School Garden Project

Early in 2016 a group from the Rotary Club visited SunburyManor School to meet the Head Teacher, Louise Duncan, and have a guided tour of the school. This came about through the school entering a team in our Youth Speaks competition the previous November.

It was the first time a team from Sunbury Manor had entered Youth Speaks, and to everyone’s surprise (except perhaps their own) they won the opening round for Spelthorne schools. They progressed to the second round, and got through that as well, so they reached the District Final, where they were narrowly pipped into second place. Had they won that round they would have been just 2 rounds away from being National champions.

The winning Youth Speaks team with teacher

Buoyed up by those achievements, the school then entered our Young Photographer competition and amazingly Sunbury Manor pupils won 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd prizes in the Intermediate category. This is clearly a school that instils a competitive spirit amongst its pupils, and encourages them to be the best they can be at whatever they undertake. What a great philosophy for turning out youngsters who are prepared for the challenges and disappointments that await them after they leave school.

During our tour of the school I was struck by the excellent behaviour of the children. As they moved between classes after each period, there was no shouting, screaming or raised voices that one might expect from large numbers of teenagers. Also, the use of mobile phones is banned during school hours, so they were talking to each other in the playground, rather than staring at a small screen.  We were very impressed.

Mrs Duncan gave us some ideas for projects we could get involved in with the school, including book collections for the school library (yes they still need books), the forming of an Interact Club (Rotary for 12 to 18 year-olds) and creating a garden for the enjoyment of disabled children.  We had been surprised to hear that quite a high proportion of their pupils have Special Needs (I think it is 40%) and this group include some who cannot participate easily in the rough and tumble of the school playground  and would appreciate somewhere quiet to escape to. She showed us a small area alongside the school buildings, which doesn’t get much sunlight, and suggested it would be a good spot to create a quiet garden for Special Needs pupils.

The  neglected garden - Deputy Head Allan Cottle with Jacqueline making her plans

Now I quite like gardening. In fact I used to have an allotment in Shepperton, where I grew enough vegetables to feed our street. The old timers would smile at me, as I would get a trailer load of manure dumped on the plot each winter. I grew pumpkins, courgettes and beans directly into the manure and the results were phenomenal. I couldn’t pick them fast enough. The following year I would grow potatoes where the beans had been, with equally amazing results. The only problem I had was that the PDG only wanted veg brought into the house if it looked like it had come from the supermarket. So there I would be scrubbing my potatoes and carrots, discarding any with slug damage or holes of any sort before taking them home, to the further amusement of the old timers.

An allotment (picture from web)

However, at the school we were not being asked to create a vegetable plot, and Ken and I both thought this would be suitable for a joint project with Shepperton & Sunbury Rotary, our Mother club. Their incoming President, Geoff Williams and I had already been talking about a joint project during our Presidential year, and here was an ideal opportunity. Shepperton & Sunbury have a garden designer amongst their membership, and between us we could find sufficient labour, so we decided to go ahead. Each club donated £250 towards the cost, and District matched these donations with a further £500. In addition Jacqueline Stanton, our designer, persuaded Notcutts Garden Centre to sponsor the project with another £500. They also offered a 50% reduction on any supplies purchased from them. On top of that, Tesco in Sunbury offered to donate a circular table with integral seats which we accepted with gratitude.

The plot doesn't get much sunlight

So we were off to a good start, and in early July we had our first joint meeting to plan our campaign. Jacqueline had designed a garden, which included a special plastic matting to go over the grass, making it accessible to wheelchairs all year round, and there would also be shade loving plants for the shady areas. The design included a wrought iron gazebo over a stone circle. Little did we know that the decision to include a stone circle was to haunt us for the rest of the summer.

A stone circle similar to ours (picture from web)

The design was agreed at our meeting, where it was suggested that 2 days would be sufficient to complete the garden transformation. My main objective was to get the work completed during the summer holidays, so that the garden would be ready for the new term in September. Two work days were agreed, 18^th and 19^th August, when we expected to complete the work, and if we failed to do so, we would still have a couple of weeks before the school re-opens.

