One of the things I love about Rotary is the willingness for all those involved to selflessly do things for others. Giving up their own time to run events to raise money or simply helping out someone in need. With the current economic climate it has been a tough year for a lot of people including myself but that doesn’t stop us, we carry on regardless and to be honest we really do have a lot of fun doing it.
 
I am just over half way through my year and I feel ‘we’ as a club have already achieved so much. Right at the start of my year in July we had our major fund raising event Truckfest, where if you have read the website consists of cooking and selling hundred and maybe even thousands of portions of Onion Bhajees and Dahl. As far as we were concerned it was a great success and we raised lots of money which we are still distributing to various charities. Despite concerns over the continuation of the event, it looks likes it is going ahead again this year and we are once again hoping once again to be involved.
 
Marshalling Blenheim Bike Ride was a new one for us this year, and despite a few hiccups I felt it went very well. We had a variety of local clubs involved and to me it is a great example of how we can all work together. The area we covered was very large, which proved at times difficult due to distances we had to travel. However, if we get a chance to do it again it might be a great opportunity to work with even more clubs further afield.
 
We have had a numerous of fabulous speakers over the last year. To me some of the stand outs included:
A fabulous talk from a small charity called Medical Detection dogs. I was particularly astounded to hear how these dogs can detect a diabetes attack before it happens and warn their owner. They are always working with cancer detection which is simply amazing.
 
Andrew Tee from Ronald Macdonald House who provide accommodation for families who have children in hospital. They help people for short term but also for people who need somewhere for many money. I can only imagine what a relief something like this must be for families in need.
 
A young lad Tim McGovern from Oxfordshire Scouts Jamboree Unit who we had given a donation to last year for their trip to the Jamboree. His group has previously assisted us at the World Poohsticks Championships. He returned to us to tell us all about his trip. It was great to hear about what a wonderful experience he had and it is always nice to think that we helped him and his fellow colleagues achieve those experiences.
 
Other fantastic achievements this year also include getting our new website up and running. I hope you agree the team have done a fantastic job, particularly in keeping it so up to date. It is one of things that has pushed me to finally put some words down about my year so far…
 
So what is next, well I am looking forward to rekindling my role of Tigger at the next World Poohsticks Championships at the end of the month. Having previously organised it I am grateful that for the last 2 years this has been taken away from me by Karen. She is doing an amazing job and taking it beyond our expectations from when we started it 4 years ago. Me I like bouncing about as Tigger and being able to see what is going on throughout the whole event and interacting with the kids and their families.
 
There are so many more things I could mention about this year but it would be never ending. Hopefully now I will keep up to date with my thoughts throughout the remainder of the year for those who might be interested.
 
Naomi  - President of Oxford Spires 2011-12                                                                                   14 MARCH 2012