Club Service

John Batty, a former president of Farnborough Rotary Club received a Paul Harris Fellowship award last Thursday 26th August 2010.

The award is given to members of Rotary and sometimes to members of the wider community who have given extraordinary service back to community.

I had the pleasure of presenting this award to John and there is a not a finer member in the club who deserves it more. although many members of the club work extremely hard for the community.

His hard work and dedication in the organisation of our local bi-annual concert Picnic To Music In the Park in aid of the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice and he is the main organiser of the forthcoming amateur boxing tournament in October..(Click Here for more details). He is also the current chairman of the annual Farnborough Donkey Derby.

But John has been involved in many fund raising events and is a valued member of the club. He dedicated his award to the other members of the club who are helping him on various projects.

In the 52 year history of our club, only 24 people have recieved this award.

The Paul Harris Fellowship award is given in honour of the founder of Rotary, which was started by Paul Harris and 4 other business aquaintences in Chicago 1905. Rotary membership now exceeds 1.2million and there are 33,000 clubs world wide.

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.

11 members of Farnborough Rotary Club and two guests enjoyed a great day out yesterday.

The weather was glorious when our first player, Rotarian Dave Thomas, stepped up to the first tee at just after 9am.

The weather remained fantastic and the course was in reasonable condition.

Now I play off 28 and there was the usual heckling about being a bandit, which may have been true considering some of my very lucky shots. Especially when you learn that I came in joint 2nd but on a countback of my points (of just 29) I was relegated to third.

Some of our players, play with good handicaps 12s 16s and 18s, so I don’t know how I did it but Hey Ho!

But the game was played in great spirit, the banter, which for me makes up part of the game was excellent, especially when one of my playing partners Geoff Robinshaw told us jokes and anecdotes all the way round the course.

The game is organised twice a year spring and autumn and on this occasion it was organised by Brian Fagg.

The winner was Laurie Dudley, who left before the presentation so is not featured in the photographs below, but as he won, he will organise the autumn event. Also not show in the photograph because he’d left early Andrew Clarke

After the game we headed back to the CourtHouse pub for a beer and a delicious lunch .