Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Many congratulations Katharine - on both counts. Time for a well earned rest?

Well Katharine has really earned it

Wish I could rest! I work full time for the Ffestiniog Railway which is a 7 day a week operation so my two days off this week were Wednesday and Thursday. I've been in work today and will be tomorrow. On Monday I am off preparing a talk that I will be giving to the 41 Inner Wheel Clubs in the District, and mugging up the Health & Safety and Children and Vulnerable Adult Policies we have to observe. That evening I go to speak at Llanidloes, about 2 hours south of here, work on Tuesday and speak at Wrexham, 2 hours east, that evening. Wednesday just work, Thursday off going to the dentist and then an official lunch where I just have to give a vote of thanks. I sometimes wonder if I am a complete mug!! There has never been a District Chairman from as far west as me before, it has been some time since they have had one who works full time. I just want to prove that it can be done.

I must write it up for John Hopgood for the Old Blue - then you might learn just what good Inner Wheel does.

wow, so busy

never heard of Inner Wheel before...

Inner Wheel is one of the largest Ladies Service Organisations in the world. Membership is restricted to relatives of Rotarians, and Inner Wheel members (I would open it up if I could and spoke for that very forcefully in front of 3000 in NZ earlier this year!)

The general motto is Friendship and Service, this year in Britain we are raising funds for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and worldwide for UNICEF Global Education for Girls, as well as hundreds of other charities chosen by the individual clubs.

How do you become a 'Rotarian' then?

Originally Rotary was just for businessmen, and it was more or less word of mouth membership. For about 20 years it has been dual gender - I was a Rotarian in Sarawak. It still is more or less word of mouth membership. It is a service organisation with motto Service above Self. It is far, far bigger than Inner Wheel, being particularly strong in the US, where it was founded. Inner Wheel, however, was founded in Britain. Rotary has weekly meetings, we have monthly ones. I am still at work but I could find contact details if anyone is interested!

what do you mean by service organisation and what does it actually do? apart from raise money for charity (I'm not knocking that you understand, but like the Freemasons, there MUST be more point to it whatever they say).

Ruthie-Baby wrote:what do you mean by service organisation and what does it actually do? apart from raise money for charity (I'm not knocking that you understand, but like the Freemasons, there MUST be more point to it whatever they say).

I suppose a service organisation is one that exists to raise money for charity AND to do personal acts of service - such as arranging holidays for children from Chernobyl or helping other organisations who do that. Inner Wheel and Rotary are not limited to one kind of charity and each club decides what its priorities are. One of the main aspects is the friendship amongst the members. When John took early retirement and we came to live here, we found that we immediately had a circle of friends outside the Railway ones we had known before. They accepted us because we were already members of these worldwide organisations. I know stories of people phoning a club overseas when a family member falls ill on holiday and knowing support will be given.

For three years I was the District Overseas Service Chairman, this meant I raised awareness of charities working overseas and was a source of information. Each year we worked with a charity to load a lorry to go to Eastern Europe. The charity arranged the lorry, I did the publicity and gave the info of what was actually wanted. When the day came each year it was quite awe inspiring. The lorry sent was one of the largest pantechnicons, when it arrived empty it looked vast, a few hours later it was filled to the gunnels with useful donations. This charity could get several days labour on a project building a home for HIV orphans in exchange for a bike - we sent dozens of them after having them serviced. I could go on and on, but I hope that is enough of an answer for now!

Thanks. That gives me an idea and answers a question I've had for ages.

I have to be honest, I have always wondered about the freemasons and is it true that they are a bunch of catholic hating bigots?

short answer Scone Lover is no.

do you want the long answer?