When the dates for Car Boot sales were under discussion earlier this year,  it was decided to risk a sixth sale at the end of September knowing that  the weather might not be suitable. Typically for the weather this year, we had a settled period and the sale day was glorious and how people responded. It seems that many had lots of items which they did not wish to store  over winter as there was a 30% increase in the previous highest number  of sellers and a tremendous turnout of potential buyers. Refreshments sold out and hopefully everyone was satisfied with their results. As a  fund-raising exercise it was very successful and good fun to do. The Club members would like to place on record their sincere appreciation to the  Lunn Brothers for generously allowing us to use the site and of the friendly  co-operation of staff at Millford Plants.

This years successful RYLA candidates have been in demand to speak at several  other clubs in the area. This has involved members taking them to evening  meetings but their last duty was to give us a presentation of their experiences alongside the successful candidate who had been sailing on the 'James Cook' off the North East coast. All the presentations were excellent and it never ceases to amaze how much self confidence the whole experience of mixing with other young people who are strangers to them at the start of the week, getting to know them and taking turns to lead them in team exercises gives to the awardees. This will stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives and is certainly no bad thing to have on a CV. There is a limit as to how many candidates the Club can send each year. But it is money well spent.

Members were delighted to be able to help in organising  the Bonfire and Firework Display on a new site in Monk Fryston as this was an opportunity to work with a different section of the community and  to meet new people. Starting from scratch at a new location certainly  posed plenty of problems but hopefully these were largely overcome. A  fantastic number of volunteers came forward and weren't we lucky with the weather? Hopefully the event will have been successful not only in  raising much needed funds for local groups but in providing a pleasant  and exciting evening as well as showing what Rotary is all about. There was clearly a great deal of goodwill and determination amongst the villagers to ensure that the event was a success.

Our fund raising efforts to raise money for the Chernobyl  Children's Trust have been successful and we now await confirmation of  matching grants from Rotary at both District and International level.  Hopefully this confirmation will not be long in coming through so that  the project can then be properly funded.

Nigel Sugden