On the 11^th September the Mayor of Wolverhampton, Councillor Clare Darke, hosted the annual Best Foot Forward Presentations. These took place in the Georgian Room at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery and were attended by The Mayor’s Consort, representatives of event Patrons, District Governor Brian Reilly, the RAF and ‘Centurions’. ‘Centurions’ are those who completed 100 laps or more at the event in July. President Richard Horrell thanked all those who make Best Foot Forward so successful. Particular thanks went to all the event Patrons. It is their generous contributions to the ‘Charity Pot’ that make the event possible. Major backers of the event are the City Council, the Express & Star, the James Beattie Charitable Trust and Wolverhampton West Magazine,

The Mayor presented Certificates to the ‘Centurions’ including our first two Junior Centurions

(under 15 years of age). The Mayor then presented a plaque to a trainee from RAF, Cosford representing the RAF team who did the most laps during four hours on the day. The nominated charities for this year’s event were the Wolverhampton MS Therapy Centre, the Wolverhampton Coronary Aftercare Support Group and the Rotary Charitable Trust. The Mayor presented a cheque for £4150 to each of the first two charities.

The event closed with tea and cakes.

Please put the date of next year’s Best Foot Forward in your diaries – Saturday 4^th July 2020 at Aldersley Stadium starting at 8 am.

Welcome Terry Walker

Wecome Susan Husband

Welcome Alvine Yolande Dongmo-Noumey

   As we approached the end of the 2018 Rotary year and started the new 2019 period, several new members joined the Rotary Club of Wolverhampton.

We look forward to the service and fellowship that being a member of the Rotary Club of Wolverhampton can bring.

And of course, being part of the World wide family of Rotarians is

Welcome Andile Siziba

extra special! Wecome everyone.

Welcome Sylvia

And its a special welcome too to a long standing friend of RC Wolverhampton- PP Sylvia Morgan who joins us from her previous club, RC Wolverhampton St Geirges- It’s great to have you with us Sylvia.

Pictured left to right; Wolves Legend PP Mel Eves, Rtn Peter Wright, Mayor Claire Darke and President Richard Horrell. Front; Paul Darke.

The Rotary Club of Wolverhampton welcomed the 161st Mayor of Wolverhampton to the club meeting on Tuesday 23rd July and, as is traditional the Mayor, Councillor Claire Darke was inducted as a member of the club. The First Citizen was accompanied by her husband Paul Darke. Paul’s father served with the RAF during the Second World War and he was presented with a book about the exploits of an ex president of this club, George Sidebotham, who flew Wellington bombers during that war. The book was presented by Rotarian Peter Wright who compiled it to commemorate George’s heroic

Thank you and congratulations Best Footers!
Over 500 runners and walkers put their best feet forward and stepped it out at Aldersley on 6th July,
and clocked up
14,481 laps.

Wolverhampton City Mayor, Councillor Claire Darke, Mayor Consort Dr.Paul Darke and RC Wolverhampton President Richard Horrell.

This was not only enough to release the charity pot donated
by the event Patrons,
but was 173 laps more than the event record, set in 2017.
As a result of this achievement, the sum of
£12,325 will now go to the benefit of the three event charities:
Wolverhampton Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre
Wolverhampton Coronary Aftercare Support Group
Rotary Club of Wolverhampton Charitable Trust

President Richard Horrel (L) and Rotary District Governor Brian Reilly (R) congratulate William Hughes (aged 9) on his magnificent achievement, completing 100 laps. Incredible.

In addition, other charities and organisations took part on the day to raise funds for their own causes.
The Rotary Club of Wolverhampton
extends its thanks to all those who contributed
to this remarkable lap count –
and to the Patrons who provided the funds
to make the event possible.

Medic Malawi provides support for medical care at St Andrews, in Mthunthama, a rural area just outside the town of Kasungu in central Malawi and through the AMAO orphanage, cares for vulnerable and orphaned children.

During our last Rotary year, our Club supported their latest project- the building of vital toilet facilities by sending £2,235. Their current ‘toilets’ were wholly inadequate and the risk to health was becoming a real problem.

As we were so key in establishing the chicken business, Medic Malawi chose to name it The Wolves Chicken House. How lovely.

