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ANNUAL REPORT 2015-16
The Clarendon Marathon The popular annual Marathon, organised in collaboration with
Salisbury Rotary, is our major fundraiser and in 2015 raised
£28,000 for charities. The Clarendon Way links the cathedral cities
of Salisbury and Winchester. The off road route attracted 858
runners.
Welcome to Winchester Rotary
Winchester Rotary is proud of its links with the City and for several years the
Mayor of Winchester has been an Honorary Member of the club. Our 2015-16
President, Anthony Arkwright also invited Winchester University Vice
Chancellor Joy Carter to join us as an Honorary Member. Winchester Rotary
was among the first organisations the Mayor contacted as her year in office got
under way. She supported our major fundraising events such as the Clarendon
Marathon and the Swimathon, and helped host our annual tea party for local
senior citizens. Winchester Rotary in return supported her charity concert at
the cathedral and towards the end of the Rotary year, helped with the hugely
popular tea party in Abbey Gardens to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday. Our
Rotaract Club was reborn at the University in 2013 and the University is among
the sponsors of the Clarendon Marathon.
Clarendon Marathon
Our biggest annual fundraising event is the “off-road” marathon along the
Clarendon Way from Salisbury to Winchester, which we organise in
collaboration with Salisbury Rotary and which takes place on the first Sunday
of October each year. In 2015 we had 858 participants supporting the event
and we were helped by approximately 200 volunteers. These volunteers
provide their time without charge but in return we do make donations to their
charities. From the proceeds we have paid out over £11,000 to these causes.
This left us with nearly £6,000 for the Rotary Trust Fund - ready to be paid out
to further good causes. Many of the runners used the opportunity to raise
money for their own favourite charities. This sponsorship raised around
£11,000. A fantastic effort which means that in 2015 the Clarendon Marathon
raised a total of £28,000.
Winchester Swim - Swimathon
Our annual Swimathon held in February each year at Winchester College is our
other major fundraiser. 23 teams entered in 2016 and nearly £8,000 was raised
for the charities they supported. As well as raising money for good causes, the
participants enjoy the day as well; a team from Winchester Round Table for
example swam dressed as Roman soldiers, even carrying their swords and
shields! Olympic swimmer Kathy Read helped with publicity and swam on the
day. The Mayor entered a team, as did several local businesses and charities.
Two local restaurants kindly donated vouchers as prizes.
While the Marathon and Swimathon are our major events, we work with the
local community in many other ways. We regularly provide transport for the
local Stroke Club and host a Reminiscence Coffee Morning at a local care
home for those suffering from dementia and their carers. The Round Table
bonfire and fireworks is a major fixture in the Winchester calendar and we
assist each year with the marshalling of the event. Every November we take a
party of senior citizens to the Theatre Royal for the matinee performance of
Winchester Musicals and Opera Society's autumn show. The society returns
the favour by augmenting our “choir” in the run-up to Christmas – when we
can be seen near the Buttercross entertaining passers-by with carol singing and
collecting for local charities.
We continue to work with the the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust
on its "Cool Rivers" project, our involvement now entering its third year,
mainly comprises clearing river banks and planting trees (see front page photo).
Along with Rotary clubs in Basingstoke and Andover, we also sponsor two
Director of Nursing Awards at our local hospitals (one team and one
individual) It is inspirational to see the commendations by patients of the
treatment and service they receive from the NHS.
We meet at a variety of times to suit our diverse range of members; lunches
take place on the first and third Mondays of the month and dinners on the
second, fourth and fifth Mondays. We also have a very popular monthly
breakfast meeting, normally the third Wednesday, which accommodates many
of our working members. Of course we do not expect members to come to all
meetings but the varied times ensure that members can all attend reasonably
regularly. Our meeting place is the Royal Hotel in St Peter Street in the centre
of Winchester and we regularly invite speakers to meetings. Check out our
website for full details: www.winchester-rotary.org. We are on Facebook:
Winchester Rotary UK and Twitter: @WinchRotary.
Fireworks
Swimathon
President Anthony Arkwright, Mayor Angela Clear,
University Vice Chancellor Joy Carter
Reminiscence Group
Carol Singing
Charity Swimathon In 2016 our annual Swimathon raised almost £8000 –
23 teams of all ages and abilities took part
Our Local Community
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Our involvement with youth-focussed projects is long-established and we
are proud of the opportunities we have been able to provide. We support
the national Rotary competitions such as Youth Speaks; in 2015-16 we
mentored Kings School in Winchester who reached the District finals of
Youth Speaks. Peter Symonds College and Westgate School will also take
part in 2016-2017. We have recently, through work with the YMCA,
sponsored ten disadvantaged young people to go to Fairthorne Manor. We
support Kids Out each year; when local children with special educational
needs are taken out for the day. In 2016 the Winchester party,
accompanied by three Winchester Rotarians including Club President
Anthony Arkwright, was waved off by the Mayor to enjoy a day out at
Paultons Park and Marwell Zoo.
