What a jam-packed and fun club meeting we had yesterday, not only did we hear from Zoe Ovens about the amazing work that Berkshire-based charity Daisy's Dream does but we also had visitors from Maidenhead Bridge Rotary and Howdens Rotary Club; as well as investing our new Vice President Adrian Benge!

About Daisy's Dream
 
Established in 1996, Daisy’s Dream is a professional support service which responds to the needs of children and families affected by life threatening illness or bereavement. They work predominantly in Berkshire and the surrounding areas, with a pilot project running in East Cheshire.  Originally set up to meet the needs of children who had been bereaved, over recent years they have expanded our service to encompass families where there has been a serious illness diagnosis.
 
Zoe explained that they offer a flexible service which is tailored to meet the individual needs of each child and their family. This may include:

• Telephone support and advice for parents/carers/professionals
• Group events
• Home and school visits for the child or young person
• Training for associated professionals
• One-to-one counselling

 
The death or serious illness of someone close can have a devastating effect on a child or young person. With the right support and information however, children and young people can be helped to understand what has happened and learn to move forward in a positive way.  Research shows that, without the opportunity to express and explore their grief, bereaved children and young people may be at risk of future health, social and educational difficulties and disadvantages. This is in addition to the impact of the bereavement on their emotional health and well-being.
 
Zoe explained that every 22 minutes a child looses a parent in the UK and that services are so stretched children affected aren’t getting the support they need, hence why Daisy’s Dream is filling that gap.  The charity supported a total of 702 children last year, with 90% of those cases being referred to the charity via schools.  It costs £400,000 to run the charity each year and this money is all raised through groups, corporate sponsorship and grant applications, they do not receive any government funding.
 
Therefore they are looking for help in the following ways

• Ideas for new fundraising events
• New volunteers to help run fundraising events and talk to potential funders
• Help to raise their profile to reach more children and families affected by grief

 
Finally Zoe explained why the charity is called Daisy’s Dream… everyone believes this is the name of the Founders daughter, when in fact the daughter was asked what to call the charity and she decided to name it after the family pet.. Daisy the Labrador!  Now when you see their mascot out and about you’ll know why its Daisy the Dog!
 
Find out more about the charity here: www.daisysdream.org.uk

I love organising the Rotary Youth Speaks Competition every year because it allows our young people to shine.
 
This year Trevelyan Middle School & St Edward’s Royal Free Ecumenical Middle School fought for the Intermediate prize and Windsor Girls fought for the Senior prize amongst themselves in the prestigious Jafar Hall at Eton College. What a story to tell at dinner parties in years to come.
 
Teachers are very busy people with lots of demands on their time so they need to have a real passion for Youth Speaks to give it the time and commitment required. Thankfully, this year the new English teacher at Windsor Boys came and watched the competition and said she would bring boys teams next year… hurrah, they are engaging again… would love to see Dedworth Middle School join in if anyone reading this has any influence?
 
The topics for this year’s debate were:
 

• Money can buy you happiness
• Home schooling is better than traditional education
• Social media is a force for good
• Mobiles phone have a positive impact on today’s society
• Abortion does not deserve to be morally condemned

 
All the students gave an amazing account of themselves, sharing their thoughts on their chosen topics with passion and belief normally only seen on TV when a CEO is fighting their corner.  Richard Allen of the Green Room led our Intermediate judges and gave each team a clear summary of their performance, enthusing all to keep debating. The Intermediate winners spoke on “Money can’t buy happiness” with George Burden as Chair, Fiona Winters Proposing the topic and Anushka Sagar Opposing.
 
Edward Shekiluwa, chair of the other team, won the Best Speaker prize with his very engaging performance using his god given smile to light up the room.
 
David Knowles-Leak chaired the senior judges and underlined the importance of taking part being character building and that all local schools should join in. The younger team from Windsor Girls won again this year on the topic of “Mobile phones have a positive impact on today’s society”. Chaired by Olatz Bulson-Roman, Proposed by Scarlett O’Shaughnessy and Opposed by Lydia Sampson we all turned our phones to silent mode so we hear the debate ;) Scarlett won Best Speaker and so walked away with oodles of Amazon vouchers so she can buy more books, videos and mobile apps!
 
Because of circumstance, 2 teams from each category are going forward to the next round to be held in February where they will be competing against teams from Ascot, with the winners going through to the District Finals in March in Marlow.
 
As Chair of the Youth Committee I am exploring an idea of how I can take the energy from this competition and bottling it for the wider community to help young people find their voice.
 
Thank you.
 Jon Davey
Chair of Youth Committee

Some years ago, a new acquaintance asked me what should have been a simple question: “What is Rotary?” I opened my mouth to reply and then stopped short with the realisation that I simply did not know where to begin. The problem wasn’t that I didn’t know what Rotary was. The problem was that Rotary was — and is — too large and complex to easily define. We are a member-based organisation, a club-based organisation, and a service based organisation; we are local, regional, and international; we are community members, business people and professionals, working and retired, active in nearly every country in the world. Every one of our 1.2 million members has a unique set of goals, experiences, and priorities; every one of us has a unique understanding of Rotary.
 
