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The Rotary Club of Grays Thurrock
Largest Rotary Club in Thurrock (est 1930)
We meet In Person
Thursdays at 1:00 PM
Orsett Hall Hotel
Prince Charles Avenue
Orsett, Essex RM16 3HS
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Orsett, Essex RM16 3HS
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Our President's Night dinner at Orsett Hall. It' nice to get out again after COVID! Congratulations to Adrian on his year..
On Sunday 12th June 2022, East Thurrock Community Garden, off Rockery Lane, East Thurrock, was officially opened by Leader of Thurrock Council Bob Gledhill. Also in attendance was the Head of Thurrock Planning committee, Tom Kelly. Clive Cheeseman, the main coordinator for the project, aided by his wife Sheila and friends Keith and Glynis along with other members of the committee worked tirelessly for over two years to turn an area of over grown scrubland into the Community Garden. Grays Thurrock Rotary club had agreed to support the project and Peter Hoche, the club’s Community Services chairman, presented a cheque for £150 to Clive.
For the first time in three years our members were able to attend the annual Tripartite meeting of the Rotary Clubs of Iserlohn (Germany), Voorschoten-Leidschendam (Holland) and Grays Thurrock.
It was fantastic renew friendships after so long. Click the link to read the full story.
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This year saw 9 intrepid travellers from Grays venture East to Istanbul. This was supposed to be a mystery trip in 2020 but due to Covid, it was delayed by 2 years. It was a pity that many of the original number could not be there but the 9 that went enjoyed it thoroughly. We won't bore everyone with all of the pictures but members can view them in the members pages. Here are some samples.
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A great night out with 26 people attending a meal at Feast in Grays High Street.
A thank you letter for one of our recent donations. You can help support this worthwhile charity at www.mariecurie.org.uk
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]
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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.
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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.
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Grays Rotary agreed yesterday to donate £500 to Thurrock Foodbank to help assist those in need over the Christmas period.
Although the funds were sent electronically for speed, President Adrian is shown below outside Thurrock Foodbank with a presentation cheque.
Santa Spotted at ASDA, Tilbury
After missing last year because of the restrictions the Club Sleigh was back in action on the streets of Thurrock and Santa has a new Sleigh!
Club welcomes prospective new members.
40 members, guests and prospective members on 25th November, enjoyed the Club and Membership Night at Orsett Hall. This was the night to show prospective members what the Club was all about and members relished the opportunity. The Gold Room looked beautiful for the evening, which started started with drinks and a general getting to know each other and was followed by an entertaining introduction by the President, Adrian Alsop and then with three amusing presentations on the clubs activity - Alan Peaford on the social side of the club, Kevin Watkins on International and the Tri-Partite with our associated Dutch and German Clubs and Iain Ramsay on our fundraising and Christmas concert, sleigh and collection activities. You could feel the tension when Iain revealed a picture of the new sleigh - ahhhhhh, only to deny us with a picture of it covered by a sheet - ohhhhh. The buffet was excellent followed by a superb demonstration from our Guest Speaker from St Johns Ambulance on how a defibrillator works. Holly in full SJA para medic gear with a defibrillator and dummy held us all spellbound with the demonstration and was then bombarded with questions from the audience. Speed is of the essence with any heart attack situation and we all went away with potentially lifesaving knowledge. A Club donation to SJA was presented by Ray Smallcombe together with a vote of thanks. The evening finished at around 10.00pm with closing remarks from the President. After the evening the President said: "The evening was a great success and would hopefully generate new members to the club.
Some pictures from the evening:
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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
MELITA KLYVYTE - Highly Commended Inst.
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.
Sam Lee | Sam Lee with Cathy Kent and Clive Page | All of our winners |
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Grays Rotary Club was represented by Adrian Alsop and Ray Reynolds at the Remembrance Service on Sunday where a wreath was laid on behalf of the club.
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A group of Grays Rotarians enjoyed an excellent lunch on 17 October at Smiths in Wapping
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