On Saturday, 20th September, 8 of our members manned a stall at the Winchester Green Fair, held at the Cathedral Pavilion, which is secreted away behind the refectory.
The space consists of a permanent marquee and a lovely, though compact garden area, with a great view back to the Cathedral.
Things began with Colin Cook, Mike Billington, Dave Stewart and Mark Butcher, assisted by Kelsie Learney setting up the gazebo, table, etc. It involved some negotiation with the other stallholders, as space was at a premium, but we were pretty happy with the end result. Although we were at the end of a cul-de-sac, ours was the only stall with our name actually facing people, so they could easily see who we were, and where.
The event was opened by Sudhakar Achwal, Mayor of Winchester and honorary member of our Club. He popped by for a brief chat, reminiscing about the tree planting we did with him at one of his local primary schools in Whiteley.
Mike and Mark got things rolling, capturing our first set of contact details and generating interest in the youth competitions. They were followed by Dave and Colin over the lunch period, who managed to sign-up somebody who might be interested in joining the Club!
Diana and Les then picked up the baton. They were joined by a family from Pune in India, where they are members of one of the 28 Rotary clubs in the City, their club having 128 members!
Paul and Gill wrapped up proceedings, at the end of which we had 11 people’s details, mostly in relation to tree planting, plus numerous enquiries in relation to the youth competitions, etc.
As the weather decided to take a turn for the worse, it was time to pack everything up, for which a huge thank you to Gill, Kelsie, Paul and Dave, plus of course Dominic for storing the gazebo and Colin for providing the sack trolley.
All in all a very successful day!
Additional photos can be seen here, and in the Hampshire Chronicle.
