Rotary looks to the future and the past
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The latest meeting of Inverurie Rotary Club this week proved to be a busy session beginning with reports on current activities.
This included that Car Raffle held in district leading up to Christmas which has raised £43,000 for the Archie Foundation charity.
Congratulations were expressed to all who made it possible and to the people who contributed.
As Rotarian Jim McColl said: "It is an era of change within Rotary, we recently reported the formation of a new family club in Ythan Valley and this week it was reported that the Aboyne club will meet twice a month as opposed to weekly.
"The fact is, in response to changes in our society hardly a week passes but there are changes to report.
"It is called – Evolution."
The main speaker was none other than the groups very own nonagenarian – Jack Hendry a walking encyclopaedia of knowledge about Inverurie and 10 miles round.
His chosen subject this week was Education , from the early sixteen hundreds to the present day.
The first, original school was built in 1607 where the soon to be demolished Market Place School is today.
By 1893 it had grown to a two class establishment with 90 pupils in each class.
As Jim noted: "Can you just imagine?"
Following the building of the Loco Works in 1902 a new school was built to take higher grade pupils and so the story continued to the present day.
Jim continued: "Fascinating stuff and needless to say, after a vote of thanks from Dorothy Lamb, Jack received a very enthusiastic round of applause.
"Then perversely we had a report form Rotarian Jim Hatter in his role as an Assistant District Governor, it was like being back in school!
"Jim conveyed to members the aims, objectives and priorities for Rotary in the present era, as seen by our District leaders.
"Traditional things become dated, the world is changing, we need to recruit to continue the valuable work we carry out.
"A rousing dissertation indeed, stating the obvious.
"I have no doubt the members of the Rotary Club of Inverurie will continue to prioritise their support for our local community as they have done since 1953 whilst also continuing to heed when possible, the dire needs of communities in trouble wherever they may be.
"Complacent we are not."
