The Rotary club of Hythe & District held their presidential handover meeting at the Fountain Court Hotel and outgoing president Ray Lewis placed the chain of office on his successor Tim Parsons; commercial insurance broker Tim lives in Dibden Purlieu with his wife Susan. Tim, while reminding the club of the rotary motto Service Above Self remarked, “that the coming year was to be fun fun fun”!
Outgoing president Ray Lewis praised the club for their efforts during the past year with his usual humour and said “thank you for having me.” Ray has presided over another exceptional year; two popular concerts for senior citizens, one with the Hampshire Police Band and in the springtime The Waterside Youth Orchestra who showed their considerable skills when playing musical instruments. Kids Out in June, Hythe Rotarians, teachers and friends went to Paultons Park with 38 children from Oak Lodge School for a fun day in the sun, joining other Rotary clubs to make 1300 children. Hands-on projects included collecting Christmas shoeboxes filled with gifts for under privileged children overseas, taking part in the New Forest clean up and helping the local Fire Service with a classroom refurbishment at Noadswood School.
Donations were made to many charities throughout the year Solent Dolphins, Voluntary Service overseas, Barnardos, Wheelchair Foundation, new goal posts for Hythe & District football club to name a few. Successful fundraising included the Beer Festival held at the Royal Oak Hilltop an Auction of Promises, Father Christmas collections, Jazz night at All Saints Church Fawley. On the social side Rotarians with their partners enjoyed a Burns Night supper, theatre trips, take-away supper evening and president Ray's particular favourite was the weekend twinning with the Rotary Club of Val de Saire from Cherbourg.
Tim Parsons invested Oceanography
Researcher Trevor Guymer as his Senior Vice President.
Highlights of previous years
included the very successful Shelter Box Appeal, Rotary Kids
Out Day at Paultons Park, support for Voluntary Service Overseas
doctors in Papua
New Guinea, the funding, jointly with a South African Rotary
Club, of a soup kitchen for deprived communities at Bloekombos
near Cape Town,
and Christmas and Spring band concerts at the Waterside Theatre
for local senior citizens.
Over £5000 was raised
by the Shelter Box Appeal enabling the purchase of eleven
Rotary shelter boxes for use in responding to disasters worldwide.
The boxes contain
a ten-person tent, ten sleeping bags, cooking equipment,
tools and other essential survival items and are stored at
a central collecting depot
until needed for despatch at short notice. Club members escorted
49 children from Oak Lodge and Forest Edge schools to Paultons
Park in June for the
annual Rotary Kids Out Day.
The club, since its founding,
has continued to support Rotary Foundation, and made substantial
contributions to the international PolioPlus campaign. Rotary
International worldwide
has raised many millions of dollars to purchase vaccine to
immunise all the children in developing countries against
polio and other vaccine-preventable
diseases.
The Rotary Foundation also funds
international ambassadorial scholarships and group study
exchanges for young non-Rotarian business and professional
people and provides matching
grants for educational and humanitarian projects sponsored
and partially funded by Rotary clubs in two or more countries.
Over £4000 was distributed
to charities during one year, including £1000 for the Southampton-based
Nightstop which offers emergency accommodation to homeless
youngsters; £1000
to the It's Your Choice counselling service for local young
people; £1000
for Rotary's Aquabox appeal which sent water-filters and
other emergency goods for victims of the Indian earthquake;
and £500
donated to a Hythe family needing alterations to their home
for the benefit of a severely disabled member.
Over £1400 was contributed
one year to Rotary Foundation, providing scholarships and
exchanges for non-Rotary students; and a further £450
was provided for the Forest Front nature reserve at Hythe.
Fundraising has come by way
of street and Christmas collections, a plant sale, a beer
festival at the Royal Oak, and a roll-a-dice at the Beaulieu
motorcycle festival,
and Auctions of Promises.
Hythe Rotarians continue to
offer practical support at the Cussens Day Centre for the
elderly in Hythe.
Children with special needs
from Oak Lodge and Forest Edge Schools were taken to the
Kids Out day at Paultons Park in June.
The club hosted seven couples
from their twin, Cherbourg-Val-de Saire in France, with visits
to the London Eye and the Globe Theatre.