Local Rotarians gathered to reflect on half a century of fellowship and fundraising at a recent dinner to celebrate their Club’s 50th anniversary.
Sparkbrook Rotary Club was first formed in 1973 as a Daughter Club of Birmingham Rotary Club and within a few months its numbers quickly grew; the Mermaid Pub on the corner of Warwick Road and Stratford Road becoming the first designated lunchtime meeting place.
By the middle of 1974 the Club was all set to be given its Charter and Ernest Clews became the first President with the Local Vicar, Rev John Benardi, as Vice-President. Today, the small inner-city Rotary Club is the only one remaining in the south of Birmingham.
Over the years the Club’s members have since gone on to raise an estimated £200k and have provided hands-on support many dozens of local charities as well as humanitarian projects worldwide, including Mercy Ships, Aquabox, Shelterbox, Operation Smile, Guatemala Literacy Project, Wheelchair Foundation, Midlands Air Ambulance, The Toy Box Appeal, and the Rotary Foundation’s own charity End Polio Now. In complete contrast, the Club recently sponsored the purchase of a goat for a village in Pakistan!
Ongoing philanthropic efforts have included everything from fundraising and summer fayres; food donations packed and delivered; Christmas parcels project; day trips; sponsorships; exchanges; sporting competitions and organising the District’s ‘Young Electronic Organist Competition.’
Over the last two years the Club has provided significant funding to assist the large number of Ukrainian refugees who have come into the area. Mixed in with the fundraising, members have enjoyed weekends away, visits to stateley homes and attendance at Rotary conferences.
The Club was renamed Moseley and Sparkbrook by the mid 1980’s, to recognise the expanded territory it was serving and, following Rotary International’s decision at the Council on Legislation in 1989, to admit women, the Club’s first female members joined in the following decade.
One of the Club’s founder members, Mike Leech, was elected as Club President in 1984-5, and awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship in 1994 for services to Rotary, together with Tony Phillips from the Club and several members from other Clubs in the District, for organising the International Golfing Fellowship of Rotary. This was an annual event taking place in a different country each year and in 1994 was held in the UK at the Belfry and Forest of Arden Golf Clubs with Rotarians from over 20 countries taking part over five days.
Mike retired from the Club some years ago but was delighted join old friends at the 50th Anniversary Dinner. He said he was proud to have been a member of Moseley and Sparkbrook, he congratulated the Club on its longevity.
Current Club President Laurence Taylor said: “I have a lot of memories of fun and fellowship during my 33 years in Rotary. But around 2012 we were only nine in number, a historical low in membership and seriously wondering whether we could continue functioning. We decided we should leave a lasting legacy and made a donation to the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas which enabled us to affix a plaque on Rotary Ridge, commemorating the 38 years of service by our members.
“Fortunately, in 2015 we were bolstered by the induction of three new members with new ideas, being my wife Gill, Sue Maskell and the late Pam Holt. They were active and committed and we were able to re-energise the Club and continue to deliver our projects.
“Gill even went on to become our first lady President in 2017-18 and has just completed the role a second time. Our two most recent members, Jon and Kim Meadows, are full of energy and enthusiasm, and Kim will be taking over as President next year.”
This year we have committed to helping two local charities, The Jericho Foundation, a social enterprise charity based in Balsall Heath which provides work opportunities and individual support for people who have been marginalised because of disability or are survivors of modern slavery, and Spurgeons, which supports young carers in the family, based in Birmingham.
He went on to say: “It has always been a challenge to raise the funds we need to deliver our annual projects, especially during the last decade of austerity. Thankfully, we have been able to resume Tin Shakes in our local Asda supermarket, a source of funding which came to a sudden end during Covid. The Tin Shakes also provide us with an opportunity to promote the work of our Club and to engage directly with people in our community.
“In addition, we have made connections with generous individuals, companies and charities who have assisted us with donations and sponsorship to supplement our own fundraising activities.”
The Club is run by a small group of loyal volunteers, including Treasurer Ian Barnett Secretary Jon Meadows, Foundation officer Stewart Ross, Vocational Officer Barry Sullivan, Speaker Secretary Sue Maskell and 101-year-old Herbert Leiter who joined Rotary in 2008 at the age of 84. Very quickly he served two consecutive terms as President, and is still active on the front line of the Club’s efforts, even doing a supermarket tin shake last year.
Laurie added: “I also want to pay tribute to all our members, current and past, who have worked with generosity of spirit, dedication and commitment to deliver the principles of Rotary in our local community and beyond for the last 50 years. I have made many good friends and sadly lost more than a few along the way.
“There are two quotes which totally reflect my personal experience of being a Rotarian in a Club whose members have been friendly, respectful and full of community spirit. They were spoken by Paul Harris, the American attorney who founded Rotary in 1905 with three of his business friends.
“Harris said: ‘It has been the way of Rotary to focus thought upon matters in which members are in agreement, rather than upon matters in which they are in disagreement”. He also said ‘The foundation of Rotary is friendship, the secret of its expansion is the friendship of the people in Rotary with those in the community, across the nation and around the world.’
“Long may our Club continue.”
Reprising his Club Presidency this year for the fifth time, Laurie, said: “I share that distinction with my good friend Hywel Williams who has served as President five times in his 39 years of membership. Add in my good friend Richard Hyde who has served as President four times in his 35 years of membership, and our late colleague Ted Holt, who served as President four times in 28 years of membership, that means that four Rotarians have been President for 36% of the time the Club has been in existence. That’s one for the statisticians, I think.
Laurie concluded by saying: “It has been great to have the opportunity to reflect on the 50 years of service given by Moseley & Sparkbrook Rotary Club to its local community and the wider world. It is also an opportunity to look forward to many more years of service by its dedicated members.”