Scruffy entrance to the garden

Along came day one, and six of us convened at the school, where the extent of our task dawned on us. The site was surrounded by school buildings on two sides, a large container on another side, and a 12 feet high hedge on the other. Even in midsummer, therefore, there was very little sunlight in the garden, and none at all in some areas. As we laid out the plastic matting, we realised there was a significant ridge in the middle of the lawn, with parallel ruts on either side. This had not been apparent before the matting was laid down. Obviously the area had at some time been a vehicular route, and we felt we had to level  it before we went any further.

The matting gets laid

There was  a small pond in the middle of a grassy area, to the side of our proposed path. It was completely clogged with algae, which apparently is what happens when a pond is in shade. It was also filled with rubbish such as pens, cans, food wrappers and such like, probably thrown from nearby classroom windows. There was an old water pump in the pond, obviously used originally to provide a fountain, but this was disconnected, and in fact the electric cable for it had been cut through.

The pond is choked with algae and rubbish

The ground contained lots of stones and just below the surface there was hardcore, which needed to be dealt with before we could create flower borders and dig a hole for the stone circle. The rest of the area contained quite a bit of litter which needed to be cleared before we could start.

Picture from web

Our first day, therefore was spent discussing the various issues that needed to be dealt with, doing some rubbish clearance in the pond and elsewhere, whilst David Courtney commenced digging a hole for the stone circle. It was very heavy going and we  felt some water to soften the rock hard ground, as well as dealing with the pond algae,  would be a good idea.  The nearest outside tap was about 20 feet away attached to a building. It had no handle and no hose connector for the hose we had brought.  I went off to a nearby hardware store to buy a suitable connector. I came back an hour later, and with a pair of pliers we got the tap open and started watering the plot.

On day two we reached the momentous decision that we needed to level the ground before laying the matting, so two tons of sand were ordered for delivery in a couple of days. We were also awaiting the delivery of the stone circle and gazebo, so not much was achieved on day two either.

Gazebo - slightly more ornate than ours

Next week we were back, and spent a whole day (well about 3 hours, less tea breaks and banter) wheelbarrowing in the sand and levelling the area where the wheelchair-friendly matting was to go. Content with that, we then started on the stone circle. Firstly we dug about 3 inches down in an area approximately the size of the circle. We then realised we hadn’t dug out enough, so dug out some more. This was particularly hard work, with lots of stones and hardcore to get out.

Work starts on the stone circle

Next we put down a layer of sand as a bed for the circle, before realising we had dug out too much soil. So the sand was scraped up, soil put back in, and the sand re-laid. Now, for the first time, we tried putting the stone circle in place, only to find that the slabs were of variable thickness, so some needed more sand beneath them than others. Our technical experts (Andrew and Ken) then decided we needed to cement them in to do the job properly. To cut a very long story short, we spent about 15 days on the stone circle alone, cursing it the whole time, but by the time it was finished to Ken and Andrew’s exacting standards, we were really quite proud of it.

The finished stone circle with gazebo and table

By now, the school was back for the Autumn term, so we had curious children observing our progress, and adding some background noise to our efforts. Other jobs completed were assembling the gazebo, painting the wooden fences, planting the borders, getting a tap installed in the garden and creating a rockery around the pond. About mid-October, the garden was just about finished, but we didn’t want an opening ceremony as winter approached, so we decided to hold it in the spring, by which time the plants would be showing a bit more life and the grass would have started growing through the matting.

Garden looking good in April

So, a date of 18^th April was fixed for the opening ceremony. The mayor confirmed his availability, and our sponsors were also invited. The date was actually the first day back at school after the Easter holidays, so we had an opportunity to go in during the school holidays and make sure everything was ship-shape. I was pleasantly surprised by how well the garden had weathered the winter, Many of the shrubs were in flower, the pond plants were growing strongly, and the grass was indeed starting to grow through the plastic mesh.

Head teacher Mrs Duncan (right) with mayor Alfred Friday and mayoress

We spent this time, weeding, replacing the occasional plant which hadn’t survived, installing an automatic watering system, and laying a mulch of shredded bark around the borders. The bird table was filled with food, and a hanging basket was put up to adorn a blank wall

I introduce the garden

We were happy with it, although there had been some negative comments from one of our members, who didn’t think the garden was colourful enough for young people, and looked more like a retirement home garden!. This caused us to stop and think about whether we had done the right thing, but we were encouraged by all the comments from school staff, who unanimously thought it was lovely. Of course they may have been trying not to hurt our feelings, but I’m pretty sure the comments were genuine.

