The Rotary Club of Corringham Thameside

The club held their annual “Friends and Families” Christmas meeting at the Springhouse Club on Thursday 22nd December. Thirty eight rotarians, familes and friends sat down for a meal together enjoying each others company. It was a pleasure to welcome Roger Hicks and Les Topliss, from the Anniversary Fishing Syndicate and their wives. We also had the pleasure of the company of the widows of our two roatarian friends who sadly passed away earlier this year.
Our speaker was Laura Walker who’s son Reece requires surgery in the United States to allow him to walk unaided for the first time. Laura told those present about Reece and the support they had received in helping to raise the £45,000 needed for the operation.
Instead of handing each other Christmas cards this year the members decided to make a donation to this worthy cause. A total of £141 was presented to Laura during the evening to add to the previous donations the club had made.
We also had the opportunity to show our appreciation to the staff at the Springhouse club for their efforts during the year by way of a small gift of appreciation.
It was a most pleasant evening of fellowship in keeping with the ideals of Rotary. May we take this opportunity to wish everybody associated with the club a very happy Christmas and another successful year in 2012.

Corringham Thameside entertained the Rotary Club of Rayleigh Mill in the second round of the District darts competition held at The Springhouse Club on Tuesday 13th December.
Corringham Thameside were represented by Albert Borgman, Peter Matthews, Terry Finnegan and David Fenn with Brian Munroe as the non-playing captain. Albert was first up to the oche in the singles and lost a tight encounter by 2-1. He was followed by Peter Matthews who went down 2-0, but Terry Finnegan clawed one back with a 2-0 win. In the final singles match David Fenn lost 2-1 to Howard Pannell, leaving the home side needing to win all the remaining legs. They got off to a fine start with Albert and Peter beating their opponents 2-1 and Terry and David followed suit and levelled the scores. This left the tie being decided by a single 501 with four-a-side. Corringham were soon on the back foot trailing Rayleigh by over 200. Although Rayleigh were on their double, David managed to score 104 to give us a fighting chance. Rayleigh’s difficulty in securing their double, allowed Corringham to narrow the gap and Albert secured a very close victory by scoring the all important double four, whilst our opponents were still looking for that elusive double two.
A tight game played in the very best of spirits, with the Rayleigh team wishing us all the best in the next round.

Having endured the cold and wind at the Corringham Winter Fayre, where we sold our Corringham Calendar, the Club played host to our friends from the Rotary Club of Wickford. A most enjoyable evening of fellowship included the raffle of two Rotary Christmas Puddings to raise funds for the eradication of polio campaign. One being won by a Wickford member and the other by Corringham member.
After dinner, all those present were entertained by 13 year old Harry Carnaby – Basildon’s Young Volunteer of the year. Harry told those present about his work with Gateway 97.8 where he presents a programme, his work with making T.V. adverts and taking part in various T.V. programmes. He is currently producing his school pantomine. After this he offered up a short general knowledge quiz and followed by singing a couple of songs which included “White Christmas”. All the rotarians present found it difficult to grasp that this was a 13 year old local boy, who has certainly crammed an awful lot into his young life, including an enormous amount of fundraising and support for various charities. Here is a young man who is a credit to himself and those around him, and it is great to see that there are some really motivated young people in our midst who are willing to work for others.

Our annual Give-A-Can appeal at Morrison’s store in Corringham was held on Saturday 3rd December and the generousity of customers netted a magnificent 1727 cans of food which were passed on to the Salvation Army for distribution to the homeless and others in need.
The club would like to thank the customers of Morrison’s who so freely contributed in these difficult times. We would also like to thank the management and staff of Morrison’s, without whose help and co-operation the event could not have taken place. Our thanks too, to the Salvation Army who collected the cans of food and who will distribute them to those in need.