I received an update from Stephen Drew of Medic Malawi:

Standing near the Wolves Chicken House in Malawi will soon be ……….the Wolves Toilets. Members may recall your generous sponsorship of a poultry project at the Medic Malawi orphanage, whic

h now produces 6300 eggs per month, feeding the children and generating 10% of running costs. As Mr Josiah Sonjo, the local Committee Chairman reported:

This poultry project has come with a good number of benefits to the orphanage, workers, as well as the general community at large. To the orphans; they benefit eggs for balanced diet; they took four meals with eggs per week and daily in the porridge ingredients among others. In addition to that the orphans are learning how to look after chickens. We also collect manure in these two houses which we use in the garden. On part of workers, the little they earn per month, they are able to run their families. To the general community; they do buy eggs which are readily available at our orphanage through Wolves poultry. 

And now we are digging the Wolves Toilets. There are 85 children in the orphanage, plus carers and visitors, and this is a much needed update on their facilities: the original orphanage was built for 50 children. The orphanage ‘AMAO’, meaning The Mother House is a vital resource in the District, supplementing the totally-overstretched expectation of care within families. The local clergyman, Father Petro, wrote “AMAO is a shining star to the whole of Kasungu: the only orphanage doing well in the entire District” (an area of half a million plus people). And it   will soon have proper toilets! So thank you for your Club’s donation, every penny of which will reach the orphanage, because Medic Malawi has no UK costs or expenses.

Thank you.

Stephen Drew

Rotary – an international fellowship of like minded people doing good in the world.No matter where you go, you’re sure of a great welcome by local Rotarians.

Richard Green, of the Wolverhampton club, recently visited the Rotary Club of Sedona, Arizona USA, where he was warmly greeted by President Holli Ploog and the 44 members.

Near to The Grand Canyon, Sedona is a very attractive town, famous for its beatiful red rocks.

The Rotary club has a strong emphasis on supporting local youngsters. At this club meeting, they honoured outstanding high school students, as selected by their teachers. These included Alexandra Edwards and Jonathon Lamparter who were presented with a $1000 bursary each as they move on to university.

PDG Richard Green

Sunday May 19th saw the Rotary Club of Wolverhampton hold its 19^th Annual Dragon Boat Event at Himley Park.

27 teams took part in an action packed- fun-filled day of racing down the Great Pool, with frantic paddling and more than the occasional splashing,  entertaining the crowds.

Approximately 3,000 people filled the park with 400 paddlers making up the competing teams.

Each team selects a chosen good cause to raise funds for, by obtaining sponsorship with the total sums raised being split between that chosen charity, and the Rotary Clubs own charitable trust for further distribution.

Racing took place between 10.00am and 3.30pm when every team has three races against two other boats during the heats part of the day, always against different opposition, to find the 12 fastest boats.

Then the moment everyone waits for- to see if they are in the finals……

Two finals then took place- the Minor Final for places 7 to 12, and the Major Final- for the top six boats.

Champions for the third year running. Hawkes Home Improvememnts.

Then two final races took place, each with six boats with up to 15 team members paddling furiously towards the finish line.  Both races were incredibly close with less than half a second separating the first three boats in the major final- almost a photo finish!

This year, the winners of the Minor Final were the Body Barn team raising funds for Severn Hospice and in the Major Final, for the third year running, receiving two trophies and all the bragging rights, the 2017 and 2018  champions-Joe Hawkes Home Improvements team, raising funds for The Sedgley Scorpions.

The Fastest Team of the Day- Photobooth Hoppers

The award for the overall fasted run of the day went to the Photobooth Hoppers who were raising funds for Birmingham Children Hospital.

But it really is a huge ‘well done’ to everyone for taking the time and trouble to enter the event, raise the sponsorship, and risk a soaking- all to raise monies for good causes. And also, a huge thanks to all the visitors to Himley Park who came in huge numbers to enjoy not only the spectacle of Dragon Boat racing, but also all the other concessions at the park which help to make the day a really memorable one for all concerned.

In the previous 18 years, over £380,000 has been raised by this event- a truly enormous sum- all for good causes.

It really does put the fun into fund-raising.

If you would like to see more of the action from the day, or to learn more about entering a team- see  www.rotarydragonboats.co.uk  or call Rotary Club member Mike Boyce on 07976612276.