On Monday 9th. February 2009, a presentation of a pen set was made to Past District Governor Rtn Aldred Evershed by Rtn Luing Cowley, a founder member of the Bletchley Rotary Club.

After 32 years as a member of the Bletchley Rotary Club, Aldred and his wife Kay have moved house to Wokingham to be near his family. During his time in Bletchley, he was Club President on 2 separate occasions - 1983/4 and again in 2007/8 during the Club's 50th anniversary.

Stevenage Grange recently heard that it had won a place to exhibit its Make blindness History (ROI) project at the RI House of Friendship.

ROI was born in 2006 when, as a RIBI and D1260 Centennial Club project, the ‘Grange’ launched its’ appeal to fund and distribute the engraved ROI OptyseTM ophthalmoscope to peoples in developing countries .Supported by SightSavers International, the IMPACT Foundation and other global eye-care charities, some 1,500 ophthalmoscopes are already screening people for sight and other life threatening conditions in over 45 developing countries.

A huge Thank you to all those who bought and entered our quiz this year.  Hitchin Priory Rotary Club is very grateful for the support we get, which this year raised over £3000 for Macmillan Nursing Care and our other charities. 

We are especially grateful for the entrants who sent very kind letters with their entries, and those who gave extra donations to our charities.  I personally derived great pleasure from setting the questions, and even more from seeing the dedication and imagination used by the entrants.

Thank you to all the clubs that contributed to the Appeal for the purchase of the Ambulance Buggy for the NMA which will be used to attend and recover sick or injured visitors from within the Arboretum where normal ambulances cannot reach.

I am pleased to say that clubs within our District contributed £3600 which will meet over half the cost of the buggy. Hope we can make a visit to the NMA during the year.