The Rotaract Club of Woking
Woking Rotaract turned 30 this year and so we decided to have a birthday party complete with games, food, drink and a raffle. It was an extremely fun night with Musical Chairs being the most popular (not to mention competitive game) by far.
Speeches were given by representatives from The Surrey Care Trust which is our dedicated charity. We managed to raise £400 for them from this event :-)
The Winter Wonderland Ball was a great night out with much fun had by all :-)least!
The club attended a Twisted Reindeer Evening hosted by Epsom Rotaract club, which was interesting to say the least!
6 of us left the beautiful sunny UK in the height of summer and descended on Bruges for some sightseeing, drinking, and even more drinking. Some highlights of the trip were:
Our bowling team proved to be consistently too good, as we became 2007 Rotaract bowling champions for the district. Special mention goes out to Chris who acheived a staggering individual score of 168 in one of the games!
The club ran the crockery smash stall at the classic car show held at Prince Willen, Alexander School, in Old Woking. Proceeds from the stall went to charity and on a hot sweltering day the stall proved to be one of the most popular attractions with the attendees and about £350 was raised in the process.
In honour of our president's recent passing of the British Citizenship exam we decided to host our own quiz where many of the questions came directly from the test you are required to pass in order to become a British citizen. It was a great night with a good attendance and atmosphere and most importantly about £400 was raised for charity.
We braved a miserbale wet day at Thorpe Park conquering all of the major rides in the process. No-one was sick either :-)
Surbiton hosted a palm-tree themed ball in the Esteem Club in Esher, which the club attended. The social event featured live music, casino tables where gambling for charities was encouraged and an impressive array of raffle prizes.
The Annual Conference was held in Watford this year and the club attended the ball that was held on the Saturday evening. A good time was had by all with a few club members getting extremely drunk on the night as the pictures aptly demonstrate...
We attended some training sessions that St John's Ambulance were providing, as you never know when you may need to administer the kiss of life to someone...
HUNDREDS of kites filled the skies above Bournemouth seafront as Rotary and Rotaract claimed a new world record on Saturday 14th April 2007.
As part of Rotary International in GB&I's annual conference, held at the BIC at the weekend, Bournemouth Rotaract organised the attempt to break the kite-flying record. The event took place between Bournemouth Pier and Boscombe Pier, with scout groups, schoolchildren and members of the public all joining the attempt...
...Please visit the Bournemouth Rotaract website for the full article on Rotaract breaking the World Record for flying the most kites in one place at one time!
In October 2006 Hart and Rushmoor Rotaract held a fantastic Halloween party in aid of Guide Dogs for the Blind. At the time, Woking's President (Melissa) was in a wheelchair, and so she decided that we'd all go as the cast from 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show', so that she could be Dr. Everett V. Scott. It was a great evening and managed to raise around £1,200. And we won a bottle of Champagne for having the best costumed club!
In October 2006 four Rotaractors went back to their roots to monkey around in the trees of Bracknell Forest, at the Go Ape Centre. We had great fun passing from tree to tree across various masochistically designed 'bridges', sliding down some very looong aerial runways and swinging into huge cargo nets. Although it was a good laugh, we all felt a bit safe, so next time perhaps we'll do it without the harnesses!
Last year we raised £300 for Woking Mind by selling items donated by the Club members and by the two Woking Rotary Clubs. We had lots left over, so this year we decided to do it again, and collected loads more stuff too. We started in the wee hours on a cold Sunday morning with two full carloads and three tired Rotaractors. Typically, just after we unloaded the car the heavens opened and everything got soaked! Luckily we managed to cover the books with the Rotaract banner, and when the rain stopped a bright sun dried everything off. In the end we raised £150 for charity, and the stuff left over we couldn't even give away! We also bumped into Rotarian Heather Howard who is Director of Public Relations of the Rotary Club of Port Alfred, South Africa, who told us that her daughter has just been elected President of their Rotaract Club - small world!
We decided to traverse the Channel in search of good food, fine wine and erm some french culture!
It was a very enjoyable and memorable trip. Some of the highlights were:
July 2006 saw the end of another Rotaract year and the beginning of a new one. We set off to the Royal Oak in Pirbright for pub lunch to thank Simon for his hard work as President over the previous year and to welcome Melissa as our new President. She got the new year off to a fine start by taking some of our lads for a horsey ride in the park!
In May 2006 all clubs from Rotaract District 1140 gathered in Kingston upon Thames for the Annual District Ball, this year organised by Epsom Rotaract.
Each Christmas we help out our sponsoring Rotary clubs with their various Christmas Collections. This year we also helped out Guildford District Rotary club who were collecting on behalf of Disability Challengers. More photos to follow after we help out the two Woking Rotary clubs with their town centre collections and "Santa's Sleigh" around the local neighbourhoods...
Our Christmas party this year was held at the "OK Corral" - a western themed evening with a bucking bronco, gambling, dodgems (?!), some good food and plenty of drink! Woking Rotaract members dressed up for the occasion as cow-boys, cow-girls and three Sheriffs. Secret Santa even dropped in to give us all a gift or two!
With superb Bank Holiday weather and authentic concrete seating, we watched Mini Stox, Hot Rods and Bangers speed round the raceway, culminating in the spectacular Demolition Derby. The atmosphere was fun and competitive with Rotaract cheering on the locally-labelled "Chobham" Hot Rod. The non-contact racing was skilled and intense, with the DD ending the show in style. A few newcomers to the Oval were happily converted ready for our next trip in August!
On Saturday 23rd April 2005 Woking Rotaract held a Charity Hypnotist Evening which raised £728 for Disability Challengers, a Guildford charity which provides play and leisure facilities for disabled children. It was an action packed evening, with close-up magic, mind reading, amazing memory recall, and finally an hour-long hypnotism show with volunteers from the audience. Read More →
