Rotary Club of Gloucester

Just before Christmas Acorns announced it was cutting the number of beds available for funding reasons, Your help is vital

MEMBERS of the Rotary Club of Gloucester can look forward to a successful New Year after a series of fund raising activities last month which netted more than 00 for Rotary charities.
Most of this money came from the annual supermarket and street collections and, for the first time, donations from a city centre Christmas Eve car park. These amounted to 81 - up from 00 in 2004.

In addition the club received in excess of from the annual Christmas concert staged by the Salvation Army and which, this year will go towards the president's chosen charity - the Acorn's Children's Hospice in Worcester.

Still to be notified are the proceeds of the festive tie up with the Norton Garden Centre where the club provided Santas for several weekends before Christmas.

Commenting on the Christmas collections a delighted President Howard Johnson said: "This is a wonderful result and a tribute to the hard work of Ken Watson and John Sargent and their teams of drivers, collectors, and other helpers.

"A number of members did put in an extra special amount of effort, and I would be grateful if you would allow me space in In Gear to pass on my grateful thanks to them. I hope they feel the successful result rewards the effort they put in," he added.

Howard also complemented John Smith who had put together and compered such an excellent concert at the Salvation Army citadel at the start of last month

Once again we are indebted to Rotarian Robin Morris who has kindly sponsored this edition of In Gear.

FULL marks to Tony Tetley and his team who, once again, arranging a smashing night of fellowship and feasting for our Christmas meal with partners at the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham.

A goodly number sat down to a delightful three course dinner which was followed by Christmas carols accompanied by the Gloucester corps of the Salvation Army led in light hearted style by Rotarian John Smith.

John was MC in the unfortunate absence of big hearted Mike Westbury who, along with his wife Pat, had fallen foul of the flu.

President Howard paid a tribute to Tony and his team for arranging the evening and to the Salvation Army musicians who provided the music - one of many events they attended in the run up to Christmas.

A vertiable feast of food, fellowship, laughter and song made this year's Christmas lunch a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

The traditional but delicious Christmas lunch with party poppers and crackers was followed by our resident clerical comic - better known as the Very Rev Nicholas Bury.

If the pathway to heaven is paved with a sense of humour then Nick would be the ideal guide.
Posing (and dressed) as astrologist Gypsy Rose Bury and complete with a gold fish bowl as his crystal ball, Nick gave his own idiosyncratic and hilarious forecasts for each of the 12 zodiac signs. It was Ronnie Barker type humour at its very best ......

Dean of Gloucester he maybe but it was up to members of the King's School choir to remind us of the Christmas season with a fine selection of carols from different countries and ranging over several centuries.

The harmony and singing was simply superb and it was an absolute delight to have been entertained by such a marvellous group of talented youngsters under the guidance of their mentor Derek Harris.

Thanks go to headmaster Peter Lacey for arranging this.

THE club's bid to acquire and fill 150 aquaboxes over the next three years has got off to a flying start and just before Christmas 24 were in the process of being filled while three more had been successfully finished by pupils at Barnwood Park School.

In addition there was around £2,000 in the kitty thanks to appeals to local businesses, donations from Rotarians and gifts from members of the public prompted by articles in The Citizen.

The club has set itself this ambitious target since RIBI's entire stock of aquaboxes were sent to victims of the tusnami in South East Asia and to other areas which had experienced natural disaster since then.

In consequence an appeal has gone out from RIBI's HQ to restock the shelves in order to respond to the next disaster appeal whenever that happens.

To educate local pupils Trevor Picken has put together a Powerpoint presentation
to explain how these boxes and their contents can save lives in an emergency.

A team of Rotarians will offer to visit local primary and secondary schools this term in a bid to persuade them to adopt the project and fill some of the boxes.

Peter Nesbitt said just before Christmas that one pub in the city centre was holding a raffle, the proceeds of which were also being donated to the Aquabox appeal.

