2007-2008

March 2008 saw a very successful Junior Chef Competition, sponsored by the Club, held at South Kent College in Folkestone, when 10 young would-be Jamie Olivers showed off their impressive culinary skills. The winner was Samantha Byrne from Brockhill Performing Arts College, with her mouth-watering Chicken Breast on a Bed of Piri-Piri Rice.

The event was masterminded by Rotarian Dave Roseveare, who only joined the Club last summer. His full report of the Competition, together with a slideshow of photographs from the evening, are available here.

Earlier in 2008 we had an enjoyable and profitable Wine and Wisdom Evening, organised by Past President and Paul Harris Fellow Trevor Greening and held at the Harvey Grammar School at the end of January.

Every year, the Rotary Club of Folkestone does its bit to bring a little Christmas cheer to those in greatest need through its annual Christmas Parcels scheme. In December 2007 we raised around £7,000 by our mobile and static collections to enable us to distribute over 250 sets of bags packed with a range of staple food items and seasonal treats such as mince pies.

Once again we persuaded Santa to join us as we go round the streets of Folkestone to the sound of Christmas carols and Christmas songs, knocking on doors and asking the good people of the town to give some of their hard-earned cash towards this worthy cause.

Throughout the year, the Club continued with its endeavours to raise funds to support local and international initiatives. On Friday November 16th 2007 we held another enjoyable Race Night at Folkestone Rugby Club.

One final mention must go to Rotarian Ray Johnson, who organised the second Folkestone Rotary Half Marathon at the end of September 2007. The event, which was well-received within the athletic fraternity, raised in excess of £30,000 for charitable causes - a tremendous effort. A full report of the event is available here.

2006-2007

The Wine and Wisdom Evening, hosted at the Harvey Grammar School at the end of January, was another popular and profitable evening. Twenty teams of six took part in the very enjoyable quiz devised by Past President Trevor Greening and raised over £700 for Rotary Foundation (Rotary's own charity).

On Tuesday, February 20th there was the first Folkestone Charity Pancake Race in Folkestone Town Centre - another initiative which proved to be great fun! Click on the photo alongside to see a slideshow of pictures taken on the day.

Just a week later saw our Guest Day, when a dozen or so local businessmen and women came along to one of our fortnightly lunches to see what Rotary is all about. Past President Noel Tatt produced a special edition of our monthly newsletter - click here to see an on-line version - while Bill Wright, President-Elect Roger Joyce and Michael Waterman put together a Powerpoint presentation - available by clicking here.

Autumn 2006

Tuesday November 21st saw the latest Junior Chef Competition held at South Kent College. Six youngsters from local schools took part in the competition to prepare a dish of their choosing. Lydia Feltham of Folkestone School for Girls and Kane Treadwell of the Harvey Grammar School were the joint winners but the other contestants (Alex Burton of Folkestone School for Girls, Luke Wraight of the Harvey Grammar School, Shane Ridley and Iona Mannering of Pent Valley Technology College) were all highly commended. Following the judging, the college catering students prepared and served an excellent meal for the 30-odd Rotarians and friends in attendance. Congratulations to all those who took part and our grateful thanks go to the judges (former Rotarian Paul Hagger of Paul's Restaurant and Val Perry, SKC catering lecturer), the staff at South Kent College and Arthur Pendlebury-Green and his Vocational & Youth Service Committee for a splendid evening. Click here for a slideshow of photos of the evening, courtesy of Lisa Swallow from the Marketing Department of South Kent College.

On Friday November 10th over 90 people squeezed into the lounge at Folkestone Rugby Club to enjoy our latest Race Night. Superbly organised by Jon Gant, aided and abetted by Andrew Beggs and others, the evening raised over £1,000 towards the club's funds.

The last weekend of September saw six Folkestone Rotarians and their partners take part in the latest Quadrangulaire, organised and hosted this year by the Rotary Club of Liège. They joined 11 guests from RC Cologne, 28 from RC Lille and 58 from RC Liège for fun, fellowship and fund-raising, with the most enjoyable social and cultural events having a very serious aspect, namely the joint project proposed by RC Liège to fund the establishment of a number of wells in Central Africa to provide safe drinking water for over 10,000 people.

A full report of the weekend will appear in due course - but, in the meanwhile, if your French is up to it, why not look at the RC Liège's own account of it by clicking here.

At the end of October, President Mike Simmonds and several other Rotarians and their partners attended the District Conference in Torquay.

A jolly time was had by all (judging from the "official" photograph on the right) and everyone came away energised and re-enthused with the spirit of Rotary.

We hope to have a full report on the conference available here soon.

But by far the biggest event was the inaugural Folkestone Rotary Half Marathon held on Sunday October 29th 2006. Organised literally from start to finish by Ray Johnson, the event was a tremendous success, with over 360 runners from all over the South East - and some from even further afield!

A few points about the race:

• Total miles covered was approximately 4,768
• The men's winner was John Creane in a time of 72.50 mins
• The winning lady was Rona Loubser at 88.46 mins
• The runners got through 1000 litres of water, 2000 cups, and 300 bananas, energy bars and sports drinks
• All runners received a medal and goody bag and excellent feedback was received from the competitors
• The oldest runner was a sprightly 73, while the youngest was 19

Sponsors for the event were:

A photo gallery of the day is available by clicking here and the full list of results (as an Excel spreadsheet) is available here.