THE latest community news from Aberystwyth

Rotary Club

ON 18 July, members of the club were delighted to welcome District Governor Maggie Hughes on her first visit to the club in her new role.

DG Maggie Hughes presented a certificate acknowledging the substantial money it had raised over the years towards the eradication of polio.

Her first task was to acknowledge the club’s efforts in the campaign to eradicate polio worldwide.

This remained a priority for Rotary generally and the Gates Foundation had recently re-affirmed its ongoing support, both financial and moral, to the campaign.

Cases had reduced to single figures each year but were proving difficult to eradicate completely as conflicts across the world made it extremely dangerous to reach the final few pockets.

She paid tribute to aid workers who daily risked their lives to bring vaccines to crisis points in the hope of finally eradicating the disease completely.

Rotary will be organising a series of peace conferences across the world in support of one of its major aims, including one in Coventry in February 2018 which she hoped would attract a large audience and achieve tangible outcomes.

In addition, Rotary was seeking to quantify not only the financial aid generated by its members but also the time given by its members to charities and community activities.

By doing so, it was hoped to measure for the first time the true impact of Rotarians’ volunteering.

The district had set a number of priorities for the year, including tree planting and increasing membership, especially amongst younger people. This could involve the creation of new clubs or satellite groups which met at times to suit their members.

The District had set as fundraising priorities for this year: The Tenovus Closer to Home initiative, enabling cancer sufferers to receive treatment more locally.

This already operates well in Aberystwyth where the mobile treatment centre comes to Aberystwyth twice per month; Supporting the Rotary Foundation, 100 years old this week, which, from tiny beginnings, was now generating some $170m annually; and continuing to support polio eradication.

DG Maggie also raised her legacy project, contributing to dementia awareness across Wales with the aim of enabling sufferers to improve their quality of life and stay independent for as long as possible.

She wished Aberystwyth well for all its activities this year.

As the largest club in South Wales, it was well placed to make increasingly positive contributions in many ways to the work of Rotary generally and the district more locally.

Morlan Centre

ONE of the aims of the Morlan Centre – a faith and culture centre in Aberystwyth – is to reach out to different sectors of society.

During June, it was the inspiration behind two new initiatives that took place in the town.

The first was the Dewch at Eich Gilydd / The Great Get Together, to remember Jo Cox, MP who died in June of last year.

Several local groups were invited to be part of the organising committee and around a dozen of them got together to organise a day of activities on 17 June.

A community lunch – provided by Aber Food Surplus using food from local supermarkets – took place in St Paul’s Centre.

This was followed by an activity for children at the Old College as well TrioLingo – a chance to learn words and simple phrases in some of the different languages spoken in Aberystwyth.

Around 45 people came together to learn 16 languages, and it was a great opportunity for the Syrian refugees to realise that they are not the only minority in the town.

A half hour of silent remembrance then took place at various locations in the town followed by a rousing concert at Morlan in the evening with a variety of performers, languages and musical styles.

Almost two weeks later, on 29 June, an event called Food For Thought took place at Morlan.

This was organised by Morlan’s Faith and Religious Affairs Sub-committee and was a chance to look at the relationship between food and faith.

Enid Morgan, a vicar with the Church in Wales, talked about Judaism and Christianity and the way that remembering one particular supper is at the heart of Christian worship and is a snapshot of a community where people can trust in God and in each other.

Paul Allen, of the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth and one of the authors of Zero Carbon Britain presented a more secular viewpoint and described how the story of the ‘consumer’ – the idea that buying things makes us happier – has contributed to climate change and to a change in society.

Talat Chaudhri, Aberystwyth’s deputy mayor was the final speaker.

He is a Muslim of English and Bengali descent, raised in Essex but living in Aberystwyth for 19 years and a fluent and natural Welsh speaker.

He talked about the significance of food to tie society together, and explained how part of the Ramadan fast involves saving money and giving it to the needy, and how coming together to eat at night strengthens relationships.

Gregynog Festival

WALES’S most prestigious classical musical festival delivered its promise and brought musical pageantry across Wales last month.

The festival opened at the National Library of Wales, moved on to Gregynog Hall on its first weekend and then on to Chirk Castle before culminating in an extravaganza weekend in Harlech Castle and across the town.

Hundreds of music lovers listened and were delighted at each venue, having been entertained by acclaimed artists and special guest speakers.

At the National Library lutenist Thomas Dunford mesmerised the audience, and at Gregynog Hall visitors were given insights into the world of early music pioneer Arnold Dolmetsch by his granddaughter Jeanne and recorder and harpsichord virtuosi Michala Petri and Mahan Esfahani, while at Chirk Castle they were captivated by pianist Llyr Williams and saxophonist Amy Dickson.

Plascrug Bridge Club

RESULTS from 4 July: 1, Doreen Anthony and Dylan Raw-Rees; 2, John Holmes and Alan Stein; 3, Elenid Thomas and Margaret James; 4, Gwynant Edwards and Jeff Thomas.

