Our Events

      2009/2010

TECHNOLOGY TOURNAMENT

SHINING LIGHTS !

Over one hundred students from nine schools stretching from Penrith to Milnthorpe came together at The Hydro Hotel, Bowness-on-Windermere to demonstrate their organisational and design skills at the recent Technology Tournament organized by the Rotary Club of Windermere and supported by other Clubs. The event which is in its fifth year was sponsored by BAE Systems.

Each team of four students was given an identical set of materials and, having considered a number of designs to satisfy the criteria, set about building their apparatus for the panel of judges. The teenagers had to design and build a beacon with a flashing light on top and displaying an advertising billboard. The display had to show an advertisement for a new charity of the students’ choice. Extra marks were gained the longer the beacon was able to flash.

Organisers were again impressed with the enthusiasm and diligence shown by the students as they applied themselves to the task. “I believe that the students really enjoyed their day as did those who helped to organise the event” said the Rotary Organiser Wilf Ellis, adding “the same task is set nationally by Rotary to really stretch the wits of the youngsters”.

The task is only revealed on the day and the teachers are not permitted to help and indeed are themselves set an advanced task to complete. The teachers were joined this year, in their efforts, by our MP Tim Farron, who pitched in with great enthusiasm. He said he soon appreciated that they were excellent teachers as he was the dunce of the group.

Prizes were awarded to students in 3 age ranges and cups and books were handed out by Cllr Bill Smith, the Mayor of Windermere. The basic task for younger students was won by Queen Katherine School in Kendal, the intermediate by Windermere St Anne’s School and the advanced by Kirkbie Kendal B.

Mick Eady, Rotary’s Governor for the North West was present and said “it gives them the chance to do something outstanding and challenge themselves against other schools. The fact that they are all here on a school day shows that schools see the benefit it brings”

 

News update: Tents top priority in Haiti

 

LATE BURNS NIGHT

This was the second occasion that President Rob had chaired our Burns Night which he did with his usual flair. The meal was excellent, as always at the Hydro, comprising Melon, Haggis, a choice of Pheasant, Venison or Salmon followed by Tipsy Laird Trifle & Coffee. The Haggis was ceremoniously piped in by piper Richard Cowie who proceeded to address it with great feeling before stabbing it dead and allowing the assembled company to partake of portions of such a fine winged and five legged delicacy.
Don’s brother Iain Kelso who was hilariously funny ably proposed following the Loyal Toast, The Immortal Memory. President Rob then proposed a toast to the Lassies in verse form to which Christine McGraw as president of Inner Wheel responded in equal verse. The Haggis then responded to it’s toast through the medium of Richard Cowie and the evening was rounded off with a couple of verses of Auld Lang Syne.
Credit was given to Ernie and Anne Fallowfield and Don and Mary Kelso as organisers, to Don for his usual humorous toastmaster routine, to Barbara Willcox for the table flowers and to Ed Baily for the menus.
One joke appropriate to the occasion was about a pub in Aberdeen which for it’s 100th Anniversary was selling beer at 2p a pint and the pub was empty. An enquiry about this revealed that the Aberdonians were awaiting for Happy Hour.

CHARTER ANNIVERSARY DINNER OCTOBER

Our club is now 63 years old and we celebrated that Birthday in style at the Hydro. As well as our own members we had visitors, with their wives, husbands and partners from 14 different clubs in our immedite area. The occasion was a splendid black tie affair with everybody, even the men, looking their best. President Alan was in the chair for the evening and after the meal we were entertained by a brilliant young harpist, Kate Anna Pearson who lent a sophisticated air to the  speeches which were to follow. A latish finish did not take the gloss off the evening and everyone retired home to a well deserved rest whilst making a note to be present at our 64th Celebration

   

   

   

 

                      

Our Annual Golf Am/Am saw 31 teams of golfers from across our North West area taking part in an enjoyable,
if wet, day of great golfing skills.

The hope was “Third Time Lucky” but not to be so for the third year in a row waterproofs and umbrellas were again the order of the day for the earlier starters at the Club’s annual AM/AM golf competition.  At one point  about 06.20am, yes some of us were up getting ready for the day at that time, it looked as though we may have to call the event off but no come the 06.55am weather forecast it was right and the weather faired up as the day progressed

 

31 teams took part travelling from near & far.   Despite the conditions, the Windermere course was in immaculate condition thanks to all the effort of David Wilkinson and the greens team.  Windermere Golf club did us proud again with the hospitality extended by Peter and his bar team along with Colin & Liz the caterers.

