Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland Young Musician Competition –
Wolverhampton Area Round

President Elect Richard Horrell makes a special presentation to winning
instrumentalist Rosalind Fearnehough.

Rosalind, age 17, attends St. Peters Collegiate school. She has achieved a
merit in her grade 8  ABRSM exam and plans to pursue a career as a
professional trombonist. As well as playing in the Wolverhampton Youth
Orchestra, she has performed at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London.

Another quite exceptional array of young musical talent on display at the Wolverhampton Area Round of the 2019 Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland Young Musician Competition, Sunday, Feb 3rd. The adjudicators Simon Platford and Peter Edwards had a really difficult task to select the winners but they eventually selected Fiona Winning (vocalist) and Rosalind Fearnehough (instrumentalist – trombone) to go forward to the District Final on March 3rd.

Rotarian PDG Richard Green.

President Paul presented cheques to the main charities supported by The Tree of Remembrance at Christmastime. We managed to raise just over £6,000 and each of the charities featured received a cheque for £1,400. Left to right;
Susan Husband MS Therapy Centre, President Paul Lockley, Vicki Wootton Compton Care and Hayley Powell The Haven Wolverhampton. Contributions were also made to Help for Heroes and to Compton Care choir, the balance was retained for Rotary Charities. Thank you to everyone who supported us in this project particularly the people of Wolverhampton and surrounding areas for their generosity.

Come and join members of the five Wolverhampton Rotary Clubs for an evening of pure fun with more than a little French influence on Saturday February 16th. Details on attached poster below-

Handing over the filled Shoeboxes to Paul at Internation Aid Trust’s warehouse.

Once again, the Club and its friends deliver happiness in a Rotary Shoebox.

During November and early December, Shoeboxes were donated to the club for onward transportation to the International Aid Trust warehouse in Preston.

The boxes will be heading out to Eastern Europe- Romania, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus.

The collection made by Causeway Green Primary School of Oldbury. Minion included!

Grandad’s little helper- Dylan- helping Peter to fill the last few Shoeboxes at Bethel Christian Fellowship.

The Royal School in Wolverhampton, Causeway Green Primary School in Oldbury, Bethel Christian Fellowship and The Rotary Club of Wolverhampton’s members and friends donated a wonderful total of 157 boxes.

The boxes are filled not only with items for children and teenagers, but also household goods for families in need.

Peter and Dennis Simpson of Bethel Christian Fellowship.

The scheme really does bring benefits to very many people and we certainly thank everyone who contributed.

Mike Boyce

Foreman for the day- Dylan Boyce salutes his fine work in stacking many boxes.

‘As a result of the close and long standing connection between the Rotary Club of Wolverhampton and RAF Cosford, we were able to arrange for 2 Alumni from the Rotary Young Leaders Awards (RYLA) course, Oliver Hall and Jack Fawcett-Enright, who are keen to join the RAF, to have a meeting with the Station Commander, Group Captain Baker and Station Warrant Officer Hagan.

Oliver and Jack were given a first hand insight into life in the RAF and the opportunities presented by a service career, together with some excellent advice as to how to go about fulfilling their ambitions. Oliver wants to be a pilot, flying the RAF’s large transport aircraft, while Jack is interested in becoming an IT or engineering specialist. Both Oliver and Jack said they were thrilled by the meeting and gained a tremendous benefit by being given the chance to meet the senior RAF Officers, the meeting having been arranged by PDG Richard Green from the club. 

The meeting was followed by a behind the scenes tour of RAF Cosford, during which the boys were given the chance to get up close and personal with a Jaguar fighter jet aircraft.’ 

Past District Governor Richard Green

The Rotary Club of Wolverhampton went to Uplands Junior School in Finchfield to hold a second Junior Technology Tournament at the invitation of teacher Fiona Gilbert after her colleague Carolyn Bryan who had seen, and been enthused by, the Rotary Junior Technology Tournament when it was demonstrated at a ‘Big Bang’ fair at the NEC., which is the UK’s largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths for young people. 

The tournaments are a challenging and enjoyable way for young people to enrich their STEM (Science, Technology and Engineering) learning. They are designed for 8 -11 year olds and in partnership with The Rochester Bridge Trust Rotary provide an interesting and fun experience that tests the knowledge, innovation, teamworking and problem solving skills of the participants. The tournaments were recently granted a CREST (Creativity in Science and Technology) award by the British Science Association.

The youngsters, work in teams of 4 and solve an interactive technology based task and are required to design, model and build a solution with materials such as paper, card, clothes pegs, string and elastic rubber bands, using a premade wooden base, all supplied by Rotary free of charge. 

The children were eagerly awaiting the day and created some amusing names for their teams, such as ‘Electric Donkeys,’ ‘Master Builders,’ and ‘Bantock Bulldogs!’

The winning team- the self styled ‘Master Builders’ comprised Bohdi, Laura. Charlie and Simran, seen here with President Paul Lockley.

Team leader Rotarian Richard Green was accompanied by several Rotarians from the club. Richard, who has retired from a career in construction says ‘it’s very rewarding to see all of the boys and girls having such fun and being so involved in a very friendly and competitive way.’