We have a good laugh in Rotary - as well as work hard

The end of September draws near. It won’t be long before Rotary clubs all around the country will making final touches to their plans for the Christmas activities; parties, celebrations, carol concerts and major collections by going door to door with Father Christmas and his sleigh or having them outside supermarkets and in shopping precincts.
It was good to see Rotary working with yet another charitable organisation. After recently joining forces with the Oddfellows to run the Young Singer of The Year Competition, one Rotary club has worked with Soroptimists International, Plymouth Branch. They had a ‘Wishing Tree’ in Dingles for five and a half days and then put on a ‘Celebration of Youth Music’ in Theatre 1, The Levinsky Building, at Plymouth University. It was a wonderful display of the full range of musical talents of young people. Both of these raised much-needed funds for The Precious Lives Appeal of Children’s Hospice South West. You will have seen the news item on TV showing the first turf being cut ready to make a start on the new facility being built near St Austell, Little Harbour.
I was delighted to be asked to take part in Plymouth High School for Girls’ “Shake, Rattle and Role” - Social Enterprise Day Activity. This was organised by the Tamar Business Education Partnership. As a representative of ShelterBox, I, and another, gave a presentation to a class of girls about the work of ShelterBox. The girls were set in groups, and each group then had to devise a presentation of their own which was to persuade the general public to make donations to our cause. Similar things were happening in three other rooms with Water Aid, Jeremiah’s Journey and Transplant Sport UK as other organisations taking part.
The winner in each charity group then went forward to a “Final”, in the afternoon, which was judged by the Deputy Lord Mayor of Plymouth.
The rest of my week, after that, was spent mostly in a horizontal position suffering from some awful back pain. Vast quantities of prescribed painkillers and much laziness appear to have produced the desired effect and I am now about to restart my routine of visits to clubs and other activities.