2023 NEWS
21st Dec. –
Our Club’s Community Christmas Lunch took place this afternoon in the Indoor bowling club /
Cliftonville and Coatdyke community stadium.
Around 100 Residents and Staff from numerous organisations and homes in the Monklands were fed and entertained.
Janice Toner returned with her keyboard,as did Santa and his Elves to bring much needed Christmas cheer.
It did not take much encouragement from Janice to Willie Devoy and David Lyndsay to start a karaoke session
which a good number of guests joined in.
Pupils from Hilltop Primary joined us to entertain the guests with more Christmas songs.
Photo Link
18th Dec. –
The Club Christmas Party was held in the Tudor hotel
VP John Beever and Treasurer Colin OOi were outdone by Judith and Alex (Smash duo)
Good Food, Fun and Fellowship was had by all
11th Dec. –
Rotarian Elf Carol and Rotarian Elf John could be seen helping out at…
Cliftonville & Coatdyke Community Group‘s Visit Santa Coatbridge event.
4th Dec. –
New member Stalllone- Oberaemi Samuel spoke to
the club this evening about his career in human resources and his personal growth to his present work as a Trainer in Public speaking.
Stallone kept us all rapt with his own Public speaking showing us how accomplished he is.
The theme of the speech was “STRETCH”
Indicating the need for us all to stretch ourselves
and strive for whatever we want.
youtube link
30th Nov. – St Andrews Day
A good number of our Club members attended a
St Andrews day evening with the Annan Rotary Club at
the Solway Lodge Hotel. An enjoyable evening of entertainment and fellowship was had by all.
27th Nov. –
We were honoured by a visit from our new District 1320 Governor Narek Bido who
gave an inspiring speech highlighting our successes over the year and his vision for moving
the many clubs within our District forward.
A Paul Harris Award was given to Alan Lawson whohas supported our club over many years
Club member Alice Yeung for her support of Rotary Foundation
20th Nov. – Amy & Friends (Registered Charity 1119746)
Cockayne Syndrome (CS) and
Trichothiodystrophy (TTD) Support
Michelle Howe was a brilliant ambassador for the Charity,
accompanied by her husband Colin and Daughter Elsie.
Michelle spoke to the club about her daughter’s condition, TTD,
and how the charity supports families and how there are so few with the conditions that support for research is limited.
Amy and Friends was formed to support children/young adults and families suffering from Cockayne Syndrome and linked DNA repair disorders. They meet with families and specialists to share experiences, knowledge and to gain support from each other.
16th Nov. – Rotary Young Musician Competition
The Rotary Club of Coatbridge, Airdrie and Monklands were delighted to organise this event which is one of the highlights of our rotary year. Twenty six pupils from St Ambrose, Coatbridge and Airdrie High School took part in this year’s competition. The school hosting this year’s competition was St Ambrose and Head Teacher, James McParland, welcomed the pupils, parents and the audience on Thursday 16th November. Janet McGill introduced the competitors over the six categories :
Strings, Percussion, Woodwind, Piano, Voice and Brass.
The pupils’ performances displayed a wealth of talent and
kept the audience entertained.
