Lend-a-Hand Day

Lend-a-Hand Day completes another successful year. At this time of year, Stevenage Grange joins with the Stevenage Club to help with a wide variety of jobs. This is the third year we have run this activity and it continues to grow.

New Members

Andrew Ellingworth joins the Rotary Club of Stevenage –

Andrew is a Chartered Building Surveyor, working as a Director for an International Property plc. Originally from the East Midlands, Andrew now resides in Welwyn Garden City with his wife Sarah, a Chartered Accountant and sons Jack (7), Freddie (4) and black Labrador Oscar (1).

His interests outside of work include amateur dramatics (currently playing Buttons in the School Panto), being a Host to the Chain of Hope Children’s Heart Charity (Patron Sir Prof Magdi Yacoub) which involves looking after seriously ill young children who travel from Africa & stay with the Ellingworth Family for 4 weeks, whilst they convalesce after critical heart operations.

Other interests include gardening (having had his garden profiled for 30 minutes on BBC 2’s Home Front programme after Diarmuid Gavin designed an elaborate £50k makeover) and holidaying in the family cottage in Southwold, Suffolk.

Andrew’s late father-in-law, Ramesh Chander, was a member and Past President of Stevenage Rotary, so it is an honour to join this club and to share the fellowship of Rotarian friends.

The Key Rotary interest for Andrew is in making the Club relevant, attractive and sustainable to local working professionals by expanding its membership base, with a particular emphasis on a younger profile.

Alex Lang joins Rotary –

With a background of 27 years in the travel business and 22 years in Local Government - the majority as a Health Promotion Officer – Alex has been involved with a wide variety of projects in Stevenage.

Crucial Crew, Health Action Day, Fairtrade, Community Crew, Turn The Tide Boat Project, and developing the permanent Safety Centre for the benefit of all Hertfordshire residents, are amongst the more prominent initiatives.

He is also involved with the interactive safety education field as Treasurer for the Safety Centre Alliance, is on the Steering Group of the Child Safety Education Coalition, the RoSPA/LASER Steering group - that recently devised and implemented the national Accreditation scheme for Safety Centres.

Involved with both local and national charities – in particular the Stevenage Community Trust, The Prince’s Trust, and the NSPCC, either as a Trustee, Fundraiser, or Clerk to Trustees, Alex is also a school Governor, a Parish Councillor, and now, a Rotarian.

Prue Dixon - President

As a relatively new member of Rotary I have benefited from a great deal of advice and guidance from the more experienced members of the club, and I thank you all for your support. I shall try to live up to the record of the past presidents and not let you down during my year as your President.

As a small club we undertake a great deal of work, both in the community and in raising money for good causes, and I feel that the only way we can continue the idea of service above self is by enjoying what we do. I know that personally I have enjoyed the fellowship I have encountered whilst working at events such as Stevenage Day, the Easter Showcase and Kids Out, as well as the regular evening meetings held at Cheri’s and David’s homes, where a more relaxed atmosphere pervades proceedings.

Richard and I took part in the GSE programme this year and enjoyed it very much, not least because we got to know Rotarians from other clubs as well as our delightful guests from Korea. I shall try to expand my knowledge of the different Rotary clubs within our district and foster fellowship between Stevenage and our neighbouring clubs. To this end there will be meetings whereby the new Presidents within our zone will come together to see how we are doing and if there is anything we can learn from each other to benefit our individual clubs.

Finally our most important objective this year is to increase our membership. We must use every opportunity to introduce new members. I am delighted that the club has given enthusiastic support to holding a breakfast meeting on the first day of each month when we aim to attract more people from the business community.

I hope that the forthcoming year will prove an enjoyable year for all members of the club and that we can continue the sterling work done by so many in the past.