THE NEXT THREE COUNTIES CYCLE RIDE WILL BE HELD ON THE 10th JUNE 2012.
CLICK THE WEBSITE LINK FOR DETAILS AND PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE 2009, 2010 and 2011 'THREE COUNTIES CYCLE RIDE'.
Details of the event can be found on our web site - http://www.3ccr.org.
We are delighted that Garth Hill College is supporting the Three Counties Cycle Ride for 1012 with the start and finish areas being located in the college grounds.
Golden Jubilee Anniversary Celebration.
ROTARY CLUB OF BRACKNELL- Fifty Years Young
For over 50 years the Rotary Club of Bracknell has followed the motto “Service above Self” within our locality and through overseas projects. As we prepare to celebrate our fiftieth anniversary with a grand dinner at the Coppid Beech Hotel on Tuesday 12th June 2012 attended by RIBI President Burman, we are please to provide this short history of our club.
Back in the 1950’s Bracknell was one of those specially selected locations chosen to be designated as a New Town, to provide newly built homes for the surplus population from overcrowded areas, mainly in London.
The earth movers transformed the old market town into something which contains many innovative features and as Bracknell grew in size and importance the well-established Rotary Club of Ascot decided to extend Rotary to the New Town. A number of notable Bracknell businessmen and professionals quickly warmed to the idea, and on the 19th October 1961 the new club was inaugurated. Today we still have one of the original members.
In 1964 Bracknell Rotary Club organised the town’s first show jumping event under BSJ Association rules and approval. This was held in the newly constructed Bracknell Sports Centre. It was very successful. The same year the Round Table ran an equally successful Donkey Derby. Subsequently the two clubs agreed to run a combined event under joint chairmanship. This became an annual event known as the Bracknell Show. This was really the first occasion when the newly created town began to take on an identity. The Bracknell Show was held on August Bank Holiday Monday each year, and was immensely popular despite the fact that wet weather often required the valiant Rotarians and Tablers to emerge mud-splattered from their efforts to rescue cars bogged down in the fields where the event was held.
In due course the event was moved to the terra firma of Bracknell Town Centre. This revolutionary idea proved to be feasible, mainly because the new town centre was entirely a pedestrian precinct and the Bracknell Development Corporation was enthusiastic at the idea of a centre filled with entertainment for the residents and a newly established carnival procession route circulating the Ring Road around the town. Local charities raised funds from stalls in the centre on the big day and entertainments of all kinds were staged in various parts of the town centre, including a main stage in Charles Square.
At the Queen’s Anniversary Celebrations in 1977, the Rotary Club of Bracknell played a large part in the organisation of the decoration of Bracknell town centre, erecting bunting, flags and images of our Queen. That year the Bracknell Show was extended to seven days of competitions and events, culminating in the August Bank Holiday Monday fair and carnival. Television celebrities Michael Barratt and Tony Hart were the star attractions on that day.
Many community activities were undertaken during this period, including the Vocational Committee founding of a club for retired people, which they called The Bracknell Active Retirement Association, now a nation-wide organisation. In 1993 our club set about the task of forming a Probus Club of Bracknell with thirty-seven members. The club has prospered, and now averages a membership of around sixty members. We also founded a most successful Rotaract Club in 1979, with thirty-five enthusiastic members. The Rotaract Club originated the Three Counties Cycle Ride.
In the local community we have packed and delivered parcels for the elderly and for several years organised a barrel race around the town encouraging pubs and clubs to compete to bring some entertainment to the community and to raise money for local charities.
We had the privilege of joining with the Rotary Club of Ascot and Wokingham to sponsor the Easthampstead Rotary Club.
To help disabled drivers we supplied them with a list of local petrol stations giving details of the ease of access to the pumps or whether an attendant was available to help. For many years we supported Arthritic Care by transporting their members to their monthly social evening.
We have been frozen and drenched in the town at Christmas shaking tins and have brought in the true spirit of the season with an annual Christmas dinner to which we invite the Salvation Army Band to play Carols. We also organise an annual Service of Nine Lessons and Carols in the Chapel at Wellington College in Crowthorne.
When Rotary International invited all Clubs to contribute to a fund to eradicate polio throughout the world we set a target of £5000. By various fund-raising schemes including a Fashion Show sponsored by Bentalls we exceeded our target and were able to send a cheque for £10,000.
Many District 1090 schemes have been supported over the half century, collecting spectacles, Youth Speaks, Young Chef, in which we have had a finalist on two occasions, Young Inventors and RYLA. We have supported the District Darts competition every year and hold the reputation of being the winners more times than any other Club in the District.
We have supported many overseas charities including the Aqua box and Shelter box schemes. We raised money to help send a group of Venture Scouts to build a dam and supply running water to a village in Kenya. Another charity we were pleased to support was to build a school in Rwanda.
The Rotary Club of Bracknell has a great reputation for punching above its weight as it is a small club with only 20 members. The Three Counties Cycle Ride is its main event nowadays and it improves every year with more riders, more sponsorship, better enrolment systems and up to date information through the website. In 2011 over 800 cyclists took part using 3 routes and raised over £20,000. Charities benefiting from this sponsor money last year were Heart Radio Children’s Charity, Thames Hospicecare, Motor Neurone Disease Association, P.E.A.C.H. (Autism), Age Concern (Bracknell Forest) and the Rotary Club of Bracknell Trust Fund. The Three Counties Cycle Ride goes from strength to strength - visit www.3ccr.org for more information and to see the photo gallery.
The club is active in organising a number of annual events such as the Weekend Away, the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at Wellington College Chapel and the Christmas Collection in Bracknell Town Centre. Always looking for new and innovative events, a Burns’ Night was organised for the first time in January 2011 and was repeated earlier this year raising significant funds for Help for Heroes. We hope this will become an annual event.
Our club continues to make every effort to recruit new Rotarians and enrolled one new lady and one new gentleman earlier in this Rotary year. Today the membership is steady at twenty active members.
So, as we prepare to celebrate our fiftieth anniversary with a grand dinner at the Coppid Beech Hotel on Tuesday 12th June 2012 attended by RIBI President Burman, we are proud that we enjoy a splendid record of contributions to Rotary Foundation, service above self and the donation of many thousands of pounds to worthy charities each year. The District Governor will be there and we hope you and your partners will come to join in our celebration as we look forward to giving service for the next fifty years.
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