Registered Charity No. 1027351
Past News Items
Pants!
December 2010
Being homeless
is no fun.
Being homeless
on the run?
Being homeless
falling from all walks of life.
Being homeless
painful reasons, trouble and strife.
Being homeless
does anyone care?
Being homeless
no fresh underwear.
Being homeless
Well, Abingdon Vesper care with underwear!
Each Christmas for the last 5 years we've taken pants off our members (fresh clean ones of course!) and given them to O'Hanlon House in the centre of Oxford. Underwear is one of the items of clothing that is rarely donated but always needed so we have focussed on an annual undies collection of pants, bras and socks. With cash donations we also purchase toiletries and items of warm clothing. Whilst our main collection is at Christmas, members support O'Hanlon House with clothing throughout the year.
Christmas Shoebox Appeal
4th October 2010
Abingdon Vesper Rotary Club answered the call for the need to spread a little happiness at Christmas time to the British troops serving out in Afghanistan over Christmas.
There is a requirement for Christmas presents to be sent, these must be gift wrapped and presented in a shoe box and the whole package has to weigh not more than 2kg.
Rotarians from Abingdon Vesper Rotary Club contacted local businesses and informed friends in order to spread the news that they were seeking support. To their aid came some retail businesses in and around Abingdon:
- Outdoor Traders – provided empty shoe boxes
- The Clarks Shop - provided empty shoe boxes
- Boots – provided toiletries
- Millets Farm Shop – provided sweeties
- Frost Garden Centre – provided Christmas cards
Thank you to all the businesses that responded so positively. Without their support it would make the job of getting Christmas boxes prepared so much harder for the Rotarians.
Along with this support Rotarians and family members donated of books, toiletries, games, sweets etc, as well as financial donations which were turned into Christmas time goodies.
A massive thank you has to be extended to Mrs Susan Jenkins of Sutton Courtney who teaches at Wycombe Abbey. She and the girls of Shelborne House (aged between 12 and 17) Wycombe Abbey decided that action was required. They baked and sold cakes which raised £200. This kind donation was given to the Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper which was to be used for the Christmas Shoe Box appeal, further purchases of Christmas gifts for the troops was made with the donated money.
In order to ensure that the boxes were ready in time, on Sunday night (3rd October) eight Rotarians and friends gathered at an Abingdon home to prepare and make up as many Christmas Shoe boxes as possible. At the end of the 3 hour stint over 50 boxes had been completed. More boxes were collected making the total 73 boxes. Ute Liersch and Sulwen Vaughan delivered the Christmas boxes to the Rotary Club of Bourne End and Cookham for onward shipment out to Afghanistan in time for Christmas.
Dragon Boat Day 2010
9th May 2010
On Sunday 9th May, the Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper held its annual Dragon Boat Day fund raising event alongside the River Thames in Abingdon. Thirty one teams took part to raise money for charity and to have some fun on the water!
The Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper would like to thank Achilles Information Limited for sponsoring this year's event.
Congratulations to the Abingdon School team, winners of Dragon Boat Day 2010.
“In Denile” were the winners of the Fancy Dress competition.
- See more pictures in the Dragon Boat Day 2010 photo gallery
- See the race results in Dragon Boat Day 2010 race results
Abingdon Air Show
2nd May 2010
The Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper attended the Abingdon Air Show to promote the club and its activites, and to inform people about forthcoming events organised by the club itself, and by other clubs in the local area.
St George’s Day Celebrations
22nd April 2010
District 1090 covers a wide region with numerous Rotary clubs. Therefore it has been necessary to group the clubs into zones to ease the administration and networking of clubs.
Abingdon Vesper is in the Maroon Zone, which is made up of:
- Abingdon
- Abingdon Vesper
- Oxford
- Oxford Isis
- Oxford North
- Oxford Spires
- Woodstock
The clubs within the Maroon Zone work together on some joint projects and an example this year was the End Polio Now appeal in February. All the clubs organised an event to highlight the issue of polio and raise funds to eradicate the virus.
