POSTS

During and post Covid-19: What we Achieved

During the pandemic was a difficult time for all service organisations and as a Club we are still not able to raise funds as before. We are therefore pleased that we have been able to give a total of £5,325  to nine  worthy causes.

Paul Sartori – Paul Sartori Hospice at Home is a local Pembrokeshire Charity offering free specialised support and advice for those in the later stages of any life limiting illness. About us – Paul Sartori Hospice at Home The Club felt that during lockdown this was one of two priority donations and gave £2000.

Bethel Food Bank – providing free supermarket food to members of the public struggling with food poverty. Food Bank | Bethel Trust (betheltrustpt.co.uk) This was our second lockdown priority donation and the Club gave £1000.

Tearfund – a Christian charity partnering with churches in more than 50 of the world’s poorest countries tackling poverty and injustice through sustainable development by responding to disasters and challenging injustice. Tearfund

Shelterbox – teams work with disaster hit families around the world offering  emergency shelter and other essential items to support them in rebuilding their lives. ShelterBox

Asthma UK – working to stop asthma attacks and ultimately find a cure for it. Asthma UK

PATCH – a local charity aiming to relieve the effects of poverty for individuals and families within Pembrokeshire. PATCH

Dementia UK – providing specialist dementia support for families giving compassionate one-to-one support, guidance and practical solutions. Dementia UK

Kids Cancer Charity – dedicated to the fight against childrens’ cancer. Kids Cancer Charity

Rotary Doctor Bank – provides funding for volunteer healthcare workers to travel to developing countries to treat patients and provide teaching to doctors, nurses and midwives. THE ROTARY DOCTOR BANK

Rotary District 9570 in Northern Australia where serious drought (in some areas in its 10th consecutive year) has eroded income for farms and small businesses, increased rural poverty and impacted mental health, welfare and service provision.

A contribution to the restoration of The Daniel Anderson – a steamship with an unique story.https://www.thedanny.co.uk/

As well as making these donations the Club has run its own Youth Competitions for Young Artist, Young Writer and Young Photographer, given prizes to the winners of these Youth Competitions and supported Ysgol Harri Tudur with a donation towards its Prize Giving ceremony. In addition we have been able to donate 34 refurbished laptops/all in one computers to local schools to help with home learning during periods of lockdown and beyond.

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Local youngsters rewarded in Rotary Youth Competitions


We had an excellent response from local schools for our Youth Competitions – the theme this year being “Our World after Covid’ which was well depicted in the three categories of Young Writer, Young Photographer, and Young Artist.

Pembroke Rotary Club are indebted to staff at all partaking schools for their continued enthusiastic support under very difficult circumstances.  Congratulations and thanks also go to all pupils who participated. The winners were: Young Writer – Senior: Ellie-May Cunningham; Young Writer – Junior: Libby Lewis; Young Artist: Natalia Jordanova; Young Photographer: Ella Jean.

Unfortunately we don’t have photos of all our winners and participants but you can see those we have below. Thanks to Rotarians Dennis Jones and Vanessa Walker who organised the event on behalf of Pembroke Rotary.


 Pembroke Dock Community School – left to right – Scarlett Quinn, participant of the Young Artist, Libby Lewis (winner of the Young writer) Willow Thomas, participant of the Young Artist and Honey Brunson participant of the Young Artist
Pembroke Dock Community School – Lexi Sutton, participant of the Young Artist, Natalia Jordanova (winner of the Young Artist) and Caitlin Llewellyn participant of Young Artist.





Pembroke Dock Community School – Skye Sutton, participant of Young Artist

Ysgol Gelli Aur – Ella Jean, winner of the Young Photographer
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34 refurbished laptops and all in one computers given to local schools

Good news on the refurbished laptop project. 20 laptops and 14 all in one machines have been refurbished, fitted with SSD cards which make the machines work faster and given out to two local schools. Ysgol Harri Tudur and Monkton Priory CP School were delighted with the gifted machines which will go to supporting their home learning schemes which commenced during lockdown. Having extra machines means more capacity to loan them to families who don’t have a laptop for their children to use. Thank you to the individuals and businesses who donated these machines, particularly Rotarian Chris MacLaren who was able to acquire several from a local firm in Carmarthen and also to The Tech Yard in Johnston for refurbishing at minimal cost and making the project affordable.

