Santa Visits Frodsham.
On Friday
the 30th of November and Saturday the 1st of December, Santa Clause and
his Sleigh visited Frodsham, as part of the annual Christmas Festival.
Despite poor weather on both nights, huge crowds of residents and visitors from the Frodsham & Helsby areas lined the route of the procession in order to get a glimpse of Santa Clause and his Sleigh, which of course was pulled by real Reindeers.
The procession was lead out by Chester’s Town Crier, David Mitchell, closely followed by Geoff Warburton’s very large tractor and trailer carrying local Primary School children who sang their hearts out all the way round.
Santa and his Sleigh, (photo courtesy of our good friend Stuart Bogg of the Chester Chronicle), then followed, pulled by 2 Reindeer, with 4 other Reindeers in support, which was eagerly followed by even more local Primary School children, teachers and parents, making just as much noise as those in the trailer!
Bringing up the rear of the procession was Mike Edwards’ wonderfully decked out Leyland open top Double Decker Bus that produced synthetic snow, which added even more seasonal effects to the colourful procession.
Our Club’s job in all this was to help with the marshalling of the procession as well as passing out sweets to as many children as was possible (and adults as well) and collecting donations for Rotary Charities when they were offered.
Other marshals were also on duty, these being from Vale Royal Borough Council who, it must be said, did a fine job.
As you might expect, all Club members who helped, along with several of their wives, thoroughly enjoyed themselves and as a special perk, got to talk to Santa Clause to make sure he knew exactly what to bring them on Christmas Day!
Not wanting to miss out on a photo opportunity with Chester’s Town Crier, the helpers on the Saturday night can be seen here at the end of the evening, prior to taking appropriate liquid refreshments, in appropriate quantities, in a local hostelry.
Ho, Ho, Ho and Merry Christmas to Everyone.
Our Club’s Third New Member This Presidential Year.
On
Friday the 7th of December, our Club held its Annual Charter
Anniversary Dinner in Catton Hall Shooting Lodge, where the first order
of the evening was to make the celebrations even more special by having
Mike Dowse join us as our newest Club member.
As a result of continued hard work with our Club’s membership recruitment programme, it was with the greatest of pleasure that President Barry was able to invite our District Governor, Keith (or Shirley to his friends!) to do us the honour of inducting Mike formally into our Club as its newest member. Keith was pleased to welcome Mike into our Club and of course into the Rotary movement as a whole.
Following his induction ceremony, Mike was advised by our DG that tradition has it that he has to buy everyone present a drink, which was met with loud cheering and roars of approval from the 60+ guests, who of course, to a man, declined most graciously --- eventually. We were only joking Mike!
Clearly pleased at becoming a member of our Rotary Club, Mike is seen here along with DG Keith, President Barry and his Sponsor, IPP Malcolm.
Mike, Welcome to our Club and to Rotary.
Our Club’s 29th Charter Anniversary Dinner.
It was with the greatest of pleasure that on Friday the 7th of December, President Barry welcomed some 70 Club members and guests to our Club’s 29th Charter Anniversary Dinner, which was held, once again, at Catton Hall Shooting Lodge where we were made most welcome.
It was pleasing to note that on the evening, we had visiting representatives from a total of six Rotary Clubs, which involved three Districts.
Also represented was Round Table, along with members from local Probus Clubs, as well as our very own Town Mayor and of course and several guests of Club members.
Following the official welcome by President Barry, our newest Club member, John Butler was honoured by being asked to say Grace and then shortly after to read our Club’s Charter, which he did faultlessly.
The Object of Rotary this year was read by IPP Malcolm Davies who in true International spirit, and following a tradition set for him last year by Tony Cervenka, read the 4th Object in a foreign language, this year it was said to be Italian.
At this point President Barry was pleased to introduce and then have our DG, Keith Unsworth, induct our newest Club Member, Mike Dowse, into the Club (see article above).
This was then
followed by a surprise presentation, where Mike Gammie provided the
background to our Club’s decision to award a Paul Harris Fellowship to
a Club Founder Member and Past President, Peter Wilde. The applause
which followed Peter's self effacing acceptance speech served to
emphasise that the honour was richly deserved.
Following a delicious 4 course meal, President Barry proposed a toast to Rotary International, which encapsulated relevant Rotary activities, developments and concerns.
As expected, DG Keith provided a well presented and appropriate response to the toast, pertinent in its content and of course concise, hence was naturally very well received by all present.
The evening then continued with our First Vice President, Adrian Baxter, introducing our Guests with appropriate reference to detail as well as a liberal sprinkling of humour.
Our Guest Speaker for the evening was Richard McCullagh, who until quite recently was a District Judge, hence was more than able and willing to keep everyone’s attention as he royally entertained us with many stories and anecdotes of his time spent On The Bench or At The Bar!
It was with immense pleasure that Gareth Williams, one of our Club’s several Legal Beagles, proposed the vote of thanks to our Guest Speaker and he did this without feeling the need to use too much legalese!
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and so it was left to our MC for the evening, Sam Williams, to thank all those who had made the evening a wonderful success, particularly the Catering and Bar Staff of Catton Hall Shooting Lodge as well as those Club members who had helped with the organization and running of this successful Charter Anniversary Dinner. Sam finished by wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year and a safe journey home.
