Kinnoull Chatters

News from the Rotary Club of Perth Kinnoull

Features

A FOREIGN VISIT - from our Roving Correspondent Donald McDonald

While on holiday and staying with our daughter in California, just north of the Golden Gate bridge, I decided that I was missing Perth Kinnoull so much that I would try to visit a Rotary Club near where she lived.

I looked up yellow pages and found "Rotary Clubs in Marin County" On phoning the number I heard the plastic voice saying:-

" Welcome to the Marin County Rotary Club locator. We have 16 Clubs in the County that meet at various times at various locations. Simply choose the time of day you want then select a Club. You will receive meeting information and contact information. For breakfast Clubs press 1. For Clubs that meet for lunch press 2. For Clubs that meet for dinner press 3."

So I pressed 2 and found myself at lunchtime at No. 931 4th Street at the Rotary Club of Mission San Rafael (chartered in 1982).

As I was going in and paying my 20 dollars the 50 or so members were pledging their allegiance to the flag by standing erect with their right hands over their hearts and saying:-

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, One nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all."

The member opposite me, when I sat down at a table for six, never opened his mouth, but his fellow members welcomed me. The President introduced me as one of the three visiting Rotarians. As the meal proceeded so did the meeting. I don't think the President ate anything as he seemed to be on his feet all the time. If any member had had a birthday in the last few days he/she stood up and said it had been great and gave 20 or more dollars for charity. If a member donated 50 dollars half a dozen members stood up and played 'Happy Birthday to You ' on their bugles or whistles. The talk was given by a local journalist who told us about the Marin I.J. (Independent Journal). It reminded me of the P.A. - but much worse.

By the time I left, the member sitting opposite still hadn't talked to me or indeed anyone else. --- It is not a Club that I shall seek out again.

---

The Fife Coastal Walk

What a beautiful stretch of coastline! Elie to Anstruther, a true Riviera with sun, sand, picturesque villages and an azure sea - when the sun shines!.

The seventh coastal walk lived up to the ancient and universal folk belief that 7 is a lucky number. We were lucky with the weather apart from one heavy shower, lucky with the location of our 7th route and lucky with the Rotary Club at the end of the day.

Starting at the Ship Inn at Elie, making our way into the teeth of a brisk wind the first point of interest was the lighthouse built in 1908 to mark the point at Elie. The view of Elie Bay from here was the first of the many delights to come.

From there, past Lady's Tower, which was built in 1760 as a summer house for Lady Janet Anstruther, the route skirts Ardrose Castle ruins and the 15th Century Newark Castle. As we approached St Monans the weather caught up with us. No shelter apart from the church, a traditional sanctuary. So over the wall, across the graveyard and into the church we went. Inside, a group of parishioners were creating their own version of the Stations of the Cross from stone rubbings of gravestones and other carvings. Some were very good, but why the Stations of the Cross in a Church of Scotland? John Knox must be out of favour on high!

The shower didn't last long so after duly admiring their work we bade the artists farewell and rejoined the path along the beach. There was just enough room before the tide came in to take the "low road" before srambling up a short pitch onto the path again.

The St Monans Windmill was the next feature. The Windmill is part of the old salt workings that were on the site. Remnants of the original boiling houses could be seen. It is thought that the Windmill was used to pump water from the sea into the salt pans. It had a very French/Spanish look to it so maybe it was copied from a design brought over by salt traders. Most of the salt was exported to continental Europe; Holland, France and beyond. Interestingly the Dutch banned the use of St Monan's salt in 16 something or other as it was not strong enough to preserve their herring catches. Recently restored, it is open in July and August. The view for the top is stunning.

Somewhere along the route a giantic mushroom appeared. Rising starkly out of the water it looked like a ....., let me think.... Ah! yes! a Boletus Edulis.

The traditional gnome was missing this trip. Perhaps the publicity has been too much. We did find a cow though, complete with admirers.

The amount of rubbish on some of the beaches, although not as bad as and more localised than further west, was disturbing. Some form of beach litter patrol is needed on such beautiful areas. It wouldn't take much to clear it up as the tides help by collecting and depositing it in well defined groups. Could Rotary do something? A sponsored beach clearance with all the Clubs along the route participating, maybe? It could be good publicity, something to think about!

At one point a large piece of flotsam caught the eye. It looked vaguely familiar. What did happen to Harry's tractor?

Rubbish or not nothing could detract from the beauty of Pittenweem as we approached. With its white painted houses and picturesque harbour it's as good as they get. Even the "new builds" blended seamlessly into the scene.

