This could be the start of something good – Brue Valley helping at Wincanton Community Hospital

This week has seen many elderly and vulnerable people most at risk from COVID receiving their vaccinations at Wincanton Community Hospital. Their patience, good humour, resilience and relief that the end is possibly in sight was self evident. In a quiet and understated way Brue Valley Rotarians have helped with marshalling, car parking, providing directions, sanisting (people and wheelchairs) and generally helping to ensure the process is as easy as possible for those attending. Sanitiser, face masks, gel and more serious PPE is available in abundance as are crisps, biscuits, coffee etc provided by Morrisons.

Saturday’s vaccine was the Pfizer one; today’s saw the Oxford – AstraZeneca featuring. The latter is a much quicker process as patients aren’t subject to the 15 minute observation required by the Pfizer one.

To be sure it’s tedious work and the shifts are long; somehow though it all seems worthwhile when Mr Joe Public said today, “Thanks for doing this, your doing a good job”. Shiver!

Vaccinations pause tomorrow (Monday) and resume on Tuesday for seven consecutive days.

RW

Water is now flowing in Kitogani !

In just over two weeks the Tower has been finished and the water tank has been raised onto the top of the tower. Work has started on digging the well and so far 4 metres has been dug. The well will provide a reservoir but more funds are needed in order to drill down to 12 m to provide a reliable water supply. The pump is working to transfer water from the well to the water tank.

Water running out of the water tank !

Mud Mud Glorious Mud? Brue Valley’s Seasonal Stroll

Flanders and Swann’s iconic Hippopotamus Song might well reflect the somewhat unwelcome theme of last Tuesday’s Brue Valley Seasonal Stroll!

The yellow weather warning wasn’t auspicious. It promised sleet, rain and low temperatures. Despite this Anne S, Colin J, Trina, Nicky, Karen, Graham (plus Fleur), Anne W and the writer were all kitted up and ready to leave at the appointed 10:00 am departure time. Missing from the equation though were Mr President and Sandra. The consternation caused by their absence was immense, and only mitigated by information that Mr President had cocked up the timing and would meet us, with Sandra, at a mid point.

To say it was muddy would be an understatement. Despite the difficult walking conditions the 6.5 mile walk via North Barrow, Alford and Dimmer was completed by all. The weather proved the forecasters wrong with the rain holding off until the return to Castle Cary. Not a word was said about the misrepresentation that the walk would take 2h 30.min or so (apologies to all but it was the mud – honest!). Refreshments were taken in a socially distanced way at or near Café Dewsbury; that plus the opportunity to meet and talk with other members of our wonderful Club must have been the highlights of an agreeable Seasonal Stroll.

Kitogani – Taps and Toilets – The work has started !

The Rotary Club of Brue Valley has managed to raise enough funds for the water sanitation project in Kitogani to get started. We would like to thank all those for their generous donations on https://www.gofundme.com/f/water-and-sanitation-project-in-zanzibar as well as the grants that District 1200 and Rotary International have made towards the project. We would also like to thank the Rotary Club of Stone Town in Zanzibar for their cooperation in this project.

This is just a start so we will still need more funds and any further donations will be very welcome.

You can monitor progress at https://hajisimba.wixsite.com/tapsandtoilets/copy-of-the-costs

Less than a week after starting the project, the site has been cleared, the sand and blocks have been unloaded, the 5000l tank has been delivered and the tower on which it will be mounted has started to grow!

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The water tank is now on the tower !

Morrisons and Brue Valley Raise £551.12 for Children In Need

Brue Valley Rotary have worked together with Morrisons in Wincanton to raise £551.12 for BBC Children In Need.

In previous years members of the Rotary Club of Brue Valley dressed up in fancy dress and collected for BBC Children in Need in pubs and restaurants in our area.

We could obviously could not do that this year and we had to think of another way.

We put our thinking caps on and came up with the idea of contacting Morrisons in Wincanton.

They could not have been more helpful.

If we prepared some suitable collection buckets they would place them on their tills, count the donations and transfer them to BBC Children In Need.

Many thanks to the staff at Morrisons in Wincanton as well to all those who placed a donation in the buckets.

Our 10th Charter Night

On the 1^st December we marked our 10^th Anniversary of becoming a Rotary Club.  We had planned a big party for the 28^th November but that has been postponed because of coronavirus.  Nevertheless, we marked the occasion via Zoom and President Andrew D declared

“Over the ten years we have been a Rotary club, we have grown from a band of 20 members to 36 (soon to be 37), including two Paul Harris fellows and two honorary members.

We have donated over £80,000 to local and international causes, as well as our part in raising £250k through the Classics and Supercar Show.

We have helped numerous local charities and causes as well as projects in Bulgaria, Zambia, Zanzibar and India.  We have travelled to Zambia and India, not least to help in the National Immunisation Day there to give polio vaccinations to 172 million children in one day!  We have also received a Rotary visit from Turkey.

We like to think we are famous for our bacon baps and we are widely regarded as a friendly, lively and informal club that nevertheless gets things done, even if the banter is a little much at times.  I am proud of the fact that over a third of our members are ladies in what used to be an exclusively male organisation and also that we have seven couples as members.

So, I think our first ten years have been a great success and we have built a strong foundation for the next ten.  Let’s raise our glasses to Brue Valley Rotary Club.”

A toast was duly drunk and we sang “Happy Birthday” to celebrate.  We all look forward to the real party, which has been re-scheduled for June 2021, when we hope to be able to hold such events again.