- Visit the Rotary End Polio web site
Not only do the clubs meet to work together for joint causes but there is an element of fun injected into the relationship.
On the 22nd April there was a joint dinner for all the members, 86 members celebrated St George’s Day at Wolfson College, Oxford. The guest speaker was Sir Peter Dobson.
Pictured above, left to right, is David Pope (President Abingdon); John Moland (President Oxford Isis); Mira Malovic-Yeeles (President Oxford); Terry Kenyon (District Governor, District 1090); Sulwen Vaughan (President Abingdon Vesper); Christopher Impey (President Oxford North); Bob Taylor (President Woodstock).
Thanks For Life - End Polio Now
27th February 2010
It is over 28 years since the last case of Polio in the UK. In 2010 Polio, a disease for which there is no cure, is still however a harrowing reality for children in 4 countries (Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan).
On Saturday 27th February, Abingdon Vesper and Abingdon Rotary Clubs joined forces to collect money outside Tesco Abingdon as part of the ‘Thanks for Life’ project, a project involving the clubs and members of Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland, aimed at helping to eradicate polio throughout the world.
A total sum of £500 was raised, enough to pay for 1400 children to be immunised against Polio.
- Read the End Polio Now newsletter
- Visit the ‘Thanks for Life’ website
Christmas charity collections
12th, 19th, 20th December 2009
Father Christmas, assisted by members of the Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper, appeared outside Sainsbury's in Didcot and Tesco in Abingdon to collect money for Rotary Charities. A magnificient total of just over £1250 was raised - thank you to everyone who contributed.
Proceeds from these collections will be used to enable us to continue our work with the disadvantaged in our local community and abroad that is illustrated by other pages on this website.
Life Jackets
19th September 2009
On Saturday, 19th September over 200 people, including users, hirers and donors, attended the launch and blessing of the new Bruce Trust Barge Rachel at Great Bedwyn Wharf.
As part of the celebration Sulwen Vaughan, President of the Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper, officially presented the 34 inflatable life jackets to David Bruce as Chair and founder of The Bruce Trust.
This makes a total of 42 life jackets that Abingdon Vesper have donated to the Bruce Trust.
John May, Abingdon Vesper's Barge Trip coordinator, said
“ They were most grateful and many of those present came up to me to say what a wonderful benefit the life jackets would be. We have improved the safety and enjoyment for many, many people on future trips. ”
- Letter of Thanks sent by Danese Rudd from the Bruce Trust
KidsOut Events
June 2009
The Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper is a keen participant in The Rotary KidsOut National Day Out. This is the largest single day out for disadvantaged children and young people in the UK.
Over 28,000 children from all over the country take part - thanks to over 750 Rotary Clubs throughout Great Britain and Ireland who work with local schools and special groups to make this happen.
- Read about how the Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper helped in the 2009 KidsOut events.
Dragon Boat Day 2009
10th May 2009
On Sunday 10th May, the Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper held its annual Dragon Boat Day fund raising event alongside the River Thames in Abingdon. Eighteen teams took part to raise money for charity and to have some fun on the water!
The Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper would like to thank Achilles Information Limited for sponsoring this year's event.
Congratulations to the Feelgood Fitness team, winners of Dragon Boat Day 2009.
The Smurfs, representing Charlton Day Centre, Wantage, won the Fancy Dress competition.
The eldest competitor Betty Collins, 78 years old, from The Smurfs, received a special prize from President Richard Benton.
- See more pictures in the Dragon Boat Day 2009 photo gallery.
- See the race results in Dragon Boat Day 2009 race results.
ShelterBox Challenge
18th-19th April 2009
For the second year running, The Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper took part in the ShelterBox Challenge to raise money for the ShelterBox organisation.
ShelterBox is an international disaster relief charity specialising in emergency shelter provision.
