The Rotary Club of Lisburn

Open day Friday 24th September

Allister McGowan

The Friday 24th September lunch meeting was planned as a day to open our club meeting to enable members to bring business colleagues and friends  to our meeting to showcase what Rotary is about.

We had some 10 visitors and 1st VP Gary welcomed them and gave a short talk on the aims and principles of Rotary.

We were also thankful to Allister McGowan who filled in at short notice after our arranged speaker had to cancel. Allister  gave us an excellent talk on the Police and fire Games which had taken place in Northern Ireland in the summer of 2013

Allister told us how he came to believe that Northern Ireland could host this big event when he was attending the games in Ottawa. After gaining support from authorities here he then took on the mantle of heading up the organisation of what became a hugely successful event. He particularly mentioned the volunteers and we had several associated Club members  who had  volunteered -Robin Holliday and Margaret, Melanie Minshull and Margaret McDonough.

Melanie and daughter

Margaret and PP Billy

Reception at Daisy Lodge

A week after the official opening of Daisy Lodge by Rory McIlroy. other sponsors were invited to a reception and a tour of Daisy Lodge.President Sam and Janine with a number of other Rotarians and their partners were given a tour of the 5 Star facilities which families going through cancer treatment are already enjoying.

Cofffee and snacks were served and  the team at Daisy Lodge then  gave us a stimulating talk on the development and building of Daisy Lodge and the support it provides to families in a very difficult time in their lives

Jole ( Paddy Rider)District Conference 2014

District Conference at the Titanic

President Sam and his handmaidens 

District Governor Philip and the Rotary Club of Comber were hosts for the District 1160 Conference in the magnificent Titanic building in Belfast over the weekend 26th/27th September.

Golf at Royal Belfast on the Thursday was followed on Friday by Registration and the first Plenary session where Dale Orr and Sandra McCabe from Lisburn were speakers.

On Friday evening Belfast City Council hosted a superb reception and Dinner with entertainment in the magnificent City Hall. The City Hall was highlighted in Rotary colours.

There was a large attendance from members of the Rotary Club of Lisburn and on Saturday evening Presiden Sam and Janine hosted drinks and canapies in their  suite in the Merchant Hotel before we all moved on to a reception, Dinner and Ball in the Titanic Building.

A magnificent weekend which showed Belfast as a great city

6th Invitational Golf Event

All Slots were filled on a beautiful September day for the 6th Golf  invitational at  Lisburn Golf Club. There was  a competitive days golf with team and individual prizes, not to forget a putting competition and a hole in one prize of a car, courtesy of Donnelly brothers. Unfortunately no one  managed to win this.

Competitors and other guest then enjoyed an excellent Dinner. The evening was hosted by Gene Fitzpatrick in his own humorous style and he then conducted a very successful auction.

The official Helpers, Angelo,David and George

 Around £12000 t0 £13000 was raised on the day and most of this will cover our commitment to the Cancer Fund for Children

Unclaimed

Golf Organiser Alan with his team

        Photos of the day will be published on the Gallery soon
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Evening Meeting 2nd October Remembering PP Gordon Hanna and PP Frank Moorhead

Two esteemed members  of the Rotary Club of Lisburn  Past President Gordon Hanna and Frank Moorhead passed away in the month of September and at our Evening Meeting  on 2nd October the Club remembered their lives and service to Rotary.

Liam McCartney gave a short address about  Gordon and Robin Holliday an address about Frank .

PP Gordon Hanna

Gordon  a highly respected and well known sports journalist had joined the  Rotary club of Lisburn in 1979 and had been an active  member chairing many committees over the years and becoming President in the Clubs 50th year in 2004.He was also a Paul Harris Fellow

Many obituaries have been written about him in the local press but we  remember him us a  good friend and a lively Rotarian

Frank Moorhead

Frank Moorhead joined the Rotary club Of Lisburn in 1960. Frank was involved in mens retailing in Lisburn. He was a Paul Harris Fellow and in his last few years was elected as a Honorary member of the Club.His son Colin wrote a letter to the Club thanking all the members who attended the funeral

Friday Meeting Visit by Members of St Marylone Club

Rotarians from St Marylebone Club with Pres Sam

At our Friday meeting on 19th September a number of members of the Rotary Club of St Marlylebone joined us for lunch.Michael Tierney one of their members who was moving back to live in the area had visited the Club previously and was hosting a short trip to Northern Ireland for some of his friends in Rotary.

