Raffle at Whitburn Buffet Dance

We held a buffet dance at the Hilcroft last Saturday and despite 20 cancellations due to the weather raised £1910.

Raffle at Whitburn Buffet Dance

Roger Harper, Whitburn

• Major Shop window display in a premises in Butt Street -very central - very successful –  lots of interest. Promoted both the Polio Campaign and the Club
• Poster Display in The Corner House Hotel and other shops/businesses in the town.
• Included the Town Hall and the Library and ClipIct(inside and out)

•   Article and photograph in the local Annandale Observer
•   Item on the www.annan.org.uk and on the club’s own web-site

• Sandwich Board and Rotarians on the High Street from 10 in the morning, finishing at 4
• Collecting at Co-Op and Costcutter and local businesses
• Purple Pinkie event at Annan Academy, organised by Rotarian, Frank Davis
• Visit of Rotarians from Dalbeattie – which  was a lovely end to the day.

• Collection at Annan’s brand new Tesco – sandwich board present too!!

• Collection at Gretna Gateway

Rotarians Jim Raitt and Julie Douglas manning the stall at the Brunton Hall

Musselburgh Rotary Club set up an information stall in the Brunton Hall in Musselburgh on Tuesday 23 February displaying Thanks for Life posters and handing out leaflets to display the action the Rotary movement was taking and have taken to eradicate Polio worldwide. In addition information leaflets were available describing the service opportunities available both locally, nationally and internationally through being an active Rotary member.

On behalf of our holidaying (in warmer climes!) President Syl may I advise you of the joint efforts of the Rotary Club of Dunbar, the Rotary Club of Haddington along with our own club in the collection on Saturday 26 February at the local Tesco store. We collected in total £618.07 which in fact was fairly evenly spread between the three clubs in the various sessions of 6 members collecting from each club with North Berwick providing the logistical backing in addition. There were photos taken – to follow on in due course. A cheque will be sent to the Assistant Treasurer for the full amount but recorded as divided equally between the 3 clubs.

May I also thank AG Ian for calling past and speaking to members it was greatly appreciated by all concerned.

I am sure RIBI will be thanking Tesco directly but I will on behalf of the 3 clubs send a letter of thanks to the local store manager. I will also attempt to get an article in the local newspaper for this week.

Ian Donald, President Elect
Rotary Club of North Berwick

Provost of Falkirk Pat Reid supporting The Mile of Coins event along with Harry Johnston from Falkirk and Brian Sharp from Polmont

A résumé of what went on in and around Polmont to celebrate Rotary Day and to raise funds for the End Polio Now campaign.

A Polmont/Falkirk idea to raise a ‘mile of coins’ on Falkirk High St went ahead on Saturday 20th Feb. We did this with the help of The Rotary Clubs of Denny and Vale of Carron. On a very cold day we were pleased to raise £694. This amount is being split between the 4 clubs and going towards our 5 year targets.

The day was helped by a half page article in The Falkirk Herald on Thursday 18th Feb. This featured a large photograph of Polmont and Falkirk’s Foundation convenors and in it they explained how Rotary are fighting to rid the world of Polio with the help of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Both members (Brian Sharp and Bob Spiers) were also interviewed on Central FM and this was played several times on the run up to the 20th.

3 schools and one further education college took Purple Pinkie on and we still have one school to present to. From these efforts along with the mile of coins and member donations we have raised £1265 at The Polmont Club.

We are involved in talks with Forth Valley College with the hope of forming a Rotaract Club. We were delighted that they took on Purple Pinkie and were able to use the project as a membership tool for the club.

Graham Smith, President, Rotary Club of Polmont

We achieved a full centre spread article on Rotary and the two Linlithgow clubs in particular, in our local paper – “The Gazette” – on 20th Feb. It detailed a range of our activities and past achievements relating to local, national and international Rotary projects. Further publicity was achieved, and is still on view in the local library showcase and “The Gazette” offices, located in the centre of Linlithgow. Posters, photographs, banners, balloons, the Rotary Wheel(s) are all on display. Our free competition – Odd-Item-Out – has been a resounding success with shopkeepers and the town business manager delighted with the response. Footfall around participating shops has apparently increased, with the competition posters vividly displaying the Rotary Wheel, and competition entry forms full of Rotary information including membership, on the reverse side. Rotary presence is everywhere in Linlithgow.

On Tuesday 23rd Feb. I presented the Jim Clark Memorial Trophy to the winner of our schools essay competition. The winner also received a certificate of achievement, and a book token for £35, with all runners up in participating schools receiving a £20 book token. The winning school was presented with a cheque for £200 for school funds. The local press photographer attended for publicity pictures – as did our own PR convenor.

On Friday 26th Feb, our club ran a Primary Schools Quiz Competition with 6 out of 8 local primary schools taking part- (the missing 2 were already committed elsewhere). Teams of four primary 7 children fought it out for the newly acquired “Presidents Cup”. The winning team will represent Linlithgow in the District Quiz Competition. It was an excellent morning with excitement and a highly charged atmosphere – that was just the Rotarians! You should have experienced the tension when the teams entered the arena!! Again, the local newspaper was present for photographs and PR. The winning team was presented with the trophy, then immediately asked to return it for engraving. Our club team who prepared this event, will accompany me, to once again present the trophy to the winning team at the school assembly in the near future.

On Monday 1st March, our club evening has been re-designated a “Membership Extension Evening”. We have around six people attending with a view to finding out more about Rotary and possibly becoming Rotarians. We have invited them to share a meal, hear about Rotary and our club activities, and then have a chance to talk to our membership who will man activity/information stations for each committee. Our objective is to recruit at least one, possibly two new Rotarians. I shall keep you posted.

Apologies for the long blog post. I am off now, to lie down until Monday evening!!

Jim Rae
President
Rotary Club of Linlithgow Grange