Our Club is delighted to have partnered once again with the Smallpeice Trust to sponsor Adrian Fok from Bromsgrove for two years as an Arkwright Engineering Scholar. The highly respected Arkwright Engineering Scholarship, designed to inspire and equip the next generation of UK engineering talent, is celebrating its 2020 programme. The engineering industry has played an essential role in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, from developing PPE for frontline workers to helping construct new hospitals. A diverse pipeline of future engineering talent will pave the way for greater innovation and help sustain the nation’s development and economic recovery through the ongoing coronavirus pandemic – however, skilled engineers are in short supply. Arkwright Engineering Scholars benefit from financial support, professional mentorship, exclusive networking opportunities and real-world learning experiences with leading engineering firms such as the IET, the RAF, Rolls Royce and Network Rail. The enrichment experiences offer students a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in different engineering specialisms and discover a wide range of exciting career paths, from aerospace to robotics.

Our Club is very pleased to have supported the Harry Bennett Foundation with a donation of £500.

Harry Bennett was a student at South Bromsgrove High School and a keen sportsman playing both rugby for Kings Norton Rugby Club and football for Meadow Park Football Club and enjoyed cricket as well. He died suddenly following a short illness at the age of 16 in January 2020 and his family has set up the Harry Bennett Foundation in his memory to support people to access the life enhancing mental and physical benefits provided by sport.

The charity aims to help anyone from a young age to adulthood to enjoy the benefits which derive from sport and to achieve their sporting dreams by supplying financial support for equipment and training, or to help kick start new clubs and teams. A one off payment or ongoing funding will be considered to help those who find themselves in hardship whether through mental or physical ill health or financial difficulties to achieve respite through sport.

For further information about the charity and its activities please visit its Facebook page HB9 Harry Bennett Foundation.

South Bromsgrove High School Interact Club was chartered in March 2019 and sponsored by the Rotary Club of Bromsgrove.

Our members were mentored by a Rotarian and learned valuable committee skills to brigade our planning. All members developed their self-confidence, leadership and public speaking skills in communicating with and engaging other students in school to contribute to our work. Several members derived further valuable learning and development through participation in a RYLA residential weekend organised by District 1060.

In our first year of operation our Club Council chose two service projects, locally the Primrose Hospice in Bromsgrove caring for people with life limiting illnesses and supporting their families. Our international focus led us to select a school in Arusha in Tanzania which teachers at our school had visited previously and supported in its development.

Amongst our fundraising activities the Club ran a coffee morning to benefit the local Hospice.

We were visited by the New Life Band from Tanzania and raised funds jointly with the musicians for the school in Arusha by staging a music concert in school. Interact members led the front of house arrangements and sold refreshments and craft items transported from Tanzania to augment the monies raised. One of our Club members supported the sound and lighting requirements for the concert.

As the senior Interact members depart the school to take up further and higher education and work opportunities they do so as more rounded and confident individuals with a better understanding of what works well in the world when we join together in support of others less fortunate than ourselves. Several have enrolled as Friends of the local Rotary Club in continuing association with Rotary and are considering Rotaract membership. Those Interact members still at school believe strongly in ‘Service Above Self’ and have embraced new deserving good causes at home and abroad, and there is fresh potential in our new Club members.

Interact Club members serving refreshments at a fundraising concert in school.

The Rotary Club of Bromsgrove is pleased to be able to support the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust with a donation of £200. Dame Ellen’s charity is the chosen local charity this year of our District Governor Tim Bushell. The charity supports young people aged 8-24 years to rebuild their confidence after treatment for cancer through sailing and adventure.

WaterAid is an international non-governmental organisation focused on the provision of clean water, safe sanitation and hygiene behaviour change, and advocacy with governments and utilities. It has established programmes in some thirty different countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Our Club is very pleased to be able to support WaterAid with a donation of £500 as part of our international focus.

Our Club is delighted to be able to support the fantastic work done by Aquabox with a donation of £500.

We are delighted that Ton Roosenboom has decided to join our Club as a new Rotarian. He was welcomed to the Rotary family by our President Ray Sinclair at our meeting held via Zoom on 8 September. He is the second person to have joined Bromsgrove at a meeting held on line!

Our members recognise the difficulties created for individuals and families in our communities by the current public health situation. We have been successful in obtaining a match funded grant of £750 from our Rotary District 1060 and have donated £500 each to The Basement Project Food Bank and to those operated by Catshill Baptist Church and New Starts.