LATEST NEWS
31st August 2010
Yesterdays Duck Race, organised by the Club, was a great success due largely to the efforts of Colfox students who sold more than half the tickets. As a result £1650 has been donated to 11 students towards their visit to Kenya next year.
3 August 2010
President Elect Malcolm French presents a cheque for £500 to the Bridport Tricks Factory
at an open evening when the members demonstrated their incredible skills.
13 July 2010
Past President Deen Baksh presents a cheque for £732 to his years chosen Charity, based in Bridport, Moving On
L - R, Debbie Latham- group support worker, Deen Baksh, Ros Copson- volunteer
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11 July 2010 
Our President Brian about to present a cheque for £1325 to Air Marshall Sir Christopher Coville, at the Clubs Summer Lunch, for the Help for Heroes Charity.
The money was raised by the Club mainly from the Frugal Lunch held at Litton Cheney Village Hall in May.
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2 March 2010
Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA)winners report back.
The three Colfox students Clarence Fung, Abigail Legg and Merlin Wills made a presentation, to Club members and guests, about their experiences of the course at Worth Matravers.
go to the Projects/RYLA section of the website for more photos
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18th February 2010
By the end of the week, more than 8,200 ShelterBoxes and disaster relief tents will have been distributed in Haiti.
ShelterBox has committed another 5,000 tents to Haiti, which will provide shelter for another 50,000 people. These will start arriving at the end of February.
8 February 2010
Fundraising for Haiti in Bridport - now over £7000. see below for more details. To date Rotary RIBI has shipped over 7000 Shelterboxes and 600 Water Survival boxes to Haiti
29 January 2010 Youth Speaks
Youth Speaks,the annual public speaking contest for young people,promoted by the Rotary movement went ahead on Tuesday evening 26th January at the Town Hall Bridport. Three teams each from the Beaminster & Sir John Colfox Schools competed and once again the standard was extremely high making life difficult for the adjudicators in selecting winners for both groups, (Senior and Intermediate). It proved to be a close run thing and the judges were very complimentary about all of the contributors. The eventual winners in both categories were the representatives from Beaminster and they will now go forward to the District semi-finals, the seniors to Beaminster School, on Tuesday 9th February and the intermediates to Taunton at a venue and date yet to be arranged.
SENIOR Winners, Clair Scarborough, Charlie Gudge,& Rory Fisher
INTERMEDIATE, Emmer Scwier, Imogen McConnell,&Ella Hegenbarth.
The picture shows all the contestants and both Bridport Rotary Club presidents.
26 January 2010 Fundraising for Haiti in Bridport
The Encore Theatre Club has donated £860
Colfox School students have donated £800
United Church have donated £1134
The Shelterbox collection by the two Rotary Clubs raised £2600
St Mary's School Beaminster are to make a donation
Collections this past week at the Coop and Morrisons raised £1254
Many personal cheques have been received by the Club
6 more Shelterboxes have been sent by the Club this week using these funds
19 January 2010
Three Colfox students have been selected for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) they are Abigail Legg, Clarence Fung and Merlin Wills. The course runs from 13th to 19th February at Worth Matravers.
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The Club is, today, sent off funding for 5 Water Survival Boxes.
click here for information on water survival boxes
Haiti Disaster
19 January 2010
The first ShelterBoxes have arrived in Port au Prince and hundreds more are due to arrive later today.
ShelterBox Head of Operations John Leach said: ‘The safety of our staff in Haiti is of paramount importance. ‘We are working with the agencies on the ground to ensure that ShelterBoxes are not only distributed speedily and efficiently, but that our team on the ground is able to work in a safe environment.
Hundreds more boxes are due to arrive into Port au Prince later today from Miami on a chartered aircraft. Thousands more ShelterBoxes are being packed and shipped from ShelterBox HQ in the UK.
ShelterBox relies entirely on public donations and people’s generosity. We receive no institutional funding and no DEC money. I’d urge, if you can, to help us.’
17 January 2010
Over £2600 was raised yesterday by the two Bridport Rotary Clubs; this will all be donated to Shelterbox.
13 January 2010
Fundraising for Haiti in Bridport
The President of Bridport Rotary Club, Deen Baksh, has organised a joint venture with Brit Valley Rotary Club for a major collection in Bridport next Saturday the 16th January. The collection will centre on a Rotary Shelterbox Tent in Buckydoo Square.
