Rotaract Activities and Rotary Children's Disco

Greetings Everyone –

Hope things are going well back in Texas! Today is daylight savings time here in the UK, so for a few weeks the UK is only 5 hours ahead of East Texas time. Isn't it funny that we roll back the clocks on different dates?

A friend mentioned last week that they would like to hear more about the Rotary activities I’m doing here in Scotland. It was great to receive the feedback, and I’ll be sure to post more about Rotary activities in Scotland from now on. Please let me know about other things I can continue to improve on! :)

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been meeting with the Aberdeen Rotaract Club. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Rotaract, it’s essentially Rotary for college students. Rotaract clubs typically focus on charity activities, professional development, and social interaction.

Often, Rotaract clubs help out with activities that the local Rotary Clubs are sponsoring. Aberdeen Rotaract is particularly unique because it’s made up of students from the two rival universities in Aberdeen - Robert Gordon University and the University of Aberdeen. Even with the friendly rivalry, the Rotaract club seems to have a great time putting events together.

Aberdeen Rotaract Ceilidh Fundraiser

We’ve got several charity events on the calendar for the next few months, and I joined the planning committee for the winter charity Ceilidh (pronounced “caylee”).

The Ceilidh is a traditional Scottish highlands dance party where a “Ceilidh band” plays Scottish highland folk music. For each song, a performer calls the dances and provides instructions to people who don’t know the Scottish dance steps. Ceilidhs are quite popular this time of year, so we’re hoping to attract a good crowd to raise money for a local children’s charity.

The University of Aberdeen’s clubhouse venue has agreed to host the charity event free of charge, and we found a printer to donate tickets and fliers for the event. Now our big concern is finding a Ceilidh band to perform at the event on November 23. My sponsoring Rotary club, Aberdeen Deeside, is also putting on a charity Ceilidh on November 9, so I’ll get to learn the Scottish highland dances before we host our own event. Fun stuff!

Aberdeen Deeside’s Children’s Halloween Disco

Yesterday, the Aberdeen Deeside Rotary Club held their semi-annual Children’s Disco to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund. I went to help out with the event and had a blast!

The event was held for kids in Primary 5 – 7, which is the Scottish equivalent of grades 4 – 6 in US school systems. Most of the kids were 10 or 11 years-old. I helped run the coat-check room for most of the afternoon, which provided me with quite an entertaining view of the dance floor.

It was absolutely hilarious to watch the group of little boys gallivanting around, with the group of little girls always one step ahead of them. The DJ was great at entertaining and involving the kids, and they all seemed to have a blast. Here are some pictures of the kids having fun on the dance floor:

The Deeside Rotarians are really nice and were great to work with. Many of them worked quite hard to put on the event, and it was neat to learn the details on how the event was put together. It was also great to get to know several new Rotarians over the course of the afternoon.

Towards the end of the event, some of the Rotarian ladies even hit the dance floor to show the kids how dancing is really done. And man, they could dance! The kids had a great time at the event, and the Rotarians and I had a fun time raising money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund.

This Wednesday I'll visit the Aberdeen Deeside meeting again and will present them with a Kilgore Rotary Club banner and City of Kilgore oil derrick pins. I'll keep you all updated on how the visit goes.

That's all for now, but take care and have a great week!