Results from 11 July: 1, Doreen Anthony and Dylan Raw-Rees; joint 2, Margaret James and Mike Yeo/Betty Brookes and Mike Jones.

Results from 17 July: 1, Betty Brookes and Mike Jones; 2, Mike Yeo and Ian Finlay; 3, John Holmes and Alan Stein; 4, Elenid Thomas and Gwynant Edwards.

Stroke Club

TUESDAY, 18 July, was the date of the club’s monthly outing to a new venue in Lampeter.

On a lovely sunny day 40 members travelled by coach to the Castle Green Hotel.

They were greeted by the chairman Ann Evans, who spoke warmly of the late Winnie, saying she was quite a character and will be missed.

On a happier tone, there were birthday wishes to quite a few members.

With the absence of Jean, the tickets for the raffle were dealt with by Judith and Jan very smartly.

They then settled down to enjoy a first-class carvery, followed by a splendid selection of mouth-watering sweets.

After tea and coffee was served, an announcement was made, with the presentation to the chairman of an engraved medallion, from a friend of the club.

The president then organised the 660 crew draw and the cheques were handed out to the lucky winners, then the raffle numbers came out with a great choice of interesting prizes to be picked.

Audrey, the social secretary informed us that the winter break to Llandudno is on 8 December, and if anyone wishes to join, let her know.

All that remained to do was to thank the hotel and staff for making a lovely day out and then back onto the coach for the journey back to Aberystwyth.

Camera Club

THE club’s monthly competition for June was won by Sean Fitzgerald, with Tony Hicklin, Ian Titley and Azam Hamidinekoo in joint second place. Runner–up was Clive Tonkins.

The topic for the month had been ‘Abstract’ and this had given rise to some concentrated thinking as to how to make an abstract photograph.

Congratulations to Azam, who also won the Print of the Month.

Sean drew from the hat the topic for July – ‘The Moon’.

The club welcomed two visitors, Steven and Margaret Wooley, who may become new members in the near future.

It was a pleasure to welcome them, and members were pleased to see that our guests were attracted by our new display of photographs on display in the club room.

The moon seems to have been illusive through July, and many members will struggle to have images to show by the end of the month.

However, there always seems to be someone up in the very early hours to catch that telling shot.

It will be more than interesting to see how the July challenge will be resolved.

Club members and friends were able to enjoy a simple outdoor shoot in the town, and the threatening thunderstorms did not disrupt the “4 Pack” competition held on the evening.

The four subjects drawn from the hat were ‘Big, Repetitive, Shoes, and Red’.

The results from this task will be seen along with the ‘Moon’ challenge, by the end of July.

Also in the above mix for the end of July, is the awkward subject of the ‘selfie’, or as it really should be titled, the ‘Self Portrait’.

There should be examples of member’s self-portraits which reflect the way they would like to be seen, rather than the casual way that such images are usually taken.

Such images are difficult to achieve to a professional standard, but the club members are very creative!

U3A

THE last U3A talk before the summer break was given on 20 July by Yvonne Hughes, a local well-known and popular health visitor.

She spent some time in 2002 in Afghanistan on a mission to revitalise health centres in that country.

This was two years before the Taliban had finally been defeated and left the country, but conditions there were still very primitive.

Yvonne decided to concentrate on improving local medical knowledge of women and children’s health, especially in the area of childbirth.

Under the Taliban, women were refused any education, but Yvonne quickly realised that being uneducated did not mean they were also unintelligent. Some of the difficulties women suffered under, especially when wearing the burka and carrying a tiny baby, were graphically shown to the group.

The speaker had brought a burka and demonstrated how limited the wearer’s vision was when wearing one and trying to navigate steps while carrying a small child.

It is not surprising that the clinics set up were very popular, even though many women had to walk miles in extremely hot conditions to reach one.

The talk was illustrated by many photographs, some of which were heartbreaking, but others brought sympathetic exclamations from a fascinated audience.

The next meeting, after the summer break, will be on Thursday, 21 September, when Will Troughton will entertain the group with a talk entitled Aberystwyth Through Time. As usual, it will be held in the Morlan at 2.30pm and all are welcome.

Choral society

CHORISTERS are currently enjoying their long summer break after the society’s very successful and acclaimed performance, back in April, of Sir Michael Tippett’s demanding A Child of Our Time.

However, preparations are now getting under way for the society’s forthcoming Christmas concert in the Great Hall in mid December.

Conductor David Russell Hulme, has decided that the work will be the Mozart Requiem, a work familiar to many of the long-serving choristers.

Mozart composed part of the Requiem in Vienna in late 1791, but it was unfinished at the time of his death and was finally completed in 1792 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr.

The work is a great favourite of choral societies with much memorable music.

Rehearsals start in the Old Hall, Old College, at 7.30pm on the last Tuesday in September, and new choristers in all four voices will be warmly welcomed.

The society operates a no auditions policy. Further information is available from the chairman, June Wilson, on 01974 272476.

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