On Sunday 30th November the club celebrated another very successful Carol Concert with around 450 or more guests and members of the Tendring area gathering in the West Cliff Theatre.
Our sincere thanks go everyone involved in the afternoon – the volunteer theatre staff, our Honoured Guests, the Rev David Murray who led the service, the Octavia Singers, Chase Lane Junior & Primary School choir from Harwich and of course all the members of public who came to support us.
The collection, when re-counted and the coins included, was found to have raised £1,209.54 – up from the initial £1100 [in notes] as announced at the service. This fantastic amount will allow us to continue to support those in need at this time of year, so “Thank you so much for your donations”
A selection of photos from the concert are attached for your enjoyment.
97th Charter Night
On the evening of Thursday 18th November we welcomed District Governor [DG] Mark Williams and his wife Liz, ADG Sue Pipe and partner, members of the Clacton Lions Club, the Rotary Club of Manningtree & Stour Valley, the Rotary Club of Harwich & Dovercourt, the Rotary Club of Frinton on Sea, and our daughter club of the Rotary Club of Clacton Jubilee.
President Rob Suttling thanked all guests and members for coming and hoped all would have an enjoyable and entertaining evening. Whilst making his toast to our club, DG Mark commented on the way that the spirit of Rotary was clear and evident in the Tendring area by the number of clubs present.
Attached are a selection of photos from pre-meal to the entertainment at the end with vocalist Tracey Moorhouse. As ever our senior member both in Rotary and by age was first on the dance floor with wife Liz – Hollis [Drake], you are an unbelievable gentleman.
The final photo was sent to me and shows club member Bob Welton on both knees in front of another of our member’s, Robert Gillespie who had just completed the “Toast to our Guests” – which as ever included comical antidotes as he went along. Seeing the photo the question could well lead you to think there was some sort of Knighting ceremony or maybe a Taking the Knee but no, not at all, in fact Bob was picking up some of Robert’s crib sheets. We look forward to seeing many of you again for our 98th Charter Night in November 2026.
97th Charter Night
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Handover of the Presidency
Club Assembly and the handover of the Presidency. We were pleased to welcome ADG Sue Pipe to the meeting and the lead photo shows ADG Sue, new President Rob and previous President John at the end of the Assembly.
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President’s Address
2025/26 New President’s Opening Address to Members
We are a small club of mature members, some of which by virtue of age and/or health, places limits on what we can do. This is a simple statement of fact. As a club we are not unusual in this. For this reason, we must be realistic in our aspirations, so I’m not going to reel off a list or goals, but some focus areas I’d like to concentrate on. The level of achievement in each will be equal to the amount of effort we can collectively bring to bear.
As you know from our recent Special Business Meeting, we do not have sufficient members willing and able to chair all the usual committees. This has forced a change whereby instead of the historic Club Council you will all be familiar with; we will run with a small Leadership Team. This will comprise the President, Hon Secretary, Hon Treasurer, the Immediate Past President and Rotarian William Stevens who will have the role of ad-hoc project co-ordinator. The first meeting of this new Leadership Team will take place on Thursday 17th July.
I will continue to provide to members a verbal report of the actions and decisions to come out of those meetings but also, I want to expand discussion about club activities, both current, planned and proposed, during our weekly lunch gatherings. I want to see this become a formal part of the agenda and I have discussed this with the Hon Secretary, and it is agreed we can accommodate this by taking the time dedicated to fellowship at the end. Given the small size of our group, plenty of fellowship occurs around the table during the meal anyway. I hope to see plenty of member participation and feedback.
Volunteers will be called for to lead and deliver projects as they are identified and regular and timely reports are to be submitted to the Leadership Team via the project co-ordinator. At this point I cannot predict how well this arrangement will work and I expect modifications will be necessary along the way. However, I earnestly seek everyone’s cooperation as we move forward.
Last year a lot of work went into creating a Corporate Membership option for this club and a great deal of thanks are owed to Graham Syrett and the membership committee for achieving that. It was very satisfying therefore to report recently that we had secured two new Corporate Members (and I learned whilst on holiday in the past two weeks, that we possibly have a third!). It might be said that getting these organisations to agree to become Corporate Members was the easy part and I’m sure a few eyebrows will be raised at that! The difficult task will be to quickly integrate them into our club and immediately get them engaged in projects. We must not risk disappointment and a waning of enthusiasm through a lack of activity.
