DG's Travels Week 37

The beginning of the week saw the arrival on a very welcome visit to Dundee and St. Andrews of RIBI President David Fowler and his wife Daphne. It is 10 years since a previous such visit and it was a welcome opportunity to show off the many activities of Clubs in this area. On Monday, we had a tree planting ceremony in Dawson Park with Lord Provost John Letford, the last planting in an avenue of trees to commemorate all of Rotary's efforts on the elimination of polio. This was followed by a meeting with the Interact Clubs of Dundee High School and Morgan Academy, respectively the District's oldest and youngest Clubs. After a very enjoyable buffet lunch in their company, we went on to see 'Starter Packs', an organisation for providing essential items for disadvantaged people moving into a new home, and then visited the Riding for the Disabled facility, to present a horse blanket to 'Gordon', the horse sponsored by Dundee RC. The day was rounded off by an evening meeting of all the 'Dundee' Clubs, taking in a moonlit visit to see Captain Scott's 'Discovery' and the 'Unicorn' the oldest ship afloat from Nelson's days, on the way home.
On Tuesday, we visited Anstruther, via the Fife fishing villages, to see the RNLI inshore lifeboat funded by the Fife Rotary Clubs, followed by lunch in the town's award winning fish and chip restaurant. In the afternoon, there were visits to the new community hospital in St. Andrews, to see the Rotary-funded family room and gazebo in the gardens, to St. Andrews University, Holy Trinity Church and the R & A, finishing up with a combined meeting of the 2 St. Andrews Clubs and a number of those in the surrounding area - 8 in total. At the last of these, President David had the pleasure of presenting the St. Andrews RC trophy for handicapped athletes and awarding the first Paul Harris Fellowship to a member of that Club
The visit provided an opportunity both to see Rotary in action and to enjoy the wonderful Scottish scenery. I am sure that President David was greatly impressed by everything he saw. My thanks go to every Rotarian who participated in planning the visit and took the opportunity to meet the head of Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland.