The Abbeydale Pumpkin

Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Abbeydale

“Service above self”

May 2018 No. 675

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Abbeydale in Action in April…..

news of this and many other events inside.

’Young Artist’ Winners - at the Lord Mayor’s Reception

From President Keith…..

Well what a month April was and is for we busy

Rotarians. It started with Young Artists and will end

with Young Artists. We had some wonderful help

from members of Vulcan Rotary at both the

judging and the labelling of the paintings. They

almost (but not quite) outnumbered us. They

seemed to enjoy helping and were most impressed

with not only the artwork itself but the

commitment it entails. They are promised to help

with the set up too and we are very grateful

indeed for their help. I have in fact sent our formal

thanks to their Club President.

In between those two events we helped with car

parking on the lambing days at Whirlow Hall Farm.

The weather was foul on the Wednesday but

beautiful on the Thursday. I always say that the sun

shines on the righteous! We also did a slightly

delayed – Easter got in the way – Canal clean up.

Again there was much less litter than normal.

However that could have been due to the

unusually bad winter weather which deters people

from using the towpath. We still want the credit

though. A huge thank you to all those who helped

at those events.

Then we had the big event of the year. Our 60th

celebration had 100 Rotarians and guests there

and judging by the buzz around the place and the

thank you comments I have received, it was a great

success. Julia, Ray, Martin and Chris Jones all gave

up lots of their time to ensure this success. Our

arrangements worked like clockwork and Mike Cox

was superb as Major Domo and Master of

Ceremonies ensuring that they did.

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However it was a pity that the hotel speed of

service did not match it, particularly between the

main course and the dessert. Fortunately we had

heeded Chris Jones advice to start earlier and keep

the speeches to a minimum. Therefore we

managed to finish at a reasonable time.

So, back to Young Artists and the Lord Mayor’s

reception for the winners. Our Lord Mayor Anne

Murphy – who incidentally was a delightful table

companion at our 60th – was brilliant with the

children and let each one sit in the Mayor’s seat in

the council chamber. A good time was had by all.

I was sorry that there was a restriction on the

numbers we could take to the presentation of our

Duke of York Community Award Ceremony but

with the numbers there – there were 62 winners

of the award – and the security arrangements for

Prince Andrew himself, we have to accept that it

was inevitable. There was much standing around. I

likened it to a degree ceremony where you wait

and wait until your man is called and then wait

whilst they plough through all the others. The

award is now 15 years old and was the idea of

Prince Andrew himself. He gave a short but well

judged speech reminding us that the object was to

offer recognition to all those people who selflessly

serve the community. The Prince spent a little time

with local dignitaries whilst we were all lined up to

meet him. He had 45 minutes to meet and greet

and to his credit he got round everyone. He was

trying to focus on the first time winners in

particular. One of the side products of the day was

the opportunity to talk to other prize winners,

from which we have gained at least one speaker

and gained some useful contacts.

The busiest month of my tenure as President will

end with a District Assembly and the Art Show

where we have 1092 paintings this year. It will be

opened by the Lord Mayor as usual and we will

have the District Governor and the District

Governor Elect there too. We are hoping to have

increased publicity for it on the back of the Duke of

York Community Award. Our Communications

Committee has already sent out a press release

timed to coincide with the presentation and we

will follow up with another press release specific to

the Art Show itself. We have led the horse to

water. Let us hope that it will drink! Keith

Our president has every

reason to look so

happy… (An extremely

successful April.

WELL DONE!!

(Thanks to Roy Bright for the

pic).

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Julia’s Jottings……..

1. Just to report that I registered the club’s votes on line at the RIBI

Business meeting on 7th April. I voted “for” all resolutions in

accordance with the wishes expressed by the two members who sent

them me. The technology worked better this year when it got going—too late to

see the Princess Royal addressing the Business meeting. She and excerpts from

the whole Torquay conference can be seen on the RIBI website.

2. Also, just a reminder, to do your Amazon shopping via the District website. The

District gets a percentage of your spend. To date the total receipts are £4,222.

The Assistant District Governor’s Column

I am writing this three days before the most important District function of the year – The District Assembly. A lot of hard work goes into this event and with over 400 delegates attending you can easily see how important it is.