Tens of thousands dead, even more left homeless and scenes of chaos; this is the picture coming out of the Caribbean island of Haiti.
The catastrophe continues to unfold and ShelterBox are working round the clock to ensure emergency shelter reaches the island as quickly as possible. Reports from Haiti say thousands of people have been sleeping in the open air for the second night running, with some people even being forced to sleep among dead bodies.
With such a pressing need for emergency shelter provision, ShelterBox is dispatching 700 ShelterBoxes with even more to be packed before the end of the week. ShelterBox is using all of the resources available to make sure immediate aid reaches Haiti. Boxes are being shipped direct from ShelterBox HQ, from prepositioned stock in Curacao and from El Salvador.
A three-person ShelterBox Response Team comprised of highly-experienced members David Eby (US), Wayne Robinson (US) and Mark Pearson (UK) are doing all they can to make it to Haiti as quickly as possible. Alongside this,the dedicated team of volunteers at ShelterBox HQ in the UK are giving up their time to help pack the ShelterBoxes ready for transportation.
ShelterBox Founder Tom Henderson said: ‘Our team around the world are doing all they can to ensure aid reaches the people of Haiti as soon as possible. With each day the need grows and we’re doing all we can to get help to the thousands of families affected by this tragedy.
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25 November 2009
Rotary Young Chef 2010
L-R Harry Hitchock the winner, Jake Wild, Lauren Furnell, Oliver Imber
Four young chefs from the Sir John Colfox School took part, on 24th November, in the Bridport round of a national cookery competition supervised and judged by food experts. They have to prepare a two course meal for two for not more than £10. It took place at the premises of Local Food Links, St Michaels Trading Estate, Bridport.
Each contestant received a certificate and £10 in cash towards the cost of the ingredients used. The winner also pocketed a cash prize of £10 and he will now go forward to the District finals, in Wincanton, early in the New Year.
The judges were Ian Simpson from the White House Hotel, Charmouth, Nicky Cooper from the Bull Hotel and Jill Reynolds from Local Food Links.
Rotary International organise this annual contest in search of the best young cooks in Britain with local winners going on to compete in District and Regional Finals and then the National Final to be held in London in May 2010.
The winner will receive a Trophy, £250, a days work experience at a top London restaurant and a trip to the Olive Harvest in Tuscany with Filippo Berio.
back row standing L/R: Clive Coombs (instructor at Local Food Links), Harry Hitchcock (winner), Mike Conway (Rotary organiser), Oliver Imber, Jake Wild, Lauren Furnell and Brian Evans (Bridport Rotary President Elect)
seated L/R: the adjudicators, Jill Reynolds (Local Food Links), Nicky Cooper (Bull Hotel) and Ian Simpson (White House Hotel, Charmouth)
25 November 2009
Shelterbox Donations
In August a collection in Bucky Doo Square raised £160 and a collection at the Co-op Store in October totalled £290. Recently we received generous donations from Peelers Court, £170, and from Bothenhampton Village Hall for £185. Thank you all for your kindness and generosity which will bring relief to a number of families suffering unimaginably.
Please click here for the Shelterbox 2009 Review
29 September 2009
Rotary presentation to Bridport Hospital
A cheque for £6500 was presented to Heather Purse, Acting Matron of Bridport Community Hospital, at Highlands End.
This donation will be used to buy a portable ultrasound bladder scanner for use on the wards and in the outpatients department. The scanner which will show a picture of the patient's bladder, will help to investigate whethern they have any continence problems. It will also be useful for helping to treat men with prostate conditions.
