Last Saturday Rotarians from our Club enjoyed a wonderful festive dinner with friends and family at the Darwin Conference Centre at the University of Kent. The evening was topped with two of our members being awarded Paul Harris Fellowships.
The Christmas Dinner is a great social event for our members - it's an opportunity to share festivities with fellow Rotarians, friends, family and invited guests. This year the Lord Mayor of Canterbury, Cllr Terry Westgate, joined the diners for the occasion.
Guests were welcomed with drinks and canapes before sitting down at their tables. As usual, the participants enjoyed a lovely three-course 'banquet' meal, with the Salvation Army band treating them to a number of festive carols and tunes to add to the Christmas-sy atmosphere. There were plenty of festive hats, crackers, party poppers to add to the fun. The meal was finished with coffee and traditional mince pies.
Two of our members were awarded with Paul Harris Fellowships on behalf of our club by President Neil Fraser - PP Alan Forrest and PP Martin Ward. Both were given a certificate telling them are receiving the award "in appreciation of tangible and significant assistance for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world." Both have given excellent service to our club and the community. Currently, Alan is our archivist and Martin chairs the Membership Committee; of course they have many other roles too!
We also held a raffle which raised £400 - this will go towards Rotary's efforts to eradiate the devastating disease polio. Thanks to a 2-1 match funding scheme run by the Gates Foundation, this will in effect mean that our donation will mean £1200 goes to support Rotary's efforts to end polio. This is really wonderful news and a great way to end the year.
Our guest speaker for the evening was Major Mandy Sands from the Salvation Army; she gave an excellent talk on the work that the Salvation Army do and gave a description of the types of people they help in poorer areas of Canterbury.
President Neil closed the evening with a brief reflection on our year and thanked all involved in making the evening a success, particularly the catering staff and Rotarian Raj Dasan who helped organize the event.
Read more about Rotary and the Gates Foundation working together to end polio here.
Picture: President Neil Fraser is pictured with Paul Harris Fellows Martin Ward (left) and Alan Forrest (right). Picture credit: Martin Ward/The Rotary Club of Canterbury.
More pictures on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/rotarycanterbury/
