Success on Snowdon
At 5:15am on Friday 15 members of the Yeovil Round Table left Yeovil Hire Centre for their destination, Snowdonia. As part of their plan to raise £20,000 for St. Margaret's Somerset Hospice the lads had set themselves the challenge of driving to Snowdonia, carrying a five foot table up Mount Snowdon, having a meal then carrying the table back down again in just 10 hours.
Relying on the natural navigational talents of Bangor born, veteran member Rob Smith and despite a diversion caused by an unexpected road closure, they arrived in Llanberis just after 10am. After a quick cuppa and a change of footwear the guys set off from the foot of Mount Snowdon at 10:38am with the table carried on a pole through the middle of the table.
Unbeleivably the first person that they passed threw some money in the collection bucket and announced that her and her family were visiting from Yeovil!
As the fitter members pushed ahead the stragglers benefited by their impressive performance as the obviously impressed public continually dropped money into the collection buckets.
At 12:05 they reached the half way point and at 1:11pm 5 members of the team reached the summit with the table, chairs, food and champagne. Gradually all the remaining members arrived at the summit and with cheers from the surrounding public, sat down at the table for food and champagne. After photos and more generous donations it was time to head back down. With less than 1hour and 10min to go it was going to be hard going to complete the challenge on time.
With a fair share of blisters and aching bodies the descent began. Again the fittest members pushed ahead and all went well until Dave Studley got a sudden cramp, fell over and sustained a terrible gash to the knee. In fact the cut was horrible that the photo was felt too horrific to put on the blog. Dave was looked after by Mark Porter as Steve Newman, Andy Parker, Tom Holden and oldest member of the team Rob Smith pushed on and actually ran the last half an hour. Amazingly having descended the mountain in just 58 minutes these four guys completed the task in 9 hours and 48 minutes.
With more money collected during a "quiet" drink in the bar afterwards and into the early hours, over £300 had been collected in the bucket. With online donations heading for £3200, donations from family, friends and local businesses including £1000 from Lloyds Bank, the final sum raised is expected to be around £5,500!
It's not too late to donate either online or offline. You can look at the photos in the gallery or read our progress in the blog.
Yeovil Round Table Top Mountain 2008 Challenge
As part of our aim to raise £20,000 for St. Margaret's Hospice, we have set ourselves an exciting challenge on August 29th 2008.
The plan is to leave Yeovil at 6.00am, drive to Snowdonia, climb to the summit of Mt. Snowdon and back down again all in 10 hours. Oh, and there's just the small additional fact that we'll be carrying a five foot round table, chairs and enough food and drink to have a sit down meal when we reach the top!
Read more about the Yeovil Round Table Top Mountain 2008 Challenge
YRT 222 AGM - Manor Hotel 25th April 2008
Yeovil Round Table held its Annual General Meeting at The Manor Hotel on Friday 25th April. Steve Newman was voted in as Chairman with Mike King voted in as Vice Chairman. The meeting was extremely well attended and included prospective members, members of Yeovil 41 Club, members from neighboring Tables and Area Chairman Neil Christensen.
In his inaugural Chairman's report Steve commented on the fundraising successes of the previous year "Our 14 members managed to raise a staggering £21,000 at the Charity Ball in November and those that took part in the Three Peaks Challenge raised an impressive £7000, imagine what we could achieve with a membership of 20!".
On a disappointing note long standing and ever popular members Paul Walker and Simon Murray chose the years AGM as the right time to retire from Yeovil Round Table. Paul has been a member for 14 years and held most posts including Chairman. Simon has been a member since 1992 and like Paul has held most posts in Table including Area and National positions. Minty's quick wit and humour and his dedication to Round Table has been a huge part of our personality. In recognition of his contribution Simon was awarded the post of President of the Yeovil Round Table.
Although both Paul and Simon will remain on the scene and support us where possible the entertaining double act that was PJ and Minty will be sadly missed.
During the AGM Table members agreed collectively that once again membership will be a priority for this Round Table Year. This was demonstrated when Rob Harwood-Smith and Mike Young were inducted as new members at the first Round Table business meeting of the year at the Manor Hotel on Tuesday 29th April.
View more photographs from the AGM
Pound Week & Annual Charity Lunch - 13th December 2007
Yeovil Round Table has had a busy run up to the festive season with two major events. The recent annual Charity Lunch was attracted a 140 guests to the Manor Hotel in Yeovil. The guest Speaker was Eric Jones a retired Chief Superintendent from Manchester.
This year the lunch raised in the region of £20k. Yeovil Round Table members presented £16k in cheques to last years Chairman's chosen Charities, the British Brain and Spine Foundation £4k; Yeovil Opportunity Group £4k; St Margaret's Hospice £4k and Fiveways School £4k. Yeovil Round Table members who successfully completed the three peaks 24hr challenge earlier this year presented a cheque to Round Table Children's Wish for £7k.
View more photographs from the annual charity lunch
This week saw Round Table members carry out their Pound Week collections of non-perishable items of food to be distributed amongst the needy in the Yeovil Area. Round Table Chairman Ian Cook said "The generosity of the residents of Yeovil never ceases to amaze us year on year and we are very grateful for their support". Pictured are Ian Cook and Andy Parker with items kindly donated.
