President Jim Matthews writes
In 40 years as a local newspaper journalist I have written and edited hundreds of obituaries. This one causes me particular personal pain.
It is with great sadness that I have to report the closure of the Rotary Club of Leicester Novus.
I had been a member of the Rotary Club of Oadby since August 1996 when, with others, I helped to get Novus set up. It was granted its charter — you can think of it as its ‘birth certificate’ — in May 2009. It’s gestation took nearly a couple of years as existing Rotary members from across Leicestershire sought out people worthy of the title Rotarian.
The 29 initial members came from a wide variety of backgrounds. They were delighted to be acknowledged as one of the first Rotary clubs in the area whose members looked like the population they pledged to serve. Over the years the number of members fell as young people moved on to advance their careers and older members found it impossible to give the care to their grandchildren and give service to Rotary.
Thanks to Zoom, we did not miss a single meeting during the pandemic. But Covid did put a big dent into our aim of helping local, national and international charities. Before taking over as president of the club I had joined in 2014 on July 1 2023, I asked all members whether they could continue to live up to the Rotary motto “Service Above Self”. Sadly, though, recognising that a membership crisis was heading for us did not give us the tools to avert what increasingly quickly began to be the inevitable.
Members voted in May to close the club. All agreed to meet regularly as Novus Friends for meals and catch-up.
Even better is the fact that most of the members decided to join other clubs in the area.
Each of us will have favourite memories of what Novus Rotary achieved in its 15 years. Among mine are the creation of the Peace Garden in the grounds of Falcons Primary School; the preparatory work we did to enable a muralist create images of rugby players opposite the Tigers’ Welford Road ground; and a group of us helping residents of the Aigburth Methodist Home in Leicester move into a new-build.
Please have a look around this website to see what we did. Please tell me if you disagree with my choices.
And if you think you would like to involved in projects like the ones on this website while forming long-term friendships, please e-mail jim.matthews1@ntlworld.com and I would be delighted to introduce you to my many friends in the 23 Rotary Clubs in Leicestershire.
But I must finish by thanking all my Novus friends and all the hundreds of people who have helped us achieve what we have.
Last edited 19:40 on Thursday, 27/06/2024