 

This years main winners were ‘The Ambleside Fore’ lead by Mike Thornton with a great score of 123pts and in a reversal of last years places Holbeck Ghyll lead by David Nicholson with 120pts cpo were second and our new Rotarian Dave Fletcher of ADL with 120pts cpo were third.  Special winners were the Junior Team, lead by Junior Captain Will McAllister, invited by the Club to enter our event and in fact they had the best score of 132pts and were presented with special prizes.

 

 

      PRESIDENTIAL HANDOVER

July 1st is the beginning of a new Rotary Year throughout the world. This day sees all the Rotary Club Presidents taking  over from their predecessors and all other club officers starting the new year with them.
Our new President is Alan Katz and all our members wish him a happy and successful year in office.
Manchester born Alan and Susan have a long association with Windermere and have lived here since 1990. A retired accountant, Alan is a keen supporter of events like our golf AM AM, Airshow, Windermere Walks, and Youth Concerts that fit with his themes of supporting youth and promoting health. These are all fun events where Rotarians happily give our time and experience also to raise substantial funds. “Not at all our only priority, fund raising does help promote well being and relieve suffering through many local and international charities that we support. Most Rotarians also give their time directly. This may be to support our youth, our elderly, the sick and disadvantaged, be that individually, through Club activities, and by helping other organisations in these objectives”.

“ We all enjoy the many aspects of Rotary in different ways. We may give as much or as little time as we wish and can spare to service.  The common thread is that we all greatly enjoy each others’ company around our weekly dinner meetings and many  social events, we get to know each other really well and that is the foundation for also enjoying working closely together for service to others”. 

        

     2008/2009

      MILLENNIUM GAMES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all know that the Year is coming to a close when we have the Annual Millennium Games Day. This year, the competition between our club and our Inner Wheel Club took place at President Rob's home. He and Christine very generously gave us the run of house and gadrden to play our dominoes, quoits, Jenga, putting and pick up sticks. Prior to that though, we all enjoyed a sumptuous buffet lunch and drinks which nobody really wanted to leave in order to play strenuous and demanding games. Eventually, after an heroic last ditch move by the Rotarians, Inner Wheel triumphed by a margin best forgotten. Our thanks to everybody but particularly our two Presidents, Rob and Christine and their spouses Christine and Alan. Very Well Done to you all!

    DISTRICT CONFERENCE

Recently several of our members and their wives ventured into Yorkshire to our Annual District Conference in Leeds.

 

 

 

 

                                                                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VALENTINE'S DAY

Our club's social life is also full of fun. We held a Valentine's party on Valentine's Day - we are surely the 'Romantics' of Windermere. This was a Jacob's Join Evening with entertainment provided by our own members and friends. The highlights of the event were the quizzes and the illusions provided by the two resident Artistes - Geoff Stocker and Mike Fletcher. Needless to say, a very enjoyable and romantic evening was had by all.

 

 

 

 

TECHNOLOGY TOURNAMENT [March]

The Annual Schools Technology Tournament was once again hosted in our area by our club. The Hydro kindly allowed us to hold the event there and the hotel was very lively all day. There were 21 teams of four pupils who were challenged to launch a sphere [table tennis ball] into space [10 metres above a table]  from the launch pad. The launch pad had to be constructed, as did the sphere carrier, from an assortment of wood, card, rubber bands, polystyrene cup, paper clips, cotton, sellotape and wire.

Teamwork and creativity were of the essence and some very commendable results were presented by all the teams. There had to be winners in each of three classes but everybody, including the judges, thoroughly enjoyed their day. The winners of the Basic, Intermediate and Senior classes were - Queen Katherine's School Kendal; Kirkbie Kendal School and Ullswater School.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHRISTMAS 2008

President Rob, along with other Rotarians, was in good voice at our Annual Carols Evening at the Hydro Hotel. An excellent audience came along and enjoyed being entertained by various performers as well as a "choir" of all the men in the audience who became Good King Wenceslas!

The girls of the Windermere Junior School gave us a wonderful Christmas play in words and song with many welll known carols amongst their repertoire. Sue Almond, the school's music teacher had trained the children wonderfully and they were brilliant. They looked great too - all in red T shirts and Christmas hats - well done girls!

Our music for the evening was once again provided by Burneside Brass under the baton of Stuart Moore, their leader and director - they played with obvious professionalism and were so very good at accompanying the amateur voices.

Kathryn West, who has sung for us on two previous occasions was delightful as she sang two Carols unaccompanied and enthralled the audience with her beautiful looks and voice. We thank all our contributors and are pleased that a collection will help our work at this time of year in our local Community.

