Press releases July to September 2006
28th SEPTEMBER 2006
WAKEFIELD and District Housing, responsible for 31,500 former council houses, is about more than bricks and mortar, says the organisation's chief executive, Kevin Dodd.
He told members at their meeting this evening about WDH's community leadership project, adding: "Our title doesn't always define what we are about."
The objective was to create better local communities and over the next five years to involve about 1,000 young people, providing them with work experience and training, even leading them to set up their own businesses.
"Our overall aim is to help make Wakefield a more vibrant place where people want to live and invest," he said.
The scheme has the backing of every school throughout the district and Outward Bound has been commissioned to develop a practical programme intended to encourage young people to find their hidden skills and strengths.
A vote of thanks was proposed by David Pickover.
14th SEPTEMBER 2006
TWO overseas hospital projects are each £500 better off following donations by Wakefield Rotarians.
Club president Dennis Edwards handed over cheques to district governor Keith Bancroft for the two schemes, both of which are supported by Rotarians throughout the Yorkshire area. One was for the Mercy Ships project which provides floating hospitals, especially along the African coast. The other was for the Impact scheme which runs a hospital train in India.
31st AUGUST 2006
WALTON'S Victorian naturalist Charles Waterton had an international reputation which was confirmed by Hilary Inglis when she introduced herself to Rotarians at Waterton Park Golf Club at their last meeting in August.
Teacher Hilary, a member of a Rotary club in Calgary, said the venue was an appropriate one for her as she was born at Walton Hall and was educated locally before her family moved to Canada. She presented members with a DVD of Alberta's Waterton Lakes National Park, named after Charles Waterton.
The previous evening Hilary had been at a meeting of Pontefract Rotary Club where she met their president, David Downham, who she found was to talk to the Wakefield club the following night. David, an amateur astronomer and retired Methodist minister, took members on a computerised exploration of the universe, a journey that included images produced from his own telescope. A vote of thanks was proposed by Geoffrey North.
24th AUGUST 2006
VETERAN trekker Mike Bamford provided a fascinating and informative account of his travels through Tibet and across the Himalayas to Katmandu in Nepal this week.
En route Mike, 61, a Rotarian from Bingley, went to the east face of Mount Everest and his Power Point presentation of the journey as one of a mixed group of 16 trekkers included an animated display of the geological movements that led to the thrusting up of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau to their north. He also discussed the religious and political upheavals that have taken place in recent years.
A vote of thanks was proposed by David Oughtibridge.
The previous day the club's golfers played Probus in their annual contest at Wakefield Golf Club, this time winning 3-2.
30th JULY 2006
Gifts mark 21 years' wheelchair work
FOR the past 21 years former Wakefield club president Dr Peter Slater and his wife Fran have given up their Sunday mornings to push hospital patients to weekly services at Pinderfields Hospital Chapel.
Their efforts over more than two decades have been marked by a presentation watched by other volunteers at the chapel.
Peter and Fran are part of the team which goes round the hospital wards each Sunday and wheels patients to the services. Six years ago Peter appealed to his club for more volunteers and since then members have taken it in turns to help with the task. Peter has handed over the job of organising the rota of Rotarians to Roland Mold, but he and Fran are still on the team.
The presentation of CDs to Peter and flowers to Fran was made by hospital chaplain John Taylor, a member of the Wakefield Chantry club. It was one of his last duties before moving to become a teacher and chaplain at Okehampton School in August.
21th JULY 2006
A BARBECUE at the Netherton home of former president Richard Hensby last Saturday made about £500 for the club's charity fund.
At the following week's meeting club member Sue Parkin talked about her sponsored 60-mile trek along the Great Wall of China, an effort that produced more than £2,400 for the National Deaf Children's Society.
14th JULY 2006
THERE was an international flavour to this week's meeting (July 13) when two of the four members of the Rotary district's group study exchange team talked about their experiences earlier this year in Romania.
Their visit to Waterton Park Golf Club coincided with that of Thomas Bitsch, immediate past president of the Rotary Club of Mulhouse, France, where a group of Wakefield members stayed recently.
The young people in the GSE team were Chris Bell, Tim Los, Julie Carlton and Laura Stone, led by Rotary District Foundation chairman Roger Percival. Chris and Tim gave a Power Point presentation describing the four weeks they spent with families in Romania where they were able to see many
aspects of the sometimes hard life in the former Communist country.
A vote of thanks was proposed by Ken Laybourne.
