Press releases July to September 2007
27th SEPTEMBER 2007
This evening a presentation was made to a joint meeting of the Wakefield and Wakefield Chantry Rotary Clubs by students who had attended a Rotary Youth Leadership Award course.
PICTURED : Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) students Jack Rollinson, Jenny Harrop, Katie Jones, Claire Kay and Claire Lockwood with (from left) Wakefield Rotary Club Youth Opportunities chair Sue Parkin, Ken MacDonald of Wakefield Chantry Rotary Club and their two presidents, Richard Jones (Chantry) and Peter Gallivan.
The five teenagers who took part in 2007 were Jenny Harrop, from Durkar, and Claire Kay, from Royston (Kettlethorpe High School), Katie Jones, from Pontefract (Wakefield Girls High School), Claire Lockwood, from Stanley (Outwood Grange College) and Jack Rollinson, from Thornes (Thomas a Becket).
With the help of a Powerpoint presentation, they described what they had been through from the first interviews to completion of the course, which they said was run in an ‘active, fun and friendly atmosphere'. Benefits included improvements in their communications and listening skills, confidence, commitment and their ability to contribute as a member of a team.
13th SEPTEMBER 2007
"DEFERENCE to authority permeates the whole of Chinese society. They are afraid," Tom Reynolds told Rotarians at their meeting this evening."They are resentful of their restricted lives so one wonders what the future holds," he said.
Mr Reynolds, working for the British Council, spent three years teaching English at Nanchang University. He had previously taught for five years in Baghdad but, he said, "Nothing really prepares you for what life is like in China."
When you live in the country, rather than visit as a tourist, it becomes very evident that China is a police state and that most aspects of life are controlled rigidly. There was lack of choice and lack of religious freedom, he said, adding that his mail was opened and his emails intercepted.
He painted an unappealing picture of conditions in a country of 1.4 billion people. "Life is tough for the masses, but not for the elite or the rising middle classes," he said.
On a lighter note he said that Chinese food bore no resemblance to what could be bought in a takeaway in Britain.
"I lost a stone in the first year although in three years I never suffered an upset stomach. An American advised me: ‘Don't ask, don't look, just eat'."
A vote of thanks was proposed by Alan Gale.
30th AUGUST 2007
"BELIEVE only what the climatologists tell you," Rotarians have been warned.
Alan Oates, honorary visiting professor at the Institute of Material Research at Salford University, said political and commercial interests were seeking to persuade us that humans were not to blame for global warning. In particular he quoted examples of the attempts to silence scientists in America and Australia.
"Scientists have known for 15 years about the impact of human activity on climate change," he said, "In the end it can't be denied but sometimes the truth can take a long time to be revealed."
Prof Oates, who is retired, was born at Morley and attended Batley Grammar School. He now divides his time between the UK and Australia.
A vote of thanks was proposed by John Richardson.
16th AUGUST 2007
A MILLENNIUM project spearheaded by Wakefield Rotary Club to mark the movement's centenary has been awarded a Civic Trust Green Flag award.
Wakefield Council's countryside and conservation manager, Andy Nicholls, told Rotarians of his delight at earning the prestigious award for the Haw Park Wood scheme at Walton, only 6km from the centre of the city.
The club with other agencies, particularly the council's countryside service which manages the wood, restored the last remaining bird hide built in stone in the 19th century by naturalist Charles Waterton, whose home was at Walton Hall.
The work was carried out with the help of a £25,000 lottery grant from the Local Heritage Initiative after the possibility was identified by Rotarian Bill Forrest, who went on to chair the committee that saw the project to fruition.
Wakefield Rotary Club treasurer William Smith, a member of the committee, gave a presentation to members describing the scheme from start to finish. It led to the formation of the Friends of Haw Park Wood, a series of lectures by local historian John Goodchild, a number of surveys by West Yorkshire Archaeological Service and a biodiversity survey which explored the flora and fauna of the wood.
There was one final project that could take place - a series of trial trenches in the wood, a survey that would be conducted by professional archaeologists. This would require further lottery funding of £20,000.
"I personally think it would be a shame not to go forward with this, having got this far," said William.
Haw Park Wood has won a Green Flag Award which is a national effort under the Civic Trust. For a link to the Green Flag Award website click below:-
http://www.greenflagaward.org.uk/winners/GSP001596
9th AUGUST 2007
Wakefield's Macmillan Cancer Support is £1,775 better off after sharing the proceeds of the raffle run by Rotarians as part of their annual May Bank Holiday gala, which was held for the last time this year.
A similar sum will go to Wakefield Hospice. The cheque was presented to Julie Hoole, the district's lead Macmillan head and neck cancer nurse specialist, at a club meeting at the Chasley Hotel. It was handed over by Richard Hensby of the club's ways and means committee in the presence of the local Macmillan appeals organiser, Maria Amos.
Julie told Rotarians that head and neck cancer had shown a 21 per cent increase in the UK. In Wakefield these forms of cancer - of the mouth, tongue, lips, ears, nose and throat - represented 2.8 per cent of all cancers while the national average was only two per cent. Much of the problem was put down to a local lifestyle involving smoking and drinking. The largest number of cases in the Wakefield area was in the 40-55 age group but 75 per cent of them would be preventable if people changed their habits, said Julie.
26th JULY 2007
The club's second fundraising car boot sale of the year, due to be held at West Bretton on Sunday (July 29), was cancelled when the field became a victim of the recent heavy rains.
Members took solace from the fact that on the day this was announced they heard that, once all the money was in, the May Bank Holiday gala would have raised about £9,000. In addition, the raffle run in conjunction with the 2007 event - Rotary's last Thornes Park gala - made almost £3,500 to be shared by Wakefield Hospice and the local branch of the Macmillan Cancer Care nurses.
Ways and means committee chairman Richard Edge added that the barbecue on Saturday, July 21, at the Netherton home of a former club president, raised more than £370 for Rotary charities. Proceeds of the joint event were shared with Wakefield 41 Club.
He outlined plans for a Rotary music festival to be held in Wakefield in June 2008 and to include a jazz event. The aim is to involve young people and to seek sponsors.
Richard said: "Once it's off the ground we hope it will get bigger and better each year."
Speaker at the July 26 meeting at the Chasley Hotel was Tony Doveston, of Heart Research UK.
Tony, who is president-elect Harrogate Brigantes Rotary Club, joined the British Heart Foundation in 1997 when he left the NHS, and he now works for the Leeds-based Heart Research UK. He explained the work that the organisation does both in Yorkshire and nationally, including the funding of mechanical heart pumps.
He also gave a few tips about lifestyles - including eating sensibly, taking exercise and not smoking.
11th JULY 2007
Wakefield Rotary Club's Haw Park Wood Project sub-committee held its final meeting marked with a presentation of flowers to Gene Forrest, who has hosted meetings of the committee for nearly three years, providing generous supplies of tea, coffee and biscuits.
The sub-committee, headed by Gene's husband Bill, the club's environment officer, was the driving force for the completion of the Haw Park project. Financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the scheme celebrated Rotary's centenary and included the restoration of a stone-built bird hide on what was once the estate of Victorian naturalist Charles Waterton.
The group met regularly at the Gene and Bill's home at Walton where club vice-president Sue Parkin presented Gene, the current Wakefield Inner president, with the bouquet, watched by other committee members.
A talk will be given later to Rotarians about the project's achievements.