Bishop Auckland Crest Rotary Wheel Castle Gate,Town Hall,Viaduct,1955 F.A. Cup Winners
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Charter no 1783
08th. April- Bishop Auckland Rotary. - 1929.
R.I.B.I No. 154
Our Named Charities this year are: The Insulin Pump Appeal, The Air Ambulance and the Butterwick Children's Hospice
Butterwick Hospice Website
Insulin Pump Website
Start Website
RIBI Website
Bishop Auckland Golf Club

Charity Car Park

Bishop Auckland Rotary run a charity cark park in the centre of Bishop Auckland, Which is open to the public between the hours of 10a.m. & 2p.m. every Saturday. The fee is £1.50 per car and through their use of this car park members of the public contribute - on average - £1560 a year all of which goes to local charities. The only stipulation is that you must remove your car no later than 2p.m. at which time the car park is locked and reverts to a private car park.

Horse Riding for the Disabled

Horse Riding for the Disabled

07 July 2009 President Brian Shaw's first official duty was to present a cheque for £500.00 to this very worthy cause. Horse Riding for the Disabled is a local charity situated in Escomb Village approx. 3 miles from Bishop Auckland. As well as catering for riders from beginners to expert they also provide horse riding facilities for special needs and the disabled of all ages.

Receiving the cheque on behalf of the riding school was Kath Scales (left of picture) and Lynne Garfoot

Heel and Toe Centre for Children with Cerebral Palsy

A donation of £500 made to Heel and Toe The Heel and Toe Centre was established for children with Cerebral Palsy, providing a special system of learning called Conductive Education.

The Centre provides a special system of learning called Conductive Education. They now provide conductive education to children from Durham, Northumberland, Tyneside, Tees side, Gateshead and North Yorkshire.

Receiving the cheque on behalf of Heel and Toe was Jackie Bannister.

Heel & Toe,
The Meadows
Whitworth Lane
Spennymoor
Co .Durham
DL16 7QW.

Multiple Sclerosis Presentation

Multiple Sclerosis

President Brain Shaw (left) and Rotarian Keith Patton (far right) presenting a cheque for £500.00 to Kitty Stobbs and Kathleen Nattrass of the Stanhope and Weardale Multiple Sclerosis Society.

A donation of £250.00 was made to Middlesbrough Rotary Club HIV/Aids Project in Uganda.

Immediate Past President's Message

Well! The end of my year as President of Bishop Auckland Rotary has finally arrive and the thing many people ask is "have I enjoyed it"? I can honestly say that I have enjoyed the experience immensely.

Although the first half of the year leading up to Christmas was relatively uneventful and quiet (with only one charity fund raising function at the local golf club in aid of Project Share) I think I really began to get into the swing and enjoy it after the annual Rotary Carol Service held in St. Andrews Church at South Church, although my wife and I are not (by any means (normally funerals and weddings)) regular church goers we enjoyed the evening greatly. This was followed by the Christmas message at Bishop Auckland Town Hall full to capacity with Rotarians and their guests

After Christmas things livened up, we had the membership drive to organise (under the chairmanship of Rotarian Tony Thompson and his sub-committee, full report here...) for the annual town Food Festival and our other major Rotary event - our first golf tournament (under the chairmanship of Rotarian Keith Patton and his sub-committee, full report here...).

In addition to these two ongoing complex and time consuming events, we also had to continue with our normal bread and butter charity fund raising. We had our usual Christmas Tree Appeal out-side the Newgate Centre and a we held a terrific social night at our local Bistro, which we completely took over for the night. We enjoyed our end of year Wine and Strawberry evening at Bishop Auckland Golf Club and Morrisons kindly allowed us to hold a charity collection in their Bishop Auckland Store.

All in all a busy year and at the end of it we have had an increase of eight new members, two more to be inducted within the next few weeks and possibly another two or three interested. Now it just remains to welcome Brian Shaw as our new President for 2009-2010 and wish him every success in his year.

Stephen Harris

President's Message

When a bloke invites you to dinner, that’s worrying! When he insists on paying, for worrying, read alarming! Be at The Queens Head at a quarter past six next Tuesday. It was an instruction, not an invitation, so that was all right then. Sanity resumed. That was my introduction to Rotary, or to be more precise, Bishop Auckland Rotary Club, an eclectic mix of individuals representing a cross section of the local community through varied professions, assembled together and united by a single, but equally diverse, objective, to help those who ask for it and to support causes identified by worldwide concern.

