9th March – Speaker meeting – After a one course meal “Chicken Supreme with white sauce, vegetables and mash” we resumed the regular business of the evening with updates on the Directory, Sponsored Swim, Fun Run and Cycle ride. A proposal was put forward for discussion at our business meeting on Faith Welfare Trust.
Our speaker this evening was Dave Ball, North Dorset Coordinator for Mental health services for veterans | Combat Stress. A charity founded in 1919 to provide help and support to veterans of all ages suffering from PTSD, mental health issues and other problems arising from the trauma through conflicts and military service. It was enlightening to hear of the statistics over the number of people who turned to the group to support, the length of time they had been proving that support and the number of conflicts that their veterans had served in.
YOUTH SPEAKS DISTRICT FINALS at Romsey took place on Saturday 14th March and Students from the North Dorset Competition took part. Gillingham. Seniors – ‘Should the terminally ill adults Bill be passed into Legislation?’ In the Junior/Intermediates – ‘Should school uniforms be abolished?’ Whilst the teams missed out on winning, they performed to a very high standard. Our thanks to Rotarians David Wynn Mackenzie, Hazel Kerr and Peter Sale who continue to lead this project for the North Dorset Clubs and Shaftesbury School for hosting us.
22nd March The Rotakids second sponsored swim, supported by Shaftesbury Rotary Club was a huge success, with the money raised going to Rotakids chosen charities. Both Shaftesbury Primary and Abbey Primary Schools took to the waters. Rotarians who assisted, chose to be topical and wear Hawaiian shirts as below. Sadly, due to the child protection rules, we were not able to take photos of the enthusiastic children. 9.7 km were swum and £413 collected so far with more to come.
A big thank you goes to Coombe House School for giving up their Sunday morning free to put this charity event on. We would also like to thank Richard Ecclestone for his first aider role, again free of charge. Then thank you to the children, parents and both schools for making this a successful event. If you’re going for the triathlon, the next event is the Family Fun Run on the 12th April 2026, see you there.
23rd March – Business as usual on the 3rd Monday of the month. We welcomed Michelle Alford as a new member. Progress is going well with the Directory and the leaflet distribution being planned. We hope to get the site live online in the summer. The Fun Run is well underway and all in place for 12th April. We are looking into social events to add to the Rotary calendar to include theatre trips and similar. Request from Shaftesbury School for funding towards a therapy dog brought some mixed views, but after discussion on this and other donations we elected to donated £200 to Combat Stress, £200 to the therapy dog and £500 to The Nambikkai Illam Trust. As every year we will be supporting the Kids out Fund Day jointly with the Sturminster Newton and Gillingham Rotary Clubs. Steve reported on “Lend with Care”, whereby from our initial £150 funding, 9 loans have been made, 26 persons helped, 31 jobs created.
