Johnstone Rotary Club
Thur 10th March - Our President Dr Peter Stromberg and his wife Marion, recently returned from a cruise in the South Atlantic which included a visit to The Falkland Islands. Peter showed slides of Port Stanley, many of the buildings roofed with corrugated iron, also views of the Memorials commemorating both the 1914 Battle of Falkland and the Falklands War of 1982. He also showed the mizzen mast from SS Great Britain the world’s first iron- hulled, steam-powered ocean going ship designed by Brunel. Originally launched in 1843, and after many modificartions, she foundered off Port Stanley in 1886 where her condition slowly deteriorated until in 1970 she was towed back home to Bristol and carefully restored. The nearest equivalent to The Gryffe Advertizer is the “Penguin News”
Thur 17th March - Our speaker was Carol Orr who is a member of the “Friends of Glasgow Cathedral” and also one of their Volunteer Guides.
Carol showed slides of a medieval Cathedral, many of which depicted items of historical interest, architectural features, altars, seats for royalty and, of course, the numerous and beautiful stained glass windows.
Thur 24th March - Lisa McConnell, a sixth year pupil of Johnstone High School, who has recently visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg under the Rotary “Euroscola” scheme gave an excellent illustrated presentation and was very enthusiastic about her experiences on the trip.
Lisa was joined by 25 sixth year pupils from all over Scotland, who travelled to Strasbourg on a 4 day visit to the European Parliament. In Strasbourg she joined a party from 19 different countries. A multilingual debate was held in the chamber of the parliament.
Johnstone Rotary Club are delighted to have sponsored Lisa with financial support also from the European Parliament. Johnstone Rotarian Jim Sharp and Vice President Steve Gibbs presented Lisa with her Euroscola Certificate.
Kayren McDermid, Deputy Head Teacher at Johnstone High School explained some of the changes which are taking place in Scotland’s educational system. Kayren told us of the new Curriculum for Excellence which, as well as high academic achievement, aims to develop students’ confidence and enable them to become responsible citizens with a wider understanding of the world and Scotland’s place in it, Rotary Euroscola scheme being a good example of this.
Photo L to R:- Jim Sharp, Kayren McDermid, Lisa McConnell and Vice President Steve Gibbs.
Thur 31st March - We were treated to a reading by Ronald Aitchison, from Bill Paterson’s book “Tales from the Back Green”. Today’s story was “The Twilight of the
Trams” which described their benefits, especially in fog, their unusual coloured route system and the affection in which they were held by Glaswegians until the final tram journey in 1962 followed by the removal of the lines and associated overhead cables.
Members of Johnstone Rotary Club were pleased to offer some financial support to the Campbell Street OAP Club of Johnstone which has faced serious difficulties due, mainly, to an extremely large increase in the rent demanded by the Council for the use of Johnstone Town Hall. Rotary President, Dr Peter Stromberg, visited the club during one of their Tuesday afternoon meetings and presented a cheque to Club President Norma Kerr.
Photo “Campbell St OAP Club. jpg” shows Ann Struthers, Peter Stromberg, Norma Kerr, Jean Milligan & Ann Duncan.
Gordon Highlanders Group pay special visit to Erskine veterans
A living history group, kitted out in WWI uniform, recently paid a special visit to ex-Service men and women cared for by the veterans’ charity Erskine.
The party of Gordon Highlanders
1914-18
visited The Erskine Home, Bishopton, to see first-hand the high standard of care offered to veterans. They also took the opportunity to meet Alexander Shand, a former Gordon Highlander, and also treat the residents to a demonstration of marching, drilling and weaponry.
This year in June the group will embark on the Gordon Highlanders Erskine March in commemoration of the 95th anniversary of both the veterans’ charity Erskine and the Battle of the Somme.
It is hoped that £10,000 will be raised through this fantastic fundraising challenge, with all proceeds going directly towards the care of veterans and serving personnel supported by the veterans’ charity Erskine.
The 65-mile march starts at Buckie on Monday 6th June, before finishing at Aviemore six days later. Along the way the Gordons group intend to give free demonstrations for the public with planned stops at Fochabers, Cr aigellachie, Ballindalloch, Grantown and Boat of Garten before the final push to finish line. The
group has the full moral backing of the Gordons Museum in Aberdeen for the fundraising challenge.
Tom Greenshields, of the Gordon Highlanders 1914-1918, said: “We were delighted to pay a special visit to The Erskine Home recently, before we embark on this fundraising challenge. We were honoured to meet former Gordon Highlander Alexander Shand and also give Erskine residents the chance to see our demonstration. Our visit has highlighted once again the wonderful work that this charity does to care for our veterans and serving personnel and we are all looking forward to raising money towards their work in Scotland.”
Erskine was
established in 1916 to help provide care and artificial limbs for soldiers returning from the First World War. Almost 95 years on it still prides itself on providing a high standard of care to ex-Service men and women at five care homes across Scotland, as well as supporting Armed Forces personnel on active service.
For further information, log on to
www.erskine.org.uk.
To support the Gordon Highlanders Erskine March, visit www.justgiving. com/Tom-Greenshields.
46 | MAY 2011 | your LOCAL news every month - in print and online |
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60