To me, Rotary is defined not by who we are, but by what we do — by the potential that Rotary gives us, and the ways we realise that potential in meaningful and lasting service. Rotary has been around for a long time: 112 years. In some ways, we’ve changed tremendously, as we’ve grown, matured, and adapted to the changing needs of our members and communities. In our fundamentals, however, we remain the same: an organisation of people with the desire — and through Rotary, the ability — to make a difference in our communities, and the world. We answer the question “What is Rotary?” with our actions, by making a difference through our service.
 
As an organisation, we recognise how important it is that the world understand what Rotary is, and what we do. At the same time, we know that it is more important than ever to allow our clubs to define Rotary service for themselves. As Rotarians, we have more flexibility than ever to decide how we want our clubs to meet, work, and grow. We’re focused more than ever on making sure that Rotary reflects the people it serves, with more women and a more diverse membership. And we’re working hard to ensure that Rotary remains the world’s pre-eminent volunteer service organisation, by emphasising long-term planning, sustainable service, and continuity in leadership on every level.
 
In 2017-18, we will answer the question “What is Rotary?” with the theme Rotary: Making a Difference. However each of us chooses to serve, we do it because we know our service makes a difference in the lives of others. Whether we are building a new playground or a new school, improving medical care or sanitation, training conflict mediators or midwives, we know that the work we do will change people’s lives — in ways large and small — for the better. Whatever motivation each of us had for joining Rotary, it is the satisfaction we find in Rotary that causes us to remain, the satisfaction of knowing that week by week, year by year, we are part of Rotary: Making a Difference.
​
Ian H.S. Riseley
President, Rotary International, 2017-18

The Dictionary 4 Life Project is free standing project working in association with the Rotary Club of Battersea, Brixton and Clapham (District 1130), Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland and Usborne Publishing Ltd.

In Windsor it is managed by Windsor & Eton and Windsor St George Rotary Clubs, with support from Rotary District 1090.

The Usborne Illustrated UK Standard edition Dictionary 4 Life comprises 1,000 illustrations, 10,000 entries and 20,000 definitions printed in full colour on leaflet grade paper from a sustainable forest and contains 288 pages. It promotes British English and encourages children to widen their vocabularies and improve their life chances.  The project was initiated in 2007 and so far has provided more than 1 million dictionaries across the world. 
 
By using dictionaries efficiently, children will explore spellings, meanings and derivations for example by using alphabetical order, abbreviations and definitions with understanding. One of the most positive aspects of being able to use a dictionary is that it helps to develop autonomy and confidence in the learner — one of the core goals of education. It promotes books and the printed word. It will be a “possession” for the child. It will enable both first and second language users to extend and improve the accuracy of their vocabulary. It should help children with their homework in secondary education. In some homes it may also form a reference work for all the family.
 
Windsor Rotary Clubs have been running this project since 2007 as part of their Youth Initiatives in the local community along with Youth Speaks, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, and supporting local Rotakids and Interact club(s).

Members of District 9 Inner Wheel and the longest surviving club so far, the Inner Wheel Club of Windsor & Eton, celebrated its 80th anniversary at the idyllic setting of Stirrups Country House Hotel in Maidens Green (Bracknell) together with friends and families, including the RBWM Mayor and Mayoress. Seven of our own Rotarians and their spouses also attend, along with former member Bob Heybourn and Christine.

The celebration was started by the current president Mary Weaver, with words of gratitude about the past, present and the future.

Representatives from District 9 (Vicky Mountford), the Association of Inner Wheel Clubs in GB&I (Ann Acaster), the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (Mayor Paul Lion), Windsor & Eton Rotary Club (Richard Carleton) and the Rotary Club of Windsor St. George (Andreas Stavrinides) presented their greetings and spoke highly about the Inner Wheel Club's involvement in the local communities.

There followed an excellent 3-course lunch and coffee and mints after which there was a short 'thank you all' from Inner Wheel President Mary.

The lunch guest  was a distinguished harpist, Margaret Watson Dip. ABRSM, one of the busiest professional harpists in the South East, with performances for social and corporate events.  Not only did Margaret play a wide variety of music, ranging from 'pop' through 'traditional' to classic, but also talked about the harp as an instrument; how it was made (cost of a new one about £30k); the (47) strings, tuning and playing - seven-foot pedals with 3 positions for each pedal!

Absolutely fascinating and informative - and her final quote, from the composer Shostakovich, "a harpist spends 90% of the time tuning the harp and 10% of the time playing out-of-tune" brought the house down.

The celebration could not have ended without the traditional raffle and after the final toast we all wended our way home from a splendid luncheon.

By Chris Simon and Paul Andreianu