PRESIDENT Sarah Crumpton started our March meeting by welcoming Anne-Marie Rutter who was able to join us for the meeting this month.

The induction and warm welcome of Janie Hitchings as a member was her first duty. Also, we need to mention Chris McKinnon-Wood who was inducted in February. It is always lovely to have new members join our very friendly club.

Our speaker was Alice Counsell a pupil at Rednock School, who gave a presentation about her South African adventure during the summer of 2017.

Inner Wheel had helped to sponsor Alice on the trip which was organised around a community project at a local school in Kosi Bay, in the Maputaland area of KwaZulu-Natal, working to help improve the standards of the school and the children's lives as well as studying the culture and environment.

Whilst in South Africa the group were able to visit several game reserves, seeing leopards, elephants, porcupines, zebras and snakes, the rhino conservation is the oldest in the world.

They were also able to visit a women's market-set up and managed entirely by local women whose husbands had left to fight in wars and did not return.

South Africa is renowned for a diversity of landscapes and people. It boasts spectacular wildlife reserves. A wonderful experience for Alice.

Inner Wheel members wished her well for the future.

Diane Moore gave the vote of thanks and wished Alice every success in the future.

Our club holds fund raising events during each year in aid of charities and organisations supported by Inner Wheel and nominated by our president.

This year it was agreed to send donations to Rednock Young Carers which gives support to young carers attending Rednock School, Allsorts which supports children with all types of disability, and Gloucester Downs Syndrome Group, to help them support young adults by providing speech therapy sessions.

We also hold an annual 'international lunch' to raise money for international charities and it was agreed to send donations to Tree Aid, a locally based charity which plants trees in poor countries for the provision of fruit and wood, the Sierra Leone Project, based in Cheltenham which is working to provide education and healthcare in the Kambia District of Sierra Leone and also Bridge2Aid, a charity providing dental assistance and training in areas of South Africa.

We hold our meetings on the third Tuesday of each month at the Prince of Wales Hotel and are always happy to welcome new members. The next meeting will be Tuesday, April 17 at 6.15pm, when the speaker will be from Canine Partners. 

Anyone interested in joining us should contact our secretary Jenny Chappell on 01453 842142