Local Andover School sponsored by Anton Rotary Club wins national Rotary Environmental Competition.

Portway Junior School was sponsored by Anton Rotary Club to enter the local Rotary District ‘Environment Awards for Schools - 2007’ competition.
The school entered a major project which they had been working on for about 2 years. ‘This involved developing the school grounds as an outdoor classroom. This was considered to be a means of teaching not only environmental awareness and good citizenship, but of effectively delivering other subject areas in the curriculum’.

This entry was considered worthy of being put forward by the district committee for entry into the national version of the competition.

Portway Junior not only won the schools prize but was considered to have the best overall project nationwide.

The prizes were presented by the President of RIBI at the national conference on the 15th of April at Bournemouth. The School was awarded the Rodney Huggins trophy, a cheque for £250 and the opportunity to build a garden at the Hampton Court Flower Show in 2007.

Dateline May 2007

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Rotary International announced a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to inject a much needed US$200 million into the global effort to eradicate polio.

The Rotary Foundation received a $100 million Gates Foundation challenge grant, which Rotary will raise funds to match, dollar for dollar, over three years.

Rotary will spend the initial $100 million within one year in direct support of immunization activities carried out by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and UNICEF.

"The extraordinary dedication of Rotary members has played a critical role in bringing polio to the brink of eradication," says Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "Eradicating polio will be one of the most significant public health accomplishments in history, and we are committed to helping reach that goal."

The polio eradication grant is one of the largest challenge grants ever given by the Gates Foundation and the largest grant received by Rotary in its 102 year history. Since 1985, Rotary has made polio eradication its top priority and has contributed $633 million to the effort.

"Rotarians worldwide have worked very hard over the years to reach this point, and it is rewarding to see our approach validated in such a significant way by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation," says Dr. Robert Scott, chair of The Rotary Foundation Trustees. "We hope that this shared commitment of Rotary and the Gates Foundation will challenge other donors, including foundations, governments, and non-governmental organizations, to step up and make sure we have the resources needed to rid the world of polio once and for all."

Dateline 2008

Paul Harris Fellowship Award to retiring club secretary.

Founder member and long serving Club Secretary (1993 - 2008), Andy Howe, was presented with a Paul Harris Fellowship as an acknowledgement and thanks for his long service to Anton Rotary Club.

The presentation took place on December 20th at the home of Club President Martin Ricketts (pictured on left). The Mayor of Test Valley Brian Page and his wife Dorothy attended the event.

Andy was one of 5 founding members of Anton Rotary and he is the only one to still have regular contact with the club, the other 4 having moved to different areas of the country.

Over the years he has supported many Presidents through their year and kept Anton Rotary close to the straight and narrow.