Competitors and results
Strings – Isabella McStravick/ St Ambrose HS, Astrid Calliau/ Coatbridge HS, Alister McGhie/ Buchanan/St Ambrose, Johnny McKinlay/ Coatbridge HS, Joseph Howard/ St Ambrose HS. Section Winner – Joseph Howard
Percussion – Caitlin Allan/ Coatbridge HS, Eve Sowden/ Coatbridge HS, Charley Smith/ Coatbridge HS. Section Winner – Charley Smith
Woodwind – Fergus Beattie/ St Ambrose HS, Kenan Elsever/ Coatbridge HS, Section Winner – Kenan Elsever
Piano – Ellie Cheung/ Airdrie HS, Caitlyn Liu/ St Ambrose, Holly Keane/ St Ambrose, Fraser Grant/ Coatbridge HS,
Xin Yao/ St Ambrose Section Winner – Ellie Cheung
Voice – Oliver McCafferty/ St Ambrose HS,
Chloe McMullen/ Coatbridge HS, Alex McLean/ Airdrie HS, Mia Sproul/ St Ambrose HS, Holly Lewis/ Coatbridge HS, Kirsty Montgomery/ Airdrie HS, Ava Galloway/ St Ambrose HS, Kayla Tubey/ Coatbridge HS, Adam Tennent/ Coatbridge HS Section Winner – Oliver McCafferty
Brass – Micha Brown/ St Ambrose HS, Erin Higgins/ St Ambeose HS, Connor Owen/ St Ambrose HS Section Winner – Erin Higgins
OVERALL WINNER : ELLIE CHEUNG
RUNNER UP : OLIVER MCCAFERTY
The judges for the evening were Scott McCorkindale who is Faculty Head of Performing Arts in St Andrews High School, Carntyne, and Jennifer Armstrong who is Principal Teacher of Music at Govan High School. They considered the performances while the audience were treated to refreshments. After this interval the judges described what they were looking for in a performance and proceeded to help the competitors by giving them advice.
Angela Campbell, Convenor of Education, Children and Families came along to award Certificates to all the competitors. She then awarded the winners with their trophies.
The Rotary Club Vice President, John Beever then gave the vote of thanks to all those concerned.
Photos taken by Past President john McGill can be viewed at this LINK
6th Nov. – Shire radio
Photo : Rotary Vice President John Beever With Shire Radio Chairman Alec Nicol. Far left is Arthur Grainger, Creative Director with Bill Kilgour, Sales Director.
Shire Radio (aka Shire Media) is a registered charity and a volunteer-driven not-for-profit organisation, based in North Lanarkshire. Alex, Bill and Arthur described their work and impressed us with the massive work involved in bringing this station to Lanarkshire.
It is a 24-hour-a-day radio service broadcasting to Lanarkshire, from Lanarkshire with the purpose of providing a community hub, an online media hub, a local radio service, local podcasts and locally created videos. All about Lanarkshire, made by the people of Lanarkshire, all of which are intended to inform, educate and celebrate our heritage, culture, talent, diversity and natural beauty throughout our area.
31st Oct. –
Wrap up Lanarkshire Initiative
Now that Winter is creeping in, it’s time for the local community to get together and collect clothing donated to help those in need of suitable clothing to get them through the winter.
Several car loads of clothes were collected from St Andrews Church, Whinhall. Rotarians Caroand Martin Cairney are shown in the photo delivering these to Diamonds in the Community for distribution.
Many car loads of clothing donations were uplifted by Rotarians from churches throughout Airdrie and Coatbridge and delivered to other community groups for distribution.
23rd Oct. –
Robert Wilson of Carluke Probus has become a regular speaker and friend of our club.
His talk ‘ What Scotland gave the World ‘ started with an exceptionally informative video
by the deceased Jack Watson of Carluke Rotary Club. Robert continued to provide us with a further wealth
of information about famous Scots of every field of human endeavour.
photo : Carol Cairney , Robert and wife Marylin, John Barbour
22nd Oct. –
A beautiful day for club members and friends to Walk the Mile for Polio along the Monklands Canal
Donate here
16th Oct. –
Monklands Light Opera President, Liam McKinstrie, joined us to thank us for our grant.
He also brought us up to date on his club which is in it’s 50th year.
14th Oct. –
ROTARY 60’s Dance
evening at the Indoor Bowling Club.
We all had a fab time at the Dance in the Coatbridge Indoor Bowling Centre. Mark Walton was great and had us all up on the floor. £250 has been raised for charity.
2nd Oct. –
photo : President Alice, Carol Cairney, Colin Ooi, John Walker and John Beever.
John Walker has spent a
great amount of
his time investigating all
aspects of the
1912 Titanic disaster.
His talk was enthralling and
forensic in it’s
detail – titled MYTHS of TITANIC
18th Sept. –
We had the privilege of welcoming Gary Logan and his wife Chris, Rotarians from South Jeffco Rotary club of Colorado, USA. Visiting on holiday we are the first club to be honoured with them as visitors.