Geoff thanks our sponsors

The opening ceremony was an unqualified success. Several members from the two Rotary clubs came along, as did many teachers and several pupils, including Interact Club president Farrah and our RYLA student Louisa. It really felt like a family, particularly when, in welcoming visitors, Head Teacher Louise Duncan had a joke at my expense. I was delighted, you always know you have been accepted when people are rude about you. She spoke very warmly about the school’s relationship with Rotary, then Geoff and I spoke briefly about the project and how it came about, not forgetting to acknowledge the contribution from our sponsors, Notcutts Garden centre in Staines and Tesco supermarket in Sunbury. The Mayor, councillor Alfred Friday, then spoke about the esteem in which he holds both Rotary and Sunbury Manor School, before cutting the tape we had tied across the gate with a pair of garden shears.

The mayor cuts the tape

As everybody wandered about the garden, admiring the different elements of it, I felt proud of our achievement, and started thinking I should devote a similar amount of time this year on my own garden. However I doubt if I could persuade  the team to come round and help me with it.

A young scientist discusses the benefits of solar power 

Christmas 2016

As surely everyone knows by now, it was the Christmas collections that prompted me to join Rotary in the first place. I can remember, as a child in Staines, when the Christmas float would come down our road, with Santa riding inside (this was in the days before Health & safety was invented) and carols playing. It was a magical time, which I looked forward to every year. Although I didn’t know at the time that it was organised by the local Rotary Club, I subsequently learnt that up and down the country, Rotary Clubs were organising similar activities.

Street Collection

40-odd years later, I found myself doing a talk to Shepperton Aurora Rotary Club about The Princes Trust, when I was asked if I would like to join Rotary. To be honest it took me a few weeks to think about it, but three things swayed me: firstly I was working locally again after 9 years commuting to London, so it seemed appropriate to get involved in a charitable organisation based in Shepperton; secondly it was (and still is) a breakfast meeting club, meaning that I could attend a meeting once a week without being late for work; and thirdly, they did the Christmas sleigh each year. The third reason was probably the decider for me, as I would now have a chance to be part of that magic at Christmas time.

It is a busy time for the Rotary Club, as during December we do 5 street collections, 1 static collection in the High Street, 2 days outside Tesco in Sunbury, and one evening touring the pubs and restaurants of Shepperton. Then there is Big Tree Night in Shepperton, now a very big occasion, arguably bigger than the Summer Fair.  To complicate things even more, our mother club, Shepperton & Sunbury use our sleigh as well for a similar number of days.

Collecting outside Tesco store

Organising our Christmas activities is a very big job (I should know I did it in 2015), and this year we had a team of 2, namely Pauline and Doreen, known collectively as ‘Paureen’. The work really starts in January, when we try to agree collection dates at Tesco. This year it took a little longer, but by September both clubs had two collection dates in mid-December, thanks to the management at the store, who have proved to be very supportive in a number of ways. Also during September, all our other dates are fixed in conjunction with the other club.

Christmas in the High Street

At the end of November our sleigh comes out of its store, gets refurbished as necessary, and lives at John’s house until the end of December. John prepares the sleigh for every outing, making sure everything works and the generator is filled with fuel. He makes sure collection buckets are sealed and ready for use, and there are plenty of sweets for Santa (I mean for Santa to give out to children)

I had the privilege of accompanying Santa on our first outing at the beginning of December, when we toured the Studios Estate area of Shepperton. It is difficult to describe the excitement that is generated by Santa’s appearance in the neighbourhood. Children come running out into the street, parents want to take photos, even teenagers want selfies with Santa (a sign of the times). He had a good technique of knowing the name of every child he met, which adds to the magic, and whilst the Rotary members went from door to door with their collection buckets, Santa was only interested in meeting the kids, checking whether they are on his good list or naughty list, and establishing what they want for Christmas.

Christmas in the High Street - one year later

On these outings it is interesting to learn the current fashions in terms of toys wanted by children. This year seemed quite low-tech compared to others. Although there were the inevitable requests for i-phones and i-pads, which left parents rolling their eyes skywards, there were also a lot of requests for yo-yos, which seem popular this year, as are scooters and bikes. Father Christmas always finished by offering the kids (and sometimes their parents) one of his magic sweets, and telling them they need to be good in the run up to Christmas. Most kids accept this without question, but there was one exception. When Santa said to one young lad ‘Do you think you can be good for another 13 days?’ he responded ‘I thought it was 12 days.’ This had Santa checking the days on his fingers to see who was right. I actually think the boy was smarter than we gave him credit for. He knew he only had to be good until Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day.

