The Rotary Club of Corringham Thameside

When President David Fenn and Treasurer Peter Matthews rang the bell at the Thurrock Womens Refuge to deliver a quantity of toys for the children to play with in the garden, they did not envisage the reception they received. As the toys were unloaded from the truck and carried to the reception area, it did not take to many minutes for the very excited children to appear, anxious to be able to start their games. The staff managed to move the children out into the garden whilst we moved the toys to the play room for assembly. The children were not put off. They soon arrived at the doors of the play room, asking if we were finished. The staff were constantly telling the little ones to be patient and to play in the garden so that we could finish the work. Assembling the toys proved more difficult than thought, as instructions seemed to be confused. Constantly, we could hear the children commenting, “We hope the men work quickly”. After an hour, all the toys were assembled and we left the staff to supervise the handover to the very excited children.
In all, two bicycles, two prams, two pushchairs, four scooters, two tractors with trailers, a pedal car and a motorbike, two footballs and four safety helmets were handed over to the delight of the staff and children alike. It was all part of the Rotary Club’s work in the community but it should be acknowledged that some of the cost of the equipment was raised by the Anniversary Fishing Syndicate who help us to organise our annual fishing day for handicapped and special needs children. If anyone should ask us why we do these things, they should have seen the enormous smiles on these childrens faces, even before they had the toys to play with. We are sure that they will bring many hours of fun to these children.

On Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd August, five members of the Rotary Club of Corringham Thameside gave of their time to retrieve tents and camping equipment that was abandoned following the V-Festival at Chelmsford. The clear up was organised by the Rotary Club of Kelvedon and District and was supported by Rotarians right across the county. Despite the rain, teams set about the task of taking down the tents and packing them up ready for collection. Sleeping bags, garden chairs and other camping equipment were gathered and will be sold off to benefit those that are worse off than ourselves. Rotary supports all the major disaster areas across the world and the proceeds of this effort will go towards alieviating their suffering. Corringham Thameside was represented by Peter Burfoot, David Fenn, Brian Munroe, David St. Pier and Clive Yallop. Hard work in unpleasant conditions which we hope will help those who are suffering.

Club President David Fenn was the guest of the Inner Wheel President, Jean Yallop at their meeting at The Woolmarket, Horndon-on the Hill on Monday 8th August.
It was pleasing that the Inner Wheel had a 100% turn out for the meeting, which also included husbands. Four other Club Rotarians were present as were several past members. as well as Godwin Swift, the President of the Rotary Club of Stanford Le Hope and Corringham whose wife is a member of the Inner Wheel.
Everyone enjoyed a meal which was prepared by the ladies and afterwards listened to an entertaining humurous speech on Life in Ladies Underwear.

We are extremely sad to report the death of Doug Nash, a stalwart of the Rotary Club of Corringham Thameside and our President in 2001/2.
Prior to his retirement, Doug worked in electrical and process control for the Shell Oil Company in Corringham. He served his national service with the Royal Air Force, of which he was extremely proud.
Doug joined the club in 1995, and immediately involved himself in the workings of the club, serving on various committees prior to being elected Club President. It is difficult to recall a single club event that Doug did not support. Come rain or shine, you could always rely on Doug’s support.
In 2008. the club decided to enter a team of four in the “Trailwalker Challenge”, which required the team to cover a 100km course across the South Downs, non-stop, finishing as a team in less than thirty hours. Doug volunteered to lead our support team for the walkers, and despite being diagnosed with cancer just a few weeks before the event, he insisted on delaying his treatment, because he didn’t want to let us down. This was typical of Doug, who despite his ill health continued to be active in all aspects of rotary.

His funeral will take place in Pitsea on Thursday 11th August 2011.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Ann and her family.

Our lives will be much the poorer without him, for he was the epitome of what “Service above self” really means. It was a real priviledge to have known such a lovely man.