Santa Sleigh

Tettenhall Rotary Club’s Father Christmas Sleigh aims to bring a little magic to children and communities at Christmas and at the same time raise funds for good causes. But as organiser Roger Timbrell said ‘the real magic this year was how the Christmas spirit, generosity and warmth of welcome of the people in the communities we visited shone through the inclement weather’

Although the weather forced some cancellations over £5,000 was raised for Compton Hospice, Midlands Air Ambulance and other Rotary charities. This included £237.29 at the switching on of the lights event at Tettenhall, £3971.81 collected outside Sainsburys at Perton, £366.04 outside the Co op at Codsall and £389.83 during the three evenings that they visited the communities of Fordhouses, Low Hill and Old Fallings. The Club wishes to apologise for not being able to visit Claregate, Blakeley Green, Aldersley and Bushbury as planned on Saturday 18^th and Wednesday 22^nd December. Heavy snow and ice forced them to have to cancel for safety reasons.

Our thanks go to Stratstone Land Rover in Wolverhampton for loaning the tow vehicle for the Father Christmas Sleigh and David Gregory, the manager of Sainsburys Perton for his support and for donating sweets. In addition, Blakemore’s Cash and Carry and the Co-operative also kindly donated sweets for Santa to give out to children.

We are also grateful to the school choirs of Codsall High School, Bilbrook Middle School, Perton Middle School, Perton First School, Perton Sandown First School and Smestow School who sang carols around the sleigh outside Sainsburys, Perton, throughout the day on 10^th December.

Christmas Charity Carol Concert

We were delighted this evening to be entertained by the Prince of Wales Brass Ensemble - which is made up of players from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra - who performed a programme of seasonal music supported by the choir of St Dominic's High School for Girls in Brewood. As is usual there was plenty of opportunity for the large audience to sing along with a number of traditional carols and to partake of mince pies during the interval.

Over the 15 years that the Club has staged this event over £20,000 has been raised in support of local good causes.

The proceeds from this years concert were raised in support of Compton Hospice to help them to provide clinical and support services for people with life limiting illnesses. The annual running cost of the Hospice is over five million pounds and with Government funding only meeting one third of this the Hospice depends on the support of a number of local fundraisers.

With snow falling as the concert came to an end this was a truly magical start to the Christmas season and our thanks go to the Prince of Wales Brass Ensemble and to the staff and girls of St Dominic's for their performances, to the University of Wolverhampton Science Park who kindly allowed the use of their Auditorium, and to Rotarian Peter Maddox and his family who organised the event.

New Member - Jag Gill

There are few happier moments for a Club than the induction of a new member and this evening I and the other members of the Rotary Club of Tettenhall were pleased to welcome Jagjit Gill to our number.

Jag runs a successful company specialising in the laying of roads, car parks and driveways and the installation of groundworks. In joining our Club Jag has committed to the Rotary Objects to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:

FIRST. The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;

SECOND. High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, and the dignifying of each Rotarian's occupation as an opportunity to serve society;

THIRD. The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian's personal, business, and community life;

FOURTH. The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.

We alll welcome Jag to the worldwide family of Rotary and look forward to working with him.