The Rotary Club of Lisburn

Partners Lunch 2013

The Square Restaurant in Belfast was the venue for The Partners lunch in President Jim’s year.

A delicious Sunday lunch and afternoon of  fellowship was enjoyed by Rotarians and their Partners

More pictures of the event are available on the gallery

Support for Beechlawn and Rowandale Primary schools

The Rotary Club of Lisburn with money raised by the Club and a matching grant from Rotary International was able to make a large donation to Beechlawn and Rowandale  Primary schools

This money was used to provide valuable teaching aids for the Schools

The second tranche of money was presented to Francis Hughes, Headmistress at by Colin Suckling, Chair of Community and Vocational Committtee at a recent Meeting

New Interact Club in Wallace High School

Wallace High School. Lisburn  formed a new Rotaract Club several months ago. With the encouragement of  andthe  sponsorship of the Rotary Club of Lisburn

The membership has increased to over twenty and a number of fund raising events have raised a large amountof money

Haanah Jess received an award for her outstanding contribution to the Club

Jole rider …….Latest

This is just a short brief note to bring you all up to speed with some really good news on the progress of our Jole Rider International project within District 1160.

This year’s collection of Bikes and Books currently now stands at 550 bikes, and over 8,000 secondary school books.

The Rotary Club of Ballycastle excelled themselves this year by collecting over 150 bikes from 2 local secondary schools.

The Rotary Clubs of Lagan Valley, Coleraine, and Limavady have each collected well over 1000 books.

The overall number of bikes collected in the last 18 months now exceeds 800. Number of books is 12,000

Our Jole Rider Fun Run this year saw 39 Rotarians cycle between RC of Dungannon, and RC of Cookstown.

Sixty people attended the Jole Rider Celebration Dinner afterwards at the Glenavon House Hotel.

A donated Trek bike raised £400 in a raffle, and Stephen Roche, Ireland’s only Tour de France Winner, donated a fabulous, personally signed yellow jersey, for auction. This real “joining up ” of Rotary Clubs has now raised around £10,000 in 18 months and attracted corporate sponsorship from Le Farge Cement Cookstown, Johnsons Coffee Lisburn, Cycli Sport Moneymore and Shannon’s Jewellers, Lisburn.

Jimmy Dunlop and pals from Ballymoney cycled from Cookstown to the start line and then back again. Pictured above are Rotarians Peter Jack from Limavady and Rotarian Gordon Burrows Donaghadee who rode together for the first time on a brand new tandem supplied by RC of Dungannon.    Anyone recognize the PDG in dark glasses, or the glamorous girls from the NE?????

Developments @ Loughan House Open Prison. Co Cavan

Ciaran Mannion from the Rotary Club of Athlone has now secured our technical partner, Loughan House Open Prison, County Cavan, to fix all of our donated bikes.

David Swetenham, and Helen King Jole Rider founders visited Loughan House and discussed the future of networking.

Ethel Gavin, Prison Governor, has hosted two fact finding meetings with Rotarians at the jail.

Rotarians from Cookstown, Lisburn, Athlone, and Limavady have all met up with the team of dedicated team of prisoners who now fix over 20 bikes every week.

The Irish Prison Service has now fully funded a purpose built workshop, for repair of our donated bikes.

All the prisoners at Loughan House now hold a weekly car valet service which has to date raised over 1500 euro for Jole Rider

James Shivnan, from Rotary Club of Athlone is now working at “joining up” a number of clubs in his area of Ireland to work on Jole Rider.

At a recent District Assembly meeting held in Athlone, James Shivnan and Trevor Stewart presented the Jole Rider story and were delighted when Rotarians from Cork, Dublin and Youghal all wanted to get involved. They also had a generous offer of help, with shipping sea containers from Peter Conway, member of the Rotary Club of Newry.

So, as you can see our district network of Jole Riders, and our joined up Rotary approach is well and truly pedaling us forward.

Victor Hugo Quote:   There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come!

Visit the Gallery to view all photos of Jole Rider cycle day

Past District Governor Ted

Past District Governor Ted is at present residing in Park Manor Nursing Home, 6 Thornhill Rd, Dunmurry, Tel 02890307700.

He welcomes visitors but does hope to return to Club meetings.

Update on Jole Rider

The story so far :-

190 bikes transported in beautiful new PRM truck to Loughan House Open Prison, Co Cavan/ 80 bikes left in stock with anticipation of a further 80 from 5 clubs

Nigel Beggs has secured 600 new and used bike tyres for the Prisons working stock

Pres elect, Lagan Valley has secured 1000 school books from Wallace High School

PP Peter Jack and PP Darren Mornin@ Limavady supplied 25 bikes and 2250 School Books

One club International Chair(Mid Ulster) has raised 500 pounds in sponsorship for Jole Rider Fun Run

Loughan Prison have raised one thousand Euro with car washes. They have built a 2000 sq ft workshop especially for Jole Rider

James Shivnan@ Rotary Club of athlone is actively working to organize another 6 Clubs to take part

Discussions underway re DublinCentral setting up another centre of organization

As PP Trevor puts it            “The Rotary Cog wheels are turning fast”

Tribute to PP Norman Collins OBE

A short tribute to PP Norman Collins by his friend Sam Creighton can now be found on the Club News page

Family Lunch at Angelos

On Sunday 24th February the Community and Vocational Committee organized a family lunch at Angelo’s Restaurant in Lisburn

Presidents Night Dinner Dance Friday 21st June

The Rotary Club of Lisburn’s Presidents Night in 2013, will take the form of a Dinner Dance to be held

in the recently refurbished Riddel Hall, Stranmillis Road, Belfast on Friday 21st June.

Guest will arrive to a drinks reception, followed by a buffet with musical entertainment and dancing.

President Jim would like this to be a superb end to a great year and encourages Rotarians to attend and to bring friends along.

Visit by District Governor

On Friday 1st February District Governor Jack Cunningham attended the Club meeting.

President Jim gave him an update on our club activities through the Year

District Governor Jack then reviewed his Year and the challenges for Rotary