Wirksworth Community Award 2005

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On Thursday evening, 24th February the President of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland, Gordon McInally, visited The Rotary Club of Wirksworth for their weekly meeting at the Hope and Anchor on Market Place, Wirksworth. Gordon was accompanied by his wife Heather and the District Governor for 1220, John Kirkland.

During the meeting the Rotary Club of Wirksworth celebrated the meritorious exploits of Chris Broome, the recipient of the Rotary Club of Wirksworth Community Award for 2005. During the evening’s events Rotarian David Hood introduced Chris and Janice Broome to the Club and went on to outline the reasons for awarding Chris this prestigious award.

In late 2002 Chris set up a group in Bonsall to form a link to the National charity Chernobyl Life Line. The purpose of the charity is to help children in Belarus who had been affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Chris with his committee held fundraising events to raise money, over £4000 was raised and in the summer of 2003 ten children from Belarus came to Bonsall for four weeks staying with host families. During their stay the children took part in village events and went on various trips. The children’s trip was very successful thanks to the hard work of Chris and his group. A similar trip was made by another group of children from Belarus during the summer of 2004.

Chris and his enthusiastic committee of interested villagers have been involved in every step of the project for the past two years. They have helped organise host families and support when the Belarus children are in the village and as you can imagine from our own projects can take up a lot of time and effort. Chris has arranged and taken part in many fund raising events including: raffles, a children’s film show, jumble sale, charity stall at Matlock market, pledge auction, quiz night, safari supper, bag packing at Sommerfieds, tombola stall at Matlock Bath lights, individuals in sponsored events e.g. the Great North Run and the 3 Peaks Challenge. In fact Chris and his team were to be seen at Somerfields in Matlock a few Saturdays ago bag packing to raise funds.

The above efforts could not be put in place without seeing the children in situ. Chris has visited Belarus many times to see for himself and has organised these children’s visits whilst promoting good will between the two communities. Chris arranged to have the children filmed in their home situation and on their visits to Bonsall and the surrounding area to enable the village of Bonsall and neighbouring villages to see at first hand the benefits that have accrued to these needy children. In fact Chris flew to Minsk, Belarus on Easter Sunday where he will be continuing his efforts to continue the programme of fostering relationships and arranging another visit to this area of 16 children.

As a result of his vocation and visiting Belarus as mentioned above the Children’s Life Line in Bonsall and surrounding area was born.

Chris is a regular contributor to the Bonsall village magazine ‘Mutterings’ and is so enthusiastic that the editors have a difficult job keeping the articles within the word limit!

In his ‘spare time’ Chris is a Civil Engineer currently working on flood relief design and implementation projects; he also works on other water and sewerage schemes. In fact during his current visit to Belarus Chris will be making contact with the two Rotary Clubs in Minsk to forge links between themselves and the Rotary Club of Wirksworth.

Chris and his wife Janice have three daughters and have lived in Bonsall for around 15 years. He is a member of a local Caving Club and has recently been their Chairman. As well as being the Chairman of Bonsall Link of the Chernobyl Children’s Life Line, he is a member of the Bonsall Carnival Committee and is Secretary of the Bonsall Village Hall Committee. He has been involved with both of these for many years.

As a result of Chris Broome’s work with the Chernobyl Life Line the Rotary Club of Wirksworth awarded him The Rotary Club of Wirksworth Community Award for 2005. It was indeed an honour and a privilege to have RIBI President Gordon make the presentation to Chris on behalf of the Club which was appropriate in that Rotary International is currently celebrating 100 years of this wonderful organisation. Chris thanked RIBI President Gordon for his kind words and the Rotary Club of Wirksworth in nominating him for the award.

Rotarian David Hood took the opportunity of thanking the unsuccessful nominees who are being encouraged to resubmit their nominations next year as they were all of a high standard.

Article and photos by David Hood, Vocational Chairman, RC Wirksworth.

Wirksworth Community Award 2005

Chris Broome

24/2/2005