Beyond Pittenweem the scenic coastline continued to Anstruther. We knew we were getting close as a number of the benches on the route had been donated by the Anstruther Rotary Club to commemorate their 50th Anniversary.

The walk ended at the Fisheries Museum in Anstruther and unlike the previous walk, we had plenty of time to prepare for the Rotary meeting at the Craw's Nest.

The Club made us very welcome. The Speaker, Jack Daniels, amused us with tales of his experiences of visiting the USA and trying to explain that, yes, he was called Jack, but more seriously he gave us an important messages about the role of Rotary Foundation and of his concerns. Chatters is not the medium for discussing this but maybe at Council the subject could be aired.

The traditional exchange of banners ended yet another excellent walk.

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Convenors Reports

Ways and Means Committee
From Eva Smart - Ways and Means Convenor

Upcoming events:

During September and October we will organise a coppers & foreign currency collection. Every Rotarian will receive a box to collect the coppers in or ask their children, grand children, local friendly shop or who ever to collect any coppers or foreign currency (from last holiday ) lying around. Once we have the boxes organised we firm up the dates for this.

October will see "What a wash out!", a fundraising event where every Rotarian in the club will "volunteer" to do a basket of laundry for a neighbour, friend or relative for a minimum of £10.00. You can go for the higher bidder, what will they pay you to see you do their washing. Of course there will be an additional charge for ironing!!

We are planning for the Strathallan choir to sing at the craft market on 24th November. Whilst they sing, we will be collecting monies for Rotary. We will have a reserved spot outside Woolworths and all details will be issued nearer the time.

The Presidents dinner will be held on 14th March 2008 with some great speakers and a wonderful raffle and amazing auction.

The Black Dyke Band will give a concert on the 29th March 2008 in the Concert Hall. An event too good to miss plus a possible Master Class by some of the members of the band on the Sunday 30th March for local school children.

Watch this space for more tantalizing events coming up!!

Community Service
From Frank Muirden Community Services Convenor

Reminder of date for members diaries - Saturday 6 October 2007 - Stroke Awareness Day - Perth.

To coincide with the Scottish National Stroke Awareness Week the Committee has booked the Salvation Army Hall. Contact has been made with the named Charity in Edinburgh whereby we indeed to maximise publicity for this worthwhile event. Blood pressure monitors are being obtained along with voluntary qualified nurses to administer, not forgetting our own Dr Tom.

The Perth Club are also keen to support us and through Ian McMillan, Community Service Convenor will revert once he has reported to his Club Council.

In terms of timescale, looking to start at 10.00 a.m; finishing around 3.00 pm. A shift rota will be prepared once Club numbers have been finalised. Each shift will last for 2 hours.

Duties will include handing out leaflets to the general public asking them to attend the Salvation Army premises, registration and general marshalling. Previous year experiences resulted in a steady throughput of people.

A board will be circulated in due course.

WISHING WELL - Many thanks extended to Douglas Sinclair and his son Andrew for uplifting from President John's garage. Work will begin in the coming months by way of refurbishment and a progress report submitted to the Club.

PKAVS - Contact made by Julia Robertson whereby we are looking to support local worthwhile projects/tasks as part of "hands on" participation. More details to follow.

KINNOULL PARISH CHURCH is holding a summer fete on 8/6/08 in the new Millenium Park whereby our Club via Willie Monks will be offered a stall.

International & Foundation
From Helen McDonald International and Foundation Convenor

Long term projects overseas

• Smile Train.

• - Project not being progressed

• A community project in South Africa. -

• waiting for more info from IB

• Mercy Ships.

• - On hold

• Water Aid -

• - On hold

• TRSR

• - This in ongoing

• Saving old spectacles

• http://www.reuze.co.uk/specs.shtml - For involvement of the whole club, I’m sure that members can search around for their old specs that have been forgotten in the back of a drawer. - EA would be happy for them to be dropped off at the Royal George.

• Sight savers

• http://www.sightsavers.org/ - It was felt that this would be a very good project for the club to support. £17 could support an operation to restore sight to an adult with cataract £27 could support an operation to restore sight to a child with cataract £1,280 could provide Braille versions of every primary school text a blind child would need.

• World Vision - Sponsor a Child

• https://www.worldvision.org.uk - For £18 a month our club could sponsor a child in a poor country, ensuring their education and wellbeing. We feel that this would be a worthwhile long term cause for Kinnoull members.

