Rotary Club of Gloucester

In the week when the new Acorns Children's Hospice opened, its Gloucestershire Fundraising Officer, Lucy Howells, came to the Club lunchtime meeting to tell us of its work - just a month after RIBI announced that its partnership with the Association of Children's Hospices had raised over llion for the hospices.

Lucy told us that Acorns is a residential hospice providing respite care and terminal care for children with a life-limiting condition and their families. Every child cared for at Acorns is living with the knowledge that he or she will die before reaching adulthood.

She showed members a heart-rending video of the last few weeks of the life of a child called Vicky which gave a salutary picture, not only of the poignancy of Vicky's story, but also of the strain placed on other members of the family of such children. One mother explained the damaging effect it can have on a sibling when 24-hour care is necessary for a child's survival: another man told how the help provided by Acorns saved his marriage.

Lucy gave us an insight into the hospice premises, newly opened on the outskirts of Worcester specifically for families in the three counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and designed to give some dignity to the lives of dying children, as well as respite and support for relatives. This support and care is not only available at the hospice but is also taken out into the community.

Acorns has 3 premises in different locations, and on average a child dies every 8 days in one of the hospices. There is a separate wing of special bedrooms where, after the death of the child, families can pay their last respects in dignity and peace.

The care team provide training in the use of medications effectively and properly, and bereavement support for groups of those affected, such as grandparents or siblings.

The Acorns Trust needs to raise 0 per day. They need community support; volunteers for such things as gardening; funds; and help raising awareness in the community that they are there for families in these desperate, sometimes overwhelming, circumstances. Members can join their Gloucestershire Lottery - week with cash prizes up to 0 each week.

Club member Peter Lacey, giving the vote of thanks to Lucy, volunteered a fund-raising event for Acorns. Our Club, through David Corbett, has already arranged provision of funds for the hospice from the quarterly Sporting Dinner later this year, and further support is planned for this eminently worthwhile cause.

This report of last month's three club's centenary ball was written by Robin Morris under the pseudonym of Peter Pan

YOUR correspondent and his Inner Wheel wife Pat attended this event at the Moat House Hotel at Brockworth last month. Although still young at heart I have to accept I am now Gloucester's most senior Rotarian with 40% of Rotary's history under my belt.
Patrick and Hilary Daly were supposed to be sitting next to me but they did not materialise. Perhaps he was showing off because the Welsh trounced the Irish. On the other hand it may have had something to do with the Gold Cup and subsequent celebrations.

Rotarian Nick Berry opened the proceedings with a thoughtful but witty grace. A substantial three-course dinner during which the band played background music followed this. Thankfully the music was mercifully unobtrusive which enabled the guests to communicate with one another. This is certainly a bonus because in most contemporary social events, a disco or some other similar instrument of torture drowns out the human voice.

At half time, our glamorous Mister President Angela together with the Presidents of Gloucester North and Gloucester Severn led a robust if somewhat bucolic rendition of the Rotary song composed by our late member Rotarian H Godwin Chance.

Dancing to the band followed throughout the rest of the evening. The youthful and dashing Robert Halls of this world were prominent in this activity assisted by the slightly less young Jeremy Danceys.

A splendid event to mark the 100 years and so pleasant to mix with the members of the other two clubs.

Full marks to pupils and staff at Barnwood Park High School who have again supported Rotary's Aquabox scheme. Over the years the school has filled several such boxes - a project which has never been more needed than now in the wake of the S.E. Asia tsunami disaster.

Thousands of aquaboxes and shelter boxes, which provide vital life saving and water cleansing equipment, have been sent by RIBI to those hit by the Boxing Day tragedy.

Now the call has gone out nationally to replenish supplies which will be kept in store until needed in the wake of another natural or man made disaster.

Recently the good folk at Barnwood Park have filled five aquaboxes - where necessary buying in items as a result of a non-uniform day. These were handed over in the presence of club president Angela Seddon who thanked the school for its ongoing help.

The club has now placed a £1,500 order for 30 more aquaboxes which it is hoped city schools will fill..........and Barnwood has already indicated its willingness to be involved.

When the boxes arrive members of the international committee led by John Sargent have indicated they will be circulating city schools in order to get them involved in another Rotary project following on the success of the fundraising campaign for cancer research last year.

As always there was an enthusiastic group of club members and their wives who attended this year's district conference. David Seed, no stranger to conferences at both national and district levels, penned this report.

THIS was billed as the District Centenary Conference celebrating Rotary's 100 year, so I was expecting a programme, content and speakers of vision, style and panache. I was disappointed.

The first main speaker extolled the achievements of Rolls Royce, itself 100 years old. Slides showing the technical specifications of cars and engines were included with the address, of which was very interesting to a minority of delegates - but what did it have to do with Rotary?

President Angela hosted a generous drinks party, so Friday night got off to a good start. The fancy dress theme was Chicago so we all dressed appropriately. What a laugh! Can anyone actually imagine Robin Morris as a gangster?

After an excellent meal in the hotel which seemed to be full of gangsters and their molls we were transported to the Imperial Hotel where there were four bands/groups to dance to in different rooms. As everyone wore fancy dress there was a really good atmosphere. Patrick Daly took charge and looked after us well.
Tired and weary after waiting in the freezing cold for the buses which were 35 minutes late, we arrived back at the hotel and fell into bed...only to be roused by the fire alarm 10 minutes later (remember Torquay 12 years ago?). Out into the cold again. It had been a false alarm caused by some teenager setting off the fire alarm.

Saturday morning sessions were the best - the RI representative, the Group Study Exchange team from India and the Mercy Ship.
The latter is a floating hospital with five operating theatres, dental surgeries etc which visits countries in West Africa where up to 3,000 people wait on the quayside in an orderly queue for treatment.