This group of individuals were in fact a team that I would soon become part of, amidst a realisation that below the outward appearance of a casual get together lay a genuine purpose, a vocation almost, undertaken with a minimum of effort but with maximum results. Business was discussed, observations and recommendations made and conclusions arrived at with an efficiency that comes only with years of experience. “Service Above Self” is the motto of the Rotary Organisation, and I was seeing this virtue applied at the highest degree.

After attending two or three meetings, (where by now I was paying for my own dinner), I was invited to join Bishop Auckland Rotary Club and after giving this suggestion due consideration, about two seconds I think, my future as a Rotarian was assured. Six years later, I write this as President of said club, a position I am both proud to have attained, and which I consider an honour to hold.

The words fun and rewarding should appear next to each other in the Rotary dictionary, if there is one, and in our forthcoming Rotary Year they do. The usual suspects are all present, the ever popular classic Wine and Strawberries evening, the Brain of Britain Quiz where we seek to prove to the rest of the Rotarians in the county that it isn’t the winning that counts, and the annual Inter Rotary Snooker Tournament where, as current champions, we seek to show that it is the winning that counts, The mandatory 7,896 rounds of golf will take place, under the heading of fun, and even this year, as winners of the Swinbank Golf Trophy, under the heading of rewarding. Mark Twain would have us believe that a round of golf is a good walk spoilt, but, then, what did he know about golf! These ever present events will be tempered with new events during the year, a Race Night already having been arranged by our Senior Vice President, and a guided tour of Durham cathedral waiting in the wings, or should that be the cloisters?

Thanks are due to outgoing President Stephen Harris, whose determined enthusiasm throughout his tenure combined with the dedication, expertise and loyalty of members around him resulted in one of the most successful years Bishop Auckland Rotary Club has experienced in recent times, both in strengthening the club, and, through helping charities financially, increasing their standing in the local community.

I am looking forward to my year as President, and thank all the members for giving me the opportunity to try, with their support, to make a difference. Rock band Led Zeppelin featured a particularly fine record on their second album in 1971 called Ramble On. Thanks for reading. Ramble over!

Brian Shaw

President

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Bishop Auckland Rotary's Second Annual Golf Tournament Thursday June 10th. 2010 Download the entry form here...

Another member for the Bishop Auckland Rotary Club.

On 19th January 2010 our President Brian Shaw inducted Christine Robertson our 12th new member in two years. Welcome to Bishop Auckland Rotary Club Christine.

Race Night
 At a recent Race night £1250.0 Donation to scouts from proceeds of Race night £150
Shelter box appeal£300

 

Bishop Auckland Rotary inducts new members.

New Rotarian M

One of Brain Shaw's first tasks as newly elected President of Bishop Auckland Rotary was to induct further new members into Rotary. Pictured above are Sue and Nick Cooke while below he is shown welcoming George Souter back into Rotary. George was a member of Bishop Auckland Rotary Club many years ago but pressures of work caused him to relinquish his membership at that time. Sue is only the second lady to become a member of our club.

New Rotarian

A donation of £100.00 was made to the Rotary Club of Helston Lizard in Cornwall for their Sri Lanka and Pakistan shelter box scheme

A donation of £100.00 has been made to the Breast Cancer Campaign

The French Connection

A donation of £100.00 was made to "The French Connection." No, not the film of the same name featuring a very young Gene Hackman, the "French Connection" to which I refer is a community based twinning as opposed to a town twinning. Families from Weardale enjoy an alternate year exchange visit with families from "Le Plateau Vert" in Normandy.

A night at the Bistro

£350.0 was raised from what has proved to be a very popular social event held in the Bistro on Cockton Hill, Bishop Auckland on the 27th November 2009.

Evergreen Primary School Warwick Road, Bishop Auckland.

Continuing our support of this very worthy cause, £500.00 was donated to assist them in purchasing a 17 seater mini bus with a tail lift.

Rotary's Annual Christmas Tree Street Collection.

As usual this was held a few days prior to Christmas and although the weather was appalling and in spite of the present economic climate we still managed to raise a very creditable total of £962.00 slightly down on previous years. However a very special thanks must go to the people of Bishop Auckland, our donators, and we must not forget the hardy Rotarians that braved the ice and snow.

19/01/2010

A further £500.00 has been donated to buy a shelter box for Haiti where it is much needed.

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