Friends of York Rotary
Past Events
_JPG.jpg)
"Social media as a Marketing Tool "
February 15th 2019
_JPG.jpg)
"Friends of York Rotary"'s second "networking" event was held on February 15th, kindly hosted by Door 84 Youth Centre. Around 20 members attended, and the session was led by Kirsty Halliday, Development Manager for Accessible Arts and Media in York
It was a great social occasion for FoYR members to meet up, but also stimulated lots of ideas and thoughts. Afterwards, there emerged a clear desire to continue such meetings and FoYR will continue to provide such opportunities.
Many thanks to Ashley and Door 84 for providing the facilities and refreshments for the evening, and to Kirsty for her enthusiasm and brilliant ideas!
Friends of York Rotary events are open to all members, and are mostly in three categories...
- Social events
- Networking events
on a topic of interest
- Volunteering help at
community events organised
by York Rotary
"Friends" are also encouraged to attend occasional
York Rotary meetings.
_JPG.jpg)
International Charity Walk - in aid of "Hope and Aid Direct"
April 18th 2019
This annual York Rotary event was centred this year on Terrington, looking very charming in the sunshine, with daffodils and blossom. Let’s start with lunch, as it’s the easy bit where all 70 or so of us were in one place at once, including partners, Friends of York Rotary, and Rotarians from Knaresborough RC.
There was a wowzer of a two course buffet masterminded by Diana and the team. We did earn lunch, well, most of us did…. Two walks of 6 and 3 miles respectively, although there was a debate about the length of the 6 mile walk, which I think came out at 6.2 miles. We stopped briefly in the beautiful hamlet of Ganthorpe, which like Terrington pre dates Domesday, before descending back through woods dappled with sunshine.
And why we were all there? Hope and Aid Direct is a charity sending supplies to refugee camps in Europe, in the Balkans and currently focusing on Middle East refugee camps in Greece. It was good to know we raised around £1000 for this vital cause."
"Charitable Grants and Funding Sources " - Networking event
May 22nd 2019
All charities face their biggest challenge of raising funds, and at this networking event, "Friends" members exchanged experiences, tips and information about this critical topic.
The twelve members attending first heard advice from David Fotheringham, a trustee of a local charitable fund-giving trust, and Janet Morley, retired Director of Fundraising at St Leonard's Hospice, drawing on their experience in this field.
Both David and Janet are current members of the Rotary Club of York. Their thoughts spurred a lively discussion from those in the charity sector and others who had come along to learn about this subject.
Several useful leads and sources were shared and links were forged between many present who then followed these up after the meeting.
Our thanks go to Emma and Tom from "the Hut" who hosted the event and provided excellent refreshments too!
"Baggage Handling "
Running the Baggage Store at the York 10k race
Aug 4th 2019
It was an early start as seventeen Rotarians, partners and volunteers from “Friends of York Rotary” all reported for duty at the Knavesmire. The briefing was at 7.30am!
This is the fourth year running we've been providing the Baggage Store service for the York 10K, where those of the 7000 runners who had bags with them deposited them for safe keeping, in one of the two trailers that we were managing, then collected them after the race.
With immaculate organisation and discipline the team managed to get all the bags returned with no “waiting time” for the runners as they came exhausted looking for their belongings.
It was a beautiful sunny morning and the atmosphere at the Knavesmire was very upbeat.
It was good to be helping the community in this way and promoting Rotary at the same time! Thank you all who came and helped.
Family Social and Barbeque
- in aid of "Shelterbox"
Sept 15th 2019
Held on the terrace of the York Novotel, our Barbeque food was wonderfully created by the hotel, in their kitchen! since the weather was forecast to be unsuitable for outdoor cooking. In the end, the rain stayed off - at least until after the event - and twenty-five of us enjoyed the friendship and as we chatted overlooking the River Foss and the newly-upgraded Barrage. After the food, a fiendish quiz tested our memories of everything from 60's groups
to Australian trains, and the winners came through after a tie-breaker (how many miles from Lands End to John O'Groats?) to claim the prize. (A: It's 874 miles)
The event was also to raise funds for Shelterbox, an international disaster aid charity closely associated with Rotary International, and headquartered in Cornwall. A typical "Box" sent to disaster areas - with a family tent included - was on display and helped bring home the reality of what it is to lose everything to a hurrican, flood or earthquake. The event raised £120 for Shelterbox
Networking event - "Storytelling as a Tool in Social media"
November 7th 2019
Following up on our earlier (February) session on the Use of Social Media, this evening was again led by Kirsty Halliday, and Kelly Langford, from Accessible Arts and Media in York. The discussions centred on the use of visual story-telling, using video or photographs, sometimes a series of messages, as a more personal
means of getting your message, or information, across on social media platforms - especially Instagram and Facebook.
A lively discussion and lots of interchange of ideas. Many thanks to Kirsty and Kelly - and to John for organising the excellent venue - Dower House.