Hi President Nigel
Yes a voice from across the Irish sea. I hope all is well with Wellingborough Hatton. Derek (mistakenly( sent me a copy of your recent minutes which made interesting reading and prompted me to write.
Firstly, from a personal angle, Dawn and I have completed our term in charge of SA work here in Lurgan but have fallen head over heels in love with the place and built ourselves a retirement bungalow and enjoying life immensely.
On the Rotary front the small club of Lurgan has increased from the dozen or so when I first came in 2015 to 20 members and still growing. Take note, it includes women members which works very well here. I enjoy our weekly meetings and various activities immensely and must thank you for introducing me to Rotary.
I am the Youth Service coordinator and recently coordinated our participation in the Districts Youth Leadership Development competition. The club was successful in getting our selected candidate, Maja Ochojsh through as a winner to join a select band of young people on an all expenses paid 5 day youth leadership development programme. It includes visits to Belfast and Dublin to meet and interview business and political leaders before travelling on to the EU in Strasbourg where she will join students from the 28 Member States as a ‘MEP for a day’ to debate and vote on resolutions on current EU affairs. As you can guess the Brexit issues are a hot subject over here.
There is interest in running a young Master Chef contest in Lurgan. We have District competition but before we enter this we thought we would have a go at a local one. I know you have organised successful events at Wrenn school and wonder whether you could give me some tips. You may even want to come over and be part of the judging panel.
The invitation to visit Lurgan is generally extended to the Hatton Club, we mentioned it a couple of years back but have not progressed it. Although I don’t play we have some fantastic golf courses here and a group of you may well fancy a golf cum Rotary tour! Depending upon how many of you came I am sure we could host a party of you.
I have been elected Vice President for 2018/19 with a view to being President for 2019/20. I feel this to be a great honour being so new to the club and would love to get some ideas from your experience over this current Rotary year.
I know President Kevin O’Hara from Lurgan Rotary joins me in greeting all the Wellingborough Hatton Rotarians
YIRS
Roland