I mentioned focus areas that I would like to concentrate on. These are:
Social events. Feedback from two business events recently which involved spouses and partners was very positive and I know at least one new member who expected we would do a lot more of this sort of thing. Yes, we have our Charter Night, a Christmas Lunch, an annual Quiz Night plus Presidents Drinks in January but we should do far more. In fact, I would like to see someone come forward to be a social secretary to organise a bigger programme. I think this would be an interesting and rewarding role.
More publicity. One of our new Corporate Members is Tendring District Council and working with them on joint activity will be supported by their PR machine and Press Office. I think we can leverage and exploit that resource, but it will require focus and dedication from us.
Social Media. One of our daughter clubs, Harwich and Dovercourt, recently ran a social media campaign called The Big Community Giveaway. The level of interest and engagement it generated was simply staggering and really helped to put the club front and centre in the minds of the public in their area. Our Hon Sec and I have reached out to the architect of that programme with a view to possibly replicating elements of it for our club.
New membership drive. Gaining new Corporate Members is a satisfying achievement but they can open-up opportunities to engage with more people, to promote what we do and hopefully gain interest and membership enquiries. For example, one of our Corporate Members is the local 1,700 pupil school. That’s 1,700 sets of parents we can get in front of, assisted by the pupil achievement awards we have agreed to sponsor.
Foundation. Specifically, End Polio Now programme. Last year we ran an event to support World Polio Day. This was oversubscribed so I would like to see if we can be bigger and bolder this year.
Community Service. Thanks to Derek Emmerson and his committee we achieved much last year with numerous projects. I want to see us maintain all our regular activities and build many more with the support of our Corporate Members.
Youth. With Clacton Coastal Academy (now Lift Clacton) coming on as a Corporate Member, and having an exceedingly enthusiastic Principal and Leadership Team, they are already generating ideas we can run together. Also, they are keen to examine and engage with Rotary GB&I’s Youth Programme, even offering to host some of them. The sky’s the limit here and we must not drop the ball here because the potential is huge.
So to finish, I just want to say that if at this time next year it’s apparent that all I’ve achieved is for the club to tread water, then my presidency will be remembered as wholly unremarkable – and I don’t want that…and neither should you because this is our club and without you I can do very little.
Thank you
Robert Suttling, President
Clacton Air Show 2025 Parking
We are pleased to announce that the booking line is now open for advanced car parking reservations. The following link will take you to that page:
The mens prostate cancer screening day, CHAPS, on the 7th June funded by our Rotary Club was a great success and very well supported by Club members that coordinated the event on the day. Of the 100 men who booked a place, 98 attended Colvin Memorial Temple to give a blood sample for testing. Sadly one had to leave during the briefing and wasn’t tested due to the very sad news that his mother had died suddenly.
Our thanks goes to CHAPS who arranged the visit and the 3 medical staff that attended and coordinated the sampling; and of course to the Masonic Lodge of Clacton for allowing the Club to use its excellent facility.
Marie Curie Great Daffodil Appeal
We were pleased to be able to support the Marie Curie Great Daffodil Appeal 2025 over the last 2 days, by providing volunteer collectors from within the club.
We are grateful to Morrisons, Little Clacton store, for their welcome to us and also the kind donations from their loyal customers which amounted to a wonderful £811, so “Thank You” one and all.
Clacton Food Banks
Tracy explained that the Food Bank is operated under the Salvation Army, who in turn are part of the Trussell Trust. The purpose of the food bank is to supply families ‘in crisis’ with sufficient to feed their group 3 meals a day over 3 days, although this can be extended under certain conditions. Contrary to common belief you can’t simply turn up at the door and demand a food parcel – that can only come about after a referral from one of sixty agencies dealing with the initial problem.
Last year Clacton Food Bank provided around 2500 packs and at this time the trend seems to be providing support to expanding family groups as some members return home due to the economic situation and the negative effect it has had on them.
The current response is providing in the region of 30 parcels each week.
The average holding of the food bank warehouse is around 7 tons of produce and this seems to have stabilised after the Pandemic when it rose to around 30 tons – a lot being pasta!
As is the usual format with such organisations. the club made a donation towards the ongoing work of the bank, with the money donated allowing them to purchase any specifically needed supplies.
The photo shows President John White having handed Tracy the cheque.
Clacton Coastal Academy
Mr Marc Cologne, the Principal of Clacton Coastal Academy. Having enjoyed lunch with us, Marc went on to explain how he had taken up teaching and the path that led him to become the Principal at CCA.
CCA is the current name of the establishment, it having had various other names in the past as he explained.