The speaker for the evening was Thomas Moan of VANL who was bringing us up to date with the new and innovative Community Solutions Programme .
This is a pioneering, community led, health and social care investment programme operating across North Lanarkshire focused on building communities where people can have full, independent lives, in place since 2013.
It is a partnership between:-
Health and Social Care North Lanarkshire (HSCNL), the North Lanarkshire health and social care partnership;
Voluntary Action North Lanarkshire (VANL), the local third sector interface; and
the vibrant community and voluntary sector of North Lanarkshire.
photo Thomas Moan, President Alice, Gary & Chris Logan
11th Sept. –
Dawn Hamilton is a development officer with the
Trussell Trust’s Airdrie Foodbank.
Dawn outlined how the work of the trust and the foodbank is carried out and thanked the club for our support. We hope to continue to support the work of the trust and the foodbank.
photo – Dawn Hamilton, President Alice Yeung
4th Sep –
Nathan Mwesigwa is one of our new Rotary members.
Nathan, who is a Health Improvement Coordinator with Waverley Care in Lanarkshire, spoke to the club about
his life and work.
An eloquent speaker who obviously enjoys and cares about his work in health improvement, Nathan told
numerous stories of his seventeen years in Scotland.
He told of his enjoyment of Scotland and its culture and described some of his background and family in Uganda.
PP George Lindsay aided by John Beever create ‘Our Club Video’
Carol, Nathan, George and Stallone-Oberaemi
28th Aug – Lanarkshire Rape Crisis Centre lanrcc.org.uk
Jennifer Mercer described the work done by the group based in Hamilton supporting individuals aged 12 and over who have been subjected to sexual assault. Jennifer was an excellent speaker and her enthusiasm for her worked shone through despite the harrowing topic. Although based in Hamilton they are also supporting North Lanarkshire as awell as South Lanarkshire.
7th Aug –
Managing Director of the Bells Food Group, Ronnie Miles,
gave an excellent and detailed talk to the club describing
the story of 3 generations of the Bell family business,
first established in 1931.
The story can be found on the above link (in red)
They have an extensive range of products but are renowned for
their scotch pies and with the unbelievable production of
30 million per year making them Scotland’s number one pie brand.
photo – left to right, 3 prospective new club members – Stallone, Nathan and John beside Ronnie Miles and PP Colin
23rd July –
Club members took part in and assissted with Cliftonville and Coatdyke Community Group’s Fun Day
3rd July –
The club welcomed Na’eem Raza who represented the charity Wheels to Heal.
Na’reem described the work of his charity Wheels to Heal ,
an award-winning humanitarian and environmental grassroots volunteer-led charity which was started in 2015 with the chance discovery of 150 wheelchairs and the simple ethos of recycling them.
Since our inception, we have funded and rescued over 24,000 mobility and disability aids from landfill and provided an alternative solution for Care Homes and households across the UK, delivering these into areas such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ghana, Gambia, Iraq, Lebanon, Malawi, Pakistan, Palestine, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Uganda and Yemen.
photo: President Alice presents Na’eem with a cheque for £300
3rd July –
Past District Governor and Interim President John Barbour presents badge to Secretary of 7 years, Bill McMullen for his service.
Rotarian Carol Cainey becomes our new Secretary.
3rd July –
Presidents Handover evening
Past District Governor and Interim President John Barbour hands over the club’s chain of office to Alice Yeung.
Friends and Guests attending.
19th June –
Hugh Graham of Motherwell Rotary Club and Author of
“Bloody Blood Groups” discussed blood groups.
Hugh describes blood groups, not as a scientific discourse, but in such a way as to make the information accessible to the public
Blood groups have been associated with a genetic predisposition to disease, intelligence, personality, ability, psychopathy and, physical attributes. The talk was extremely interesting and included some astounding facts and figures.
photo : PP Geoorge Lindsay, Hugh Graham, PP Colin Ooi.
19th June –
A minutes silence was held at this evening’s meeting in memory of John Jarvie who sadly died in the early hours of Sunday morning.
