Largest Rotary Club in Thurrock (est 1930)
Orsett, Essex RM16 3HS
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Winner Isabel Aros-Solomon from William Edwards School “My artwork portrays an idea of destruction but there is rebuilding in progress. There is a strong bond explaining that you can still fix yourself, even when half broken, by rebuilding. This process of rebuilding does not have to be pretty and that is exactly how my artwork relates to the theme”. | |
Highly Commended Rachida Rai from the Hathaway Academy “BAM! In the middle of the universe. In the middle of nowhere. Things still keep going on. Even with a peak into another realm, life goes on. Bricks are laid, columns are built to be used and destroyed later. Life goes on so build it again”. | |
Highly Commended Nifemi Alawiye from the Hathaway Academy “ADHD best describes who I am, how my brain ‘operates’. Each time I feel like my day goes bad, my brain ‘rebuilds’. I need to do better tomorrow” |
Winner Aaron Tregunno from Treetops School “In future people might be rebuilt as robots” | |
Very Highly Commended Owen Taylor from Treetops School “All of the questions I had before starting at Treetops School seem less important as I rebuild my confidence” | |
Highly Commended Jehlani Francis from Treetops School “This is the theme of life and death. Something comes to an end and new life continues to be rebuilt in the future” | |
Commended Shae O’Hanlon from William Edwards School. “Flowers rebuild and grow new leaves every year”. |
Winner Myra Ali from Woodside Academy “A vandalised park being rebuilt” | |
Very Highly Commended Evie Newberry from Stifford Clays Junior School “Rebuilding Womens football since the FA ban in 1921”. | |
Highly Commended Honey Waro from Stifford Clays Junior School “The effects rebuilding can have on people and their surroundings”. | |
The subject that the entrants had to write upon was “Rebuilding”. The competition was fierce, and of all the entries were of a high standard. The majority of the entries received were submitted via a school, but we did receive two private entries who were encouraged to enter by Woodside Academy staff.We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Junior, (10 years old and under category) was from Woodside Academy called Myra Ali who the judge considered that her work to be well written and consistent in the power of her argument. The winner of the Intermediate (11 to 13 years old category) was a student from Hathaway Academy called Nifemi Alawiye who the judge considered her prose entry to be excellent and that if fully met the criteria.
Congratulations to both the winners, who will receive their prizes at our prize presentations in due course and will be representing Thurrock at the next stage of the national competition.
A pair of young musicians from Thurrock have each scooped an award at the Rotary Young Musician of the Year 2023 event.
Melda Kondoz, 16 from Aveley, won the “Solo Instrumental of the year” while Ismael Dosoo, 12 from East Tilbury picked up the “Solo Vocal of the year” prize.
The talented youngsters came out top in a highly competitive field of musicians aged 17 and under and will now go on to showcase their musicianship in Brentwood Cathedral at the Rotary 1240 District finals where they will compete against young musicians from across Essex.
We want to say a big congratulations to Ismael and Melda and wish them the best of luck for the next round of this national competition.
- put their STEM skills to the test.
- show they can work within a team and communicate with each other to achieve a common goal.
- be creative and constructive but showing their command of time management skills.
So how can we help? We have a small amount of money that may help solve an immediate issue. Our members also have a considerable amount of knowledge and experience, drawn from all walks of life that may be able to offer support. Any request has to be considered by our Community Services committee; we are not able to support all requests but we do try.
If you know of any person, family or club that needs support or charity that is trying to help the local community but experiencing a challenging time please contact us or alternatively forward this communication to them and ask them to contact us.
You can contact us via this website https://www.graysthurrockrotary.org.uk/ or by direct messaging us through of Facebook Page @Grays.Thurrock.Rotary
Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years, our goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever.
As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we've reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.
Rotary members have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort.
Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year.
Here our President and Rotarians Adrian Alsop and Bob Paterson are seen planting more Crocus bulbs as part of this vital initiative.
Date: Wednesday 15th March 2023
Venue: The London Cruise Terminal, Fort Road, Tilbury, RM18 7NG (use postcode for SatNav).
Time: Competitors are asked to arrive and register at 12.00. The Tournament will start promptly at 12.30pm and the anticipated finish time is 4.30pm.
Technology Tournaments are a well-established and successful competition promoted by Rotary International in Britain and Ireland (RGBI). This Tournament is organised by the Rotary Club of Grays Thurrock in association with the London Cruise Terminal at the Port of Tilbury. Entrants may participate in a club or district competition that is outside of their geographical boundary but may compete in only one Rotary club or Rotary district Technology Tournament.
The competition is open to all schools and college communities and any other young peoples’ community organisations, for example, community Interact, Scout Groups, Girl Guides etc. and the age group for participants is 11 to 16 years old. Each team of four participants is required to design, develop, build and then test a previously set technology task as well as show they can work within a team and communicate with each other to achieve a common goal; Tasks are based on engineering principals, but also be creative and constructive, showing their command of time management skills.
PLEASE GO TO OUR YOUTH EVENTS TAB TO DOWNLOAD THE INFO PACK
The clubhouse was packed with junior rugby players for their Monday evening training session and the President said the Club was glad to support an activity that gives so much to the young people of Grays Thurrock.
Spring each year, sees a beautiful purple carpet of crocus blooming in many communities across Great Britain and Ireland thanks to the Purple Crocus Corm planting to raise awareness of the Rotary fight for a polio free world.
Planting the purple crocus corms by Rotary and many community groups is a great way of getting active, having fun and talking to lots of different people about the need to eradicate the life threatening and disabling polio virus.
Young Photographer 2022 Winners
Grays Rotary Club today presented cheques totalling £10,700 to 5 chosen charities from its Christmas street & supermarket collections - Lauren Eagle-Allen representing Little Havens Childrens Hospice, Janice Gilroy representing Barnardo’s & John Brewer Head of Treetops School each received a cheque for £2,600. Each expressed their grateful thanks to the club. Unfortunately Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital and NSPCC were unrepresented but will respectively be receiving a cheque for £2,600 and £300 by post.
After lunch at Orsett Hall, the club thanked representatives from the local superstores Asda (Kim Morgan), Sainsburys (Will Doyle) & Tesco (Angela Mitchell) for their support and attendance together with Rotarian Steve Payne for building its new sleigh.
Although unable to join the lunch, grateful thanks were also offered to Grayers Graphics for help with the sleigh paintwork and Smiths Orchard Garden Centre for their assistance in counting & banking the cash collected.
[Group photo left to right is Angela Mitchell, Lauren Eagle-Allen, Janice Gilroy, Adrian Alsop, Steve Payne, Kim Morgan, John Brewer, Anthony Hatton (Treetops Free School Head) and Will Doyle]
2022 has begun for the Rotary Club of Grays Thurrock with a notable accolade for one of its established members.
And the club presented its highest award, the Paul Harris Fellowship (named after the founder of the Rotary movement), to Rotarian Steve Payne for outstanding service to the club and the local community.
Steve single-handedly took up the challenge of building the club a new Christmas sleigh which performed flawlessly for Santa in December and is set to bring joy to borough children and help raise funds for great causes for many years to come.
Following a successful membership information evening in late November, the first of its new members Steve Quigley was inducted last week with more expected to follow.
Grays is proud to have a special relationship with the the Iserlohn club in Germany and with Voorschoten Leidschendam in the Netherlands. In the past this has mostly been a social relationship but earlier this year the club in Iserlohn asked for our help following awful floods in Germany. We were happy to help out and assist in buying a dehydrator to help the affected areas.
We have received a thank you letter from Iserlohn and below are some pictures of the work that we helped to achieve.
You can read the full letter by clicking on "Read more" below.
We would like to thank the people of Thurrock most sincerely for their support and generosity over the Christmas period. Our grateful thanks also goes to Sainsburys, Asda and Tesco for their assistance.
The club & its members have worked tirelessly to ensure this year‘s supermarket and sleigh collections (and our concert at Thameside Theatre) were successful armed with our new sleigh & following the 2020 Covid break so I am delighted to announce that we hope to donate over £10,000 in February to our 4 main childrens' charities Great Ormond Street Hospital, Little Havens Hospice, Treetops School and Barnardo’s.
Best wishes to all for a happy and healthy 2022.
The Club, in association with the Thurrock Music Hub and the Gateway Academy, were finally able to hold the 2020 Rotary Young Musician Awards Ceremony on 4th November 2021 at The Royal Opera House facility at The Barn, High House, Purfleet. After brief speeches by Rotary Vice President Clive Page, former Mayor and Councillor Cathy Kent and Roy Dignum for the Thurrock Music Hub, the winners gave a short recital of their works, including one by pre-recorded video. After the performances the Awards and Trophies were presented.
It was an excellent evening enjoyed by all and shows the strength and capability of young musicians in the Thurrock area.
The winners were …
ZARA SAVEL - Beginner instrumental
LAURA SYLEMANI - Intermediate Vocal
NEDA BIKUS - Intermediate Instrument
INDRIT SYLEMANI - Highly Commended Inst.
ELLIE ROSE CLARKE - Advanced Vocal
SAMUEL LEE. - Advanced Instrumental and Young Musician of the Year Trophy.