The Rotary Club of Lunesdale: a moving account of 9/11 from a woman whose firefighter husband lost his life there, a Rock-n-Roll concert and Children in Need collection
By Lilian Barton
At the club Zoom meeting on October 28th we received an inspiring talk, using the Zoom facility, from Ann Van Hine. Ann lost her husband, a New York City firefighter on 9/11. She explained that he lost his life when he was believed to be on the 40th floor of the South Tower when it collapsed. Since her tragic loss Ann has devoted much of her life to speaking about experiencing personal loss amid a national tragedy. She leads tours of the National 9/11 memorial and showed us the places where her husband’s name is recorded on the memorial. She has become a well-known figure for her work and participated in a hearing of the European Parliament. Her story will be recorded in a Netflix documentary – Turning Point 9/11. She has written a book “Pieces Falling” which is widely available online. Members were intrigued by Ann’s story told without anger or rancour. We were delighted that she had been able to speak to us.
On Saturday 6th November the club hosted a Rock-n-Roll concert with music provided by the hugely popular quartet “The Defenders”. The venue was the main hall in QES which was packed with an audience delighted to hear some of the great songs and music of the Sixties. It presented a real opportunity to let your hair down, put all thoughts of the past 20 difficult months aside and dance with abandon. Those of you who were there will remember the 3 youngest members of the audience who showed us how to do exactly that and danced every dance! All the profits from the concert will be donated to the Northwest Air Ambulance. A big thank you to everybody who supported the event.
By the time you read this our Children in Need collection and some of our Christmas traditional collections will have taken place however we shall have a static collection point with the sleigh at Bentham Mart Christmas Fair on Friday 10th December and then at the entrance to Booths store in Kirkby Lonsdale on Saturday 18th December 9am – 7pm. Collections are always generously supported so I offer, in advance, a big thank you from all the club members plus we also thank you for your continued support during a certainly different and at times a worrying past year.
On behalf of Club President John Clare and all the members of the Rotary Club of Lunesdale we wish you a very Happy Christmas and a Healthy, Happy and Successful New Year.