He is an advocate of the saying “Every minute counts” and puts all his energy into seeing the school progress in all avenues of teaching and student development.
We thank Marc for coming to speak to us and hopefully we will be able to integrate with the Academy and bring something of Rotary to the students.
A vote of thanks was proposed by Rotarian John Holt, who actually retired from CCA in 1997 as the Head Teacher, so for him Marc’s words were a sort of revisit to his time there.
St Helena’s Hospice
The Club welcomed Ian Dowson from St Helena’s Hospice in Colchester, the Clacton site having closed before Covid came along, but which in turn and somewhat fortuitously allowed the original major vaccination programme in Clacton to go ahead.
Ian told the members of the work that they were doing at Colchester and at the end of his presentation, President John White presented him with a cheque that would financially further the centre’s work.
Regrettably the writer was not present so the report is a little less in content than would normally be. And what of the writer, well he was “All at sea” as the saying goes, and at the time of posting this is sitting onboard the cruise ship in 22C and some glorious sun in Gibraltar. It will still be the intention to update our page with anything of interest during time away.
He is of course thinking of the storm that is crossing the UK at this time and thinking of those who will be affected by it.
Presidents Drinks
At the President’s Christmas drinks, President John White stood up to address everyone and in doing so brought to fruition the long-planned award of a Paul Harris Fellowship to Brian Henesy.
Both John and William Stevens [both PHF’s] gave testimonials about Brian, with William giving a resume of Brian’s 25 years with Rotary.
“He recounted various activities that Brian had been involved in, that he had been a Committee Chair on many occasions and a President twice. Then he mentioned that Brian had had his leg over all but one member of the club.
No, it’s nothing like what imagination might suggest – Brian had been a physio in the past and he explained afterwards how he would position a patient’s leg before a manipulation and in fact had treated most of the club at some stage whilst he was still practising.
Brian, this is truly deserved, you have been and continue to be, a wonderful example of what Rotary is about, you have a wicked sense of fun/humour and someone that anyone else would take to from the moment of meeting you.”
New Years Address
Rev Cannon started by saying how much she had enjoyed the Christmas Carol Concert in which she played a major role, not only as the Lead, but by delivering the Christmas Message in such a theatrical way, greatly appreciated by all who attended, clearly demonstrated by the rapturous applause she received.
Her mission today was to deliver this year’s Rotary theme, “The Magic of Rotary” which she did in a relaxed, amusing and honest way, talking about some of the simple things in life that had convinced her, and occasionally reminded her, of the values of Rotary and the good that it does, both in the UK and internationally.
She spoke of Rotary’s “End Polio Vision” across the world, which has come close to reality and that Rotary played a very large part in delivering it, of how her conversations with potential Rotarians remind her each time of the magic of Rotary, how, people who have been supported by Rotary, even in a relatively small way; such as the provisions of food parcels and small gifts at Christmas to those in need, who often come back to generously support Rotary causes later in life.
Brian Naylor had the pleasure of thanking Rev Canon Pat for her inspirational, amusing and moving talk that was clearly enjoyed by all.
Start of 6 Days of Christmas Collections in Clacton.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were inside the Morrisons Waterglade store collecting, in order to be able to support local charities and good causes. Then from Morrisons we relocate to Asda’s on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – so a busy period in prospect with a lot of commitment from the members.
Our thanks go to both stores for being so accommodating and helping us to help others.
In a like manner, we unreservedly thank the stores for kindly hosting us and everyone who donated to our causes.
Mad About Theatre
It was good to welcome back Indi Allen from the Mad about Theatre Company. We are all aware of the wonderful work carried out by Indi over the last 24 years. She is putting on Shows at St. Osyth Village Hall on Saturday 7th December at 2.30pm and at Holland-on-Sea Public Hall on Sunday 8th December also at 2.30pm. Please call on 07709 315510 to book tickets.
Indi is also arranging Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Meals amongst so many more good works. An incredible person.
Frugal Lunch
On 27th September we referenced World Polio Day on 24th October and that the following day we would be holding a Frugal Lunch to raise funds in support.
William Stevens as a Past President, Past Club Secretary and current Chair of the Foundation Plus Committee drew his team together and set out plans for our Frugal Lunch. As a result 30 out of 32 members, partners and friends who had secured places, attended William’s home to enjoy something more than what most would call a frugal lunch.
We were expecting a bowl of soup with bread and then maybe one or two sandwiches, but it turned out to be far more than that with the addition of individual home made apple pies and fingers of shortbread, with tea and coffee to finish.
