative Club down the town to Eltham’s War Memorial. Wreaths were laid in memory of past and present fallen service men and women of United Kingdom and throughout the Commonwealth.
Stalls from 6 charities were involved, who between them raised over £1500 on the day. In addition approximately £150 was raised in Sainsbury's Eltham from buckets at the end of the tills. All in all a very successful event which we will be repeating in the spring.
Some of the shoppers at the Fair
Past President Mark Tilley bravely 'volunteered' to get up very early on Sunday morning to run 10k for Demelza at Bluewater. He was the last to finish, carrying the Demelza bear doesn't help, but he did it! He still has sore feet and knees, but at least he has a medal to prove it and raised over £1000 in sponsorship! Well done Mark!
Mark 'My Feet Hurt' Tilley with his medal!
Thankfully, apart from a short downpour we were able to offer our face painting services to the children at the Summer Fayre on behalf of Demelza Child. We had a steady flow of children asking for tigers, butterflies, Harry Potter faces etc.
One little dog; one of many butterflies; Kevin blowing his own trumpet!