A celebration of the 2023 Wolverhampton Fair Trade Fortnight took place on Friday March 3^rd in the Mayoral Suite at the Civic Centre.

left to right – Wolves Foundation rep – Marnie Richards. Midland Counties Co-Op Manager Greg Seymour, RMG, Mayor Councillor Sandra Samuels, Fair Trade Chair Julia Farrell.

All 4 Wolverhampton clubs support the intiative by sponsoring a children’s painting competition to raise awareness, particularly among young people, of the importance of Fair Trade. The challenge this year was for the children to design a new logo.  In her opening speech at the awards ceremony, the Mayor, Councillor Sandra Samuels OBE was fulsome in her praise of the numerous schools and pupils that had entered, all of whom attended the event. She said she was proud of the important work done by the Partnership to promote fair trade and was extremely impressed by the children’s work exhibited.

Winner of the painting competition Anaiya Patel.

The City of Wolverhampton Club was represented by PDG Richard Green who joined President Bob Stolz from the Bilston and Wolverhampton West club and joint sponsors The Wolves Foundation, represented by Marnie Richards and Midland Counties Co-Op, represented by Greg Seymour.

We were pleased to stand with the Mayor in presenting certificates of recognition and prizes to all the short listed entrants and of course, to the winner, Anaiya Patel from Uplands Junior School.

The Chair of the Partnership, Julia Farrell spoke of the progress made around the City of the promotion of Fair Trade, which includes matrix display signs on the ring road, an agreement by one of the major employers in the aerospace industry to supply only fair trade goods in their canteen and the growing popularity of the shop in the Mander Centre.

It was a special pleasure that, through our connections with the Wolverhampton Schools Music Hub, the club was able to arrange for the school’s Big Jazz Band to perform a 10 minute set at the event.

The Schools Music Service Big Jazz Band performs – they were truly amazing!

The Head of the Music Service Ciaran O’Donnell who led the band, told the gathering he had searched for compositions that were linked to Fair Trade and the effects of climate change. So he  had skillfully chosen 3 jazz pieces that were relevant – ‘A Night In Tunisia’ by Dizzie Gillespie, ‘Birdland’ by a band called Weather Report and‘Here There And Everywhere’ by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The audience was visibly overawed by the extremely high level of performance on display, and the Mayor said she was booking the band for a future event straight away!

PDG Richard Green

Past President of the City of Wolverhampton club Richard Green has just returned from a 2 week trip to India on behalf of Rotary, where he visited 16 clubs. He also attended the Conference of District 3201 at which he was given an honorary welcome by the 2200 delegates, and held a number of meetings to prepare for several future humanitarian projects to be funded by the Rotary Foundation in partnership with various clubs in Great Britain and Ireland. These will include 3 mega Jaipur Limb camps for amputees, checkdams to assist farmers with irrigation,a dialysis centre, a mobile health clinic and the provision of sewing machines for 40 ladies who have just completed a sewing course arranged by the local club, Pavagada, District 3190.

On his visit to the Rotary Club of Changanacherry, District 3211 in Kerala, he was very pleased to receive a Rotary Service Award certificate which recognises the support sent by the City of Wolverhampton club during the pandemic in the form of a number of oxygen concentrators and BiPap machines enabling Covid sufferers to breathe.

At the conclusion of a meeting with the Rotary club of Quilon, District 3211, Richard was surprised and delighted to receive a personal Rotary Excellence Award in recognition of the support and guidance he is giving to the club as they draw up their plans to hold a mega Jaipur Limb camp.

In the run-up to Christmas the Club staged its Tree of Remembrance in the Wulfrun Centre.

Since 2003 The Tree of Remembrance has raised well over £100,000 for City charities and good causes while, at the same time, providing people with the opportunity to honour lost loved ones in their Christmas celebrations.

The Tree, positioned close to the Dudley Street entrance of the Wulfrun Centre became the focal point for many seeking an opportunity to express their sense of loss and gratitude to deceased family members and friends.

This year’s activities were hampered by the cost of living crisis and postal strikes but, thanks to generous donations from Wolverhampton citizens and sponsorship from Millers Jewellers, Peter Posh Menswear, FBC Manby Bowdler LLP, Treadsetters Tyres of Halesfield, Sandford Carpets & Curtains and The James Beattie Charitable Trust, the Tree of Remembrance maintained its record of boosting the funds of city charities.

At a recent lunch, hosted by Club President Sylvia Morgan, cheques for £1,700 were presented to Hayley Powell (The Haven), Emily Thompson (Compton Care) and Paula Anderson (The MS Therapy Centre), with the Club’s charitable Trust benefiting by the same sum.

Lorraine McCarthy, who headed up the team of Rotarians who staged this 6 week event says, “The continuing support of the Wulfrun Centre management and the Express & Star, made the event possible.  We are indebted to them and to the other sponsors who so readily gave their support.  Although the event is now over, the messages which were displayed around the Tree and in the Express & Star will continue to be featured on the Club’s website until November, and can be viewed at –  www.rotaryclubwolverhampton.co.uk/tree-of-remembrance/” 

Club President Sylvia Morgan presenting the cheque to Hayley Powell (The Haven),

Club President Sylvia Morgan presenting a cheque to Paula Anderson (MS Therapy Centre).