Meeting the children

It wasn’t just the children who were excited to meet Santa. A lot of middle aged women also wanted a hug from Father Christmas, and he was happy to oblige. At one point he had 6 or 7 women posing for pictures with him, with each one wanting a photo on her own camera. It does hold up our progress when this sort of thing happens, but we are just happy that people are enjoying the tradition of Santa and his sleigh coming down the road. A lot of mums told me that they remember this happening when they were children, and wanted their own children to experience it.

Santa gets mobbed

On another evening Chris Arnot had the job of accompanying Santa, it was the first time he had done so, and the evening didn’t get off to a very good start. The first child Santa met went into paroxysms of terror at the sight of him and just wanted to run away. The second one, a little older, accused him of being a fake! Despite this inauspicious start, things got better as he progressed.

That evening Santa was in Charlton Village, where in recent years there has been a street party outside one particular house in Walnut Tree Road, which has an amazing array of lights outside the house. This year, to ensure the event was weather-proof, it was held in the Harrow pub, and Santa popped in there to meet all the kids. His helpers gratefully accepted a glass of mulled wine, but Santa had to refuse. He needed a clear head for all the kids he was to meet, and besides that, red stains down his beard wouldn’t look too good, would it?

Party time in Charlton Village

Going back to the decorated house in Charlton Village, we paused for our usual photograph outside. The owners, Derrick and Karen, are good supporters of the Rotary Club, and keep one of our collection buckets outside their house, so that people who stop to admire the decorations can nmake a small donation to charity whilst doing so. The bucket is then returned to the Rotary Club after Christmas, and the amount collected is handed over. This year they handed us a magnificent £150, representing donations into the bucket, and a further £50 raised at the party in the Harrow that night. I suspect that the bucket probably raised somewhat less than the figure stated, and that Derrick and Karen generously topped it up themselves before handing it over.

Derrick and Karen's house

They are not the only generous individuals we encounter at Christmas. Whilst I was collecting in the High St this year, I was approached by a man who wished to make a donation of £1,000 to our Benevolent fund, on condition it was used to assist local causes. I quickly confirmed that he could indeed put such a condition on his donation and we would certainly honour his wishes. It transpired that his wife stopped Brian Holt last year and made a similar donation to us. The generosity of some people is truly staggering sometimes.

Counting up at the end of the evening

Tesco in Sunbury have also been great supporters this year. Between the two Shepperton Rotary Clubs, we collected over £3,000 outside the store. We like to think that we add to the shopping experience of their customers by parking our sleigh outside, belting out Christmas music. It looks particularly special after dark, when the sleigh’s lights look quite spectacular. People of all ages stop and admire the sleigh, and our elf (newly refurbished this year) with lots of photos taken. Tesco staff members periodically came out with hot drinks for our collectors. The Store management told us they had a lot of positive feedback from customers about Rotary’s presence at the store which was gratifying to hear. We met the management shortly after Christmas and were offered six days next December, two more than usual, which we gratefully accepted.

Our elf meets his twin at Tesco

Big Tree Night is now a well-established event during December, and several thousand people attended this year. The High Street is closed for the evening, and there are children’s rides, street food, and various stalls to interest passers by.  It’s a great event to be at, and the Rotary Club had a stall, as usual. We were situated outside Trio pharmacy for the second year, and once again the pharmacy kindly allowed us to plug our lights into their electricity supply until they closed at 7.30 p.m. After that, we had a generator borrowed from a friend of Pauline’s which provided power for the rest of the evening.

Our stall at Big Tree Night

Our idea for the stall was a kind of static Treasure Hunt. The premise was that Santa has lost his sleigh somewhere in Shepperton.  We have a large map of the village, and for £1 children (and often, adults) can guess where the sleigh is, by placing a numbered sticker on the map. The nearest to the correct spot wins a soft toy and £25 voucher, but everybody who enters wins a small prize, which makes it an attractive competition to enter. At times we had crowds of families gathered around our stall, and overall we collected nearly £300. Not a massive amount considering the effort involved, but it was great fun, and of course we become an integral part of a community event which is important for us.

