10 December 2011
Dear friends
So another year has passed since we last wrote to you and we continue to miss Richard and all that he was achieving and might have achieved, but our lives have gone on and we have particularly got involved in some fund raising for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) – more later.
It was, however, more sadness in April, when Jackie’s dad lost his battle with cancer after a brave fight early in the year. Both Jackie and her brother, Tim, have spent a lot of time since then with Grandma, helping her to adjust. All the family have rallied round, so that she is able to continue to live independently and she has joined us on many occasions during the year.
Sarah and Pete
It’s nice having Sarah and Pete so close in Sprotbrough and the four of us enjoyed a week at our Marriott timeshare in October, which was good, as with Sarah teaching, they are unable to join our usual week there each June. Sarah has continued at Bentley High Street, moving from year 1 to year 4 in September, also completing a Diploma at Sheffield Hallam and embarking on her Leadership Skills course. They’ve both been active in Rotaract and in October, went as a group to North Wales, to climb Snowdon! And climb it they did, on what was one of the worst weather weekends of the autumn!
Jersey
Our first trip away this year was to Jersey, with the two of us flying from Doncaster Robin Hood, one of the few remaining routes here! We had three nights at the Radisson hotel, in the harbour area at St Helier and celebrated Jackie’s birthday with a lovely lunch in the Pomme d’Or.
Summer holidays
In June, we enjoyed our usual week at our Marriott retreat in Majorca, with both Jane and Alan & Pam joining us. Weather was good and golf was played, with Ken winning “Nearest the Pin”, in the weekly competition. September saw the two of us enjoy a week in Lanzarote, the first time we had gone “all inclusive”, which was like being on a cruise on land! Our week included nearly running out of petrol in the middle of the volcanic landscape (we found a garage!) and then an afternoon trip to Fuerteventura, which we could see from our balcony. As mentioned, we went back to Majorca in October, enjoying evenings (and golf!) with Tom and Liz & friends, who were there too.
Richard Waight Memorial Golf Day
The highlight of the year has got to have been our Charity Golf Day in May, when we raised monies for both CRY and a Schools Golf project that we have started with a number of schools in Doncaster. The idea came about when Simon Titmus decided to run the London Marathon in aid of CRY and to help him, we agreed to hold a Golf Day, in Richard’s memory. Five of us formed an informal committee in January and we set about organising the day at Doncaster GC.
We were soon getting entries in and on the day, 21 groups of four took part, with the winners being the Round Table team. Ken’s team came third! The main event was the fund raising and with a £1000 cheque for CRY presented to us on the day, a raffle raising over £500 and an auction making nearly £1500. Steve Bruce gave us a signed Sunderland shirt, whilst there were footballs from Doncaster R, Leeds U and Barnsley, golf items from Lee Westwood and Charl Schwartzel, as well as hotel breaks and theatre tickets, all donated.
The total proceeds for the day were over £5700 and we presented CRY with £3386. The balance of the monies has been made available for Schools Golf and so far, four schools in Doncaster have received donations towards golf equipment and lessons for pupils. This initiative builds on what Richard started in his last term at Hayfield, when he arranged for Bawtry GC to give weekly lessons to around 20 students. I’m pleased that Hayfield has continued to be involved and is one of those that has benefited from our event. As part of the project, Ken worked with the Golf Foundation and Doncaster GC is now a “Golf Roots” centre and able to help develop young people’s golf generally. We hope that more schools will take part next year and that the project will continue to grow.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this event such a success. By popular demand, we are doing it again and so a reminder to everyone, next year the event is on Friday 18 May 2012. If you would like to take part, please let us know as soon as possible.
That’s about it for this year. Ken continued to work at Nottingham, now leading a Compliance Learning Team in Specialist Personal Tax. Jackie is still a Banking Advisor with the Halifax, juggling her Magistrates commitments and wanting to get more Saturdays off. Both are looking forward to their retirements which are getting closer.
Love and best wishes...........Ken and Jackie