Yeovil Celebrates Festival - 24th June 2007
The fundraising campaign was launched on 24th June with a day of fun and entertainment for all in Yeovil town centre.
The Yeovil Young Achievers Trust is a new initiative aimed at giving the young people in our community a helping hand and a better start in life.
The fund will be used to support a local community project or to provide individual financial assistance to those who are deserving of such support with their development, whether it is to buy a musical instrument, a computer or help with fees for further training.
To facilitate this the Trust aims to raise £50,000.
Yeovil Round Table are fully committed to this new initiative and were pleased to provide support, both in the lead up to the event and on the day itself.
Tablers delivered more than 1,000 leaflets door-to-door, persuaded businesses to display posters, sold 500 tickets for the Grand Draw and were even able to allay concerns over the lack of public toilets when 2 Tablers donated some portable toliets!
With the theme being a day of fun for all the family, we decided to do just that. We put together a range of fairground type attractions, including:
- 4 skittles competitions
- Darts competition
- Knocking down tin cans
- Range of childrens games such as "Hook a Boat", "Find the Egg", "Hoopla" and a lucky dip.
We also ran a prize draw for a 1 hour limousine ride followed by a meal for 6 people (both donated by Tablers).
Due to delays in marketing and poor weather (it was Glastonbury weekend after all!) visitor numbers were lower than hoped but I am pleased to report that we made a profit of £461.65 which we will round up to £500 and present to The Yeovil Young Achievers Trust.
Best of all, we managed to put a smile on many faces, both young and old - the simplest and best reward of all.
Finally, I would like to thank all Tablers for their tremendous help and support. We did ourselves proud and can certainly hold our heads up high amoungst fellow service organisations. Overall an excellent community project for all.
24 Hour Three Peaks Challenge
Yeovil Round Table members Gareth Jones, Andy Parker, Mike King, Chris Reeves, Steve Newman and Ian White (pictured left to right) are undertaking the "24 Hour Three Peaks Challenge" on Friday 13th July raising funds for the Round Table Children's Wish Charity which arranges and funds wishes for terminally ill children.
The challenge involves climbing and descending Ben Nevis, Scarfell Pike and Snowden as well as navigating and travelling between the mountains within a 24hr period. Organiser Steve Newman says "The training has been arduous, with a significant amount of hill work but the whole team is ready for the challenge and we hope to return a good time. Round Table Children's wish is an excellent charity and provides a ray of sunshine to many terminally ill children and their families during difficult times."
Sponsorship can be given through the Just Giving website or contact Steve Newman on 01935 825009 and any support offered would be greatly appreciated by all members of Yeovil Round Table.
"Finding Nemo" Mural for BIBIC - May 2007
Last week Yeovil Round Table with the support of 5 members of Avalon Round Table participated in their first Community Service project of the year painting a large "Finding Nemo" mural along one of the corridors in BIBIC's Knowle House, Bridgwater.
Chairman Ian Cook said "Every week children and young people with neurological problems visit the centre and without frequent, all-round expert help these children struggle to do the things other children take for granted. Yeovil Round Table felt it was a worthy community service project to paint this mural and brighten up the environment for the children and young people visiting the Centre. Each and every member that helped with the project was proud to complete the task to everyone's satisfaction".
Please click here to view more photos of the BIBIC mural
Yeovil Round Table Vs. Ilminster Round Table - May 2007
Yeovil Round Table challenged Ilminster Round Table to a 5 a side football match at Preston School on Tuesday the 8th May 2007. At stake was the coveted "Yeovil - Ilminster Spout" Trophy which is presented annually to the victorious Round Table following a sporting challenge.
It was a certainly a game of two halves with Yeovil taking a commanding lead with 2 wonderfully creative goals by Kirk Shortland & Jon Majeika. Yeovil then managed to hold onto their lead in the face of sustained attacks thanks in the main to some excellent goal keeping by Ian "The Cat" White, until the final quarter. 2-2 at full time saw a nail biting penalty shoot out with Yeovil clinching victory.
Ilminster Round Table Chairman Chris Russell is pictured presenting the Spout Trophy to Yeovil's Chairman Ian Cook who stated "We all enjoyed a great night of fun & fellowship and it was pleasing that so many prospective new members were able to join us on the night".
Annual General Meeting at The Manor Hotel - May 2007
Yeovil Round Table held its Annual General Meeting at The Manor Hotel recently. Ian Cook was voted in as Chairman and said in his incoming Chairman's report "I am looking forward to a challenging year, with a full programme that finds the right balance between social and fund raising events to support local charities. I also wish to develop areas of Community Service, encourage new members to join Yeovil Round Table and the focus of my year will be effective communications to support my objectives".
During the AGM John Majeika was introduced as a new member and Yeovil Round Table members agreed collectively that membership will be a priority for this Round Table Year. This priority was further demonstrated when Gareth Jones was introduced as a new member at the first round table business meeting of the year last week at the Manor Hotel.
Picture shows Ian Cook, Yeovil Round Table Chairman, inducting Gareth Jones who was introduced by Vice Chairman Steve Newman (left) and Yeovil Round Table member Ian White (right).