Bees round a honey pot

I enjoyed the first meeting of the New Year, when we heard mostly hilarious stories from Santa’s experiences over Christmas. Then it was time for our annual de-briefing when we try to see what we could do better next time.   All that remained now was to give cheques to the charities who helped us on four of our street collections. The deal is that if a charity helps us on a collection evening, they get 80% of what we collect that night. It’s nice to invite them to one of our meetings and make a bit of a ceremony of thanking them for their support.

My friend Betty Greenwood from CRUSE NW Surrey receives a cheque

So, Christmas is over for another year and the sleigh has been put away.  Can’t wait for next December when we can do it all over again!

I think our elf has overdone it with the mulled wine

Children in Need

November 18. I spent a large portion of the day at the baggage Reclaim area of Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport. No, I wasn’t waiting for my luggage to appear on the carousel, I was collecting money, not very successfully as it turned out. It was all because I had decided to support the Rotary collection at Heathrow for Children in Need.

Baggage Reclaim at Heathrow

Every year at around this time the UK public go crazy collecting money for the BBC Children in Need appeal.  The event gets massive coverage on TV and Radio for weeks beforehand, then on the day itself the BBC broadcasts a telethon during which £millions are raised. People do all sorts of things to raise money, including sponsored swims, runs, cycle rides, parachute jumps, baking cakes to name just a few of the more normal activities. Alternatively people can just phone in to the Children in Need telethon to pledge money. Pudsey Bear, the Children in Need mascot, is ever-present.

The Rotary collection has been going on for several years now, but it’s the first time our Rotary Club has got involved.  It was being organised by District 1090, not my own District, but I was attracted to it as Heathrow is local to me. Altogether 350 Rotarians were to work in shifts in all passenger areas of the airport, including the terminals (landside and airside) and even the trains that run shuttles to and from the departure gates at Terminal 5.

Collectors in Terminal 5

I travelled there with Ken and Min, as we were all working a four hour shift in Terminal 3, airside, from 10.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. Car parking was free for us, we just had to drive to the long term car park and ride in on the shuttle bus. It seemed quite surreal travelling in with all these excited holidaymakers heading off to exotic climes. I wondered how much it cost to park in the Long Stay car park, as opposed to the cost of a taxi to the airport. I must look it up some time.  Today none of this mattered , as the organisers were going to give me a free pass to get out of the car park when I left.

Shuttle Bus to Terminal

After a short ride in to the central area, we were duly dropped off at Terminal 3 and we presented ourselves to the registration point with 10 minutes to spare. Besides myself, there were some other celebrities present that morning, including the President of Rotary International in Britain and Ireland (RIBI) Eve Conway and also Paralympian Naomi Riches. However I never came across either of them during my 4 hour stint, and wondered whether they were worried about being upstaged by me.

Eve Conway meets Pudsey

We were duly checked in, given our air-side passes (with photos) and a group of about 12  of us were assigned to an airport worker (many people working at Heathrow were also volunteering today) who would guide us to our posts. We were also given a £5 voucher for our lunch break. I wasn’t confident this would go very far at airport catering outlets, and suggested to Min and Ken that we pool our vouchers for a bag of chips. Our guide took us through some security doors and to my surprise we came to a check point, where we had to show our passports. I had thought our registration earlier would be the only formality.

Volunteers get registered

At this point a rather extraordinary situation developed. I was just following another couple of Rotarians who I didn’t know through the security area when the chap in front of me got out his passport then stopped in his tracks, horrified. He said to his companion ‘I can’t go through.’ When asked ‘Why not?’ he said ‘ I’ve come out with my wife’s ex-husbands passport!’ This exchange left many questions forming in my mind, but before I could ask them, he was whisked off. He could still collect for Children in Need today, but would have to stay ‘land-side’.

That looks like me getting registered

Meanwhile the rest of us underwent the procedures of emptying our belongings into a tray and passing through an X-Ray machine, familiar to anyone who has travelled by air in recent years. Apparently all airport staff have to go through this procedure before they are allowed air side. As usual the machine beeped as I went through due to my replacement knee, and I consequently suffered the indignity of being frisked by a security guard. I was determined to remain cheerful, being worried that if I made a fuss the search may have become more intimate.

