Dec 2021
Dec 2021
Rotary Club of Richmond Surrey
Inaugurated 21 Feb 1924
Latest News
Richmond Rotary presentation to ETNA Centre and Reel Junk Food Cafe
On 12 Jamuary, Pindi Tamana, President of Richmond Rotary, presented a cheque for £500 to the ETNA Centre and the Real Junk Food Cafe. Organisations are local superstars for the way they collect and use healthy but unwanted food from supermarkets, providing good cheap meals to hungry people. Rotary's contribution will enable them to recycle what remains in a more environmentally friendly fashion.
22 Jan 2024
Christmas Lunch
After a busy few months in which we organised the Winter Sparkle sale, and made collections on other ococcasions such as the Christmas Lights switch-on in Twickenham East, we were able to make several donations to charity and took time to relax over the club Christmas Lunch at the Bingham on 11 December. (and to aise a little bit more for charity with a raffle and an auction ably conducted by Keith Smith!)
We were grateful to the Mayor, Councillor Suzette Nicholson and Professor Nicholson, for joining us, and also we were glad to be able to make a donation to the Mayor's two Charities, which are SEEN and Age UK Richmond Upon Thames.
15 Dec 2023
Winter Sparkle
Richmond Rotary held 'Winter Sparkle' a table sale of arts, crafts and home made goods, on Sunday 12 November. Everythng from jewellery to jam, with makers using wood, silver, semi-precious stones, textiles, and flowers. We held it at the ETNA centre which provided two large, light rooms that gave us plenty of space.
All money raised by Rotary (from entrance fees etc) will go to disadvantaged people in and around Richmond.
12 Nov 2023
Our Christmas lunch celebrates a successful year
We held our Christmas Lunch at the Bingham Riverside on 13 December, attended by Rotarians and friends of Rotary. President Pindi Tamana outlined steps we have taken to turn around the club's fortunes, in what began as a very difficult year, but ended on a very positive note. Pindi reported that we have donated about £4,000 to charity this year, and further donated a cheque for £225 to Geoff Acton of the ETNA centre, to help with their work for those who are currently hungry and unloved in our area. Members and guests dug deep into their pockets, to buy over
£200 worth of raffle tickets: the proceeds will go to worthy causes shortly.
A very Happy Christmas to all our readers!
15 Dec 2022
Donation to Shepherd's Star charity
Desiree and Kat from "Shepherd's Star" receiving a donation from Richmond Rotary, handed over by President Pindi Tamana with Rotarians Rodney Bennett and David Upton, on 16 November at one of the charity's 'Table of Hope' lunches.
21 Nov 2022
Annual Thames Draw Off
The Thames near Richmond is unusually low right now, because of maintenance work at Richmond Lock by the Port of London Authority.
Members of Richmond Rotary, and guests, went down to the river bank in Richmond after our meeting on 15 November, to see the Low Water event and to give the Thames our best wishes.
15 Nov 2022
Guest Speakers from the Twickenham and Richmond Tribune
Teresa Read and Berkley Driscoll, who publish the 'Twickenham and Richmond Tribune' spoke to a well-attended Richmond Rotary meeting at the Old Ship on Tuesday 8 November. They put in a lot of hard work in order to give us a truly independent local news platform (The others are all 'pseudo-local', run according to a formula by large US conglomerates). The Tribune comes out every Friday evening and can be downloaded free from https://twickenhamtribune.com
If you don't already know it, please give it a try.
13 Nov 2022
Richmond Soup Kitchen
The Richmond Soup Kitchen provides hot meals twice a week during winter for all comers. Our President, Pindi Tamana, recently presented a contribution towards their expenses. Richmond Rotary also donated the gazebo, in front of which Pindi is standing with Isabelle Swann, the RSK organiser.
4 Nov 2022
Richmond Rotary Annual Club Assembly
Richmond Rotary's annual Club Assembly meeting in the Old Ship in Richmond. President Pindi Tamana welcomes Assistant Governor Geoff Williams for a review of the year and a look forward to 2022/2023
6 July 2022
Marble Hill Revived
Marble Hill House and grounds re-opened on Friday 20 May and Rotary was represented, by David. £5 million of Lottery Funds have been spent refurbishing the house and gardens, and the effect is well worth seeing.
