Swaffham Newsletter

Rotary
Swaffham
Swaffham Rotary
“In the Bleak Midwinter”, so
starts Christina Rosetti's poem
published in 1872 and later put to music by both Harold
Darke and Gustav Holst. February always seems to me
to be the bleakest month of the year though thankfully
it's also the shortest. The long winter evenings have
been put to good use though by Swaffham Rotarians
for hatching plans for our fund raising efforts during
2024.
To our regular events, the Golf Day and the Swaffham
Arts Festival, this year will be added the Swaffham Beer
Festival. Masterminded by Swaffham Rotarian Kurt
Oliver, Sunday May 26th promises to be a lively day.
Snacks, music, and of course lots of premium beers
will be of offer in the Assembly Rooms. Watch out for
further details!
It's always miserable to hear of Rotary Clubs, or for that
matter any other charitable groups, shutting up shop.
Our own club came close to closing during lockdown
when holding meetings became so difficult. So it's very
gratifying to be able to say that our membership is
growing. Our President Ray Burman recently welcomed
Nayna Bass as a new member and granted Honorary
Membership to Sue Whittley, Zoe Waites, Julia Wallace
and Mariia Pryzhlei.
Swaffham WEA
On Saturday 24th February we will be
holding a Day School at the Swaffham
Community Centre run by art historian Fiona
Fitzgerald on the subject “Women in Art 1500 – 2000”.
Who were they? And why do we know so little about
them? Fiona’s course will help us to gain an insight
into ways in which art education, studio set-ups and
writing about art have enabled some members of
society to become well-known whilst others remain
obscure. Fiona has previously run two courses on
art with us, one on sculpture and the other on a
history of art in 100 paintings. Her courses are always
interesting and thought- provoking, and this subject
will break new ground for many of us. The course will
run from 10 am to 3 pm with a breaks for coffee and
lunch (please bring your own lunch). The course code
is Q 00013239 and the cost of the day is £25.
Then on Wednesday 28th February Mary Fewster
will return to the Community Centre with part 2 of
her course about “Health, Medicine and Social Care”.
Mary’s knowledge is based on detailed research and
local references, and she gives us a much greater
appreciation of our own history. Tea or coffee will be
served from 1.30pm, and the course will run from
2pm to 4pm on 28th February, 6 th March and 13 th
March. The cost of the 3 week course is £36, and the
course code is Q00013188.
You can enrol online at wea.org.uk, or by phone on
0300 303 3464 to speak to a friendly voice. We hope
to see old friends and new faces!
At the time of writing another candidate for
membership has been proposed which is very pleasing.
Here's to longer evenings and all best wishes from
Swaffham Rotary!
Richard Skinner
Keep up-to-date with everything going on at Swaffham
Community Centre & Swaffham Assembly Rooms by
visiting the 'what's on' page of our website:
www.swaffhamcommunityhub.co.uk
or scan the QR code below
#iceniswaffhamhub
Swaffham Arts
We are delighted to welcome back Chaos Collective,
the string quartet that
plays everything! They will
be at Swaffham Assembly
Rooms on Saturday 16th
March at 7.30 pm as our
contribution to rounding
off the celebration of all
things Swaffham that has
been taking place over
the last three years. We don’t yet know what they will
be playing, but we do know that the evening will be
great fun and very enjoyable.
Tickets priced at £12 are available from The Green
Parrot 01760 724704 and the Community Centre
01760 722800.
Swaffham Arts is grateful to Swaffham Cultural
Consortium and Historic England for their support
in putting on this concert. And we look forward to
bringing more musical events to Swaffham in the
months to come.
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