THE ROTARY CLUB OF BANBRIDGE

Club News

Past President & Past District Governor Frank Arnold presented Past President John Dawson with a personalised blackthorn walking stick at his last meeting as a member of the club (following his recent retirement), and President-Elect Joan Davis presented his wife Jenny with a bouquet.

Photo courtesy of Byrne Photography, Banbridge
Before presenting the gift, Past President Frank addressed the club and expressed sadness that John was moving to the Rotary Club of Comber. It made sense as he was no longer travelling to Banbridge on a daily basis. One of Rotary’s great strengths is that any Rotarian can move to another Club and find the hand of fellowship there.

He paid tribute to John for the tremendous 20-years service he has given to Rotary and the Banbridge Club in particular, stating that he was a wonderful example to all by his commitment and had fulfilled nearly every Club office at one time or another during his 20-years.

Frank also highlighted his regular attendance at District Council and District Conferences as an example not only to the Executive of the Banbridge Club, but to every club in District. John had also been a marvellous District Secretary and had also served District for two years as Assistant Governor (making a personal choice not to run for District Governor) and proudly was a Paul Harris Fellow.

John served two spells as President of Banbridge and it will also be remembered that he designed the Club Web Site (once voted the best in district 1160 Ireland) and keeps it updated – something which is a constant source of information and indeed pleasure.

Frank concluded by stating what fantastic ambassadors for the Rotary Club of Banbridge John and Jenny have been over all the years, what an example he had been during his twenty years and thanked John for his unfailing helpfulness at all times and for his friendship.

For his services to Rotary at District and British Isles level, Past District Governor Frank Arnold receives his second Paul Harris Fellowship award from President Ken Forbes. Also pictured are Frank's wife Vianne and Assistant Governor David Finan.

Every year we have a new President of R.I.B.I. (Rotary International in Britain & Ireland) and he usually spends a few days in Ireland to meet as many Rotarians as possible.
President David Fowler (centre) was just passing through Banbridge, but he did not want merely to drive past. Instead he showed a desire to plant a tree, and the opportunity was not lost to honour one the local Rotary Club's finest servants, Hugh Rice.
On the right with the R.I.B.I. President is Past President Victor Jennett.

The Rotary Club of Banbridge welcomes the Chief Constable Matt Baggott

Left photo (from left)
(Front) George McCaigue, Victor Jennett, Chief Constable Matt Baggott, Ken Forbes
(Back) Raymond Pollock, Dennis Livingstone, David Elliott, Nigel Jess
Right photo (from left)
Robin Mowbray, Gerry McElvogue, Chief Constable Matt Baggott, Ken Forbes, Victor Jennett, Joan Davis, Eddie Carr

Ambassadorial Scholar Borjan Zic who visited the club in April.

"My host club is the Belfast Rotary Club, and I'm sponsored by the Montgomery Village Rotary Club from my home town of Gaithersburg, MD USA. I currently live at home in Gaithersburg with my parents, and I have a younger sister who just started her first year of undergraduate studies at university.  I'm in Northern Ireland pursuing an MA in Comparative Ethnic Conflict at Queen's and have settled in nicely.  Everyone has been quite friendly and welcoming, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the area and scenery in the next few months."

As reported further up this page, the staff of Tesco's Banbridge store decided to do something on Valentine's day and they raised £2,000 towards the Shelter Box appeal for the Haiti earthquake disaster. They contacted us to ensure that their money made its way swiftly to the right quarters. This will provide shelter, rest & cooking facilities for four families or for up to 40 people.  

This Rotary Club recently sent off £2,000 to buy 4 Rotary shelter boxes for some Haiti homeless people.
We are especially indebted to the staff and pupils of Saint Patrick's School in Keady, who have raised a further £1,000 for the people of Haiti, and decided to invest it in two more shelter boxes. The money was the result of a non-uniform day organised by the Geography Department.

The Rotary Shelter Box was the brain child of an English Rotarian a few years ago. It was designed to provide immediate response to people who have lost everything in a natural disaster. Each box contains a disaster relief tent that houses 10 people, blankets, a stove, cooking utensils, tools and other essential items including water purification tablets. Since its introduction, over 57,000 boxes have been distributed worldwide.
It was recently described by a leading Charity Operations Manager as "the best aid package I have seen in my 20 years of disaster relief experience". The cost effectiveness of £490 per box is evident in that 10 people can be provided for at a cost of 31 pence per day. 

The Rotarian's name is Tom Henderson and he received an OBE in the Queen's 2010 New Year Honours list.

The members of Haiti's 16 Rotary clubs will ensure that the 200 boxes arriving imminently are deployed effectively to the thousands of homeless in need. Already there are 1,000 boxes on the way to Port-au-Prince. 

To read more about Rotary International's efforts,click here

February 18 update

Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Andrew Buchwald addressed the club on February 23. Andrew is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father is of Russian/Jewish descent and his mother is Italian born.  His sponsoring club is Oakland, Pittsburgh, and his host club is the Rotary Club of Antrim.  Andrew is pursuing a taught masters at Queens in "Violence, Terrorism, and Security Studies."  He thinks Northern Ireland is great! He had a very interesting story, in that he had studied classical Arabic, and he gave us a valuable insight into his Middle East experiences.

Christmas Dinner

The fight against Polio
Konnie Huq was invited to appear on  BBC News 24  programme on Sunday 22 November 2009 from 8am to talk about her National Immunisation Day visit to India very recently, when she represented Rotary’s Thanks for Life - End Polio Now campaign.

Below, on the same subject, are Rotarians Gerry McElvogue (right) and Uel McCrea trying to give away a brand new Peugeot 107. Some of the proceeds from our car ballot will support the ongoing work (started by this organisation in 1985) to rid the world of Polio. The Northern Ireland Hospice will also benefit from our efforts.  

Polio is now endemic in only four countries in the world - we will never have a better chance to finish the job!

Our thanks for the opportunity to offer the car ballot tickets go to Tesco and Centra.

2009-2010
Right: District Governor Tom Murphy receives a gift from President Hugh Rice to remind him of his official visit to the Banbridge Club.
Left: District Governor Tom Murphy with President Hugh. On the right is next year's President Joan Davis, and on the left, Doreen McBride. Past President John Dawson is in the middle. (Photo courtesy of the Banbridge Chronicle)

Rotary worldwide is one big family and it is always a delight to welcome visiting Rotarians to a club meeting. This time, Past President George McCaigue visited the Rotary Club of Hollis in Brookline, New Hampshire. On the right George is presenting newly elected President David with a District 1160 (Ireland) tie depicting the four Irish provinces of Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught.
The club meets at 07:30 for breakfast, and George was made to feel very welcome.

We welcome into our membership our newest Rotarians Uel McCrea and Doreen McBride and we trust that they will enjoy years of good fellowship, and that their experience in their own fields of expertise will help us to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

President James Dale hands over responsibility to Hugh Rice

Another Rotary year is upon us, and the club has again been punching above its weight in raising funds for charitable causes - the total last year £7,500 and the main beneficiaries were Freeplay radios for Zambia (£2765), Northern Ireland Hospice, Northern Ireland Kidney Patients Association, Alzheimers Society (£750 each), Rotary Foundation (£2,000) and the Rotary Polio Challenge - supported and sponsored by Bill gates - to finish the eradication of polio from this earth (£700). 

Click on the photo for a close up of the Presidential Citation earned last year by the club from the Rotary International President - for its outstanding efforts to reduce child mortality and Make Dreams Real for the world's children.

Seven members and a guest Rotarian visited the Rotary Club of Navan on June 09 for reasons of fellowship. This helped to cement the relationship between the clubs, which began in 1989. The Navan Rotarians made the first move at that time, and reciprocal visits have been happening during the intervening years.

Literacy project

As a club we contributed to the education of our year six primary school children in Banbridge by financing 250 dictionaries, which have been specially designed with young children in mind. More detail in our Community & Vocational page.

Conal O'Hare from Banbridge Academy won a place in last year's competition. The group had a disappointment in that the very bad weather caused the postponement of the final lap of the trip to Strasbourg (thankfully the opportunity was not lost and the visit has been re-scheduled).
Conal becomes another in the long line of young people who have represented this island so admirably since the competition's inception. You can read some of the past exploits in our Archived Reports page - last year 25 of the 29 questions put to the European Parliament were tabled by the Irish group.

Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Donna Swanson from USA visited us in May, and we hope to have a photo of her sometime soon.

The club has a long standing and vibrant association with the Rotary Club of Dublin Fingal and no opportunity is missed to maintain this link. Our latest contact was on the Saturday of our Rotary Conference in Belfast in September 2004, when both clubs met up with the Rotary Club of Renfrew. This turned into a very special occasion topped by that marvellous concert in Spires.

We are also twinned with the Rotary Club of Renfrew in District 1230 in Scotland and both clubs make every effort to foster this arrangement. A 14 Banbridge strong party made the trip to Renfrew at the end of May 2002 to join in the 50th anniversary of their charter.
The last get-together in Ireland was our Burns Supper in January 2004 (See Archived reports).

Fellowship is the name of the game, and social activities are not forgotten.
We will have such social events as our annual BBQ in the late summer, our Stew Night in the autumn, our Christmas Dinner in December, and our Presidents Night was on 26.02.10.

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