Rotary Sponsorships

The Rotary Club of Gibraltar recently presented a cheque to Chantal De'Ath, a member of the Gibraltar Badminton Squad. This was to enable her to travel to this year's Island Games and represent Gibraltar.

Rotary President, Julian Risso said "the Rotary Club always takes a keen interest in social and community issues here in Gibraltar. This is especially true when it involves helping the youth of the community and we do realise that sport is an especially excellent vehicle for their development. It was therefore a great pleasure to be able to sponsor a young lady with the calibre of Chantal and the Club wishes her and all the other Gibraltar participants the best of luck in the games" .

The Rotary Club has also recently made a matching donation to sponsor Bianca Taylor. She is a member of the Gibraltar Tennis squad who will also attend the Island Games and represent the Rock. Rotary Club President Julian Risso remarked that with Bianca's track record of tennis excellence "we are sure that she will do well in the games this year and once again make Gibraltar proud".

Picture shows - Chantal De'Ath pictured with the President of the Rotary Club of Gibraltar Julian Risso after receiving her sponsorship cheque..

Rotary Junior Awards

The Rotary Club of Gibraltar held its annual Junior Community Awardspresentation on the 20th June at the Rock Hotel. Rotarian Geoff Morgan(who together with Mrs Sylvia Leay is responsible for the Junior Community scheme programme) opened the event with a few words of introduction.

The evening was well attended by Rotarian members plus the families and friends of those receiving awards. Other VIPs present included Ernest Gomez, Director of Education and Denis Lafferty of Saccone & Speed who sponsored the scheme during this year. Also there were George Payas of St John Ambulance Group; Mary and David Dolding; David and Pili Russell of the Methodist Church; Deepa Aidasani of the Hindu Temple and her husband Naresh all of whom have assisted during the past year. Dr George Garcia, Head Teacher of Westside Comprehensive and Colin Skinner, Deputy Head of Bayside Comprehensive were also
present .

The Minister for Youth, Families and Community Services, the Honorable Mr Jaime Netto, gave a brief speech and thanked all those who had participated. The certificates were given by the Minister and Rotary President, Julian Risso presented lapel badges to Ethan Rocca, Mark Collinson, Zac Barrett, Ritesh Aidasani, and Rory Clark from Bayside Comprehensive and Eleonor Short, Rosie Louis, Sabina Falconer, Kellyanne Davies and Gabriella Grech from Westside Comprehensive School.

Certificates in recognition of the help given to the Awardees were presented by Rotary President, Julian Risso to Sian Wilding, Frida Svendson and Kirsty Ferrary of Westside School and to Alex Martinez and Jordan Montado from Bayside School. Unfortunately Samatha Picardo and Robert Bensusan were unable to attend the evening and their certificates will be sent this week by post.

The proceedings drew to a close with the President outlining the purpose and activities of the Rotary Club of Gibraltar. The scheme itself was explained by Geoff Morgan.

The presentation evening closed with a delightful Jazz Piano piece very well payed by Rory Clark from Bayside School.

ROTARY CLUB GALA CHARITY DINNER DONATES £3000 TO HELP LOCAL CANCER SUFFERS

The Rotary Club of Gibraltar recently held its Charity Gala Dinner. Over 100 people attended the night including; the Governor of Gibraltar and patron of the Club, Sir Adrian Johns and the Commander British forces, Tom Carsten; the Commander of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment Lt Col Colin Risso MC; Miss Gibraltar, Larisa Dali; Deputy Mayor, Julio Alcantara; the Speaker of the Gibraltar House of Parliament,  Haresh Bhudrahani;  the Chairman of Gibraltar Bar Council, David Dumas and their lady wives.

Also present were the President of the St Bernard's Club, Joe Scaniglia; the President of the Lions Club, Joe Bautista and the President of the Round Table, Guy Povedano; many prominent business people from Gibraltar and distinguished Rotarians from Spain, U.K. and Portugal.

The night commenced with the Governor being given a fanfare on arrival by the Buglers of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment and then a champagne pre-drink reception by the lovely Rock Hotel swimming pool. Everyone was then sat down inside the beautiful new Moroccan marquee and was treated throughout the dinner to exotic performances by the lovely and mesmerizing Belly dancers of  "Rock Fusion". There were also several excellent and very enjoyable displays by the Royal Gibraltar Regiment Corps of Drums (which included pipers, buglers). There was also after dinner dancing late into the night as the talented Band Horizon also performed.

The Rotary club of Gibraltar President, Julian Risso then addressed the membership and guests explaining a bit about Rotarians illustrious history, that this year the Club had been extremely active raising and distributing approximately £20,000 to a myriad of charities, projects and needy individuals (including; St Bernadette's Occupational Therapy Centre, the Royal Gibraltar Benevolent fund, Calpe House (in U.K.), the scouts, sponsored several young sports people to attend the Island Games, the Gibraltar Mental Health Support Group (Gibraltar Calpe Project), Dyslexia support group, GBC Open Day, sponsoring local young sports players to represent Gibraltar in the Natwest Island Games, helping to build schools in Morocco and the Gambia, working with Shelterbox International  (humanitarian disaster relief organization) (saving lives in the aftermath of the Pakistan, Haiti and Japan natural disasters by sending over 50 Shelterboxes to these devastated areas), etc.

President Julian also highlighted that apart from giving to charity the Club also did other things such as giving Gibraltar Rotary Club awards such as the Honored Elder award, the Young Persons award, the Public Servant award, the School Youth awards to worthy individuals in the community whose hard work, dedication and/or courage should to be applauded. In addition, he said that the dust had been blown off of the Rotary Club this year as the club had recognized that it needed to update and draft a new club laws as this had not been done since its inception 50 years ago. These new modern rules had now been accomplished and would leave the club with solid foundations for many years to come. At the end of the evening a cheque for £3000 donation was presented to John Diaz the Chairman of the Prostate Cancer Support Group on behalf of the Rotary Club of Gibraltar by the patron of the Club his excellency the Governor of Gibraltar Sir Adrian Johns, Miss Gibraltar Larisa Dalli, and the President of the Club Julian Risso.

The President of the Rotary Club Julian Risso said “The Gibraltar Rotary Club and I have always had a great wish to help victims of this dreadful disease (Cancer). Therefore, it is a great pleasure for the Club to have been able to fund raise for and donate this money to the Prostate Cancer Support Group. We hope that these funds go some way to helping eliminate the terrible effects of Cancer in our  local community and that other clubs and people in Gibraltar recognize the excellent work that this group does and consider making donations or helping suffers out in any way they can”.