 

 

 

 

CHARTER ANNIVERSARY DINNER 2008
Our Annual Charter Anniversary Dinner and Celebration Evening was held on October 22nd at The Hydro.
For the second time, we invited our Ladies and the Ladies of our visiting Rotary Club members to join us for this occasion.
We were 117 in number and our visitors came from Rotary Clubs as far afield as Carlisle and Lancaster to spend a very enjoyable evening with us.
President Rob had also invited two guests  who provided us with excellent entertainment - Kathryn West, a young singer who sang four songs for us accompanied by her music teacher on his guitar and Paul Harkness - the UK Formula 1 sailing champion who regaled us with his sailing exploits and encouraged us to take up the sport.
A highlight of the evening was the unexpected presentation by President Rob of Paul Harris Fellowships to two of our members - Peter Nattrass and John Tiscornia. District Governor Tony Parrini was on hand to assist in the actual presentations.

 

    

 

 

 

Wine Tasting 7^th November 2008
Following two successful years and thanks to our good friends Deborah and Kevin who supply the wine and the script, we are    arranging another “Call My Bluff” Wine Tasting evening at the Marchesi Centre on 7th November at 7.30pm. The Panel will be the same as before with Deborah, Kevin and President Rob McGraw but we shall deal with the scoring a little differently.
If you enjoy drinking wine and having a laugh trying to decide who is pulling your leg in describing each wine and all this in support of good Rotary causes, come along and support us. It only costs £8 including the wine, tea/coffee and a few biscuits etc. to cleanse the palate. There is also a raffle with good prizes.

 

AIRSHOW 2008
Well, what a weekend! The sun came out and so did you!
An incredible number of people, young and old, came to the Glebe to enjoy the best weekend of fun and interest that Bowness has ever seen. Once again our eighth WINDERMERE AIRSHOW proved to be an enormous attraction even without the superb aerobatics of the RAF Red Arrows team. For two days there was entertainment both on the ground and in the skies with glorious weather which not only brought people in their thousands but also benefitted all the shops and other tradespeople in and around Bowness.
We also benefitted a little from the fact that the weather was not as kind on the East coast where sadly for them, the Sunderland Airshow had to cancel all flying due to sea frets on Saturday and Sunday. We had a surprise visit by the Chinook Helicopter which lifted the Falcon parachutists after their drop onto the Glebe.
For more information and photos please go to the Airshow 2008 page.

 

 

 

 

We are very grateful for the support of our business sponsors. Our main sponsor, Lakeland Limited would be very pleased to see or hear from you at their Windermere Store or through their website. So if you are looking for accommodation, somewhere to eat, enjoy a drink or buy yourself that Lakeland present do please visit our sponsors - you can find them all here.

WE ALSO HELD OUR ANNUAL GOLF AM/AM ON 18TH JULY

For the second year in a row every picture tells a story!  Waterproofs and umbrellas were again the order of the day for the starters at the Club’s annual AM/AM golf competition. The weather faired up as the day progressed but with heavy over head cloud the later starter needed miners’ lamps for the last couple of holes, if only the sun had come out!!

 

38 teams took part travelling from near & far. There were 5 visiting Rotary Club teams with new boys in 2 teams from The Rotary Club of Richmond in North Yorkshire. Despite the conditions, the Windermere course was in immaculate condition thanks to all the effort of David Wilkinson and the greens team. Windermere Golf club did us proud again with the hospitality extended by Peter and his bar team along with Colin & Liz the caterers.

 

This years winners were ‘Lakes Golf led by Alex Wood with a magnificent score of 131pts followed by Dave Fletcher of ADL with 123pts and Holbeck Ghyll led by David Nicholson on 122pts.

 

Now who is going to benefit from the £2500+? just slipped the  memory!!! – Alzheimer’s and Prostrate Cancer UK in Cumbria area.  This brings the total raised by the AM/AM since its relaunch back in 1996 to over £34,000. The Club is again most grateful to Windermere Golf Club and the sponsors of the event. Thanks must also go to all the members of the club who assisted John with the setting up & running of the event on the day.

 

     

 

Our members hope that you may find something in our website pages to interest you. We are always very happy to welcome your involvement in our activities and events such as the AIRSHOW. This coming year we shall have new events and well tried and tested ones too.  Although we are not specifically a fund raising club we do support charities both locally and internationally and some of our events are aimed specifically at their needs. We would also encourage you to talk to us if you feel that membership of our club could be something you might welcome and enjoy.

