The snow might not have been so deep (thankfully), but it was certainly crisp and uneven, which meant we didn’t have as many Members and guests able to make our evening meeting as we would usually have. Nevertheless, those who came were in good spirits and several wore their sparkliest or tackiest Christmas jumpers. Winner of the jumper competition was Rotarian Gill Dixon!
Peter Hermitage was in charge of the evening’s entertainment – there were rounds of Bingo, interspersed with a “Higher or Lower” game (cleverly devised for audience participation).
The main beneficiary for the evening was to be Canterbury Food Bank: attendees had been asked to bring along donations of food to the meeting. [We’d been told by our President, Tony Loughran, that the Food Bank would be very happy to receive bonus items such as: chocolate selection packs; large sweet tins (e.g. Heroes, Roses, Quality Street etc); tinned premium ham; and tinned puddings – as well as the usual food, pet food, toiletries and other items that the Food Bank distributes.]
Our Past President Martin Ward, who is also currently Chair of Trustees at the Food Bank, spoke at the end of the evening about the unprecedented demand this year on the Food Bank and its achievements in meeting those demands. He quoted plenty of numbers, described as “rather impressive” by one attendee. Several winners of the evening’s prize winners also re-gifted their winnings to the collection of gifts for the Food Bank.
Aside from our Christmas Party, the next event that our Members are looking forward to is repeating something they started in lockdown thanks to online technology – carol singing, hopefully with some members of our fellow Pentangular Clubs in Europe able to join us. In this season when we focus on peace and understanding, it’s lovely to do just that through Rotary!
Picture: Peter “hosts” the “Higher or Lower” game, dressed in his festive jumper. Picture credit: Sheila Cragg/Rotary Club of Canterbury.
Did you know you can donate direct to Canterbury Food Bank? Visit their website here.
