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.

In a joint venture  involving the KidsOut charity and the Rotary club of the City of Wolverhampton all the children at Pine Green special academy were given christmas presents and treated to a trip to the Birmingham Christmas market.

Rotarians Steve Cartwright, ambassador for KidsOut, and Richard Green just before handing out the presents.

Pine Green is a unit dedicated to taking children on the long and difficult journey from poor behavioural conduct and emotional problems to a stable and worthwhile lifestyle achieving significant qualifications and a good social outlook. It has been our privilege to witness at first hand the patience and caring skill of the staff as they lead the children along this path.

Feedback from the staff after the trip to the market included:

“students shared money so they could gain gifts they wanted……polite, well mannered and respectful to the general public….student B opened the doors for people to come into McDonalds….helped the lady on the helterskelter tidy up the mats after use….chatted to people on the train about their trip……very proud of them all.”

Richard Green

The club has finally drawn to a close its annual Rotary Shoebox appeal.

The scheme is run by https://www.rotaryshoebox.org/ from their Oldham distribution centre.

They distribute donated shoeboxes of household items for families or gifts for babies, children or teenagers in Eastern Europe. This year, Romania,

Albania and Moldova are the current destinations. Ordinarily Ukraine is also one of the selected routes but clearly, it’s a little tricky at the moment. Moldova and Romania have both received a large amount of refugees from Ukraine so in ways, Ukraine is still being supported.

Well this is what 306 Shoeboxes look like- just before loading onto the delivery vehicle.

Many club members, along with family members supported the scheme which this year produced a grand total of 306 Shoeboxes.

This total was achieved in part by a special contribution from our friends at the Bethel Christian Fellowship in West Bromwich https://www.bcfwestbrom.org.uk/

who not only donated £380 enabling purchases to be made on their behalf to fill boxes but also, an additional  40 filled shoeboxes. Absolutely brilliant! Thank you.

Thank you everyone for spending the time and or the money, to support this scheme.