The Newark Vintage Tractor and Heritage Show 2015
November 7th & 8th
Charity Collection.
This is the fifth year ‘The Castle’ have been involved with organising the Charity Collection at the ‘Tractor Show’.
Once again, Roger Pykett has been, instrumental in securing the ‘rights’ to organise the bucket collection at this event
It is still my opinion, this is one of the easiest ways to raise money for charity and the Notts & Lincs Air Ambulance, along with Rotary Charities, benefits considerably from our efforts .
This view appeared to be shared by the club and I was delighted to have some 10 members, including the President, assisting myself,over the week end.
My thanks to :
President David, Glen Foreman, Mac Mallard, David Nicholson, John Barker, Larry, Kwonghir, Gina Cresswell , David Dunn, David Strange and Jim Costello.
Roger managed to get back from his wedding in Cardiff and joined us for the last hour or so on Sunday.
You will all be pleased to know, that your efforts were responsible for raising £2000.
Well Done!!
This means Rotary Charities and The Air Ambulance will benefit to the tune of £1000 each, as a direct result of your efforts.
I am aware this is down on previous years but it must be appreciatedour activities were somewhat curtailed this year and we were only allowed a half day, on each of the two days.
We were restricted to collecting from 12:00 pm until 5:00 pm on Saturday, so I organised two shifts. Sunday was somewhat shorter, being only from 12:00pm until 3:30pm and so only one shift was required. That makes a little over 8 hours for the two days .
Arithmetically, I have worked out, that each Rotarian was probably collecting around £64 per hour!! Over £1 per minute!!
Now, that isn’t bad for standing around, shaking a bucket, particularly as the funds are generated from outside of Rotary.
The usual crowd visited the show and the ‘Irish Contingent’ are always good value...... we see the same faces year after year.
I am always amazed by the generosity of the general public, time and again they dip into their pockets and support charitable causes and make no mistake times are still hard for most of us.
We always support the very worthy Notts and Lincs Air Ambulance, in addition to other charities and I make no apology for using the ‘Air Ambulance’ as the ‘headline attraction’ when collecting monies.
The Air Ambulance is a high profile charity which many members of the public, in rural areas, identify with.
We make no secret that our collection will benefit other charities but without a doubt, supporting the Air Ambulance, as one of the charities, does make collecting that much easier.
Considering the forecast, we were quite lucky, with regard to the weather, this year.
Only those stalwarts in the first session, on Saturday, getting rained upon...... and for a short while it certainly rained and the wind certainly blew.
Consequently, my especial thanks to David Nicholson and Mac Mallard...... rather less so to David Strange, who managed somehow to contrive to be searching for milk, for his tea, during the worst of the storm. As Mac succinctly put it ...... ”Is he having to milk the cow?”...... Tee Hee.
This was particularly apt as David was giving Mac some stick when he initially went and fetched the drinks, for being so long.
However, Mac was having some difficulty carrying the four cups and so he asked the lady at the tea stand if she had a tray or anything to carry the cups on . The young lady turned to her companion and loudly said “ Hey, we’ve got a comedian here”
Mac commented, with a sense of humour like that, she ought to be collecting money with us.
Nevertheless, it was suggested David might wish to fine himself, when next attending to his ‘Sergeant At Arms’ duties, for his lack of solidarity with his otherwise more hardy companions.
The usual jingles were employed to encourage donations and a ‘crib’ sheet listing the better efforts, was provided to all those collecting on Sunday, to ensure maximum return.
I trust those who assisted enjoyed themselves and felt their time well spent. My voice is a little hoarse after two days ofencouraging the punters but then again, I can hear you all say “ what is the bad part about that?”
Finally, my thanks to Marshalls Buses ,for counting the cash.
Rotn: Marc Slack.