The afternoon session covered the uninspiring topics of Estonia, club twinning and child protection units - the latter talk given by our Chief Constable. This could have been more interesting had he had more time. However as he said at the start..."I should not be finishing/" Yet again the session overran by 30 minutes.

The first rate evening banquet was followed by an entertaining concert by the Band of the Army Air Corps. In particular we were impressed by the considerable talent of a 19 year-old girl percussionist whose speed on the xylophone was truly amazing.

The least said about Sunday, the better, except for the speaker Sister Silke who gave a very moving talk on Rotary's Africa Hope. Again the session overran by 30 minutes. They needed a Trevor Picken to keep them on time!

Overall an opportunity missed to celebrate Rotary's 100 years of service and fellowship and to look to the future. This is, of course, a personal opinion. I know that the District Governor deemed it the best-ever Rotary District Conference.

Editor's Note. What David overlooked in his report was to mention that he received an RIBI Special Recognition Award for his services and support to district in many capacities especially for his three stints on the Council of Legislation .

A lunchtime talk to the club three years ago has resulted in an international project to help HIV victims in Ecuador. The speaker, Clare Chrunside, a member of Orphaids, had outlined the need for a small four bedded hospital at an orphanage to take care of people who are HIV positive in the Santo Domingo area of Ecuador.

From this initial request the club made funds available for the project which included buying four specially designed beds, a commercial oven, a large cabinet refrigerator, patient hoist and a standby generator for the centre.

All this was accomplished with the help of the Rotary Club of Tsachila de Santo Domingo whose assistance was invaluable.
John Hart, the Orphaids project manager, said it was hoped the centre would be fully operational by the end of May, 2005 and would be a great asset to the region.

In February of last year, John Sargent, chairman of the club's international committee, visited a project fair in Quito. As a result, our club agreed with the Rotary club of Quito to fund the provision of clear water and toilet facilities to three schools and a further school and village. Matching grant status has now been approved for this project and work will begin shortly.

This year, again in February, club Rotarian Peter Cosgrif paid a visit to a second project fair in Ecuador where they were shown a number of single teacher schools which lacked the basic resource of clean water and toilet facilities.

The schools are mainly single block rooms with either concrete or dirt flooring and children sitting at home made desks with little in the way of pens and paper.

The schools cater for all children from kindergarten to school leaving age and without these basic facilities provide considerable challenges to the single teacher.

So great is the need for these facilities that - to celebrate Rotary's Centenary - our club has agreed in principle with our friends in the Rotary club of Rodez to undertake a third project to supply a further three schools in the Santo Domingo area with water and toilet facilities, plus school equipment for the pupils.

By the end of this year, the Rotary Club of Gloucester will have supplied equipment to a children's terminal aid hospice and amenities to seven rural schools in Ecuador at a cost of US $31,035 (£16,138). An achievement indeed.

FIRE service area manager Steve Knight gave a fascinating overview of changes in the service during the past 31 years when he spoke at a lunchtime meeting.

A former pupils at Gloucester's Oxstalls School and a member of the Gloucestershire Regiment, Steve joined the service in 1974 when its equipment was fairly basic...........such as crowbars, sledgehammers, wooden ladders, and hacksaws..........and the budget for the entire county was The period since then had seen a revolution in the way the service worked.

Women were now an accepted part of the force and there was now a tremendous emphasis on minority ethnic representatives being represented.

Steve said that since 9/11 the force had had an expanded role and now attended all types of rescue and contamination.
Training too had been overhauled and the Gloucestershire force now used the same training facilities as those of Avon and Somerset.

Advancing technology had also seen great improvements in communications and vehicle equipment ........but at a cost.
Steve added that the service's focus had moved from fighting to preventing fires and more time was now spent in educating particularly the very young and elderly.

In a humorous section of his talk Steve also recalled some of the funnier animal - and human - rescures with which he had been involved.

One facet of his career of which he had been particularly proud was the amount of money the firefighters had raised for charity. This had recently included ,000 to help the victims of the Asian tsunami.

Welcome to our club's newest member

WHEN he was appointed in 2000 to Gloucester's Crypt School, David Lamper - then just 36 - became one of the youngest headmasters in its 460-year history. He took over the reins from George Fisher who left to become headmaster of King Henry VIII School, a mixed independent school in Coventry, after four years at The Crypt in Podsmead.

David, who is the club's newest member, was chosen - according to The Citizen - after undergoing a "rigorous" selection process by the governors. He now lives at Nailsworth with his wife Carolyn and two sons Hugo and Barnaby

He moved to The Crypt from Ravens Wood School in Bromley, Kent, where he was deputy head. It was a boys' comprehensive with 1,200 pupils and a mixed sixth form, and appeared on the Chief Inspector's list of outstanding schools.

A musician who studied at Kings' College London, David has also been head of performing arts at Tideway School, Newhaven and was for several years director of Brighton Youth Orchestra.

We're told that David is a keen supporter of the Old Cryptians - particularly their dinners which are held at the school, the masonic lodge in Gloucester, at Pembroke College, Oxford and at the Cheshire Cheese pub in London's Fleet Street. The latter was a watering hole David used to frequent in his student days.

Since arriving at The Crypt David has seen the number of students on the role increase to more than 700 and has also been involve in a successful fight to save the school in the recent bout of secondary reorganisation.

David, who has been treated for leukaemia, was very supportive of the club's campaign to raise money for the Institute of Cancer Research last year and it was the instigator of this project - Peter Nesbitt - who nominated David for club membership.

For the information of club golfers....we understand David had a low handicap when he played regularly a few years ago