February 2025 – the crocuses are in full bloom in Bantock Park in support of Rotary’s campaign to eliminate polio. The purple crocus is the emblem of the campaign.

It was wonderful to have the support of the children from Merridale Primary, Warstones Primary and Low Hill Nursery schools when the corms were planted in October 2024.

Former Mayor of Wolverhampton, Rotarian Mike Hardacre happened along today to fix the signs.

Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. Our goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever.

As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we’ve reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.

Rotary members have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort.

Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year.

Nominations have opened for the 2025 Wolverhampton Young Citizen of the Year awards.

The awards, now in their 12th year, recognise the achievements of young people in the city who have gone that extra mile to help others .Previous winners include youngsters who have raised funds for charity, supported other members of their community, and made a difference to the people around them.

The awards, which are run by the Rotary clubs of Wolverhampton, were launched in memory of Tom Warren, a former Rotarian and the city’s Education Director for a quarter of a century.

Chairman of the organising committee, former Wolves player Mel Eves, said: “The Young Citizen of the Year awards have gone from strength to strength over the years. Last year, we selected ten young people as finalists and invited them with their guests to an awards ceremony, with many others receiving a certificate of commendation for their efforts.

“This year, we look forward to seeing plenty more fantastic nominations.”

This year’s awards ambassador, Wolves Captain Nelson Semedo, said: “Young people who use their initiative and show kindness to others deserve to be recognised, so I am very pleased to support the awards.”

There are two age categories for the awards, 13-18 and 19-25. Anyone can nominate candidates, who must live or go to school or work in Wolverhampton.

This year’s awards are backed by, Collins Aerospace, the Wolves Foundation, the Express & Star, Wolverhampton City Council, Carvers Building Supplies, the James Beattie Charitable Trust, WCR fm and West Midlands Magazines.

A ceremony will take place later this year, to reveal the winners of these prestigious awards.

For more details and to make a nomination, visit: wolverhamptonyoungcitizen.org.uk/

Every seat was taken at Wolverhampton Music School on Sunday, February 9^th for the District 1210 final of the 2025 Rotary Young Musician Competition. 7 clubs across the District had sent forward  winning instrumentalists and vocalists from their own heats to compete for a place in the next round, which will be the cluster final on March 9^th, prior to the national final on March 29^th, due to be held at New City College, Romford, Essex.

Bususu Chen with DG Jane Cooper and Dudley President Graham Dean.

Owen White with DG Jane Cooper and Bilston President ‘Bobby’ Singh.

Adjudicators Huw Daniel MA and Ian Stephenson confessed they had  difficult choices to make in view of the outstanding performances given by the young musicians. After considerable discussion they decided that 16 year old pianist Bususu Chen, sponsored by the Rotary club of Dudley was the winning instrumentalist and vocalist 17 year old Owen White, sponsored by Rotary in Bilston the winning vocalist.

Bususu Chen’s programme comprised ‘Prelude from Partita’ by Bach, ‘Etude no.7’ by Chopin and ‘Mercutio’ by Prokofiev. In his feedback Huw Daniel gave high praise to her musicology and phrasing. Ian Stephenson made particular mention of Owen White’s stage presence and ability to draw in the audience with his renderings of ‘On The Street Where You Live’ by Lerner and Loewe, ‘Se Vuol Ballare’ by Mozart and ‘Stars’ by Schonberg, Kretzmer and Bougill.

The remarkable ensemble.

In presenting the trophies, District Governor Jane Cooper thanked all the competitors for treating the audience to an outstanding afternoon of entertainment which had shown the remarkable talents of young musicians from right across the District.

Richard Green,

Organiser, District 1210 Rotary Young Musician Competition.

16 young musicians thrilled the audience at Wolverhampton Music Hub on Sunday, 26^th of January as they competed in the first round of the national Rotary Young Musician Competition for places in the next round – which is the District Final to be held on February 9^th.

Adjudicators Sarah Baker MA and Jack Apperley MA confessed they had extremely difficult decisions to make in selecting the winners in each of the instrumental and vocalist categories.

After considerable deliberation they decided that 14 year old Lily Cooper, who attends Wolverhampton Girls High School was the winning instrumentalist with her performance of Grieg’s sonata in E and the traditional folk song ‘Black Eyes,’ a very familiar melody.

Lilly leads the second violins for Wolverhampton Youth Orchestra and is a percussionist for Wolverhampton Youth Wind Orchestra.

Young Musician 2025 – Wolverhampton – Owen White receiving his certificate from President Lorraine McCarthy

The winning vocalist was 17 year old Owen White, a pupil of local singing teacher Brenda Arnold with his renditions of ‘On The Street Where You Live,’ by Lerner and Loewe, ‘Se Vuol Ballare’ by Mozart and ‘Stars’ by Schonberg, Kretzmer and Boubil.

Owen attends Birmingham Ormiston Academy and has appeared in several local amateur musicals. He works part time at Sainsburys where he enjoys singing in the aisles!

The event was sponsored by several local Rotary clubs.The President of the City of Wolverhampton club, Lorraine McCarthy, as she presented the winners trophies said ‘it is extremely rewarding to realise and enjoy the superb array of young musical talent that we have in and around the City.’

Photos show the whole vocalists and instrumentalist ensembles.

PDG Richard Green

The 2024  Rotary Christmas Appeal- outcomes.

