Today was the official launch of Dementia Club UK in Association with Rotary Clubs of Edgware & Stanmore and Northwick Park. Rotary Club Edgware and Stanmore started in March and then Rotary Club Northwick Park joined the following month in April. Both Rotary Clubs have now been running for 5 months successfully and thanks goes to the two Rotary Clubs Presidents Danielle Benson and Mollie Hacking for starting them.
The two Rotary Clubs now have two new Presidents – Sonia Hirsh is President of Rotary Club Edgware & Stanmore and Mike Stonham is President of Rotary Club Northwick Park. Danielle and Mollie will continue to run the sessions with the help of other Rotarian volunteers.
As this was an official launch event a buffet of various foods were brought by Lisa, Mollie, Helen, Dr Nandini and Danielle. Sasha from The Studios Satellite Rotary Club made a beautiful huge fresh fruit cream cake and donated the cake to the dementia club. The tables were also decorated with red tablecloths and flowers by Lisa.
We had a good number of members with their families attend and quite a few Rotary Club volunteers from both clubs.
Rotary Club Edgware & Stanmore
- Danielle Benson now Immediate Past President
- Dr Nandini Varma
- Selwyn Foreman (Secretary)
- Mrinail Choudhury
- Suresh Bharwaney
- Leonard Specterman
Rotary Club Northwick Park
- Mollie Hacking MBE Immediate Past President
- Helen Antoniou Past District Governor 2016-2017
- Ritu Kapur
- June Nathan
- Dick Nathan
- Lucille Parker
- Rachelle Golding
- John Evans
Lisa’s announcements included many welcomes as follows;
Special Guest – The Mayor of Harrow Cllr. Kareema Marikar Lisa introduced her and the Mayor gave us a quick introduction to her work in mental health. The Mayor was then asked to cut the cake with Lisa together as Lisa was also representing the Mayor of Barnet and wearing her official past Mayor’s badge.
Other Visitors;
- Eugenia Dike from Rotary Club President of Hendon
- Jo Kamanu - Alzheimer’s Society prevention and wellbeing co-ordinator for Edgware
- Mike Hodge – Rotary District Governor 2018 – 2019 also said a few words about the Rotary and how the Rotary Clubs have done well in setting up dementia clubs.
- Dee Dolukup – Nat West Stanmore personal banking manager gave members some leaflets about financial scams and what to look out for with some useful tips.
- Scott MaClachlan (Assistant Governor North West) from Rotary Club of Barnet
- Rony Fernandes and other Rotarians from Rotary Club of Moodbiri Temple Town, India who are staying in the area popped by to do some Rotary International flag exchanging.
- Sally Larner of specialist dementia support services
- Jalpa Assani of GLL Better Leisure Centres came to see our successful formula
Lisa then started the session with a Quiz – How well do you know your Herbs? This provoked lots of chat about herbs and food. Everyone did well working in teams. Richard then arrived to start the Chair Yoga session. Everyone concentrated on all the various moves and then Richard brought out some bean bags for members which got them all very excited and ready for the next part of the session with Ronnie Goldsmith’s music entertainment. Members as usual got up to dance, or at least do some toe tapping in our seats to some music favourites.
This was a successful launch. Thanks to all our Rotarian volunteers for helping. Thank you to Beryl the premises manager. Thank you to Mark one of the Trustees for Dementia Club UK for helping with all the tables and chairs and also Marcel for helping with the same. Thank you to all those who brought food and Sasha for her delicious cake.
Next meet-up Wednesday 15th August
