A record 53 teams took on the Rotary technology challenge this year in a packed hall at Katherine Warington School. The annual tournament is organised by the two St Albans Rotary Clubs and Rotary in Harpenden.
For the first time, the Foundation level prize (11 to 14-year-olds) was won by Heathlands School for Deaf Children. Another Heathlands team took third prize. The Intermediate level (15 to 16) was won by Beaumont School while the Advanced level, for sixth formers, was won by St Columba’s
The three charities nominated to be the chief beneficiaries of the £34,000 raised by last July’s Classics on the Common show, organised by Rotary in Harpenden, were presented with cheques at a dinner at Aldwickbury Park Golf Club.
The charities were Hope and Homes for Children, Motor Neurone Disease Association of Hertfordshire and Youth Talk.
The emergency medical services available to Harpenden residents have been given a welcome boost with the appointment of three Community First Responders (CFRs). Their role is to provide crucial emergency medical assistance before the arrival of an ambulance.
Rotary in Harpenden have enhanced the CFRs’ kit by supplying them with a much-needed emergency lifting chair.
Budding young photographers are once again invited to to enter their work in the Harpenden heat of Rotary’s country-wide Young Photographer Competition.
Discover more about this year’s theme and how to enter…
Harpenden Common was the place to be on 24th July, as thousands of the town’s residents and visitors could testify.
They were there to marvel at the 900 gleaming classic cars, motorbikes and scooters gathered for the 30th Classics on the Common, the 15th staged by Rotary in Harpenden.
Finding a business idea and pitching it to three successful business people was the challenge set to Year 6 at High Beeches Junior School. Rotary in Harpenden provided the initial funding to teams, all of which are invited to run their businesses at this year’s school summer ‘Feastival’.
Our young photographers fared well in both the Harpenden heat of the Rotary Young Photographers Competition, and in the ensuing district level competition for Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. They were asked to produce an image on the theme of ‘rebuilding’, which called for a stretch of imaginations. Our entrants did not disappoint!
Tara Conway-Shah of Roundwood Park School is this year’s winner of the Bill Hewetson Memorial Prize and Rotary Young Citizen Award. The awards recognise a young person’s achievements in the spirit of the Rotary motto Service above Self.
Several times over the past two years, with the cooperation of Sainsbury’s Harpenden Store, Rotary in Harpenden members have stood outside the store, encouraging customers to buy extra items and, on leaving, to donate them to the St Albans & District Foodbank.
With almost all large specimens of elm having been lost to Dutch Elm Disease, a new specimen, highly resistant to the disease, has been planted on Harpenden Common.
The gift of Rotary in Harpenden, the new tree stands close to the footpath linking Rothamsted Park with the southern end of the High Street.