Isle of Thanet Photographic Society
Thanet’s very successful and popular camera club started its new season on 7 September at the Portland Centre, St Peter’s, Broadstairs.
We were delighted to welcome our first guest speaker Will Cheung FRPS who has had a long career in photography, including Editor of Amateur Photography and Photography News. Will provided a fascinating insight into his passion for photography and highlighted his personal projects through a series of stunning images. His message was always to have a camera – or mobile phone – ready as opportunities, especially for “street photography”, can occur at any time.
Closer to home, Broadstairs resident and club member John Draper won our 1st quarterly competition for projected digital images with a brilliant photograph of a Pied Wagtail chasing a fly. This came top out of 38 photos submitted in the advanced group.
Future weekly meetings include a skills evening where members will learn about how to prepare prints and digital images, followed by guest speaker Julian Cottrell who will be talking about “A Photographer’s Life – Why Photography?”.
Our full programme and membership information are on our website: www.isleofthanetphotographicsociety.com and on our Facebook page.
Membership costs £35 a year for adults and weekly attendance only costs £4.
Margate FC and Community Kindness-Thanet
Margate Football Club and Margate Youth FC are proud to be partnering once again to support families in Thanet this Christmas.
We will be once again be supporting Community Kindness – Thanet who support families in Thanet with presents for birthdays, Easter, and of course Christmas.
The charity is a referral service from professional organisations across Thanet, with all referrals made anonymously.
Last Christmas the charity helped 879 families in Thanet, handing out over 3,000 gifts. As well as the Children in the family, the charity aims to give a small gift to each adult and a tub of chocolates for each family to enjoy together.
Hartsdown Park will once again be a drop-off station for anyone in the local Community who wishes to donate any toys, books or chocolates. Drop offs of any donation can be made between midday-10pm, Monday to Friday from Wednesday 1st November.
We will deliver all donations collected to the Charity on the week ending 15th December.
We would like to thank all of our supporters, sponsors and the wider community for their support and any donations they are able to make.
You really will be making a positive impact on our local community in Thanet this Christmas.
For further information on this project please contact [email protected]
Broadstairs and St Peters Twinning
On Saturday 23 September 12 members of the Broadstairs Petanque Club, previously known as the Brown Jug Petanque Club, travelled to the French Twinning town of Wattignies for a weekend of Petanque and Friendship. This being the 31st year of visiting each other for 31 years annually.
On the last visit by Wattignies to the Broadstairs Petanque Club, based at Broadstairs Cricket Club, in 2022, Wattignies retained the trophy with a convincing win over Broadstairs Petanque Club.
This year Wattignies managed yet again to retain the trophy with 16 wins against Broadstairs 8 wins.
The Presidents trophy was won, and regained, by the French President Jean-Claude Casamajor, who lost the trophy in 2022.
On the Saturday night Wattignies provided the team with a very special night out in a new Wattignies restaurant serving traditional local French cuisine. This was topped off with the presentation to each Broadstairs player of a Special “heated” Petanque Boule Bag, with the English winters and climate these bags will be the envy of other British Petanque Players.
On Sunday after the final games had finished, we were treated to a typical French buffet before driving back for the ferry to England.
We look forward to the return visit of our friends from Wattignies in September 2024, when we hope to regain and retain the lost trophies.
Thanet U3A
Thanet U3A* will be holding one of its regular coffee morning on 16th October at the Selina Hotel in Margate from 10:30am and on this occasion we will be welcoming Terry Potter from Prostate Cancer UK to accept a cheque from Thanet u3a after our successful fundraising event, The Steve Handley Memorial Quiz, earlier this summer.
*U3A stands for ‘University of the Third Age’ but we prefer the short form. We have around 400 members in Thanet.
Diabetes UK
Members of the Diabetes UK regional team are pictured at Thanet Earth in Birchington where they spent the day recently raising awareness of diabetes and helping workers understand where they can go if they have questions or concerns about the lifelong condition.
Ramsgate RNLI
An event at Ramsgate Football Club was interrupted when the crew’s pagers went off and they had to make a dash down to the harbour.