Heather Purse, Acting Matron of Bridport Community Hospital, said: "We are extremely grateful to the Rotary Club for their generosity. This is a really useful diagnostic tool which will be of great benefit to patients"
President Deen Baksh, Matron Heather Purse and Clive Jeanes
The Bladder Scanner
18 August 2009
Thank you to our Business Partners - click here to view the advert
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7 July 2009
Presentation of a £1200cheque to the Gateway Club of Bridport
Margaret Barry (treasurer) Francesco Hurdley (cttee member) Gateway Club
David Pugh (Ironman co-ordinator for Bridport Rotary) Roger Stoodley (retiring President Bridport Rotary )
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16 June 2009
Our last Shelterbox, attributed to the Business Partners, was sent to the Swabi District, Pakinstan to aid displaced people in the area. The box is numbered 34914 - you can trace it on the Shelterbox website www.shelterbox.org
21 May 2009
MERCY SHIP UPDATE
The Mercy Ship is now operating in Benin, West Africa and the team anticipates reaching thousands more adults and children during their stay with projects including:
Mercy Vision Hope Reborn
3,000 cataract surgeries 140 surgeries for childbirth-related injuries
330 specialised surgeries
20,000 treatments for basic eye disease
Outlook of Hope Orthopaedic Project
550 reconstructive plastic surgeries 235 surgeries for musculoskeletal conditions
200 cleft lip and/or palate repairs on paediatrics
1,000 general surgery repairs
Benin Smiles
11,500 dental care procedures to repair decay, infections, lesions
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12 May 2009 ROTARY IRONMAN UPDATE
For the six years from 2003 to 2008 members of the Club have been involved in manning feeding stations for the athletes taking part in the running element of Rotary Ironman events at Sherborne. These days have provided great fun and fellowship for our members. In every year we have been blessed with good – and sometimes glorious – weather. In five of the six years, when we have been at Raleigh Lodge, we have enjoyed wonderful hospitality from our neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. Skov from Denmark, and we have enjoyed helping the athletes, the great majority of whom have been extremely appreciative of our efforts. Further, we have raised useful sums of money for our chosen charities as well as helping Rotary District 1200 and the athletes to raise very substantial amounts for national and local charities.
Sadly 2008 is to be the last year that the Ironman is held at Sherborne Castle. To quote from the Rotary Ironman Steering Committee’s minutes, reporting on 2008, “the race was a great success again but unfortunately due to the second year of rain” (luckily we missed that both years!) “and intransigence of the Castle staff the event had been lost to Bolton, Lancashire”. It is not expected that Rotary will be involved in Lancashire and so it is likely that the Rotary movement will be unable to avoid a huge loss of charitable funds with the transfer. The District 1200 Half Ironman, held in the Exmoor area of the region, is expected to continue to be held in 2009.
The Steering Committee’s Treasurer has reported on the financial position to date regarding the 2008 Rotary Ironman. Around £80,000 is available after expenses for distribution to charities. Of this £41,000 will go to causes chosen by the athletes and about £15,000 to the five main charities chosen by the Steering Committee. These are:
McMillan Cancer Care
Leukaemia Research
Air Ambulance, Somerset and Dorset
Children’s Hospices in the South West including Julia’s House
Gymnastics for the Disabled.
(Some of these charities will also receive money by way of the athletes’ nominations).
The remaining £24,000 will go to the local charities nominated by the 20 local Rotary Clubs taking part in running the event. Members will remember that this Club nominated the Bridport Gateway Club to receive our share of donations and a cheque for £1,200 is now available for presentation. Additionally Rotary Clubs are invited to offer to arrange the presentations of cheques to the main charities.
David Pugh, Past President. (see further down this page for more about Ironman)
5 May 2009
Donations to the Presidents two chosen Charities
Our President Roger Stoodley presents a cheque for £500 to Suzie Pearce the Fundraising Officer of the Southampton Hospital Charity, on the left is Mike Gurd the Fundraising committee secretary.
The donated money will go directly to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit toward a new high tech ventilator.
The PICU is a leading World class unit for critically ill children from Southern and South West England.
Roger Stoodley also presented a cheque for £500 to David Jones of the Powerstock/Gbullung Community Partnership.
The Partnership has a link with the small rural village of Gbullung in Ghana, nurtured by Claire Briden, the Head teacher at Powerstock school, who visits the Gbulling school to help with projects.
This funding will go toward a new two classroom kindergarden block.
for more information:- www.powerstock.dorset.sch.uk/ghana/Feb08.htm look in Newsletters Ghana 08
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March 2009
RYLA award winners report back to the Club
Todd Neale, Oscar Tweed (Colfox School) and Karen Buzzar (Beaminster School)
Reporting back on their experiences of the RYLA course. Oscar & Todd won their awards from Bridport Rotary, one of which was sponsored by the Business Partners Scheme. Karens award was from Brit Valley Rotary.
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February 2009
Beaminster School student crowned World Biathle Champion 2008
photo courtesy of The Dorset Echo
Dear Rotary Club of Bridport
As you have been kind enough to sponsor me I wanted to write to you in order to update you on some exciting news.
I have just heard that I am the World Champion for the World Biathle Tour Series 2008. This means that I was the most consistently successful 15-16 year old competitor in the World Biathle Tour Series throughout 2008.
