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”.

Chief Minister addresses Rotary Club of Gibraltar

The Chief Minister of Gibraltar the right Honorable Peter Caruana QC recently addressed the Rotary club of Gibraltar. The club was extremely well attended with over 60 people including the U.K. Friends of Gibraltar and many local business men. The Club President Julian Risso said that "the Rotary club of Gibraltar was renowned for its quality of speakers and this talk was no exception to that rule and represented the culmination of a very interesting speakers programme this year".

5th May Charity Concert at the Convent Ballroom

Recently The Rotary Club of Gibraltar organized a charity concert at the Convent Ballroom in aid of the Gibraltar Prostate Cancer Society.   The occasion was attended by a whole host of dignitaries which included the Deputy Governor Mrs. Lesley Pallett. It was a complete sell out as over 150 people purchased tickets to be entertained in this lovely setting by some of Gibraltar most talented musicians under the over all direction of the Royal Gibraltar Regiments professional band master Justin Gooch.

The Royal Gibraltar Regiment Band performed a selection of jazz and military pieces accompanied by the magical vocal skills and sounds of the Gibraltar National Choir directed by Lili Olivero, this was followed by Phillip Borge’s outstanding and emotive rendition of “Granada”. Also the mother and daughter combination of Katie and Sarah McCullough performing both individually and together warmed the hearts of those listening especially when young Katie gave her rendition of the Wizards of OZ’s “Over the Rainbow”.

Jamie Barrie once again delighted audiences with her excellent and heart felt performances. Claire Hawkins delighted the audience with her expertly performed repeteur and proved to be the icing on the cake with a wonderfully emotive and floorless rendition of the “Memories” from the musical “Cats”. 

The Rotary Club of Gibraltar are very grateful to everyone involved and especially to his Excellency the Governor Sir Adrian Johns for kindly granting it permission to use the Convent Ball room, Phillip Valverde for providing his technical expertise, our sponsors Bright Company Ltd and Khubchands, all the performers whom very kindly provided their valuable time and services free of charge and all the members of the public who attended the event.

The Rotary Club of Gibraltar President Julian Risso said that "It is due to the generosity of all these people that the Rotary club has once again been able to put on such a outstandingly professional and enjoyable concert and raise a substantial amount for local Charity".

GIBRALTAR ROTARIANS HELP JAPAN

The Rotary Club of Gibraltar has recently made a donation of £1000 to 'ShelterBox'. This is a Rotary-sponsored international disaster relief charity specialising in emergency shelter provision.

Humanitarian aid is delivered in iconic green ShelterBoxes. Each one contains a disaster relief tent for up to 10 people, a stove, blankets and other items essential for survival. ShelterBox responds to disaster as quickly as possible with the aim of helping the people who are most in need.

Every box is individually numbered and can be tracked by donors. Each box costs £490 - including the cost of all materials, packing, storage, transport worldwide and distribution to the needy. Assuming six months' use, this equates to shelter and warmth for less than 30 pence per person per day.

Rotary Club's President on the Rock, Julian Risso said "The Rotary club of Gibraltar is primarily a charitable club and therefore we consider it our duty to help out in any ways we can people who need help, whether locally or internationally.

As well as the recent disaster in Japan, in recent years the Rotary Club of Gibraltar has also supported ShelterBox in various disasters such as Haiti and Pakistan. Shelterbox provides much needed life saving humanitarian support on the ground in countries where disasters such as these happen.

Therefore the Rotary Club of Gibraltar is pleased to purchase ShelterBoxes to help the Japanese people survive this present dreadful disaster", concluded Julian.

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Rotary Club of Gibraltar donates £2000 to Calpe House

Julian Risso, this year’s Rotary Club President has presented a cheque for £2000 to Charlie Tilbury (chairman of the Calpe House Trust). These funds were raised by the Saint Michael’s Cave Rotary Charity concert which in total raised over £5000 profit for charity (half of which has already been donated to the new Royal Gibraltar Regiment Charitable Benevolent fund).

“The Rotary Club is honoured to be associated with this excellent organization which provides so much help and support to Gibraltarians and their families who require serious medical treatment in the U.K.” said Julian. “We hope these funds will help Calpe House to continue to be a home away from home for sick Gibraltarians for many years to come” said Julian.