They were all very welcome and Jan Raath on their behalf thanked us for our hospitality.Several of our   members have expressed the wish to return the visit to their meeting in the Oriental Club in London.

Also at the meeting Chloe Hassard who had won a trip on the Rotary Youth Leadership group to Strasbourg gave us a very self assured talk on her experiences

Chloe Hassard

President Sam also showed awards presented to the Club by district

60th Anniversary Dinner at Island Centre

To Celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the Rotary Club of Lisburn a Dinner was held in the island Centre in Lisburn on Friday 5^th Setember and was attended by some 150 members and guests

Guest included RIBI President Peter King, DG Philip Beggs. Deputy Mayor of Lisburn, Thomas Beckett,  Dame Mary Peters and President Anne and representatives of the Rotary Club of Greenock.

Rotary Club of Greenock have joined us in celebrating our 50^th and 60^th together and some of our members visited their Club to join in celebrations of their 50th and 6oth. Their members were very welcome to join us in our celebrations.

The evening started  with a drinks reception and then a banquet in the beautiful dressed Main Hall. Gene Fitzpatrick acted as MC for the evening as well as entertaining us with a wonderful repertoire of jokes and stories.

Joe Deery accompanied by Gary Corkin again impressed all with his wonderful voice and sang several moving songs.

A booklet cataloging the last ten years of the Club had been produced and was presented to all attending on the night. Also as a screen back drop a PP presentation showed many of the events and photographs over the last ten years

The Rotary Club of Lisburn has a strong partnership with the Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children (NICFC) over a number of years and President Sam is delighted to continue this support as designating NICFC as our main Charity in the celebrations of the Clubs 60th year. A charity golf event has been arranged for the next thursday at Lisburn Golf Club to again support NICFC

More picture will be poste on the Gallery shortly

NICFC Slieve Donard sponsored climb

PP Dale and Carolyn

Helen with Caroline Hanna

Continuing the Rotary Club of Lisburn support for the Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children PP Dale Orr and Carolyn and Helen Coulter took part in a sponsored climb of Slieve Donard on Sunday 24th September.

Photographic evidence shows they reached the top . Dale and Carolyn had enough energy left to join in the Caribbean BBQ  in support of Project 538.

A link to the NICFC has now been placed on our website

Carribbean BBQ at PP Johns Ranch

On Sunday the 24^h August PP John and his international committee hosted  a Caribbean BBQ  to raise funds for “Project 538”, one of Rotary Ireland’s nominated International projects.

Project 538 will help provide fresh clean drinking water for 75 homes and a school in Kiptulwa, Kenya. The school near the village of provides a safe learning environment for 538 African children, and our small event will help “Light up Rotary “and really “Changes Their Lives”

We were fortunate with a dry sunny day and the many marquees kept the cold wind away. Under the guidance of Master Chef PP Trevor,Richard and Paul cooked copious amounts of Chicken, Burgers and Salmon served with various salads

Leonard was in charge of  cocktails and wine and made sure everyone was kept well supplied.

After dinner we were entertained with some beautiful singing by Amelia, Johns granddaughter and two her of class mates at Victoria College.

Singing of a lesser quality was provided by Armachian PP John who also snatched the best dressed prize narrowly pipping another Armachian P.P Rowan. PP Jim abandoned his cricket match early but still only came in third

It was a great afternoons fellowship and the committee achieved their target with ease thanks to the generosity of all present and in particular Jack Wilton who donated the raffle prizes.

Thanks to PP John and Hazel for allowing the use of their lovely house for this event

More pictures of the event can be viewed  on the Gallery