Pictured below: Rtn. Chris MacLaren and Nick Makin (Business Manager at Ysgol Harri Tudur), Gerald Bowen from The Tech Yard in Johnston and lastly Rtn. Vanessa Walker with Mrs. C Thomas (Dep Head at Monkton Priory CP School).

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Any old laptops, any old laptops; any, any, any old laptops!

Might you have an old or unused laptop put away somewhere until you get round to doing something with it? Pembroke Rotary could use that machine by paying for professional refurbishing and donating it to a local school to help a child with home schooling. Don’t take it to the tip, give it to us and we will pass it on to a child who needs it. Get in touch – 01646 601335 – and we will make arrangements to collect it.

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Pembroke Rotarian surprised by President’s visit

On a recent very wet evening recently Rotarian Charles Clewett was surprised when he opened his front door to be confronted by the Pembroke Rotary Club President – Rotarian Paul Harries.  The purpose of the visit was to present Charles with the prestigious Paul Harris Fellowship Award which was handed over under strict Covid distancing rules.

This award is given to Rotarians for long standing service to their Club and
President Paul Harries was particularly pleased to be able to award his name sake’s award – the Paul Harris Fellowship – to Charles thanking him for his services to Pembroke Rotary.

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Youth Competitions Update

Once again our Club has awarded prizes to pupils of local schools for partaking in the Rotary competitions ‘Young Writer’, ‘Young Photographer’, Young Artist’ and also Youth Speaks, however due to the unprecedented circumstances caused by Covid 19 there has been considerable delay in collating information.    Pembroke Rotary Club are indebted to staff at all partaking schools for their continued, dedicated and enthusiastic support under very difficult circumstances and would like to congratulate and thank all pupils who took part and would apologise for the delay in publishing the results.

Many congratulations to the following:

Ellie May Cunningham, Pembroke Dock C.P. School – winner of Young Writer : Area & District level; Morgan Odlin, Pembroke Dock C.P. School – winner of Young Artist: Area & District level; Ciaran Lawler, Golden Grove C.P. School – winner of the Young Photographer: Juniors, Area level; Martha Wilson, Ysgol Harri Tudur – winner of Young Photographer, Seniors, Area level and finally Daisy Smith, Ysgol Harri Tudur – Youth Speaks: Area level – winner Best Proposer.

The Club is looking at putting on its own youth competitions in the New Year – more news about that soon.

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Masters of Mirth

President Paul Harries and the “audience”

Rtn Mike Storr and the “audience”

President Paul Harries introduced last night’s speaker evening (via Zoom) Our Club members chuckled away the evening listening to Mike Storr, a fellow Rotarian from Rotary Carlton (Nottingham), with his Masters of Mirth comic evening. Billed as seriously funny with an excellent and humorous presentation, Mike took an affectionate look at some favourite Music hall laughter makers – a highly amusing evening.

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Rotary Club Handover

One of the highlights of Pembroke Rotary Club’s annual calendar is the Presidential Handover evening.  This is an event held at the beginning of July where members and partners gather for a meal to welcome the new incoming president.  The outgoing President summarises the achievement of the club for the twelve months and the new President outlines his or her vision for the next year of office.  Unfortunately due to the unprecedented circumstances of Covid 19 it has been impossible to hold this event this year.

Doing things differently though are outgoing President Rotarian Gavin Lloyd and his successor Rotarian Paul Harries pictured at their socially distanced handover. Paul joined the Club in 2008 and is an Optometrist in Carmarthen.

Even though the Club still cannot meet as usual Paul is busy supporting our members through weekly Zoom meetings and planning for when the Club can resume its usual activities.

Rotarian Gavin Lloyd on the right handing over as President of Pembroke Rotary to Rotarian Paul Harries.
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Pembroke Rotary – working in a different way

As the new Rotary year starts Paul Harries has taken over from Gavin Lloyd as President of Pembroke Rotary.

As the new Rotary year starts Paul Harries has taken over from Gavin Lloyd as President of Pembroke Rotary. The Club has had to change the way it works but will be continuing to meet regularly via Zoom software and will be supporting our local community as much as we can given the current constraints.

Two large donations will be made very soon to local organisations, one for £2000 to go to Paul Sartori and the other for £1000 to go to the foodbank being run by Bethel Baptist Church. Both these organisations have been instrumental in helping face the Covid-19 crisis and our members are very pleased to acknowledge their work by supporting them financially. Many charities and organisations are not able to raise money in their usual ways at the moment, including our Club, but we have made provision for more financial support as it is needed in our local community over the next few months.

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