Wheel of fortune

ROTARY Club members in the Wiltshire are preparing for a double anniversary in 2005. Worldwide the Rotary International movement will be celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Meanwhile the Marlborough and District Rotary Club will be notching up its 40th birthday.

It's the longest running service club in the town, with the exception of the Freemasons.

There is no longer a Round Table in Marlborough and the Lions Club is depleted to a handful of members.

But Rotary has gone from strength to strength and the Marlborough district group, which includes Pewsey, has more than 60 members.

Its Monday evening meetings held at Marlborough Golf Club are invariably packed.

The Marlborough club was originally mooted, writes Rotary correspondent Peter Mansfield, by a group of business and professional men who used to meet in the Ailesbury Arms Hotel during 1963 for a meal and a chat.

The concept of forming a club began to crystallise in 1964 and the Charter meeting was held in Marlborough Town Hall in June 1965.

Three very successful gymkhana and horse shows were held on Marlborough Common between 1971 and 1974.

In 1977 the very first 'Hippie walk' in which people with replacement hip joins took part raised the princely sum of £1,500 for the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council.

For the club's ruby anniversary and the world movement's centenary, tree planting has been taking place in Pewsey and in Marlborough.

The club has organised a number of anniversary projects including a rose garden in the Priory gardens in Marlborough.

Some of the club's projects over the years have included:

l Conducting a clear-up campaign for the River Kennet with volunteers wading along the river removing accumulated rubbish.

l Running many auctions, collections, hobbies and crafts exhibitions.

l Collecting for charity at Membury Service Station.

l Charity golf matches.

l An annual duck race on the River Kennet.

l Tree of ribbons at Christmas in memory of departed loved ones.

l Regular bank holiday boot sales, the last two of which raised almost £2,800.

l Highly successful pop concerts that raised £24,000 for the Hope and Homes children's charity.

Records show that over the past 39 years the club raised more than £125,000 for local, national and international charities

It has also been engaged in international charity activities: collection of unwanted text books for distribution to parts of Africa and the 'Tools for Self Reliance' where unwanted tools are sent to various developing countries.

Marlborough and Pewsey Rotarians have provided five Aquaboxes in the past year, simple devices used in emergency zones to provide clean water.

The club's newest event was the Pewsey Fair held near The Wharf in July with a variety of activities and raising £3,200 of which part has paid for a defibrillator for the new Pewsey First Responder ambulance group.

For the joint anniversary year in 2005 the club is considering providing hanging baskets in Marlborough town centre using plants of blue and gold, the Rotary colours.

On February 27 it will be holding an anniversary dinner dance at the town hall with one of its original members, Roy Brodrick, in attendance.

Devizes Rotary Club recently celebrated its 45th anniversary, having been granted its charter on December 1, 1959.

The celebration dinner at the Bear Hotel was the usual blend of conviviality, bonhomie and generosity that has characterised the club's activities over the years.

Members have been active in setting up many of the organisations in the town that help the more vulnerable members of the community.

In 1964, when Alan Young was president, the Devizes Rotary Housing Society was formed and from that today's Devizes and District Housing Society, which owns the Ark and Castle Court sheltered flats for older people.

The club was also in at the beginning of the Crown Centre, the meeting place for retired people set up in the former Crown Hotel in St John's Street. It continues to assist the centre, most recently by financing the rewiring and decoration of the front lounge.

Another excellent project initiated by the Rotary Club was the formation of the Probus Club for retired business and professional people, which meets regularly at the Crown Centre and boasts 115 members.

Among the club's other achievements in the town are the hearing loop system at Devizes Town Hall and setting up the Talking Newspaper for blind and visually impaired people, a tape of weekly news gleaned from the pages of the Gazette.

Welcome to the 100 club

AS the only Rotary club in the country with its own meeting hall, the Chippenham branch was bound to have a few extra special qualities.

Formed in 1948, it now has spawned three daughter clubs Chippenham Wiltshire Vale, Corsham and Calne.

And to celebrate the international organisation's centenary, it is planning something rather extraordinary to raise £400,000 for a special hydrotherapy swimming pool in Chippenham.

President Eric Sambell said: "We wanted to do something for the whole of Chippenham to celebrate the centenary, so that's the big one.

"As well as the schoolchildren from St Nicholas, the people of Chippenham will be able to use the pool. We've already raised £3,000 but we're now in the process of setting the charity up formally."

The £400,000 target was given its first boost thanks to a concert by Welsh male voice choir Treorchy in St Andrew's Church back in October.

The club's main fundraising events include the firework display in Monkton Park, which this year raised £7,000 and the annual sponsored horse ride through Bowood, which attracted 200 riders and raised £2,000.

With just 15 members, the Rotary Club of Chippenham Wiltshire Vale has decided it is too small to hold a party of its own.

Instead, it will be joining forces with the Rotary Club of Chippenham for a double celebration on the day of the anniversary, February 5.

"Rotary is all aimed at the local community," said vice president Robert Chanter. "It is intended for members of the business community who want to put something back into the area."

The club's biggest money-spinner is the annual street fair which accompanies the folk festival on the May bank holiday weekend.

Another big fundraiser this year was the trolley dash competition, which raised £3,760 for Dorothy House Hospice.

Throughout the year, the club hosts various other outings, such as a coach trip for elderly people and a visit to Longleat for underprivileged children, and members volunteer to lend a hand at other events.

The Rotary Club of Corsham is planning to sponsor perpetual trophies for some of the town's sports clubs for the centenary landmark.

The club's main annual fundraiser is a 10km run around Corsham, which this year attracted 300 people.

What are Rotary Clubs

Rotary was founded in Chicago by Paul Harris in February 1905 and over the past 100 years has grown from a small club of four members to a worldwide network of men and women who share a vision for a better world.

The name 'Rotary' was derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices. The world's first service organisation, Rotary has a long history of helping those in need and uniting people of different cultures and beliefs.

Rotary, a non-political, non-religious humanitarian organisation, is made up of business and professional leaders who work to better their community and build understanding and peace in the world.

Today there are approximately 1.2 million Rotary club members of more than 31,000 Rotary clubs in 166 countries. In Great Britain and Ireland there are about 59,000 members in more than 1,830 clubs. In the last year, more than £20 million was raised by Rotarians in the British Isles for charitable causes.

The Rotary Foundation, Rotary's corporate charity, is dedicated to furthering international understanding, goodwill, and peace and gives more than £30 million every year to educational and humanitarian programmes.

Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the community's business and professional men and women.