Our picture shows Peter Nesbitt and Graham Howell outside the Worcester Street offices of another member of the project team Julian Farr having collected 100 empty aquaboxes from Derbyshire.

Spontaneous applause from a capacity audience, including the Mayor (an honorary Rotarian) and the Mayoress of Gloucester, along with the Sheriff and Deputy Mayor and his lady, greeted the Gloucester Salvation Army Band, at the beginning of the annual Christmas Charity Concert.

This was the eighth year when proceeds of the Salvation Army's Christmas concert have been donated to the Rotary President's chosen charity which this year is the Acorns Children's Charity.

The concert began with the band giving a splendid performance of 'For unto us a child is born' from Handel's Messiah. The audience quickly entered into the occasion and sang heartily the great advent carol, 'Hills of the north, rejoice'.

Following a prayer, the audience were introduced to guest soloists - Kate and David Bennett. Their voices blended beautifully in 'O happy we' from Leonard Bernstien's Candide. Kate sang O mio Babbino Caro by Puccini and this was followed by a number from The Merry Widow by Lehar sung by David. All the items were accompanied by Clifford Matthews, Bandmaster of the Gloucester Band. Prior to the appeal by Lucy Howells for the Hospice, the Songsters under their leader Philip Webb, performed two contrasting songs.

The second half began with the Band's performance of Howard Evans' 'Chassidic Dance'. This had the audience tapping their feet as the music with a mix of Jewish and Eastern European harmonies and rhythms became faster and faster.

Major Paul Doust challenged everyone with his thought for Christmas. He linked the old saying 'from acorns large oak trees grow' with the Charity and reflected that both the manger of Bethlehem and the Cross of Calvary were both made from a tree. This was followed by a sensitive performance of 'Shine on Us' by the Songsters who ended their programme with a new and exciting arrangement of 'The Virgin Mary had a baby boy'.

President Howard Johnson had celebrated his 60th birthday the previous Thursday and before he joined Kate and David to sing, 'Never go to the law' from Die Fledermaus, the audience sang 'Happy Birthday' to a somewhat surprised and embarrassed President.

Following two further individual solos, our guests concluded with a magical performance of Adolphe Adams' song 'O Holy Night', again accompanied by Clifford Matthews. The Band's final item was Richard Holz's scintillating march, 'The Carollers'.

Christmas 2005 had started and the audience went home extremely happy, particularly Lucy Howell who knew that over had been raised to support the wonderful work of the Acorns Children's Hospice in Worcester.

The 2006 Concert will take place on Sunday 3rd December - book the date in your new diary.

Many members had the opportunity of doing a Santa stint at the Norton Garden Centre. Here is Colin Rogers' view of being the man behind the beard.

"When volunterring to act as his personification on Earth it is fairly simple to put a tick on a list circulating at a Rotary lunch. In reality, the task is much more onerous, but also enjoyable, than one can imagine.

"Like all good actors, as one dons the costume you really do get into the part but this is only the start

"Stage fright also creeps in as you make your way to your 'Grotto' and the real responsibility of your leading role begins to make itself felt.
"Sitting for a few moments before your first 'customers' arrive you practice a 'ho ho ho' and also that special wave of greeting, both of which are essential to make your young guests feel at ease.

"Then in ones and twos, and sometimes threes, children of all ages file in to see you and in many cases tell you what they have already written on a list and posted to you already.
"It is at this stage you feel the enormity and responsibility that rests on one's shoulders - one wrong word here could destroy years of faith.

"The penetrating looks from even the youngest to ensure you're the real thing is countered by you extolling the virtues of being good for mummy and daddy and going to bed - and going to sleep - early on Christmas Eve.

" You tell tham 'I only leave presents if you're fast asleep and as I've lots of places to visit on Christmas Eve all over the city I might not have time to come back if you stay awake!'
"At then end of one's session when you being to disrobe there's a tinge of sadness because for three to four hours lots of youngsters have been in awe of you

"But just like any other actor you also know that at the next performance you will have the same stage fright as before although the exhilaration afterwards is something never to be missed."