A hard working and well repected Rotarian, John served diligently as Club Treasurer for over a decade and he was the proud holder of a Paul Harris Fellowship.
Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Margaret, and family at this time.
12th June –
At this evening’s Assembly President George Lindsay
presented the Melville Scott Award for
Rotarian of the Year to Martin Cairney.
5th June –
An enjoyable evening chaired by PDG John Barbour and two lady visitors from Kylsyth Club, Joyce and Emma.
We had the pleasure of listening to Shirley Hutton and
Iain Lawrence on the subject of Hypnotherapy and the treatment of Chronic pain and phobias.
The evening ended with an unexpected but enjoyable
10 minute relaxation therapy.
photo: (Left) Joyce, John, Emma, Shirley and Iain (Right)
18th May–
We are pleased to announce the installation of new Barrels and Barrel Train.
Many thanks to Scot Rail for delivering and installing the Barrels and to
Denny & Bonnybridge Men’s Shed for making the train.
The Barrels were supplied by Fishers Cooperage in Glasgow.
Also, thanks are due to Rotarians Martin and John along with his wife Christine for Compost transfer and planting.
15th May–
Carluke Rotarian Andrew Murray impressed the club members and our visitors from Falkirk Rotary with
his talk about Drones, their use and potential.
Andrew uses drone phoyograpy and
showed spectacular footage of Scotish scenery from the air.
Andrew’s work can be seen on his website Scothawk Drones Imaging.
11th May– CAM Rotary Annual Golf Fundraiser
12 groups of 4 Golfers enjoyed fair weather at the magnificent looking Airdrie Golf course.
Many of the groups have become regulars at this event which raises money for charity. They enjoyed good weather, good food and good company, not to mention, great prizes for the winners and a trawl of good raffle prizes.
The Winners… (below)
photo 022 were the winners from Glenrothes Specsavers and they chose a 4 ball at Stirling Golf Club as their prize. Larger images at this LINK
photo 023 were a local Team from Drumpellier. Sponsored by John Rossi and Eddie Cairns.
They were called “The Bogeymen” and the picture is of Hugh McKenna, Jim Feeney,
John Campbell and John Rossi. They chose a 4 ball at Crail Craighead Links as their runner up prize
photo 024 are called “Fore!” They are from Perth and are one of 4 teams who always support this event.
The 16 golfers from Perth are led by Malcolm Marwick who supports the memory and legacy of his dad
Robin Marwick who was a pillar in local Rotary for many a year.
Fore! Won third prize – a fourball at Glenrothes.
The individual prize winners (above) were
photo 025 Hugh Pender who was nearest the hole on the 4th,
photo 026 Derek Totten who was nearest the hole on the 11th and
photo 027 Jamie Smart who was nearest the hole in two on the 18th. Each won £100.
And at a Special Prize Draw for all competitors Derek Totten won a 4 ball at Kinross Golf Club.
Raffle and Rotary Display Board…
Larger images at this LINK
9th May–
Leaflet drop in Coatbridge By Colin, George and David
8th May–
A volunteer recruitment day was held at
New Wellwynd Parish Church and our own PDG,
John Barbour ,was on hand to pass out information.
27th April –
Club Visit to Motherwell and Wishaw Club.
We were treated to excellent company and an extremely interesting speaker. Few of us had heard of 4×4 Response. The Speaker, GeorgeSmith, who is Chair of the group, described how the use of 4×4 vehicles were used to come to the aid of all sorts of emergency requests.
An excellent evening was had by all.
17th April –
Club AGM with visiting ADG Callan Dick from Motherwell and Wishaw Club.
27th March –
Stephen Rodgers from the Probus club of Allander gave the club a presentation on Electrifying Britain.
His talk was fascinating and detailed, giving the history of electricity production from the 1800’s to present day.
In addition to the history he gave a comprehensive description of the science, technology and even the related economics.
photo Stephen and PP Colin
20th March –
George Barnsley started his police career in 1978 as a cadet in Strathclyde and was Senior Investigating Officer in many high profile cases. George saw many changes in the force until he retired as Superintendent in 2010.
