Former President Simon Lumby presented a cheque for £1000 to Young Carers South Staffordshire on behalf of the Club. Simon was joined by Lorna Beedham the Governor for district 1060. Young Carers are under the age of 18 and look after someone with a chronic/terminal illness, disability, mental health problem or an alcohol or drug addiction/dependency. They may be looking after a family member or friend. Young Carers South Staffordshire raise awareness of the existence of Young Carers and their needs. They provide guidance, information and support to those working with Young Carers and in many other ways provide guidance and emotional support so that Young Carers have opportunities in life available to other young people. The photograph taken at the George Hotel, Lichfield features from left to right -President Simon Lumby, Mandy Rollins, Young Carers Project Manager and District Governor Lorna Beedham.

THE INTERACT CLUB of THE FRIARY SCHOOL, LICHFIELD

The Interact Club of The Friary School, Lichfield has done a magnificent job in raising £1000 for the Wateraid charity over the course of the last 12 months. Our Pictures show (from left to right) the school's Head Teacher, Mr David Lister, together with Sarah-Jayne O'Kane who sits on the Wateraid Regional Committee and Interact President Jessica Fellows - a year 11 student at The Friary. Jessica is also seen receiving a Presidential citation - a citation awarded personally by John Kenny who is the President of Rotary International no less  - on behalf of the Interact Club members. Assistant Governor Steve Cartwright is presenting the award as representative of District Govenor Lorna Beedham who was at the Interact Club a week or two ago and put forward the Interact members for the award. Rod Cooper, Martyn Anker and Sam Ellicott also enjoyed the occassion. Very well done Friary School Interact Club - we are proud of you! Thanks to The Friary School, its teachers and students.

This is the front page of the Lichfield Mercury for 5 August 2010. If you would like to read the full article, which tells some of the story of our three Ps project, click here. Thanks to the endeavours of Rotarian Keith Eagland our efforts have now been recognised by the district council as well as the Mercury and we thank them both for their encouragement and support. For those of you who are not familiar with the three Ps project it was brought about by three of our past Presidents - Keith Eagland, Martyn Anker and Simon Lumby - deciding to give back to Lichfield some of the funds raised at Cars in the Park (our annual classic car event held at beacon park during the first weekend of July) and other fundraising events organised by the Club.

It's ANT & DEC! Rtn. Brian Lomas with Rtn. David Jeacock

One from the archives. Please remember kids out coming soon.

Martyn's presentation to Simon

Simon and Lorna with Mandy

Visit to the Mailbox March 2010 The Next Wogan?

Fellowship Visit to the BBC (Mail Box) Birmingham   21 Members, Partners and Friends visited the BBC Birmingham on Thursday 18th March 2010.   As there is a maximum of 15 persons per tour, our party was divided into two tours, one commencing at 1700hrs and the other at 1800hrs. We were met by our tour guides, Debbie and Clare who after a formal welcome, explained why the BBC transferred from Pebble Mill to the Mail Box.   The reason being that Pebble Mill was too large with lots of corridors, large studios and not suited to broadcasting in the 21st Century.   Our first stop was at the Five Radio Studios where Radio West Midlands is broadcast from.   As you will observe in the photograph Sid was being auditioned for a future programme.   Unfortunately we were unable to see the “Archers” Studio as future members of the cast were being auditioned.   Before moving onto the television floor, there is a long corridor in which are situated the editing rooms and final production of programmes that are made in Birmingham.   The two current programmes are the “Doctors” which is made at a separate studio attached the Birmingham University and “Country File”. We then moved to the television floor where we rested in the “Green Room” (Room where artists and guests are able to relax prior to a broadcast) and there is no explanation why it is called the green room.  We were joined on our tour by two young ladies from Holland and a young man from Walsall who is joining Ed Doolan.   This young man read the auto cue of a weather forecast extremely well and pointed to the right places at the right time. Between the radio and TV floors is situated an additional floor containing 700 miles of cabling. Finally we were able to observe the news room and also Nick Owen and Suzanne Virdee preparing for the live broadcast of Midland Today at 1830 hrs.   They were situated in a corner of the news room as their normal studio was being revamped. The tour concluded with many of our party recording a sketch plus the sounds of various props.   It was quite a laugh but unfortunately the CD was not available for us to bring back to the Club. I can honestly say that this was a visit that was enjoyed by all and nothing was too much trouble for either of our two guides.   Many would like to visit the BBC again.

Cheltenham Weekend The following Pictures were submitted by Brian Lomas. Thanks Brian, especially for the hand holding one - true love never dies!

Simon Lumby, John May and Sam Ellicott.

Talking Newspapers for the Blind This week it was our pleasure to host as our speaker John May who spends a lot of his time - particularly Thursdays - putting together a "talking" newspaper for local blind people. The BBC is fantastic - it is one of the Country's greatest achievements and the radio and television coverage is second to none! However, when it comes to local news and the things we want to hear about which are happening in our street or village or in the local shopping area we have to turn to local information and for most of us that means the local papers. For a blind person their chances of finding out in detail what's going on locally  (especially if they live on their own) is practically zero. This is where John and his team come in. They gather up all the local papers and record the content. Local people volunteer to read the papers out loud and their efforts are recorded using state of the art equipment under John's supervision. When the recordings have been made the content is transferred to memory sticks and these are sent out to blind people in the post. On receipt the memory stick just has to be plugged into the special "radio" (also supplied by John) and the news, sport and everything else is played back. The radio has stop, start, skip and replay functions so there is total control over the content played. For someone whose sight is not what it used to be these newspapers on a stick are a Godsend. Well Done John for putting your heart and soul into Talking Newspapers and thanks for a very entertaining and informative evening.

	The forties night organised by John Cox was a great success with "Something Special" providing the entertainment. An authentic wartime meal was served up by Phil and the staff at The George Hotel and a good time was had by all. The memories came flooding back helped along by both the music and the dressing up! Fine examples of those who got dolled up are shown here: left Martyn and Sue Anker; right Keith Eagland;  below Keith and Janet tripping the light fantastic, Mike Cook and Martyn with his bird Sue.

£533.03 on its way to Haiti On Sunday last, 17 January, eight of our members (Club plus Inner Wheel) turned out to support the Haiti earthquake victims by organising a bucket collection at Shenstone Garden Centre. Well done indeed to Sam and Judy Ellicott, Ken and Joan Sharman, Keith and Mary Lou Goodbody and Steve Cartwright. Thank you Shenstone Garden Centre for responding so magnificently to our early morning request for help. Above left are Keith and Mary Lou. Steve Cartwright is on the right. Photography and reporting by Mrs Gail Cartwright.

Past President Keith with Sarah. www.sudep.org

Martyn comes up with the goods! Jeremy Hobbs, representative of Help for Heroes, collects a cheque on behalf of the lads and lasses
David, the new Secretary	Cartwright and Cooper
Chris, Pam and Jackie - Inner Wheel	Paul and Liz - their glass is always half full!
John being welcomed as Treasurer by Simon	John and Keith at Cars in the Park
Nolleen and Sue	Oh do stop larkin' about.
Blind Dave - a very good friend of ours	Sid Harlow meets Paul Harris - Chicago