OUR SPONSORED WALK

         

      Summer arrived at last in the Lake District – even though it was late September!  On a dry, warm, hazy day walkers from as far afield as Newcastle, Liverpool and Huddersfield set off from St Anne’s School, Windermere to walk 3, 5 or 10 miles for charity.  The high      point (quite literally) for each of the walks was Orrest Head, one of Wainwright’s favourite viewpoints.  As many of you know, Wainwright had his ashes scattered at Innominate Tarn (another of his ‘special’ places) and, as the first walkers reached the summit of Orrest Head, they witnessed another memorial service at which the ashes of a local walker were scattered. 
    
    Each walk was clearly marked and marshalled by Windermere Rotarians and refreshments were available for the walkers at the start and the finish.  A team from Inner Wheel, led by President Christine Pickering, raised money for the Altzheimer’s Society as a contribution to their ‘Memory Walk’. In addition, groups of walkers supported Med Equip 4 Kids, Marie Curie Nurses, Kirkwood Hospice for Kirklees, Bendrigg Lodge, the Rainbow Trust, and PIES (Partners in Education Swaziland).   

   This was the our first effort at organizing a sponsored walk where the participants nominated their own charities and it is hoped that this will become an annual event. 

2007/2008

During the year we shall have many events which are worth recording for both members' and perhaps your interest. We shall use this page to tell and show you what we as a club have done recently.

Our first two have been a members trip to Gateshead with local visits and our Golf AM/AM at Windermere Golf Club. Both have been very successful and our thanks are due to Fred Parker and John Tiscornia for organising these opening events.

 

 

 

 

On the way to Gateshead we all met at Durham Cathedral for coffee and a look at one of the Country's finest Cathedrals. Dating back to Anglo Saxon and Norman times this powerful building expresses clearly the style of secular architecture of the age. The columns of the nave are a wonder in themselves and everybody enjoyed seeing many features of the cathedral. The afternoon was reserved for a visit and tour of Sir Norman Foster's Sage Concert Hall on the quayside at Gateshead. Unfortunately we were not able to sample any music or theatre but we were all delighted with the wealth of information gleaned on the tour and the ambience of this very modern addition to Gateshead's facilities for music and theatre. The following day we went back in time and ended the trip with a visit to the Museum at Beamish.

 

 

 

 

Friday July 13th was very wet and miserable, particularly in the afternoon - it was also the day of our Annual Golf AM/AM at Windermere Golf Club. 41 Teams of stalwart golfers from near and far ignored the weather and teed off from early morning to late afternoon. Sadly, many were really defeated by the weather but everyone declared that they had enjoyed themselves. We are very grateful to all those who entered and have helped us to make good donations to the two nominated Charities - Life Education Cumbria and the Starlight Children's Foundation.

The winners were The Butchers with 118 points, followed by The Bandits with 114 points. Third were Demels Picklers, captained by our own John Tiscornia with 112 points and fourth were The Ambleside Four with 110 points.

Our social activities are of course, legend and last week we held a Wine Tasting for Charity 'Call My Bluff' evening. It was well attended and tables of around six people were asked to taste seven wines, three white, one rose and three reds. The tastings were accompanied by three descriptions of the wines, one of which was correct.

Our panelists were two wine experts and an expert amateur - you have to guess who he was!. The wine experts were Kevin Boles and Deborah Brooks. Deborah is an associate with Paul Boutinot Wine Agencies and Kevin is head of the Cumbria University Business School and has an interest in wines. An excellent social evening arranged by Brian Jowett and other members of the Community Service Committee.          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last three weeks have seen us really enjoying the social side of our Rotary fellowship as well as raising funds for very worthwhile causes.
On Saturday 17^th May 2008, we combined our efforts with Inner Wheel, Soroptomists and the local Support Committee for the charity, Hope & Homes for Children to raise money to settle orphaned children in foster homes in Eastern Europe and Africa. A garden party was held at Rayrigg Hall, in Windermere which raised around £2,500 for the charity, thus providing enough funds to settle up to three destitute children into a secure family life. The club and its partners are grateful for the help and support received.

Our evening event at St Martin's College - the true story of Rorke's Drift had an audience of 120 people enthralled at the animated talk which accurately described the infamous battle which took place there. Almost £900 was raised for the Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team - the club has increased that to £1250.00.

At the end of each Rotary year our President and the President of our ladies' Inner Wheel Club kindly combine to provide lunch and an afternoon of fun and competition between the clubs at our 'Annual Millennium Games' After an exciting play off, the Trophy Decanter this year went to the Inner Wheel Club. Our thanks are due to both Susan and Alan Katz and Bill and Judith MacCormack for an excellent and enjoyable afternoon. Below are some of the antics our members got up to!