Our work with young people is wide and varied - we take young carers on
sailing trips and for the third year running are sponsoring two local students
on the Georgia Scholarship scheme - an international Rotary project which
allows the scholar to spend a year at an American university. The London
Olympic year of 2012 saw the establishment of a Goalball team in
Winchester, which took part in the Paralympics. Winchester Rotary
sponsored the foundation of the club and continues to provide support and
this year saw the team take part in a European championship in Malmö,
Sweden. The Winchester Rotaract Club flourishes in its third year; it
continues to grow and its membership includes students from Winchester
University and several members from the local community. Luke
Addison, the club's founding President, was recently elected National
Rotaract President. In 2016 the second Winchester-based PeaceJam
conference took place at Winchester University. PeaceJam is an
international youth programme, which Rotary International supports, where
school students from around the country come together, under the guidance
of a Nobel Peace Laureate, to explore conflict resolution in their daily lives
and the wider world. In 2016, the Laureate attending was Rigoberta
Menchu Tum, from Guatemala – about 200 young people attended and
Rotaractors were among the student mentors.
Students on the Hampshire Specialist Music Course at Peter Symonds
College continue to perform an annual concert, sponsored by Winchester
Rotary, at St Lawrence Church.
For many years Winchester Rotary has provided transport to the local
Stroke Club, a service which continues. We also organise an annual tea
party for local senior citizens, assisted by our Inner Wheel Club. In 2016 a
tea dance was included - and the President was seen to dance with the
Mayor! Each autumn a theatre trip is organised for local senior citizens.
Our Community Service committee has provided funds to the local RVS,
enabling them to provide weekly lunches for the elderly and vulnerable.
We hope to expand our monthly reminiscence coffee morning, held at a
local care home, for those affected by dementia and their carers. We have
also supported two projects at the Trinity Centre, which provides help and
advice to the homeless and disadvantaged in the city.
Over the last 3 years, we have given over £18,000 to a number of local
charities and good causes, including - in no particular order - the Sebastian
Trust, Wessex Cancer Trust, Winchester Youth Counselling, the
Winchester Basics Bank, Winchester Hospital Radio, Winchester Young
Carers, Together for Mental Wellbeing, Winchester Parkinsons, the Joe
Glover Trust, Winchester Home Start, Winchester Widowed and Young,
the Colden Common Community Care Trust, Winchester Street Reach,
Winchester Night Shelter, Friends of RHCH, Winchester Live at Home, the
Winnall Rock School, Lanterns School, the Trinity Centre, RVS St
Barnabas, the Princess Royal Trust for Carers in Hampshire, Tower House
Horses, and, finally, a charity called Hitting the Cold Spots.
Kids Out
Georgia Scholars
Winchester Rotaract
Peter Symonds Musicians
Home Start
Youth Speaks
Education Uganda – “Books for Schools”
These pictures show the transformation of a library in a school
in the Kasese district of Uganda – from raw beginnings, to a
fully equipped facility – and the books in use in the classrooms
The Wider World
Le Havre visit
Shoebox Appeal
Yei Hospital, South Sudan
Visit of Ugandan High Commissioner
Kos Kindness - sorting donations
Winchester Rotary has been twinned for many years with the Rotary
clubs of Le Havre de Grâce (France) and Oberhausen Antony-Hütte
(Germany). Each year in May the three clubs meet for a fellowship
weekend, taking turns to host as well as working together on projects. In
2016 the meeting took place in Le Havre. A number of club members
made the journey and were joined this year by a group of Dutch
Rotarians from Amersfoort. In 2016 we supported a project in Le Havre
- “Humaniterre” - based at the Normandy Business School, which
enables students to engage in humanitarian aid projects in India and
Africa. We continue to strengthen our links with the Rotary Club of
Central Calcutta and have begun three-yearly exchanges.
We continue to support Rotary International’s work with the World
Health Organisation and the Gates Foundation in the global project to
End Polio Now. Total eradication of the disease is tantalisingly close,
but it is vital that the momentum is maintained Shelterbox, a charity
founded by Rotarians in Cornwall which provides emergency shelter and
vital supplies to support communities overwhelmed by disaster and
humanitarian crisis around the world, has received our support for many
years.
In common with many other clubs around the District, we support the
annual Shoebox Appeal. Shoeboxes, brightly wrapped for Christmas,
are packed with small gifts and sent to Albania, Moldova, Montenegro
and the Philippines. As well as the contributions from our own
members, we also encourage local schools, churches and businesses to
take part.
One of our members is a trustee of the locally-based charity “Education
Uganda” and the project “Books for Schools” has received a Rotary
global grant. The work is closely monitored and the project leaders visit
regularly (see photo on opposite page). The success of this project has
led to further work in the Kasese district of Uganda, including complete
renovation of a laboratory at Kagando hospital, which has enabled the
monitoring of infectious diseases. A further project at the same hospital
will result in new sanitary facilities for the fistula clinic. In May 2016
the Ugandan High Commissioner, Her Excellency Professor Joyce
Kikafunda, was a guest at our International Showcase evening.
Another project which was also completed this year was the provision of
a scanner for Yei Hospital in South Sudan, in collaboration with the
locally based charity, Brickworks.
At the turn of the year 2015-16, Roshi Ingram – the founder of a small
local charity, Kos Kindness - was seeking help to alleviate the suffering
of refugees arriving on the Greek islands, in particular the island of Kos.
We gave the charity both financial and practical help – a presentation
was made at our Christmas party and in January several members
assisted in the packing of cartons and containers ready for shipment.
Donations of clothing and footwear had arrived from all over Hampshire
and further afield via appeals on social media.
ROTARY DISTRICT 1110 – Rotary Wessex
The Rotary District of which Winchester Rotary is part covers most of
Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, the Channel Islands and parts of Dorset
and Wiltshire. Each year a District Conference is held, where Rotarians
from across the District join together both to inform and entertain. In
2015, the conference took place in Bristol. These conferences provide a
meeting point for Rotarians and an opportunity to share ideas and
projects.
