Press releases January to March 2007
 

SIXTY young minds battled it out in Wakefield's first Rotary junior schools chess competition.

The event, organised by the city club in March, was inspired by the work of  the late Stanley Grundy and the Rotary Chess Education Initiative, which he established. There were trophies engraved with his name for the winners, while every contestant received a blue Rotary Club of Wakefield T-shirt bearing Stanley's  name in gold.

Both under-9 and under-11 groups were topped by teams from Lofthouse Gate school who received their trophies from club president Dennis Edwards. There were winners and runners-up medals, including those for other teams from Lofthouse Gate who came second in each section. In the under-9s section Horbury made it a close-run competition for second place.

The event, held at Netherton Junior School, was organised by the school's former deputy head teacher, John Newsome, and the Wakefield club's vocational chairman, Roland Mold.

Roland said: "It was a fantastic day and the youngsters all did themselves great credit, not just for the way they played but also for their behaviour throughout the whole competition."

John, who has organised other chess competitions in schools, as well as the Wakefield junior championships, said: " It was an excellent competition. Off all those I've been involved in there has never been as much offered to the children in the way of prizes and medals. It gave them great encouragement.

"Members of Rotary are to be congratulated for the sponsorship they have provided, which has included chess sets for local schools."

For more information visit www.rotarychess.org.

THE challenges of involving women in democracy in parts of the world torn by conflict were the focus of Samantha Aucock's talk to Wakefield Rotarians in March.

Samantha, from Pietermaritzburg in South Africa, is a Rotary Peace Fellow studying conflict resolution at Bradford University. She has already carried out extensive work for the UN, including more than two years in Kabul where she was part of a team working to bring democracy to Afghanistan.

"I loved the country," she said, "I left with a heavy heart and I'm sure I will be going back." This was despite two suicide bombings and three kidnapping at her UN compound.

She left Afghanistan in November 2004 and the following year went to Gaza to witness elections there. Other countries in which she has worked include West Timor, Sierra Leone, Egypt and Nepal.

Samantha is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Pietermarizburg East, District 9270.

OLIVER Quarmby and Gordon Watson described the exciting new future that awaits Wakefield when they spoke about the new Waterfront project at February's guest night at the Chasley Hotel.

Oliver is the development director of CTP St James, the developers of the Waterfront site, apart from The Hepworth, which is being developed by Wakefield council. Gordon Watson is the project director of The Hepworth.

Rotarians and their guests learned that construction work had now started on the Waterfront site, which stretches from the weir up to the bus depot. It is envisaged that this area will become a new urban village within Wakefield, with meeting places, cafes and riverside walks, and the first residential units have now been sold.

Oliver spoke of the many difficult problems that had been overcome in the lengthy planning stages, including flood defences and the preservation of listed buildings. A new bridge over the river is to be constructed, which will serve as a pedestrian link to the city.

Gordon spoke about The Hepworth, which will be a major new gallery, replacing the present Art Gallery in 2009. The new building, which will be able to display more of the city's important art collection, will attract international interest and become a valuable resource for the Wakefield district with an array of educational facilities.

The building, designed by internationally acclaimed British architect, David Chipperfield, will be in a prime location, overlooking the weir. Its modern design will attract much interest.

Rotarian Nick Castle gave a vote of thanks.

‘THE cream of the crop of community stalwarts' was how the local press described

the recipients of  this year's city community service awards organised for more than two decades by Wakefield Rotary Club.

The scheme, backed once again by the Wakefield Express, honoured people who might otherwise not have gained public recognition of their untiring and unsparing work for other folk.

Trophies, cheques and certificates were presented by Wakefield Mayor Darran Travis at a special Rotary dinner at the Chasley Hotel, Wakefield, in February.

The Community Service Award  and £100 went to 60-year-old David Wainwright, of Crigglestone, while runners-up were the Resource Team at Christ Church, Ossett, in particular team leader Maureen McArdle and her husband Terry. The Good Neighbour Award was won by Mrs Margaret Melling, of Heath.

Community service chairman David Pickover said the awards scheme had been initiated more than 20 years ago by the late Maurice Shaffner. This year's winners were worthy successors to the many who had gone before them.

He said that in the past six years David Wainwright had raised £12,000 for Wakefield Hospice. The ‘snowpeople' in his garden - representing family members past and present - had drawn thousands of visitors, some of them in busloads. Children were delighted to be spoken to by the figures, voiced by him and his daughter.

The Resource Team at Christ Church, Ossett, led by Maureen McArdle assisted by Terry, provided food parcels and other help for the homeless, for young people leaving care and other needy and vulnerable people.

"This is the application of true Christian principles," said Rotarian Pickover. The McArdles received £50 as well as a trophy.