I am very proud of this because it is a title I have won due to consistency at a high level of competition.
I wanted to let you know about this achievement and to sat thank you once again for your kind sponsorship, without which this success would have been much more difficult to attain.
I am now beginning to train in cycling as well as swimming and running as I am hoping to move into Triathlon. Also of course I am studying hard as I have my GCSE's this year. Life is very busy.
Once again thank you so much for your support.
Yours Sincerely Thomas Crew
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November 2008
Dear Rotary Club of Bridport
Due to your kindness in sponsoring me I am writing in order to update you on my latest competitions.
I had a great time in South Africa and competing in the World Championships, all the sights and seeing how other people live were a real education for me in many ways. My race went very well, I had one of the largest fields of competitors, with boys from many different countries; South Africa, Germany, Korea, Japan to name but a few. The race was carried out at a blistering pace from the start, during the second run a boy from South Africa collapsed and was on the ground for an hour. I think the heat as well as the level of competition were to blame. Some competitors were coming out of the swim with bite and scratch marks on their legs, it seemed that some of the boys were prepared to go to any lengths to win ! In the end I managed to finish stongly and come ninth overall. Considering this is in the world not too bad !! I also learnt a great deal about competing at this level, all of which will stand me in good stead in the future.
Last weekend I also competed in the South West Region Schools Biathlon Championships at Millfield. This was in the year 11 for boys category. I had a 100m swim which I won by 5 seconds and a 1000m run which I also won. This meant I won overall by over 100 points. As a consequence I have been invited to a Special Schools Biathlon at Crystal Palace. The top two competitors from each region in England have been invited. I will also be competing in the National Schools Biathlon, held at Bath University early next year.
I wish, once again, to thank you so much fro your support, without it I would not be able to achieve what I have in the past or what I am hoping to achieve in the future.
Yours Sincerely Thomas Crew
NOTE:
Biathle is a sub sport of modern pentathlon invented to create opportunities for training the run and swim parts of pentathlon in real race conditions. It can also be seen as a sport in its own right. It bears close resemblance to aquathlon which also contains swimming and running but comes from triathlon sport. It should not be confused with biathlon.
The bottom line of biathle is that the event is a run, swim, run event. It is a woldclass sport but not an Olympic one. A world championship event takes place every year in different places. In 2008 it is in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2009 it is in Monaco.
Both biathle and aquathlon are still in their early stages. It might be logical to unite the two, though aquathlons are generally over somewhat longer distances than biathle events.
January 2009
ROTARY YOUNG CHEF 2009
The 4 young chefs:
The winner Oliver Imber receiving his certificate from Brian Evans, Bridport Rotary Club Vice President.
Youth Speaks
The 1st Round of the Rotary International Youth Speaks competition was held on Jan 19th 2009 in the Bridport Town Hall.
This team event caters for 11 to 17 year olds in two categories, Intermediate and Senior and provides an opportunity for young people to take part in a public speaking competition in which each team delivers a proposition on a subject of their choosing.
Four teams from Sir John Colfox School and three teams from Beaminster School took part. The the winners, having been selected by three impartial adjudicators, go forward to the District 1200 Semi-Finals in February.
The picture shows the winning teams from both categories receiving their certificates.
Charlie Gudge, Clare Scarborough, Ellie Norris. Intermediate Class Beaminster School.
Roger Stoodley, President Bridport Rotary Club. John Lawrence President Brit Valley Rotary.
Declan Croft, Andrew Withers, Sage Beckingham. Senior Class Beaminster School
December 2008
The Duck Race on 27th December was a great success raising over £850. Big thanks are due to Carl Stoodley, Simon Jeanes, Stewart Willmore and Chris Burt for their help on the day. The winner was Bruce Maltby. photos in the Events section
The Gangs All Here variety singing group raised £105 over the Christmas period singing at Old Folks Homes and day centres and donated it to Shelterbox via Rotary.
The Club have recently donated two more Shelterboxes bringing our total to 62 boxes. The latest boxes are numbered 851 and 33961. You can track these, to see where they have been sent, at www.shelterbox.org
October 2008
World Sea Fishing Champion
photo courtesy of View From Bridport
Congratulations to Stephen Rathbone from Beaminster who collected the Individual junior gold medal at the World Sea Fishing Championships in Barcelona.
