On Friday 30th January Nick Bell threw a party at Weeke Community Centre to celebrate the fact that he had been in Winchester Rotary for 40 Years. It was an informal and fun evening and was attended by our present District Governor Richard Burnett and his wife, Sue; Immediate Past District Governor Debbie and her partner Kevin, Past District Governor Caroline Millman, Joyce Bowden who is now in her 90’s-widow of Nick’s Mentor in his Rotaract days -Arthur Bowden. Also, there were some friends of Nick’s from his Winchester Rotaract days and friends from his time as District Chair of Rotaract in the mid-eighties. He also welcomed friends who had been very supportive of his Rotary Activities although not Rotarians, who had travelled from London and Reading. There were former Winchester Rotarians, Anthony Arkwright and his wife Annie who had come up from Cornwall for the event and Colin Eames (also in his 90’s) and his daughter Penny. The winners of the furthest travel award were two old Rotaract friends from the mid 80’s who had come all the way from Barcelona, Spain where they now live.
The evening started with a Sparkling reception and after Nick had introduced his guests he explained how he had become involved in the Rotary family through a next door Rotary neighbour of his parents in Alton, Martin Fayers. He had just formed a Rotaract Club and then Nick moved to Winchester Rotaract when he started work there and Martin and his wife followed him shortly after and the two were in the same Rotary Club for a while. Nick had not been sure of the exact date he joined Rotaract (probably 1977 or 1978) but he knew he was inducted into Winchester Rotary in January/early February 1986 as this had been delayed by a trip to New Zealand in the first three weeks of January to promote the Interota Conference 1987 of which he was Vice Chair to the Aussies and Kiwis.
The guests then enjoyed a three course meal followed by short but sincere messages of congratulation form the Mayor and District Governor. A video of the Music Project run by Great Lakes Peace Centre in Kasese was then shown (with unfortunately some technical difficulties) as this was what Nick was asking for donations to mark his milestone anniversary. You can follow the link here:
A raffle was then held which contributed to the just over £3,500 raised for the Music Project. The guests then danced the night away to the music of 5 Shades of Grey with Magic Theo giving us a brief show of magic in the Band’s interval.
An evening of Rotary at its best providing entertainment for Rotarians whilst raising a good amount of money for needy children and their future in Kasese, Uganda. Nick will be seeing for himself that this money is being well spent when he goes over to Uganda at the end of March for four weeks.
You can still donate to the cause here
Gill Russell (with Nick Bell!)
