Rotary Club of Ascot
Club
Service 2006-2007
October – December 2006
The Story so far
This was the quarter in which the best laid plans went somewhat awry. The proposed Race Night had to be deferred into the New Year due to difficulties in arranging appropriate accommodation. By the time the decision was made to reschedule, it as too late to put an alterative arrangement in place. This, coupled with the cancellation of the incoming visitors from our twin clubs, turned what was to have been a busy month into rather a quiet one.
We compensated for that in November, with a very popular visit to the New Victoria theatre, Woking, for a performance of Guys and Dolls. We also enjoyed the first of the Jazz Nights at Jagz at the Station, Ascot, with our very own Rotarian David Jones leading on the trumpet.
Mike Lustig organised a stall at the Sunninghill Victorian fair for us, where he was selling DVDs and Videos. This stall raised a useful £246 for Thames Hospicecare.
In
December we entered our run up to Christmas, and the annual Christmas
Collection at Waitrose in Sunningdale.
Once again, David Jones organised live jazz to be played during the day,
and we collected a total of £1,620. Our
main charity this year was “Crossroads – Caring for Carers”, who provide
respite for carers in the Windsor and Maidenhead area.
We
celebrated Christmas in style with our Black Tie Christmas Dinner, this year
held at the Royal Ascot Golf Club. Our
guests included Gordon and Anne Parris of the Children with Special Needs Foundation,
and during the evening we presented that organisation with a cheque for £5,200
as part of our contribution towards a minibus for a local school serving
children with special needs.
Finally,
and not strictly within the December window, we kicked off the New Year with
the Sunninghill Wheelbarrow Race. This
was the first year that the event has been officially run in conjunction with
our club, and it was a big learning experience for those involved. The weather was kind, but it was a little
disappointing that only 7 of the expected 12 teams turned up. This will undoubtedly reduce the income from
that of the previous year, but we will not have figures until February time.
Coming Events
Our first social event of the New Year is another Jazz evening at Jagz, on Sunday 21st January. This will feature the 11 piece Vo-De-O-Do Orchestra, playing music from the 20’s and 30’s. Tickets are available via Peter Batterbee
This is quickly followed by a Quiz Night, organised by Mike Lustig, and taking place on Friday 26th January at the Sunningdale WI hall. Tickets available from Mike.
In February – is this Race Meeting blighted? We had rearranged the Race Meeting (postponed from October) into February, but now the bookmaker who was going to run it has sold up and retired. So, plan C is that we will organise the event ourselves, but it will now have to be moved to autumn of 2007.
We will try to fit in some alternative arrangement, but again it may be too short notice.
On the fund-raining front, the Golf 2007 sub-committee has been constituted, and will be working on the plans for that event, to take place in August. We also have the Sunningdale Carnival coming up in May, so need to formulate our ideas on our presence there.
Ian Valentine
Chair, Club Service Committee