The England Junior team collected the silver team medal only missing out on the gold by one point. Stephen Rathbone from West Bay collected the Individual junior gold medal, Jamie Morgan from Pevensey Bay collected the Individual junior silver medal and Daniel Warman from Deal came 4th individually, they were the youngest team in the Championship.
28-10-2008 Letter from Steven Rathbone
Dear Rotary Club of Bridport
I am writing to thank you for your sponsorship money which helped me be
in the U16 England fishing team.
This year in July the Home Internationals were held at SamphireHoe, near Dover. Over the two days competition, I personally fished very well coming in first each day in my zone, helping the team get gold medals.
I was also picked for the England team to fish the U16 world Championship from which I have just returned.
This was held on beaches near Barcelona, Spain. There were six U16 teams fishing; Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Croatia and England. Over the four match daysonce again I did very well with two zone seconds on days one and two and two zone firsts on days three and four, helping the team win silver medals.
As it was the World Championships there are individual winner's medals and trophies from 1st to 4th.
The person that won individually is crowned U16 World Champion and I won that title. We also had another lad coming second in the World from the English team and a lad coming fourth individually from our team.
It was a fantastic experience and I hope that I can be fortunate enough to fish the Championships again.
I am very grateful for your support.
Yours Sincerely Steve Rathbone
September 2008
IRONMAN
The Rotary Ironman UK Triathlon event is held annually at Sherborne and involves 1350 athletes swimming 2.4 miles, then cycling 112 miles and then running a marathon of 26.2 miles, a total of 140 miles ! This year, for the sixth in succession, the Rotary Club of Bridport was operating one of the feeding stations as the competitor completed the running element of the race in Sherborne town and in its Castle grounds. Rotary Clubs are responsible for the running of the Ironman event and they nominate charities to receive donations from the considerable sum of money raised by the athletes. In 2007 Life Education Centres Dorset received £1100 as the nominees of Bridport Rotary Club; in 2008 it is hoped that a similar amount will be given to the Bridport Gateway Club.
One of the feeding stations manned by Bridport Rotary Club members
HYACINTH BULBS
One of the Club's main fundraising projects is the sale of Hyacinth bulbs during November and December. The timing of the potting, storage and watering of the bulbs is critical to ensure the bulbs are sprouting just before Christmas. A team of Club members work together to ensure the success of this operation. The high quality bulbs have just arrived, generously transported from Holland to Bridport by Samways Fish Ltd, and are now being prepared: PICTURES IN THE EVENTS SECTION.
AWARD
£100 has been awarded to Rachel Fox who will be working with a relief organisation in Madras.
START OF THE MOCK INTERVIEWS
Students at The Sir John Colfox School prepare for the world of work by attending mock interviews set up by the Rotary Club of Bridport. The process is designed to provide performance feedback and some limited career advice for the 15/16 year old. A Year 11 student attending the short interview is pictured below.
L to R. Student Ashley Stewart, Rotary Club President Roger Stoodley, the Schools Vocational leader Graeme Farrow and Brian Evens the scheme organiser.
£100 has been awarded to the Colfox Technology team for their upcoming motor challenge.
July 2008
The Club has agreed the following awards to local persons:-
£100 to Andrew Farmer who is doing voluntary work in Botswana.
£100 to Luke Gumbrill who will be doing voluntary service in Indonesia.
£100 to Sam Rowland-Simms for a gap year in Guyana teaching GCSE maths & science
£75 to Amber Strong working on a leprosy rehabilitation project in India
In the evening the club swung into action to feed the beer afficionados (pumped up by the Round Table) with quality burgers and sausages; the meat coming from local farms.
17th June 2008
On June 17th the President of the Rotary Club of Bridport, Clive Jeanes, presented a cheque for £5000 to Geoff Joy the Chairman of the Bridport & District Community Football Partnership.
The Partnership was founded in 2003 by Derek Cash with the purpose of bringing together all the local football clubs to improve facilities and opportunities for people to play football. The paid up Football Club members are: Bridport, Pyemore, Whitehorse, Beaminster, Charmouth, Junior Bees and Queen Bees.
A £360,000 project is now under way to build changing rooms at the St Mary's Playing field. The builders, C.G Fry & Son commenced work on 6th June and should complete in the 1st week of September.
The project has been funded with grants from the Football Foundation, Dorset County Council, West Dorset District Council, Bridport Town Council and donations from local charities, including the Rotary Club of Bridport and also local fundraising events.