On Friday 29 September Councillor Barbara Young, supported by Ramsgate Town Councillors held a coffee and cake event to thank the people of Ramsgate who gave their time free of charge for the benefit of the town. The event was held at Ramsgate Football Club, who had kindly donated their time and the venue to support the event.
About nine of the volunteer Ramsgate RNLI crew were at the event as well as members of the Fund Raising Team, the RNLI shop as well as the RNLI Station Management Committee.
The event started at 11am so the crew had time to enjoy the lovely cakes and a cup of tea before the pagers went off at 12.03 with the crew dashing out to their cars and back to the Lifeboat Station where the All Weather boat Esme Anderson was launched.
The launch was to nine meter long Belgium cruising yacht that had suffered engine failure on route from Lowestoft to Ramsgate. The yacht had broken down close to the wind farm twelve miles north of Ramsgate and initially been assisted by a wind farm crew transfer vessel that had towed it away from the wind farm.
The Esme Anderson took over the tow and after one and a half hours in a calm sea brought the yacht back into the safety of Ramsgate Harbour.
Masonic events Thanet
As Freemasons we raise substantial amounts of money for local charities. We try to do his by encouraging members of the public to take part and enjoy our fund raising events.
In 2020 the Grand Lodge of England donated £51.5 Million to charities. We Local Lodges tend to donate to the more local causes.
If you know of a charity or a group that you feel could benefit from our support please let me know via my email address below. Clearly, I cannot guarantee support, but without us knowing of the existence of a particular group we would be unable to help at all. I will send all details of suggested good causes to the seventeen separate Masonic Lodges in Thanet for them to consider if they would like to support it.
Minnis Bay Lodge is planning another Theme Meal at the Birchington Masonic Hall. It will probably be in January. The French Night and Thai Night were great.
There will be a charity walk as usual around the 26th January. The walk organiser had a knee replaced in August so this time it will only be a half marathon! Walk for our charity or your own!
A quiz night is planned, again at the Birchington Masonic Hall. It will be the usual fish and chips with it! This will probably be in January as well.
Birchington Heritage Trust
Trust members enjoyed September’s talk about the creation of “Dreamland.” Two days later the Trust took part in the Heritage Fair at the Powell-Cotton Museum and welcomed almost 150 visitors to the event. This also provided a great opportunity for the Trust to network with other local heritage attractions. It highlighted how much the area has to offer for local people and visitors as well as opportunities for volunteering.
Our next talk is on Wednesday 25 October when we look forward to welcoming Greg Bessant from Birdwise East Kent. This will be held at Church House, Kent Gardens, Birchington.
The Trust’s museum is at the Burley Gallery in Birchington Library. Volunteers are on hand Monday, Thursday and Saturday mornings to help with enquiries.
More information about our Trust, our collection and publications is on the website: www.birchingtonheritage.org.uk and on Facebook: @birchingtonheritage
Martha Trust
Martha Trust has teamed up with cricketer John Shepherd and Princes Golf Club for the 7th year running to host a fundraising golf day being held at the prestigious Princes Golf Club on Tuesday 17 October 17.
While steeped in history, Prince’s Golf Club offers all that is best in modern championship links golf in an idyllic coastal setting where you’ll be sure to enjoy a great day’s golf for a really good cause.
The day will kick off with coffee and a bacon sandwich ahead of 18 holes of golf, followed by a two course dinner and charity auction.
If you can provide a raffle or auction prize, please get in touch as Martha would love to hear from you.
All proceeds from this event will go towards the work of Martha Trust – supporting people with profound disabilities across Kent and Sussex.
John Shepherd, formerly a West Indies International cricketer also served Kent County Cricket with distinction for 15 seasons said: “I am so pleased to be able to support Martha Trust with their golf day. They do some fantastic work. I have thoroughly enjoyed my cricketing career and it is great to be able to give something back to those that have not been so fortunate.”
Fundraising and Events Officer Kerry Banks BEM said: “We have had a fantastic response so far and are fully booked however if you could assist with a unique auction or raffle prize to boost our prize pots. we would love to hear from you.
“Thank you so much to all the sponsors that make this day possible and to the incredible team at Princes for their ongoing support, it is lovely to have so many local businesses pledging their support of Martha.”
To donate a prize or sponsor the Martha Trust Golf Day please call 01304 610448 or email [email protected]