• Blythswood Care - Shoe Boxes

• http://www.blythswood.org - I spoke to a Blythswood rep regarding the Shoebox appeal, I have asked for 100 decorated shoeboxes. I will have to confirm the cost of these; they were 30 pence per box last year but may have increased to 50 pence this year.

  It should be noted that Christmas is not that far away now and all of the highlighted websites above have their "gift" schemes, so you could give "the gift of sight" to your loved ones or help an ex-orphanage boy to learn a trade. I know how difficult it is to think of "special" gifts at Christmas time.

Short term projects

• Shelter boxes & Aqua boxes -

• It was felt that the Aqua boxes would be the most suitable for the support of this club. More details next month.

• Foundation.

Mike brought to our attention an article in the Rotary magazine regarding becoming a "Sustaining" member. (Item is to be discussed at Council)

SPORTS EXTRA. ( Read all About it )
AUGUST and early SEPTEMBER 2007 / EDITION.
FROM SPORTS CONVENOR. GEORGE DELGATY.

CHARITY GOLF TOURNAMENT 2007.
WEDNESDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER. AT DUNKELD & BIRNAM GOLF CLUB.

Well the Charity Golf Tournament has come and gone and First of all I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to all Rotarians who either helped on the day, or donated prizes for the Raffle and Auction, as well as entering Teams, being Hole Sponsors or taking an Advert in our splendid Programme, which the Golf Committee are indebted to Bob Brown for producing along with Coffee and Bacon Roll Vouchers.

As you will see from the pictures (Click here to view), we were again blessed with a super day and the Course was in first class condition and the Buffet and delicious sweets were tremendous all washed down with some Wine donated by Rotary Club members.

We have new Winners of the Strathallan Trophy. The Team from Anderson Beaton and Lamond who were competing for the First time with another Team whom we have not seen for a few years, Fair City Amusements being close Runners-Up. The Team Ball went to the Team from Dunkeld and Birnam Golf Club and we had approx. 20 Raffle prizes and 5 Auction prizes. All told we should raise just over £2,500 for Charities, an increase of £300 approx from last year. My thanks go finally to my Golf Committee for their support in staging this years event. Especially the new Scoring system!

MORE GOLF…………

The 3 Rotary Clubs of Perth met at Blairgowrie on Thursday 30th August to compete for the Presidents Putter over the “WEE Course” i.e. 9 holes. The rules were made up by the Perth Club who were the Holders and you were only allowed 3 Clubs, one of which must be a putter. This set the Golfers thinking as to what their plan of action might be. However we did not bargain for the”unique” handicapping system that Fergus Young had devised, and then did not take part himself- must have been feart of the Flak! As you may have guessed Perth retained the Trophy with 50 points, Perth St. Johns 39 and Perth Kinnoull 38. All teams had 6 players and our motley crew were Harry Cooper, George Delgaty, Mike Graham, Frank Muirden and Ian “Sporty” Brown and the other I.B. forgot the date and time and so we hastily roped in Kevin Fearn who had been playing with Clients earlier in the day.

It looks like the Club Golf Outing will now be held on a Sunday afternoon in October as yours truly is heading to the Costa del Sol for 2 weeks to-wards the end of this month, after my exertions for the Charity Golf day.

PERTHSHIRE ROTARY- CURLING LEAGUE, all games at Dewars Centre.

I note below all Perth Kinnoull’s Curling Games in the League. Would the Curlers kindly take note in their diaries as I intend to spread the dates out to those available.

• Game 1. Thurs. 27th Sept. at 6pm v Kinross.
• Game 2. Tues. 16th Oct. at 8.15pm v Dunblane
• Game 3. Sun. 4th Nov. at 4pm v Stirling
• Game 4. Thurs. 22nd Nov at 6pm v Perth St. Johns
• Game 5. Sun 2nd Dec at 6.15pm v Alloa
• Game 6. Tues. 15th Jan 2008. 8.15pm v Pitlochry
• Game 7. Thurs. 7th Feb at 8.15pm v Crieff
• Game 8. Sun. 9th Mar. 4pm v Perth
• Game 9. Thurs. 27th Mar. at 8.15pm v Glenrothes.

DISTRICT GAVEL CHALLENGE 2007/ 2008.

A Board will be going round soon looking for Gavellers to take part in the Fun Matches which are really all about Fun and Fellowship, against AWAY to Blairgowrie and AWAY to Perth and at HOME to Kinross & District. I will be making contact with these Club’s Gavel Organisors for suitable dates and I will let Eddie know well in advance of when we play Kinross in order that the approriate vittals are in place for our guests.

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