Ready to collect - Min myself and Ken

Once we were safely airside, we learnt that we had been allocated the baggage reclaim area in Terminal 3 for our collection activities. The reclaim area was quite busy, as many trans-Atlantic flights were arriving at about this time, and I spent some time deciding where to stand with my bucket in order to maximise the opportunities of receiving donations.  We were not allowed to rattle our buckets, but were encouraged to engage people in conversation. We also had some Pudsey bear merchandise to sell if the opportunity arose. Any currency could be accepted, whether notes or coin.

Ken and I are wearing our merchandise

To be honest, it didn’t go very well. The first thing that was apparent was that whilst Children in Need is a national institution in the UK, nobody from any other country knew anything about it. I consequently found myself trying to explain how people up and down the country would be raising millions of pounds for this cause today, to people who didn’t seem particularly interested. By far the most generous people we came across were British travellers, but then they knew all about Children in Need.

Min and me

I met some interesting people on my shift. ‘ Welcome to London’ was my usual chat up line as I approached them. The first family group I approached had travelled from Texas overnight. They weren’t leaving Heathrow, but catching an onward flight to Ukraine. A surprisingly large number of travellers seemed to be using Heathrow as a transit point, rather than staying. There were some, of course, who were staying in London, and naturally I gave them the benefit of my local knowledge in telling them the best places to visit. It was surprising how few people had heard of Craven Cottage.

Registration desk gets busy

Engaging people in conversation wasn’t easy, because most of them had been flying all night and were exhausted. They just wanted to find their luggage and get on their way. In hindsight, putting myself in their shoes, if I had just arrived at a foreign airport and whilst searching for my luggage some bloke approaches and asks for money, I would probably think I was the victim of some scam and would consequently refuse to co-operate. To make things worse, many who I did manage to speak to, told me that the flight crew had already persuaded them to part with any spare money as they were leaving the aircraft. I can certainly recall that happening to me as well.

Pudsey puts in an appearance in Terminal 5

Halfway through our shift, our group were given a 30 minute break for lunch, and we spent our £5 vouchers in Pret a Manger. I was pleasantly surprised that for less than a fiver I could obtain a good sandwich and a drink. I had a laugh with a chap from Gerrards Cross Rotary club, who had regularly been wearing the Pudsey Bear suit during the previous week, and he was telling me about some of the visits they had done to local schools. It was great fun, he said, being dressed as Pudsey, but sweltering hot inside the costume. He was wearing just a T shirt and shorts underneath but was dripping with sweat, and had to be helped in and out of the suit. Apparently the latest design of Pudsey Bear outfit costs about £800, and has a built-in fan to help cool you down. It made me think maybe we could share one with other local clubs and take it to our local schools.

Pret a Manger Terminal 3

After lunch it was back to our posts in the baggage area. On our way there we briefly passed through the Departure lounge. This is where passengers congregate once they have dropped off their luggage and gone through security. It occurred to me that this was where we should have been collecting. Everybody here had an hour or two to wait for their flight, and were just sitting around, shopping, or drinking coffee. We could have made a killing here, I thought, relieving people of unwanted UK currency, which was just weighing down their pockets. We’d be doing them a favour.

Departure Lounge Terminal 3

However, some other group had this pitch, and we couldn’t trespass, so back we went to baggage reclaim for the rest of our shift. It was more of the same for the rest of our time there, until I had the brainwave of talking to the people at Travelex, the Bureau de Change. They had 3 separate offices in the baggage reclaim area, and I reckoned they must be given a lot of coin that they have difficulty dealing with. So I had a chat with one of the staff there, she told me she gets loads of coins, and their policy is to throw them away, as it costs too much to exchange them. ‘Throw them into my bucket’, I said ‘We can deal with them’. So she opened her drawer and poured loads of coins in to my bucket, more than I had collected all day. I had a similar result at the next Travelex counter, although the third one claimed not to have any.

My bucket weighed quite heavy now, so I was pleased with myself at the end of my shift when I handed it over. I don’t suppose there was much value in it, but at least it showed I had done some work.  Back at the collection point I looked in vain for Eve Conway, but it appeared she had been and gone already. She will be disappointed to learn that she had missed meeting me. Min, Ken and I headed back on the bus to the Long Stay car park, from where we headed off home, having felt we had done something worthwhile today.  We later learned that the Rotary day at Heathrow had made over £32,000 for Children in Need, and the school visits a further £18,000. A decent return, I would say.