Good neighbour Margaret Melling, who received £100, had, he said, spent many years in Heath helping a variety of people in a variety of ways - from doing their shopping to assisting in emergencies. In one case, which turned out to be a "life or death situation", she called emergency services when a neighbour was ill with what proved to be meningitis. 

"She is someone who drops everything to help others," said Rotarian Pickover.

Wakefield Express editor Mark Bradley added: "It's fantastic to be able to reward some unsung members of the community at this event."

A raffle for the mayor's charities raised £100.

THE SWEAT, sapping tension and pride in being one of his country's leading distance runners was recalled by retired Horbury teacher John Newsome at this week's meeting at the Chasley Hotel.

He began endurance running - up to 100 miles at a time - to raise money for charity, as a result of which he found himself in a Wakefield team in the 52-mile London-Brighton event. This led to an international career during which, as well as competing in other races, he entered 30 marathons, winning ten of them.

John told members that throughout his career he had run about 60,000 miles in both training and racing, crossing the finishing line for the last time when he was 34 years old.

A vote of thanks was proposed by Michael Brown.

18th JANUARY 2007

THE environment is not an issue in the USA, says American student Josh Rogers.

 Josh, who is spending a year in York studying building conservation under an international Rotary scholarship scheme, told club members this evening that every day in the UK he reads newspaper stories about environmental issues . "There is no such debate in the States," he said, "Back home all that most people worry about is how cheap gas is and how much electricity they can use. "This is one of the messages I'll be taking back with me."

 Josh spoke about his home state of Georgia and how the local 19th century vaudeville theatre had sparked his interest in conservation. He went on to deal with a lively and prolonged question-and-answer session covering subjects ranging from President Bush and the Iraq War to southern American food and his local alligators.

A vote of thanks was proposed by Michael Townsend, chairman of the club's International Service committee.

15th JANUARY 2007

Through the Wakefield club, the Rotary-inspired Chess Education Initiative is helping to promote the game to youngsters in West Yorkshire - and it has given £1,000 to help the project on its way.

The Chess Education Initiative is a charitable trust and was initiated by the late Stanley Grundy, of Teddington Rotary Club, who became its first patron. The trust supplies chess sets and mats for Rotary clubs to start chess clubs in primary schools.

As well as providing the Wakefield club with chess sets it has now donated £1,000 to help members promote the game in its local schools. The money will be used to buy a cup to be awarded as the Stanley Grundy Memorial Chess Trophy for competition in the Wakefield area in March.

The programme is being organised by the Wakefield club's Vocational chairman, Roland Mold, himself a keen chess player.

The Chess Education Initiative, through its secretary John Denman, has also promised a further 150 chess sets which the club hopes to make available throughout District 1040.

Stanley Grundy died suddenly aged 91 on March 7 last year. He had received the Paul Harris award for his work with the Chess Initiative and, more recently, a further Paul Harris award for promoting chess in South Africa. For more information visit www.rotarychess.org.

4th JANUARY 2007

Professor Michael Green was the speaker at the club's traditional New Year's Message dinner on the 4th January, held this year at Waterton Park Hotel.

Mike qualified as a doctor in 1962 and intended a career in clinical paediatrics but following a short time in forensic medicine in the mid-60s he went to Australia and joined the Flying Doctor Service in Port Augusta. Shortly after returning to England in 1969 he went back to forensic work. He has lectured in many countries throughout the world.

He said he was pleased to be back at Waterton Hall. He had spent time there in the early part of his career as obstetrics officer when the hall was a maternity hospital. He remembered it was run by three elderly midwives and recalled that one had been registered as a nurse in 1910. There were, he said, many occasions when he helped carry women across the pedestrian bridge on a stretcher. There were even times when they had to be tied on to the stretcher to stop them falling off.

He shared his ‘hopes' for 2007 with the 100 Rotarians and guests who were present and noted that there were 300 entries for ‘hope' in one dictionary he had consulted. When he turned to the internet, Google came up with 6.3 million entries for ‘Hopes for 2007'.

Mike said he was particularly irritated by the political correctness that existed these days. He noted that Santa Claus had been affected more so this year. Santa had to have a criminal records check and register because he worked with children and Santa's grotto had to be more open nowadays so that everyone could see what was happening. This was not the sort of environment with which Santa is familiar. No wonder the hire of red suits was down by 50 per cent this year.

His greatest hope for 2007 was an improvement in people's behaviour. He referred to the problems caused by drugs, where an addict could need five shots of heroin a day at £20 a shot. Criminal activity was the only way they could finance their addiction.

He recognised the need for Africa and other Third World countries to develop self help in their efforts to eliminate disease and famine.