Once the District Assembly is over, there is “no rest for the wicked”, as I must then attend Club Assemblies – not so bad this year, one less Club and a lot less travelling.

Assemblies are planning tools and allows club members to agree or otherwise the plans for Club Committee projects for the following year. Assemblies must be carried out in the presence of an A.G. or an appropriate District Officer, who then reports on his/her finding to the incoming D.G.

I cannot take our own Club Assembly, but for the third year running my good friend David Hood will be coming along on 6th June – our D-Day!

Much has been said and written about the

new legislation on data protection – General

Data Protection Regulations that come into

force this month. R.I.B.I. has now advised

clubs of what they can and cannot publish or

hold on data bases regarding members and

people associated with their clubs. It does not

seem as bad as first thought and I am sure

that Julia and Mike will keep us correct.

You have heard me talk about the District

Conference in Scarborough and my hope that

members will come along. Now it is more

important than ever that we are well

represented as Ian and Ken have agreed that we

will show a display of our Young Artists

Competition in the Rotary Showcase and we will

need some member assistance in setting up the

display, manning it over the weekend, then

taking it down. If you have never been to a

District Conference before it can be very

interesting and a lot of fun.

As ever, I finish wearing one of my other hats –

Music in the Gardens. Tickets are going well and

I remind you that these can be acquired

through me without a booking fee. Alex

Thanks to Chris Kenyon for these words of

wisdom ………..

Our 60th Charter

EvEning…..

13th April 2018

Guests included the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Anne Murphy and her consort, Gavin Holliday, the Master

Cutler, Kenneth Cooke, Our District Governor, Michael Longdon and his wife Margaret, several honorary and

past members of Abbeydale, Inner Wheelers and members from other Rotary Clubs. It was a fitting occasion for

the DC to present Past President Ann Norris with a ’District Governor’s Certificate of Recognition’ for all her

work in Albania. Well deserved, Ann. The noisy, convivial atmosphere created by 100 folk enjoying each other’s

company, the good food, short, pertinent speeches and excellent entertainment made a very memorable

evening. Seeing our President Elect in formal dress was also unforgettable …… !!! The sacrifices we have to

make for Rotary—well done Grant.

Helping at Whirlow Hall Farm…

A s K e i t h mentioned

on page 2, m e m b e r s

helped organise the car parking at the farm on a couple of days

during Easter week for the lambing event. Wednesday was,

apparently, chaotic as the fields were totally unfit for parking due to

the heavy rain, and all visitors had to be found space on the narrow

lanes. On Thursday the weather was glorious and one field was

deemed dry enough to take vehicles with access up a fairly firm

track. By midday over 250 vehicles were safely parked in this area -

all facing downhill so a good chance that they would get out again!

Despite instructions not to do any ’pushing,’ when the occasional car

got into difficulties turning off the track, our President was there to

give a helping hand. At one point he got well and truly covered in

mud. Sadly the photo opportunity was missed!

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A Robin aircraft

Young Artists…..

Judging in St.

John’s Church Hall

Wed 5th April

In all, around 1100 entries put

out in ’key stages’ and categories,

judged, (by three outside experts),

and replaced back into each school’s

container. All in two hours!!!!

The following week, at Abbeydale

Sports Club, each entry had the

pupil’s name attached.

Amazingly only about a dozen

mis-matched/misspelt labels to be

correceted. N.B. prior to all this,

entries were collected from schools,

recorded, categorised and labels printed.

Young Artists…..

Some of the

Primary,

(key stages

1and 2),

winning

entries.

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Young

Artists…. A selection of

winning entries

from older

students

Key stages

3, 4 and 5.

Very sincere thanks

to Roy Bright,

(Eckington Club), for

the photos and to all

the members from

Vulcan who helped

with the judging

labelling, and setting

up the exhibition.

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Young Artists….. pictures from the Lord Mayor’s

Reception

for the

winners and

their

parents at

the Town

Hall.

My friend celebrated his birthday this year by buying an

all-terrain 4-wheeler. This is a picture of him playing

with it in his back garden.

I’m thinking of getting one.

Life is fleeting by… enjoy it while you can.

