Comber rotarians to mark their 30th year

Comber rotarians to mark their 30th year

27 January 2016

COMBER rotarians are looking forward to a busy 2016 which marks the 30th anniversary of the club’s charter.

After a busy pre-Christmas period, which included an open evening in Comber Library, club members are looking forward to the months ahead which will feature a number of events.

As the New Year began, long-standing Rotarian, Mike Moore, was presented with the Paul Harris Fellowship — Rotary’s highest club award — for his work as chairman of Comber Regeneration and Community Partnership. The presentation was made by Club President Mike Rowan.

After spending 20 years in Londonderry working on the city’s urban redevelopment plan, Mike became a District Valuer based in Bangor. Recently, he has been the driving force behind Comber’s public realm scheme and the highly successful farmers’ market. Comber Rotarians also recently welcomed Sam Cunningham as a new member who was presented with a certificate by Mr Rowan.

Over the coming months, a series of guest speakers will address members during their monthly meetings held at Balloo House in Killinchy.

This month’s speaker is BBC Northern Ireland’s political editor Mark Devenport while next month, members will be addressed by Dr Bob Brown, formerly the National Trust’s Strangford Lough manager and RSPB director.

In March, former Campbell College headmaster Dr Ivan Pollock, will be the guest speaker while in April it will be local historian and joint author of A Chronicle of Comber, Laura Spence.

Ciara O’Reilly, Director of the Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust, is the May guest speaker, while in June Rotary International Global Scholar, Ms Kjelsie Hass, will be the special guest.

Comber Rotarians are organising heats of the young chef competition this Saturday, January 30, while the NI Young Musician of the Year heats will be held on March 5 and 12. The final takes place on March 19. Anyone who would like to enter should complete the entry form on the club’s website, comberrotary.org.

Comber Rotarians will be continuing their support for the Ulster Wildlife’s Homes for Wildlife project with six primary schools in the area — Andrews Memorial, St Mary’s, Alexander Dickson, Killinchy, Carrickmannon and Moneyrea — receiving talks this month.

The Rotarians are also helping with the fight against polio and anyone who would like to join the Comber club and enjoy many worthwhile activities, is asked to get in touch by logging on at www.comberrotary.org.