‘Trish Pemberton’
Every couple of weeks we are hoping to highlight one of our Rotary club members and we begin this new feature with our President, Trish.
My name is Trish Pemberton and I became involved with Rotary because I taught Syd Howarth’s granddaughter, Carrie. She wanted to set up an Interact Club at our school and asked me to be the club’s mentor. After a presentation from the Howarths, I was hooked and the club we set up about 15 years ago is still going strong – it really fitted with the school’s original Quaker ethos. I did not join Rotary until I retired – not because I did not want to, but because, as a teacher, my evenings were not my own. I was also heavily involved with the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme at my school as my other great love is the outdoors and outdoor pursuits.
I retired five years ago, and I have been a member of Rotary ever since. I love the emphasis on community, both at home and internationally, and enjoy taking part in fundraising events like the Santa Sleigh. This year I am President. It is not quite how I imagined it would be because of the pandemic, but we are meeting up online regularly. We usually invite a speaker – I have just invited Chris Lloyd from the Northern Echo to speak at our next meeting, and we are still doing our best to support the community during the pandemic with our recommendations coming from people like local health visitors and funds partly from GAMP. Like everyone else, I am looking forward to a new normality as soon as possible, whatever that normality will be.