Getting old is easy … having fun at it is the real trick!

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Environmental….

Photos from the recent canal clean up on 8th April. A good morning where lots of progress was made followed by a welcome pie and peas dinner.

The complications of assembling the litter bags…….!!!!!

Success…… Hilary and William are off! (Not

sure the odd shopping trolley will fit in……. But we’ll see what they can find instead……)

Any thoughts on what the two Mikes, (Jackson and Cox), might need the buckets for ???

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More Environmental…. Wed 25th April: 45 Rotary trees were planted at Manor Lodge. The photo shows President Keith Tomlinson with Chris Jones and Manor Lodge's very own 'Bess of Hardwick' planting a tree in front of the 16th century Turret House where Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned for 14 years. Sun 22nd April: Volunteers from Abbeydale Rotary assisted the Friends of Millhouses Park on their annual litter picking. Photo shows Graham Taylor with Hilary, Howard and Peter.

HAPPY EASTER!!

Club Diary — new entries are in RED

May Don Ellis Badar Islam Pat Jackson June Chris Jones Peter Keen Reg McNaughton July Chris Kenyon John Rogerson Trevor Ward

All contributions by email, please, to the editor: pat.jackson@blueyonder.co.uk by midnight Mon

28th May for email publication by 1st June. Please put “Pumpkin” somewhere in the subject line,

thanks, Pat

N.B. The editor takes no responsibility for opinions expressed in this publication which are

written by and ascribed to another author.

www.abbeydalerotary club.org.uk

www.facebook.com/AbbeydaleRotary-

Club

Twitter: @AbbeydaleRotary

Other useful links

www.rotary.org

www.rotarygbi.org

www.district.rotary1220.org

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A R.C. priest and a rabbi were sitting next to each other on an plane. After a while the priest

turned to the rabbi and asked, ‘Is it still a requirement of your faith that you do not eat pork?’.

The rabbi responded, ‘Yes, that is still one of our beliefs.’ The priest then asked, ‘Have you ever

eaten pork?’. To which the rabbi replied, ‘Yes, I did once succumb to temptation and tried a

ham sandwich.’ The priest nodded in understanding and went on with his reading. A while

later the rabbi spoke up and asked the priest, ‘Father is it still a requirement of the R.C. church

that priests remain celibate?’. ‘Yes’, came the reply, ‘Very much so.’. The rabbi paused, then,

‘Have you ever fallen to the temptations of the flesh?’ ‘Sadly, yes, on just one occasion I was

weak and broke with my faith.’.

The rabbi nodded understandingly and remained silently thinking for a few minutes. Finally, he

said, ‘Beats a ham sandwich, doesn’t it?’.

To end it all……..

Wednesday Meetings 12.45 pm unless stated otherwise

May 2nd Job Talk Jane Ward 9th Sand dams Peter Moralee 16th ‘From explication to mystification’ Bryan Lawson 23rd The life of a jobbing actor Roger Bingham 30th EVEN 7/7.30pm ‘Who did they think they were?’ Geoffrey Harbord June 6th Club Assembly Grant Laughton

13th t.b.a. (Mike Waters) 20th The Turner Museum of Glass John Parker 27th t.b.a. (Peter Keen) July 4th t.b.a. (Reg McNaughton) 11th Handover Keith Tomlinson

Committee Meetings — at Abbeydale unless stated otherwise: May 16th Club Service 11.45am 21st Club Council—453 Whirlowdale Rd 7.00pm June 6th International and Community Serv. 11.30am 13th Club Service 11.45am 13th Community Service 12 noon 18th Club Council—453 Whirlowdale Rd 7.00pm

Other Rotary Events for your diaries

May Sat 5th Stroke Awareness Badar Islam 11-13th Club w/end in Lille, Belgium Grant Laughton Tues 22nd Drive-out for Senior Citizens Val Barnes 24-26th Young Artist Exhibition, Town Hall Ian Powell June 13th Pitchfork Party William Martin Jun/July 29-1st Music in the Gardens Alex Ritchie July Fri 27th Garden Party - for International Funds Andy Fields Sept Fri 14th Charity Golf Day Steve Wilkin

(More details are on the Club website calendar)