Winter Festival
Frodsham's Annual Christmas Festival again proved to be a huge success and large crowds lined Santa's procession route on Friday the 1st and Saturday the 2nd of December as we passed along Main Street and up Church Street.
Our Club was invited to help marshal the procession and took the opportunity collect money for Rotary Charities along the way. Unlike the previous year the weather remained fair on both evenings but the crowds responded with their usual generosity.
Following Santa and his reindeer, with our buckets at the ready, we managed to collect over £500 of real money in exchange for the handfuls of chocolate money which we cheerfully dished out to the waiting children.
The picture shows some of our volunteers in front of the festive bus which followed us round the route providing seasonal music and an atmospheric foam blizzard.
our christmas band concert hits the right note again.
On December 16th our Club held the Annual Brass Band Concert for the fourth year in succession.
One of the reasons for the popularity of this event has to be that Pennine Brass is one of the top bands having national award winning status. It might be said that they would be better referred to as a brass orchestra in view of their wide ranging programme and material. We were treated to classical brass band pieces, arrangements from the musical shows and of course Christmas music which included carols and audience participation.
Even the interval retained the seasonal spirit with warm drinks and mince pies.
We are grateful and fortunate to have the Band's co-operation and willingness to forego more prestigious calls on their services, which allows this popular event to be held.
We therefore are pleased to announce that we have managed to secure the Band yet again for next year. So it is a date for your diaries, Sunday the 9th of December, 2007 at the Frodsham Community Centre, 7pm.
Thank you once again to Pennine Brass and the public for their support in a most enjoyable event, and at the same time raising funds for Rotary Charities.
Christmas Dinner.
Well, it has finally come around. Yes, it?s that time of year when our Club members come along to their monthly Dinner meeting where the order of the day is to have a practice run in readiness for the Christmas Day celebrations.
The dead give away to the fact that this was our Christmas Party was that on entering the Dining room, Vince Akers was on duty on the door, sporting a pair of fake Reindeer Antlers, which caused much comment. As expected, later in the evening he was fined for actively supporting Blood Sports!
The Christmas Dinner itself was accompanied, as usual, with an aeronautical display of flying balloons piloted with great accuracy this year by the 'Two Fs' they being Frank Ball and Fred Bishop. Clearly, their practice sessions at a local aerodrome proved of great value, such was their accuracy. It was noted that President Malcolm received a direct hit by one of the 'Screamers', from which he never fully recovered..... (Well there's no change there then!)
As is tradition, no Business is done on such occasions, so in the first instance, the centre of attention was focused on our very own 'Quiz Inquisitor', Gareth Williams. In the space of a short time, he managed to demonstrate that our knowledge of great Sporting Stars and Public Figures left much to be desired, however the much coveted award 'Mr. Smarty Pants' was won by one of our newest members, Alan Revell.
The Sergeant at Arms, Eddy Basnett, then took over and proceeded to draw huge amounts of money from the deepest of pockets, except those of Hedley Greaves, which were empty, hence Mike Collins was the unwitting financial donor! Not wishing to leave anybody out, Eddy then called upon Alex, the Hotel's Bar Man to fine one of our members, and so once again Ray Ashley had to stump up for his misdemeanours.
The proceedings drew to a close with Club members revealing their Christmas Cracker jokes and Fred Bishop updating everyone with regards to the 'Politically Correct' version of the 12 Days of Christmas.
The President then closed the meeting by wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.
Christmas Sing-a-Long
Frodsham Methodist Church was bulging at the seams once again as the annual Rotary Christmas Sing-a-Long organised by the Community Service Committee was held on Friday 22nd December.
A local group of female singers kindly volunteered to lead the sing-a-long with a mixture of Christmas Carols and popular seasonal songs. Modern technology beamed the lyrics of the songs onto the church wall and this together with the candle light gave the event a very special atmosphere.
Tea and mince pies provided by Rotarians were served at the interval.
All proceeds from the event were donated equally to the Methodist Church and Rotary Charities.
A special thanks to the singers, Moira, Jennifer, Christine, Andrea, Valerie and their pianist Dorothy, who made the event possible.