Team LeFevre joined a total of 38 teams and 152 contestants in the fourth annual Dartmoor Challenge. The Challenge involved navigating a 30 mile course carrying a 40kg ShelterBox containing everything needed to complete the course and survive and camp overnight on the moor (tent, food, cooking equipment, etc).
To date, Team LeFevre has raised around £1600, meaning that another 3 ShelterBoxes can be distributed to disaster areas around the world.
- Read more about the ShelterBox Challenge 2009
Gardening at Abingdon Community Hospital
10th March 2009
Following on from the work in November, we have started the development of a number of wildflower patches. The first of these is in full view of Ward 2 where we planted some 300 snowdrops, 150 wild daffodils and 50 Summer Snowflake bulbs. Patients and hospital staff should get some pleasure out of this little development this year, but it will grow better and better with passing time.
Meanwhile, we are raising plants (cowslips in particular, but others as well) from seed to provide something colourful for people in Ward 1 to see out of their dayroom windows, and another phase of the wildflower project will aim to provide plenty of colour close to the sitting out area at the end of Ward 2.
End Polio Now
21st January 2009
Bill Gates increases his challenge grant to Rotary by $255 million - a total of $355 million - for the eradication of Polio. See Rotary International web site for more information.
Christmas charity collections
20th, 21st, 23rd December 2008
Father Christmas, assisted by members of the Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper, appeared outside Sainsbury's in Didcot and Tesco in Abingdon to collect money for Rotary Charities. A magnificient total of £1546.50 was raised - thank you to everyone who contributed.
Proceeds from these collections will be used to enable us to continue our work with the disadvantaged in our local community and abroad that is illustrated by other pages on this website.
Gardening at Abingdon Community Hospital
22nd November 2008
Braving the cold weather, nine volunteers from the Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper descended on the grounds of Abingdon Community Hospital armed with forks, spades and much enthusiasm. Their aim was to carry out some basic garden maintenance - clearing weeds and fallen leaves, some digging of beds and the planting of Spring bulbs in tubs and beds.
President-Elect Sulwen Vaughan, one of the volunteers, stressed that this will be an on-going commitment as part of the Community Service obligations of the Club.
Teresa Revell, Support Services Manager for the site, was enthusiastic - "What a fabulous job the Rotarian gardeners have done! Thank you very much - the tubs look great."
We look forward to a colourful display of bulbs in the Spring which will cheer patients, staff and visitors alike.
Local Family Charity Benefits from Dragon Boat Event
8th July 2008
The Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper recently held a presentation evening at the Four Pillars Hotel following the annual Dragon Boat Race Event, which was held on the River Thames in May. Representatives of the teams who participated were presented with shields and certificates. Many thousands of pounds will be raised in sponsorship by the participants and this will benefit a wide variety of charities both local, national and international.
A raffle was held alongside the Dragon Boat Event and this alone raised £2000 for the local charity Oxford Parent Infant Project, OXPIP. The cheque was presented by Rotary President Richard Benton to the OXPIP Fundraising and PR Manager, Sharon Hylton.
OXPIP (the Oxford Parent Infant Project), a registered charity since 1998, works within Oxfordshire to help parents and babies develop more loving and secure relationships.
OXPIP has now been able to extend its services into South Oxfordshire (based from Didcot). With the generous donation received from The Rotary Club of Abingdon, OXPIP will be able to continue to support the families based in Didcot and work to reduce the waiting list.
- For more information about OXPIP and the work they do, see the OXPIP web site.
Presentation to Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust
24th June 2008
On Tuesday 24th June 2008, Rotarian Diane Clarke of the Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper presented a cheque for £2000 to Carl Undery, Income Development Manager of Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust (TVAC) at the Four Pillars Hotel, Abingdon. This money was raised by the Club selling raffle tickets for the Dragon Boat Event in 2007.
The Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust was launched in June 1999 and flies, on average, four times a day to provide a vital service aimed at getting people treatment within the 'golden hour' - the period of time when people have the best chance of surviving a serious incident. TVAC recently reached a remarkable landmark having flown its 10,000th mission, representing a huge number of lives saved and this is a very humbling thought. But TVAC's service comes at a cost - approximately £1.7m a year. With no funding from the Government, NHS or National Lottery, it depends on fund raising like Vesper's Dragon Boat Event to keep running.
- For more information about TVAC and its excellent work see the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust web site.
Dragon Boat 2008
11th May 2008
Congratulations to the Feelgood Fitness team, winners of Dragon Boat Day 2008.
Burma cyclone
May 2008
ShelterBox has responded rapidly to the need for shelter and water purification for the Burma disaster victims.
Below is the ShelterBox press release - shelter for 6640 people has been sent.
"May 6th - Myanmar (Burma): ShelterBox responds immediately to the devastating cyclone to hit Myanmar. 22,000 lives are reported to have been lost and 95% of houses are destroyed as the cyclone swept in-land after several days at sea. 224 boxes left from the pre-positioned site in Dubai over the weekend, 220 boxes have left from Melbourne, Australia and a further 200 boxes with two tents each were packed this morning at the ShelterBox HQ in Helston, Cornwall. A team of four SRT members are making arrangements to assist with the difficult distribution of vital aid."
Shelterbox Challenge 2008 - Update
26th/27th April 2008
- Click here to see how the Abingdon Vesper team survived the ShelterBox Challenge
Shelterbox Challenge 2008 - Dartmoor
26th/27th April 2008
Four intrepid members of the Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper will undertake the 2008 ShelterBox Challenge on Dartmoor on April 26 and 27. They will walk across Dartmoor for two days carrying a 25 Kilo shelterbox which will carry all they will need to survive the Challenge.
The Shelterbox Challenge is in support of a key Rotary charity, the Shelterbox Trust. Shelterbox Trust provides IMMEDIATE relief for disaster victims all over the world and can get aid to victims within 48 hours.
A Shelterbox is a rugged container that holds a tent and other emergency aid for an extended family of up to 10 people. Shelterbox has so far since 2000 sent boxes to almost 40 countries and provided emergency accommodation for around 500,000 people.
The Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper Shelterbox team have undertaken to raise at least £1,000 in sponsorship money for the event.
Pants for Christmas
22nd December 2007
Oxford has the worst record for homelessness in the UK outside London. Homelessness can arise for many different reasons and can happen to almost anyone. For homeless people Christmas can be pants. Or not as the case may be....
This Christmas the Club supported Oxford Night Shelter - with pants (and socks). In the weeks up to Christmas we ran a pants appeal, as the clothing items that homeless people often need most are fresh underwear and socks and people rarely donate these items. Several dozens of pairs were delivered by Lucy and Steve to the Night Shelter on Saturday, 22 December. See the Oxford Night Shelter web site if you'd like to help the Night Shelter too.
You may think we've finally flipped over the edge this year but at least you now know what to do with those presents from Aunt Mildred that don't fit!
Hope you had a cracker this Festive.
Santa's Sleigh
December 2007
Just before Christmas Abingdon Vesper was joined by Father Christmas and his sleigh outside Tesco in Abingdon. Shoppers were entertained by Father Christmas and Carol Singing. Over £300 was collected in aid of Rotary charities.
Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Abingdon
December 2007
Liana Del Papa from Ramsey, NJ USA was sponsored by her local Rotary Club to serve as a cultural ambassador to the Abingdon Vesper Rotary Club while pursuing a Masters degree in Forced Migration at the University of Oxford.
Trip to Uganda
October 2007
Five members of Abingdon Vesper travelled to Kampala and Mubende in Uganda, visiting projects and renewing friendships with Elijah Kyamuwendo from the Kulika charity and his colleagues. The greater part of our trip was spent at Mubende, a town some 100 miles west of Kampala which has been the centre of our past work in Uganda.