In a joint venture  involving the KidsOut charity and the Rotary club of the City of Wolverhampton all the children at Pine Green special academy were given christmas presents and treated to a trip to the Birmingham Christmas market.

Rotarians Steve Cartwright, ambassador for KidsOut, and Richard Green just before handing out the presents.

Pine Green is a unit dedicated to taking children on the long and difficult journey from poor behavioural conduct and emotional problems to a stable and worthwhile lifestyle achieving significant qualifications and a good social outlook. It has been our privilege to witness at first hand the patience and caring skill of the staff as they lead the children along this path.

Feedback from the staff after the trip to the market included:

“students shared money so they could gain gifts they wanted……polite, well mannered and respectful to the general public….student B opened the doors for people to come into McDonalds….helped the lady on the helterskelter tidy up the mats after use….chatted to people on the train about their trip……very proud of them all.”

Richard Green

The club has finally drawn to a close its annual Rotary Shoebox appeal.

The scheme is run by https://www.rotaryshoebox.org/ from their Oldham distribution centre.

They distribute donated shoeboxes of household items for families or gifts for babies, children or teenagers in Eastern Europe. This year, Romania,

Albania and Moldova are the current destinations. Ordinarily Ukraine is also one of the selected routes but clearly, it’s a little tricky at the moment. Moldova and Romania have both received a large amount of refugees from Ukraine so in ways, Ukraine is still being supported.

Well this is what 306 Shoeboxes look like- just before loading onto the delivery vehicle.

Many club members, along with family members supported the scheme which this year produced a grand total of 306 Shoeboxes.

This total was achieved in part by a special contribution from our friends at the Bethel Christian Fellowship in West Bromwich https://www.bcfwestbrom.org.uk/

who not only donated £380 enabling purchases to be made on their behalf to fill boxes but also, an additional  40 filled shoeboxes. Absolutely brilliant! Thank you.

Thank you everyone for spending the time and or the money, to support this scheme.

All 4 Rotary clubs in Wolverhampton came together to attend the City of Wolverhampton club’s carol service that was held in the beautiful surroundings of the Ukrainian Catholic church, following the support shown in the past weeks to the more than 150 Ukrainian refugee families that have arrived in the city.

The service was led by the Rev. Father Taras Dovbeniuk and there was an address by Mychajlo Fedyk who gave an especially moving talk on behalf of the local  branch of the Association of Ukrainian citizens in the UK. Mychajlo said that even in these awful times being experienced by his country, the spirit of hope and determination was strengthened by the marking of Christmas and the goodwill and active support provided by Rotary International.

Bible readings were given by representatives of all the clubs in the City; a beautiful rendition of Silent Night was given by Carol Tyler-Morris and Mandy Tyler,with musical accompaniment provided throughout in the skillful hands of PDG Robyn Davies from the Rotary club of The Wrekin. 

In an emotional final Rotary exhortation, President Sylvia Morgan thanked all the members of the club’s fellowship committee who had worked to make the occasion such a memorable one. She expressed the determination of Rotary to support the citizens of Ukraine as they strive to overcome the privations being experienced in war and she said she knows that our Ukrianian friends will be the victors, so that we can live in Rotary Peace and Fellowship The World Over.

The Rotary Club of the City of Wolverhampton looks forward to welcoming Rotarian Mohan Kumar who will be speaking to us on zoom from India at 6pm GMT on Tuesday, January 3rd 2023. His talk is entitled ‘Reaching The Unreached.’

Mohan is well known internationally for his work in providing over 24,000 prosthric hands to amputees, which resulted in recognition by Rotary International of as only one of 6  Champions of Health in the Rotary world. He holds numerous other awards. His full profile is avaiable by clicking HERE

 Anyone wishing to join us for this talk please message Past President Richard Green on +44 7891 035302 to receive the zoom link. Places will be limited, so first come first served!