The house has extensive historical and literary associations from the first half of the eighteeenth century, an age that is not very well known these days, when many of the political and social systems we now enjoy first started to develop. Pope and Swift were regular visitors, and Henrietta Howard, who designed and built the house, managing to overcome poverty and an abusive marriage to do so, has become something of a feminist heroine. This is well worth going to see, even without the free champagne David enjoyed on Friday.
22 May 2022
Petanque in the Park
We visited the Petanque piste in Palewell Park, for a closely fought series of games followed by a picnic lunch. Tony only revealed half way through that he spent 13 years in a french-language school, where he acquired devastating skills in throwing boules. John Lee ran him a close second.
15 May 2022
Visit to Eel Pie Island Museum
A small group of us visited the Eel Pie Island museum, folllowed by a walk along the riverside. (You can see more of the island from the river bank than from the paths actually on the island.) Celia Holman, from the museum, gave us a fascinating tour. Once Henry VIII's regular snack stop on boat rides between his palaces at Sheen and Hampton Court, in the 1960s it was home to a hotel with a reputation for naughtiness of all sorts. The residents still talk about Twickenham as 'the mainland'. The Museum is densely packed with memorabilia of the Rolling Stones and others.
10 May 2022
Richmond Rotary action against gender-based violence
Another successful White Ribbon Event on 25 February 2022, organised by Cllr Ben Khosa (Rotary Richmond member and Borough White Ribbon
Champion) on behalf of LBRUT Council, and involving members of Twickenham Rotary, to stand up against violence against women and girls.
Ben is pictured here with Eva Peters of Twickenham Rotary Club.
06 Mar 2022
Richmond Mayor visits symbols of hope
On Saturday 19 February, The Deputy Mayor of Richmond, Cllr Suzette Nicholson, visited the Richmond Rotary Gardens to see the crocuses in bloom there.
Rotary Gardens is the small pocket garden by the river opposite Richmond Landing Stage, Buccleuch Passage. Richmond Rotary raised substantial funds in 1974 to change it from derelict land to a garden for the benefit of the community, in particular to raise funds for medical research. Welcoming the Deputy Mayor, Dr Tony Sayer, Past President of the Richmond Rotary Club and a local GP, said “we have not only found and approved a number of effective coronavirus vaccines and treatments but over 44 million people have been vaccinated in the UK. It is now time to celebrate the end of restrictions and the return to some form of normality. Rotary are proud to have planted these purple symbols of hope.”
Please see video of the event https://youtu.be/NYeMOF4Oz4Y
Location of the Rotary Gardens https://goo.gl/maps/sxAsmpgroVEuLtxX9
21 Feb 2022
Richmond Rotary commemorates veterinarian hero
Richmond Rotary held a virtual meeting joining three continents, to commemorate a veterinarian who treated large wild animals, and eventually gave his life when he was killed by an injured elephant in Somalia in 2008.
Dr Zahoor Kashmiri, often known as 'Zorro', practised mostly in Kenya but later became more widely known and travelled around Africa pursuing his goal of reducing the suffering of injured and sick animals. Richmond Rotary President Pindi Tamara has known Zorro since his school days, and spoke movingly of their friendship. We then showed a short video about 'Zorro' and his work.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGkjnnpPAeU
We were glad to welcome members of Rotary in Delhi and Mombasa, representing Dr Kashmiri's own background, and the international recognition he achieved.
24 Jan 2022
Richmond Rotary action against gender-based violence
President Elect of Richmond Rotary, Ben Khosa, as lead White Ribbon Champion for London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, organised and led a Torch Walk from Richmond Town Centre to York House in Twickenham on 10/12/2021. Current President of Richmond Rotary, Pindi Tamana, organised a “pit stop” in East Twickenham, to highlight the issue of gender-based violence to local shoppers and onlookers.
18 Jan 2022
