Rotary Junior Technology Challenge a great success…again!

After a 2 year gap it was a great pleasure to be invited back to Uplands Junior School in Finchfield to present the Rotary Junior Technology Challenge to 96 year 5 children over 2 days.

The pupils learn about what engineers do and how they build bridges.

This is all done in a fun way and then the youngsters are set a challenge to build a bridge using the kits we provide.

The bridge has to meet certain criteria then it’s tested by trying to blow a toy squirrel off with a hair dryer, as if there was a gale in force! This always causes great amusement and it’s wonderful to hear the children laughing.

Also very amusing were the names of the teams the children chose for themselves such as ‘The Floppers,’ ‘Crafty Warriors’ and ‘Little Tech Einsteins.’

The winning team on the first day was ‘The Golden Hackers’ and on the second day, ‘DTWhizzkids.’ Each member of the teams received a book token prize.

My thanks to club members Lorraine McCarthy, Charles Cox, Richard Horrell and Lisa Stallard for providing such valuable support; on the first day we were joined by District Governor Robyn Davies and the District organiser, Peter Langdon. Grateful thanks and appreciation are also due to IPP Brian Bailey who worked so hard in getting all the equipment and materials prepared before the event.

It’s really satisfying to be able to report that the feedback from the school staff and the youngsters has been first class, as evidenced by the postings on the school website and facebook page.

President Richard.

Our President Richard was privileged to represent the club at a concert in the beautiful Wolverhampton Ukrainian Community church. The folk songs performed by the orchestra were extremely poignant, presented by such warm, friendly people.

On Monday, April 4^th, a new transport was sent to a refugee camp in Ukraine. This camp takes care of more than 1.200 refugees including children.

In a collaboration with RC Baia Mare, early in the morning, food, hygiene products, and other items were loaded into an 18 tonnes truck by RC Suceava Bucovina to be transported to a refugee camp in Ukraine.

• The goods were donated by a number of Rotary clubs including The Rotary Club of the City of Wolverhampton and Eichstätt Germany as part of the ICC Romania-Austria-Germany efforts. At its first stop in Suceava, other products such as 3,150 diapers, 80 sleeping bags, and food were added by RC Suceava Bucovina to reach the full capacity of the truck.

On behalf of refugees, we express our deepest gratitude to all contributors!

Past District Governor Daniel Tanase, Rotary International District 2241, Romania and Moldova.

I was glad to be on hand at the  today as the volunteers loaded a van – provided by Royal Mail – with relief goods for refugees fleeing the war. The van left us to collect a generator – again gifted by Royal Mail – and was then going on to Peterborough where the goods will be loaded, together with donations from across the UK, onto a fleet of large lorries going direct to Western Ukraine.

It was pleasing to be told, several times, that the Rotary Club of the City of Wolverhampton is held in very high regard by the community for the help we are providing.

President Richard Green

As we celebrate our Centenary year the Rotary club of The City of Wolverhampton can look back at a proud history of Service Above Self, helping people less fortunate than ourselves at home and victims of strife around the world.