He is Chairman of the Lanarkshire Police Historical Society and his excellent talk to the club outlined the history and the changes to policing in Lanarkshire through the years.
He is now Director of a Training and Consultancy Business and the author of the book ‘Lanarkshire Police Chronicles’
photo: President Colin, George Barnsley and PP George Lindsay.
Ava’s poem which won the Junior Section of the
District Young Writer final …
What is Peace?
Peace for me is when I have alone time in my room,
Peace for a mum is to know that her child is safe,
Peace for a dad is to hear his children giggle and laugh,
Peace for a soldier is to know that their family love and miss them.
Peace for a refugee is to feel safe in a different country,
Peace for a teacher is to know that children care for each other,
Peace for a child is to know they are loved,
Peace for a pet is to be cared for.
Peace for a nurse is to know people can count on them,
Peace for a plant is fertile soil to grow in,
Peace for a farmer is to work his land for the good of others,
Peace for wild animals is to be able to roam the earth freely and safely.
By Ava Tarditi
photo ; PP Tom, Ava, PP Janet
12th March –
The District 1020 Rotary Young Musician (South Scotland) final was hosted by the Rotary Club of Dalkeith. The event took place at Heriot Watt University and the winner of our club event in November, Kenan Elsever was one of 15 talented young people taking part.
Kenan who was supported by his Mum and Music teacher gave an excellent performance on the piano. 4 members of our club also attended in support, but unfortunately Kenan did not win. All the competitors were of an extremely high standard.
The Instrumetal winner was Michael Gemmell from Peebles on piano and the winning vocalist was Peter Whitelaw, from Dumfries.
10th March –
Charity Burns Supper
Yes late, but never too late to enjoy a Burns night. The event was always an annual event before Covid-19 and we are glad to say that things are getting back to normal. The event which was held in the Tudor hotel, Airdrie was a great success from the outset.
Past President Colin Ooi welcomed the guests and Past President Willie Devoy chaired the evening after being piped in by Jenn Botterill. Past President Robert McGeorge gave a spirited address to the Haggis and Willie said the Selkirk Grace.
Billy Brooks, current President of Airdrie Burns Club, gave a knowledgeable Immortal Memory of Rabbie. George Randall, a local from Whinhall and keen Burns enthusiast, then gave a hilarious toast to the lassies with the reply coming from Past District Governor Fiona Marwick of Monklands Inner Wheel.
Willie Devoy continued the entertainment with much Sang an’ Clatter. The evening ended with the vote of thanks from Past President George Lindsay.
Over £1100 was raised for Rotary Charities.
6th March –
Callum Christie visited to give us a fascinating story about the last days of Barotseland, an African kingdom which was a British protectorate for over 70 years. The rulers of Barotseland, in the remote west of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), had little idea of the political tsunami that was about to engulf them. Elsewhere in the country a growing nationalist movement was soon to take power from the British Government and the white settlers, and consequently from the traditional rulers of Barotseland.
Callum Christie, posted to Barotseland fresh from university in 1959 tells the story. This talk was illustrated with a stunning series of images.
Pictured here with President Colin and Secretary Bill
20th February –
The Club was required to hold an EGM after the resignation of President Tom Harrigan.
Past President Colin Ooi stepped up to act as President until the end of this Rotary Year when Vice Peresident Alice Yeung will become our President.
6th February –
The Club received an update on Mary’s Meals
from Tony Begley. Tony , Educational Coordinator
and Volunteer Speaker informed us of the work
now taking place in 18 countries.
Mary’s Meals serves nutritious school meals to children
feeding 2,429,182 children every school day
It costs just £19.15 to feed a child in a place of education
for a whole school year.
Photo – Tony with President Tom
30th January –
The Club Burns Supper was its usual success.
This was in no small part due to our own Past President Willie Devoy. An afficianado of Burns, Willie entertained us all the way through from the Selkirk grace, addressing the Haggis and the Immortal Memory. His performance of Tam O’Shanter and Holy Willie’s Prayer were the highlight of the evening.
