Our Members dedicate time and energy to our activities in many different ways – and giving out awards is just one of the ways in which we can show our appreciation for their efforts. During his first Business Meeting today our new President, Raj Dasan, gave out three such awards: Service Recognition (Robert Yonge); Rotarian of the Year (Andrew Clague) and Paul Harris Fellowship with Sapphire (Peter Hermitage). Congrats to all!
Given that a number of awards had been given out recently, we were all pleasantly surprised by today’s announcements from Raj.
Robert has been a member of our Club since 2005 and was awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship back in 2023. During his membership he has held a number of roles, notably Club President; he has also chaired the fundraising committee. “Sailor Ted” is one of his ongoing contributions to the Club. Today, Robert was commended for his continuing service to the Club and in particular for his work this year chairing the Membership Group which has been very successful in recruiting FIVE new members. “It gives me great pleasure in presenting the service Recognition Award for 2025” said Raj, who also gave a personal thanks to Robert for his guidance and also for encouraging him to be a host in this year’s Safari Supper!
Next to receive an award was Peter. Raj’s citation is far too long to repeat here – it left Raj rather breathless to read out! As well as being a Past President, and serving on or chairing a number of committees over the years, Peter has organised several fundraisers – most recently the St Patrick’s Day event at the Prince of Wales Youth Club. Peter has also made huge contributions to the community, taking on many roles over the years; currently, for example he is involved with the Canterbury Festival and is Chairman of the Trustees of the Yoakley Care Homes in Margate. Post-Covid, Peter took on the role of Chairman of our Regeneration Committee. “Through his efforts,” said Raj, “he woke the Club up to the difficulties caused by an ageing membership and started a process that continues today of modernising how we meet and what we do”. Peter is already recipient of a Paul Harris Fellowship, so Raj had the pleasure of recognising him as a Paul Harris Fellow with Sapphire*.
Finally, Andrew – who thought he was only going up to receive his President-Elect “necklace” from Raj – was surprised with the Rotarian Of The Year award. It was given, of course, for Andrew’s dedicated work on The Point, our Centenary gift to Canterbury. This was a remarkable achievement for us and for the City and we are enormously grateful for Andrew’s contribution. We hope The Point will be a gift that “keeps on giving” as more and more people use it instead of using single-use plastic bottles.
*The “sapphire” refers to sapphires embedded in the PHF lapel pin; the first PHF only has a gold surround, for the second there is one sapphire mounted in the gold surround, for the third there are two sapphires in the gold surround and so on up to five, when rubies are mounted. You can read more about Paul Harris Fellowship recognition here.
Picture: Andrew Clague (left), Raj Dasan (centre) and Robert Yonge (right). (Peter, as ever, had to rush off to another commitment!) Picture credit: The Rotary Club of Canterbury.