In addition to the lunch itself a raffle was also held to further increase the income.
There are a number of Thank You’s at this point and hopefully I will get most of them listed here – apologies to those I might miss. Firstly it is a massive Thank You to William and Pam for opening up their home to us, then comes Sue and Dawn for the excellent catering, Carol for running the raffle and finally the support team that helped with the distribution of the soup etc.
The raffle had a variety of winners even though one or two might have managed to draw their own number – a sheer coincidence as they couldn’t see into the basket. There was also one club member who despite protestations that he doesn’t seem to win the raffle at club these days, was seen to come away from the prize table clutching a bottle. No names naturally.
And so to the most important point about the day – how much was raised? From the figures given to me the final total after minimal expenses was close to £500 and this will be forwarded via Foundation to support the ongoing work in trying to finally eradicate Polio in the world. At one point Polio was almost contained but more recently with events in the Middle East it has found a new emergence point and Polio prevention amongst the young can be seen in the reporting from the area. Until it is finally eradicated, the fight to beat it will continue.
In closing, there are a number of photos attached including one of Pam with a bouquet, which was our Thank You for letting us into her home.
CLACTON AIRSHOW 22-23 AUGUST 2024
The combined efforts of the rotary Clubs of Clacton on Sea, our sister Club Jubilee and the field owner, Penny Smith a little over £10,000 was raised for charitable causes over the two day airshow. Despite the bad weather on Thursday over 1,000 cars were parked over the 2 day air show.
More support for youth drama development
Clacton County High School has established an enviable reputation for drama and enthusing and developing the acting talent of its pupils to put on some truly impressive productions. The Rotary Club of Clacton-on-Sea has in the past recognised and supported the work done at the school to inspire pupils of all abilities to get involved, including those with disabilities, by helping to boost funds to pay for costumes and other materials.
Sarah Cooper is a drama teacher at County High and is also a co-director, along with actor David Garlick, of the CO15 Theatre Group which is dedicated to staging and performing “provocative” works created by and for the community in and around Clacton.
The Theatre Group’s inaugural project back in 2021 saw them workshop and write a play about the legendary Weeley Festival, which took place close to Clacton in 1971 and since has gone down in music folklore. This festival was the brain-child of two members of the local Round Table who thought they might get as many as 10,000 people to attend. It was a run-away success with more than ten times that number turning up to enjoy music from many of the biggest names in rock music at the time.
It was always Sarah and David’s aim to develop this play into a full-on stage show and this year, 52 years on from the festival, their production called ‘Get it on’ opened at the Princes Theatre, Clacton. Sarah and David not only involved children from Clacton County High but others from five more schools around the district, more than 60 kids in all. A similar number of musicians, including a 24 piece orchestra and various bands, came together to recreate some of the sounds from the festival. The ages of all involved ranged from 11 – 71 years, underlining the huge local community support.
Sarah now wants to provide opportunities for the children to further explore how they can develop their acting talent and at the weekly lunch for club Rotarians on the 31st August, President Brian Henesy presented Sarah and David with a cheque for £1,000 – money they intend to use to help pay for a planned trip to London with the pupils.
Club supports Porridge and Pens – a local girl’s Ghana venture
By way of introduction Gemma explained that after completing school, and before attending university, she had decided to take a gap year. She wanted it to be adventurous and chose to teach english to school children in a small free school in Ghana. It was to be her first venture away from Brightlingsea, a small village on the east coast of Essex, and it turned out to not only be adventurous, but a life changing experience.
She was hosted by a relatively prosperous local family who she lived with and saw the difficult conditions that the poor local children and families live within. Befriending the family’s young live-in maid she thought she could make a difference and certainly did and has.
Gemma explained that Porridge and Pens works with some of the poorest children in Kumasi, which lies in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, by providing ongoing grants and support to schools, orphanages, families and individuals in the region.
“She said that we believe every child should have the opportunity to reach their full potential by having food to eat and a place to learn.”
Porridge and Pens makes measurable differences to over 200 young lives every day through a Fruit Feeding drop, Girl Power grants and the Brightlingsea Child Care Centre.
In 2014 Porridge and Pens joined forces with Ben Antwi, a passionate and dedicated Graphic Arts Teacher and Exams Officer in Kumasi. Ben’s family have always worked in education and they are passionate about supporting development in the village where the Brightlingsea School stands today. Porridge and Pens worked with Ben to help him build a school in a rural and remote area of Kumasi, now known as the Brightlingsea Free School, pictured below.