The Christmas appeal at the Rotary Club of the City of Wolverhampton this year was supported by 25 club members, plus friends of Rotary and members of the Bethel Christian Fellowship Church of West Bromwich.Donations were made to the club which were then used to fund three projects and the followinfg recounts the outcomes.

Recipient number 1-

The Kanyama Free Baptist Community School in Lusaka, Zambia.

www.rotaryclubwolverhampton.co.uk/kanyama-free-baptist-community-school

Over 300 children of the school attended during the day of celebration in advance of Christmas and the last day of their school term.

Each youngster received fruit, pop, crisps and a small gift.

Sadly on the day of the celebration, the area was blighted by one of the relentless power cuts that are affecting Zambians at the moment due to nationwide power issues. The Head teacher, Beston Chilemalema confirmed though that despite this setback, the day went well, still with singing and dancing and that it was still a wonderful occasion. The photographs certainly confirm this. The school is located in an extremely impoverished township just outside the city centre of Lusaka and this club has been supporting them for several years, in which time the school has doubled in size. Our most recent project has been the building of an extra classroom and with the help of a District Grant, the providing of much needed equipment for the school including new desks, a photocopier, hygiene and routine school equipment including the feeding programme.

The second recipient of the appeal funds was

The Kimbilio primary school in the Democratic Republic of Congo and another end of term celebration day. www.congochildrentrust.org/

The Kimbilio organisation is one that our club has supported for some years now. Based in the UK, the Congo Children’s Trust founded Kimbilio (this means sanctuary- in Swahili) to try to help with the plight of street children- sadly a very common occurrence in the largest cities of the DRC. Kimbilio run a day centre for street children and 4 transit homes where the main emphasis is on reintegration of youngsters with their families. 

In 2022 they opened a primary school on the outskirts of Lubumbashi, the second largest city of the DRC and this year the club funded a fun day for the 200 children who attend the school and also members of the 4 transit homes, who joined in the fun too. Youngsters were treated to food and drink with fun and games being the order of the day. The star of the show of course was Santa Claus who arrived to add even more excitement to the day.

During the current Rotary year, the club has helped to provide an English teacher for the school and also co-funded a Young Mothers Project.

And finally, the third recipient of appeal funds was The Rotary Shoebox Scheme.

www.rotaryshoebox.org

Our club has a long history of support to the Rotary shoebox scheme and, 2024 was no exception. Member donations enabled purchases to be made on their behalf to make up Shoeboxes. The boxes are filled with gifts or household items for vulnerable youngsters and families who live principally in Romania and Moldova. Each box is more than just a box full of useful and fun items; it’s personal a gift, not just for the person receiving it, but for the family, too-a message of hope and a demonstration that someone cares about them. This year’s appeal produced 210 completed shoeboxes which are ready to transport to the Rotary distribution centre at Oldham for onward delivery to their Eastern Europe destinations.

Our friends at the Bethel Christian Fellowship Church of West Bromwich donated funds and gifts which produced a magnificent total of 65 completed boxes and we thank them very much.  Special thanks also goes to PP Sylvia Morgan and her team for producing 40 boxes and Julie Hickman for filling 25 boxes.    

The final word I think should go to the Headteacher at the Kanyama Free Baptist Community School. He wanted to say thank you to everyone who contributed both to the Christmas appeal but also for the support throughout the year.  I think this gives you some idea of what our support means to them. So on behalf of the Grant Giving Committee who arranged this appeal- thank you.

And now- a few words from Beston….

Hello to all members of the Rotary Club of Wolverhampton and their friends.

I want to tell you that you are good people because, what you do shows how beautiful you are at heart, it shows how caring you are, it shows that you are not selfish with what God has blessed you with and you want us to be part of it.

It shows that God can provide using beautiful people like you.

With the money you sent us, we had a Christmas party and children went home with big smiles on their faces.

Children were excited to have this celebration because this does not happen to most of them. We sang songs of praise, we danced, we also presented some poems but most of all we really enjoyed the food. Really It was a beautiful experience and a wonderful day which we will never forget. To everyone who supported and make sure that this day come to pass, we are saying thank you so much for being there for us, we thank you for your generosity and may God almighty stone you with his big blessings. We are forever grateful to you all.       We love you.

Head teacher Beston Chilimalema.

Thanks to the cooperation of the Rotary clubs of The City of Wolverhampton, Newcastle under Lyme (Staffordshire)and Golders Green (London) who worked with the Rotary club of Greater Cochin in Kerala, southern India, a Rotary Foundation global grant has provided state of the art medical equipment and technology.

The equipment comprises an ultrasound scanning machine and a fully automatic biochemistry analyser to provide diagnostic and treatment outcomes at a Taluk hospital. The hospital specialises in care for the needy and the equipment is already showing great improvements in that care, addressing one of the Rotary Foundation’s Areas of Focus – Disease Prevention and Treatment.

The project is valued at $31486 and the cash contributions from all the clubs involved, together with District Designated Fund (DDF) support from Districts 1210 in the UK and 3201 in India resulted in a Rotary Foundation grant of $8800 USD to make the project viable. The funding not only provided the equipment itself but the training of the medical staff who operate it.

Photos show a visit by PDG Richard Green in January 2024 when the equipment was first delivered, the commemorative banner at the inauguration and the equipment in the hospital ward.