The Rotary Club of Middlesbrough Erimus

The President, Eric Johnson, opened the meeting by welcoming two guests, Julie Rodwell and Lisa Carney, from Park End School. Julie thanked Rotary for the mentoring support given by members in helping to listen to the children read and support on day trips. Julie said that Rotary has become a big part of the school activities, “You look everywhere and there is an old man or lady helping out!” Every child has progressed well with reading and the children are very appreciative. There is lots of work and effort going in but it is great to see the progress the children are making. The mindset at the school is that we teach children to read but the big bonus is the adult help provided by Rotary. Julie had comments from children about their experience with the mentoring approach. Regarding David Jackson for example one child said “If I get stuck Mr J helps me. He makes me laugh.” A comment about Jeff Taylor by another child was “He gave me a great history lesson, he always listens.” Liz Sloper helps and one child said “She lets me go on word shack and has helped me be a better reader”. These are a small number of the comments which show how successful the initiative is.

Lisa explained a fund raising challenge that the school is organising to help Middlesbrough Erimus Rotary Club in their charity initiative to provide ShelterBoxes. The plan is to travel the equivalent distance from Cape Town to Cairo by getting sponsorship for children to use exercise cycles, adults to do sponsored walks and even sponsor a 100 miles during rounds of golf. Cards will be sold for £5 with the aim of completing 100 miles towards the 5000 mile target. There are many innovative ideas including a race night for parents on an evening after school. The plan is to be able to buy two ShelterBoxes at £590 each to be used in case on natural disasters in the world. President Eric Johnson said “This is an excellent initiative which we will also help you with.” Geoff Taylor, past President of the club offered a vote of thanks for two excellent presentations by Julie and Lisa.

The President, Eric Johnson, welcomed Dave Cox who is second in command at the Redcar RNLI lifeboat station. Dave, his father and brother have been lifeboat men at Redcar with his father joining in 1948. Dave presented on the history of the RNLI up to present day. Redcar had a Zetland lifeboat from 1802 – one of the first in the country. The Zetland rescued over 1000 people in its 50 years of service.
Continue reading →

The President Eric Johnson welcomed members and guests to the special presentation evening. He welcomed Nick Walton an honorary member of the club who recently competed in the special skiing games in Pila Italy for the first time. During the competition he won silver for the giant slalom, silver for the slalom and fourth place in the Super G. This excellent set of results means that Nick will compete again next year.

There was a special welcome for the guests representing the charities being presented with cheques tonight from money raised during our Santa and float evenings touring parts of Middlesbrough, Nunthorpe and Marton. The weather was much better this year and the float was paraded on all planned nights just prior to Christmas with over £2,000 collected.

Continue reading →

The President, Eric Johnson, thanked all the members who supported the Santa sleigh charity event held over 10 evenings leading up to Christmas. The effort raised £2380.40 for local charities and donations have been given to, for example, food parcel support for local people and the Salvation Army. There will be a presentation evening on 21 Feb attended by Major Robert Johnson who will present an overview of the Salvation Army work in the uk and abroad. Future charity events were discussed with a proposal to hold a charity concert and the possibility of a race night to raise funds for local charities. The Tree of Life at MIMA over the Christmas period was a success with many notes posted on the tree. MIMA would like this event organised again next year.
Continue reading →