The school has gone from strength to strength. Gemma Wilson has made a difference and should be very very proud of what she has achieved. Surely this should be the type of project that Rotary and our Club should be involved with.
On behalf of the Club, Past President Tony thanked Gemma for her outstanding presentation; an audience spell bound throughout her talk and clearly full of admiration as to how someone so young could achieve so much in such a relatively short time.
Club supports Fire Officer’s work in his Local Community
Les Nicoll delivered his 45 minute talk in half that time, never pausing to catch his breath or to search for words. What he had to say however was truly impressive. The impact that his organisational and fundraising skills have brought to the local community with the backing of the Fire Service are enormous, and to think that lacking any depth of knowledge of his achievements we were somewhat wary of supporting his request for funding last year! Thank goodness that we did, and for which he was extremely grateful.
To list just a few of those projects we can include raising funds for Christmas Hampers for the needy at Christmas, collecting clothes for those without, cutting fire deaths through fire alarm installations, homecare projects including those involving safeguarding, domestic violence, dementia and child protection; cooking with dementia courses at Clacton Fire Station supported by Tesco; walk and talk outings on Clacton seafront for dementia sufferers; ‘Speed Dating’ meetings to introduce personnel from the various community agencies to each other …. and much, much more. It was quite an eye opener.
Purple4Polio
Clacton Rotary Club lit up the Town Hall to celebrate the great work Rotary has done over the past 30 years and still continues to do to eradicate Polio.
As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Rotary has helped to reduced polio cases by more than 99.9 percent.
It’s crucial to eliminate polio from the last three countries where it remains endemic and to keep other countries polio-free.
If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, it is likely that polio could paralyse as many as 200,000 children each year.
Rotary Supporting PhysioNet
For the past two years and in coordination with Saffron Walden Rotary Club, Clacton’s International Service has supported the Yorkshire-based charity, PhysioNet, by collecting unwanted mobility and physiotherapy equipment for distribution to developing countries. After delivery to PhysioNet’s Yorkshire depot, the equipment is checked and where necessary refurbished.
The third lorry load of equipment from Clacton was collected in January 2019 for onward transmission to PhysioNet.
A container load is already on its way to the Rotary Club of Northcliffe in Johannesburg, which supports a wheelchair repair shop providing local employment. Demand in South Africa for mobility aids is enormous and a second 40ft container will be sent to Northcliff shortly from PhysioNet’s Yorkshire base.
Chairman of Clacton’s International Committee, Brian Henesy, said: “He was proud of the work by his fellow Rotarians and thanked Garry Wood the Area manager for Violia and the Rush Green staff who sort out mobility aids for us”.
In June PhysioNet was awarded The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service 2017. The award was created by The Queen in 2002 to mark her Golden Jubilee, to recognise excellence in voluntary activities carried out by groups in the community.
Physionet
90th Charter Night Celebration
The Rotary Club of Clacton on Sea celebrated its 90th Anniversary in great style at the local Golf Club on Thursday 22nd November. Over 110 guests and members dressed formally for the occasion, enjoyed a sumptuous meal, great fellowship and were royally entertained.
Speakers included Giles Watling, MP for Clacton, Councillor Mark Platt, Chair of Tendring Council, President of the Club Mark Penn and Past President Dick Farrow.
All spoke of their experiences and support for the Club and the great work Rotary does both locally in Clacton and Internationally. Dick Farrow’s trip down memory lane said it all: “Rotary has the finest motto ever created “Service Above Self” that goes hand in hand with Fellowship”.
Guest also included Immediate Past District Governor Nick Sillitoe and his wife Jane, Assistant District Governor Dave Willis and his wife Angela, President of the Inner Wheel Eva Lewellen, President of Clacton Lions Jim Godden and his wife Liz and Chairman of Probus Robin Smith and his wife Margaret.
It was a great evening thoroughly enjoyed by all that attended.
Presentation of Paul Harris Awards
Past President Dick Farrow and Past President Graham Syrett were deservedly presented with Paul Harris Fellow Awards at the Clacton Rotary Clubs 90th Anniversary celebration.
The PaulHarris Fellow award is a Rotaryaward dating back to 1957 that recognises individuals who have contributed greatly to the Club and to Foundation of Rotary International.
Presentation to Benin
Hazel and Deniz gratefully accept a cheque for Benin from President Mark & Past President Brian Presentation to Ben
