President of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland visits Rochdale

Peter King with Middleton Rotary President Keith Trinnaman

Peter King, the President of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI), paid a visit to Rochdale last week.

During his visit, Mr King was given the opportunity to see the borough at its best with visits to clubs and projects.

On his first day, Mr King visited the pop up art exhibition in Rochdale town centre. He was able to enjoy the scenes painted by local artist Geoff Butterworth and was also able to see a demonstration of Grow Bags and Accessible Edible projects by Rochdale Rotary President Bob Chadwick.

Mr King then headed to Middleton and visited Middleton Trampoline Club.

Head Coach of Middleton Trampoline Club, Lisa Lee gave a moving speech to Mr King and guests regarding the goals and achievements of the club. Lisa empahsised how trampolining activities help disabled children to gain mobility and disadvantaged children to gain confidence and better social awareness skills.

Mr King’s first day culminated with dinner hosted by the Middleton Rotary Club. Clubs from around the district contributed to an impressive “activity exhibition” of club projects and activities that spoke of the range and diversity of the ways in which Rotary clubs support local and international communities.

On day two, Mr King visited Alkrington Primary School in Middleton to present them with an award in recognition of their charity work including the shoe box appeal and the ‘RotaKids.’

Mr King then headed to the Rotary Wheel in Tandle Hill to see children from Royton Hall School planting crocuses. The crocuses will form spokes for the wheel each spring. Mr King and the school pupils were joined by Mayor of Oldham, Councillor Fida Hussain who spoke of his admiration for Rotary in the local community.

A time capsule containing a memory stick of images of Oldham ‘then and now’ was then placed into the ground. The capsule took the form of an artillery shell fired from Camp Bastion in Afghanistan to commemorate the Oldham citizens who gave their lives during the war between 1914 and 1918.