Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd
Our new Rotary year started with an evening of music in the park, followed by a fun filled day with children’s entertainment and craft stalls, music line-up hosted by Dan Evans, A Dog Show with a difference, catering stalls and refreshments all day. We were blessed by the weather again this year at Gold Hill Festival. We received good coverage from This is Alfred and were given the opportunity to respond to the few critics. A baptism of fire for our new President Peter Sale and Muriel, who recently married in June.
Monday 10th
The Presidential handover from David Britton to Peter Sale, with Paul Slimm becoming Vice President took place. There followed a special presentation of The Paul Harris Fellow award to Past President David Britton. A prestigious award in Rotary as a tribute to a person who has demonstrated a shared purpose with the educational and humanitarian objectives of The Rotary Foundation. The recognition is named after Rotary’s founder, the late Paul Harris, a Chicago lawyer, who started Rotary with three business associates in 1905. David joins several others in the club who have been given this award.
Friday 14th
Kindly hosted by Tony & Sylvie Morgan in their new home, almost 30 of us were treated to a Fellowship Dinner. It was a pleasure to see 3 or 4 less active and honorary Rotarians there and we hope to see more of them. An evening full of laughs and enjoyment, which also raised significant funds towards hosting our friends from Heerlen in October. Thank you to Sylvie & Tony.
Monday 24th
Business as usual. After Club Council and much debate over the future of Gold Hill Festival, we had a full club meeting with reports from the individual committees. The Youth Committee are working on a Halloween parade, Young Chef and Young Musician amongst other projects. Achievement certificates were presented to this year’s Abbey School RotaKids at an end of year assembly on Friday 21st July. The International Committee and reviewing project to bring to the club next month. The Cycle Ride have a few doors to close for 2023 and likewise The Gold Hill Festival committee have a review to process. Circus Bezerkus is back on the agenda after a long Covid break.
Monday 31st
10 teams took part in a Supper/Quiz Night organised by Shaftesbury Rotary Club, including teams from Gillingham, Sturminster Club, Shaftesbury Masons and the Amicus Social Group in Salisbury.
A closely fought contest followed, with rounds on a number of diverse topics including music lyrics, landmarks, countries and TV comedy. An additional word puzzle round had a number of people really scratching their heads!
The eventual victors by a slim margin were the Stur Crazy team from Sturminster Rotary Club. A raffle on the night also raised £140. Thanks to Peter & Muriel for organising and conducting the evening.
