Christmas

There is no doubt that this is one of the coldest winters for many a year. Tough for Farnborough Rotary Club too.

The snow which has been with us since the 3rd week of December, has meant that our club has had to cancel our usual Christmas street collections and we’ve had to cancel or regular weekly meeting last week.

As we start this new week, we’re still not sure if our meeting scheduled for this coming Thursday lunch, will go ahead.

Its a timely reminder that as a club we do have a responsibility to look after our other members, especially those who may live in rural areas and indeed maybe frail.

Talking of which, one of our members,  I thought I would mention Tom who has been with the club for 28 years. A proud Welshman who unfortunately suffered a bereavement last year with the loss of his wife Ann. They had been married for a very long time.

I phoned him the other day to see how he was getting on as he lives on Yateley common, right at the end of a track and with the snow being as heavy as it has been over the last few weeks, I knew it would be difficult for him to get about.

He was as chirpy as ever, said he had “plenty of grub”, (he’s very down to earth) and that the neighbours had been round regularly and that he was OK. Typical Tom.

I sent out an email to our members to ask if anyone who had a 4X4 could visit Tom and maybe pick him up for this weeks meeting. A number of people responded and if the meeting goes ahead Tom  will get there.

But I was particularly impressed with others, who do not have a 4X4 but felt they could pick him up anyway, although I would not recommend it, as the track is quite thick with snow.

Following my email that I sent out yesterday, one of our other members, I wont  mention his name for fear of embarrassing him (KH), who lives in Yateley, took the bull by the horns and went to see Tom and check if he was Ok. (He hasn’t got a 4X4 and had to leave his car half way down the track)

He was, they spent some time together, shared a whisky and KH left knowing that Tom was indeed OK. Now that is what I call true Rotary spirit.

No doubt Tom has received many phone calls over the Christmas period asking if he needed anything and it is a timely reminder to all of us to look after our elderly neighbours, family and friends

Fellowship, one of the foundations of Rotary.

Here is a press release sent to the local press

PRESS RELEASE

Heavy snow falls and icy conditions before Christmas, stopped members of Farnborough Rotary club from making collections on many housing estates in Farnborough.

The street collections which are held every year, raise money for local charities.

The club’s vice president Sean Usher said he was disappointed, but says safety comes first “The club’s members, made a tremendous effort to get out and collect as often as possible, but towards Christmas it just got too risky. There was too much snow and ice on the footpaths”.

The club normally collects for around 20 nights leading up to Christmas, but this year they only managed 13. “There are 7 areas in Farnborough that we just didn’t get to and I know that many people on these estates would have been looking forward to seeing our Christmas float and seeing Father Christmas out in the street too, So I would like to apologise to them.

“I think that we were in for one of our best years, in terms of collections. The people of Farnborough are always so generous, but this year even more so. Our Christmas collections normally total £11-12k and we were on target to beat this quite easily.

“Its disappointing that we didn’t match previous year’s collections, but we still raised £9k for local charities and that is something we are all proud of”.

Ice and frozen snow hs stopped our street collections for the 6th night in a row.

There is disappointment at Farnborough Rotary club today because for the sixth day in a row we have had to cancel our nightly tour of the streets of Farnborough collecting money for local causes.

All collectors have been asked to stand down.  The main reason that the collections have to be canceled is safety.

Although most of the roads are clear following the snow downfalls over the last week, the foot path are treacherous and extremely slippery.

In the 8 years that I have been with Rotary, I have never known so many canceling of nights.

Rotarian John Grenham, who is the the coordinator of the collections is also extremely disappointed, not because of the work that has gone into the organising of the collections, but because we will have less money to distribute this year, to those that need it locally.