Nine Rotary clubs across south-east England joined forces to organise a boccia tournament for disabled players at the Sandwich Technology School in Kent.

Boccia is a sport which provides an excellent opportunity for people with a range of disabilities to be included in sport where friendships are forged and healthy rivalry expressed despite differences in abilities.

The aim of the day was to enable first-time collaborative working between all nine District 1120 Rotary clubs for the benefit of those less fortunate.

The day was masterminded by a Past President of the Rotary Club of Sandwich, John Gisbey, along with Assistant District Governor, Peter Sherred. District Governor, Paul Frostick, together with the Mayors of Hythe and Sandwich, councillors Jim Martin and Jeff Franklin, attended the event and presented the medals to all the competitors.

It is hoped that this inaugural collaborative event involving coastal Rotary clubs from Romney Marsh to Sandwich (including Hythe, Folkestone, Folkestone Channel, Dover, South Foreland, Deal and Three Castles of Deal) will be developed in future years.

The Rotary in Chichester Station Partnership, initiated by club President, Dick Hammond, is going from strength to strength.

Dick has established a very good working relationship with Rowena Tyler of the Southeast Communities Rail Partnership and station staff.

Rotary-branded posters have been going up regularly on the station concourse of the West Sussex station. Firstly to commemorate the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and then the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

These were followed by ‘Lest We Forget’ posters marking Remembrance Day, and recently greetings from Rotary with a picture of the Rotary Christmas ‘Tree of Goodwill’ at the Chichester Market Cross, including logos of all the local charities that are supported.

The posters were designed by Dick’s son-in-law, Ben Turner, and sponsored by Govia Thameslink Railways.

The Rotary Club of Sleaford Kesteven organised a successful technology tournament for senior schools in the Lincolnshire town.

The event gives the students an opportunity to put their science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills into practice. 

This tournament was hosted by the Kesteven and Sleaford High School when the Year 9 and 11 groups were tasked with designing and making a gripping device so that a ‘radioactive meteorite’ could be safely handled from a distance.

The meteorite - a tennis ball - was positioned in a box. The gripping device had to pass through the front opening to grip and retrieve the meteorite from a distance of 1,500mm and placed centrally on a target area. The task had to be completed in under 30 seconds.

Two of the judges were engineers from the Grunwald company, working with two Rotarians. It was Kesteven & Sleaford High School who made a clean sweep of winning the Year 9 and Year 11 trophies, which were presented by Club President, Keith Austen.