President Sylvia presenting a cheque to Emily Thompson (Compton Care)

The Wolverhampton Music School again offered their premises and a good crowd attended for this return of the competition with no fewer than eight participating clubs.  Three vocalists (a fourth having dropped out with tonsillitis) and nine instrumentalists ‘faced the music’. Catherine Chung was declared the best singer by the adjudicators with her two pieces by Henry Purcell and Gabriel Fauré. Judging was more difficult with the wide range of instruments ; percussion, piano, violin, oboe, clarinet and French horn. They opted for Leo Barnett playing Gilbert Vinter and Sergei Prokofiev on the French horn. They (Phaedra Nicholls and Simon Platford) also congratulated all the participants while criticising them positively. Richard Green was our skilful MC, giving us information about Rotary activities between performances. Bob Stolz from Bilston and John Mottram (organiser of Vocational Study Exchange) also chipped in and Paul Lockley had produced the well designed programme. The candidates : Preston Ssekandi, Caroline Smith, Megan Dobson, Ema Kelpsaite, Charlotte Anderson, William Tyne, Sophie Adams, Lucy Horne, Edie Beech and  Jasamar Gakhal will all have benefited from the experience. The winners Catherine Chung, sponsored by the City of Wolverhampton club and Leo Barnett, sponsored by Bilston and Wolverhampton West will now proceed to the District Final on 23^rd March.

Come and have a great afternoon of entertainment! Everybody welcome! 

The Wolverhampton clubs’ area round of the Rotary Young Musician competition will take place at 2.30pm on Sunday Feb 5th at the Wolverhampton Music Hub, Graisley Hill, WV2 4NE.

6 local clubs are sponsoring 13 terrific youngsters who will be performing on a range of instruments from percussion to flute,clarinet, french horn and violin  playing classis and jazz; the singers will be including songs from the shows and many favourite melodies.

If you’ve been before,you’ll know we are blessed in the Wolverhampton area with young people of extraordinary talent, so an extremely enjoyable afternoon is in prospect.

Entrance  £3 by programme, payable on the door.

Rotary Books4Home aims to give the gift of a book for youngsters to read, take home and keep.  The project empowers children to develop their love of reading and experience the chance to own books of their own. It also allows them to share that love of reading with their family.

Zainab & Henrique receiving their signed copies of books from Michael Morpurgo and Jacqueline Wilson to celebrate Rotary Books4Home gifting 100,000 children in D1210 with a book of their very own to read, take home and keep forever. In the background, The Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire Ian Dudson, , Beverley Ricketts (co-chair District Alumni Association)and the Chief Executive of Staffordshire County Council John Henderson.

Rotarians throughout District 1210 have donated storage space for the books, transport assistance and book sorting time. We contact schools and liaise with them to get Rotary Books4Home projects working in many different areas of our large district.

A celebration was held on Sunday January 8^th at Stafford Council Hall to celebrate the 100,000^th book that has been provided across the District.

Golden Tickets had been printed and added to 4 books. These were then sent out to schools in a usual delivery of books. The youngsters chose books as they do normally.

The Golden Tickets were then discovered by the children in their books.

The lucky youngsters were

Zainab, from St Marks CofE Primary School, Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent 10 yrs old

Henrique, St Albans CofE Primary Academy, Wednesfield 9 almost 10 yrs old

Connor, Sherbrook Primary, Cannock 11 yrs old and

Tomasz Southall School, Telford 14 yrs old.

These children came to the celebration and in front of a large gathering of Rotarians they received special prizes of children’s books signed by the authors.

The 2K’s Project Christmas 2022.

Towards the end of the year an appeal was made to club members to try to bring in some funds to provide a little Rotary cheer to the youngsters at two schools that our club supports. Firstly, the Kanyama Free Baptist school in Lusaka, Zambia, and secondly, the Kimbilio Primary School in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. The club has supported these organisations for some years now and both have  been visited by one of our club members.  

The intention was to provide a Christmas Party- a fun day- so that the youngsters there can experience something similar to that which our children and grandchildren here in UK routinely enjoy. 11 members, plus two friends of the club between them donated, when gift aid added, £1,148 which was split equally and despatched to the teams in Zambia and the DRC so that they could start getting organised.

The head teacher of the Kanyama School (Beston Chilemalema) and local charity director in Lubumbashi (Carine Nono) both sent photos and video clips of the youngsters having a wonderful time.

It was just what we had in mind. To have a bottle of fizzy pop- biscuits, sweets and a meal with, for a change, sausage in it, or a little chicken-  a rarity. Even Santa Claus made a special appearance.

That we are able to bring some delight into the lives of nearly 600 youngsters, twelve teachers and other team members is really rather marvellous.

So thank you to every member who contributed.  Your donation really went a long way.

Read more about both schools on our website-

https://rotaryclubwolverhampton.co.uk/

on  the International Support page.