Dumfries Rotary Club Dumfries

15/05/2026

DUMFRIES TOWN BOARD

It was great to welcome Kenny Bowie, Chair of the Dumfries Town Board, to today’s Rotary meeting. He shared how the Board is using the UK Government’s £20m Long Term Plan for Towns to support 17 projects in its first year — from heritage promotion and digital upgrades to building refurbishments, training support, town centre living and more. A really encouraging vision for the future of Dumfries.

03/05/2026

🏆 ROTARY CUP CHAMPIONS!

Congratulations to St Cuthbert Wanderers, who claimed a 5–0 victory over Annan Athletic in Friday’s Rotary Cup Final at Palmerston Park.

⚽️ Goals from Aaron McCutcheon, Jack Dow, Zach Kennedy Brown, Kalib Dingwall and an Annan own goal sealed the win. ⭐ Man of the Match: Logan Paterson.

The final was a fantastic showcase of youth football in Dumfries & Galloway.

01/05/2026

SPEECHMAKING CHAMPIONS

We were delighted to welcome the winners of the Rotary Primary Schools Speechmaking Competition to our lunchtime meeting today.

🏆 Overall winner: Jonah Slater (Primary 7, Noblehill Primary)
😂 Most humorous speech: Ellis Riddick (Primary 6, Noblehill Primary)

Both pupils delivered their speeches on the theme “My Favourite Person in the World” and it was clear to everyone in the room why they were such deserving winners.

A huge well done to Jonah and Ellis for their confidence, creativity, and outstanding presentations. The future of public speaking is in very good hands.

Jonah and Ellis are pictured with club President Francis Toolis, Jonah's mum Lesley and Ellis's dad Clark as well as in action delivering their speeches.

01/05/2026

NEW TREE AT NETHERMILL

Our club's tree planting expert, John Colbeck, went out to Nethermill Primary School recently with Rotarian John Herald, to replace a tree that had been destroyed in a winter storm as part of our club's commitment to improving the environment. Trees are recognised as good for the environment because they absorb carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, support biodiversity, regulate water cycles, and improve air and soil quality. John Colbeck is pictured with the new tree just after he planted it.

01/05/2026

With Rotary Club of Thornhill and District – I just got recognised as one of their top fans! 🎉

27/04/2026

FOOTBALL FRIDAY

We were delighted to welcome Graeme Alison to our weekly club meeting on Friday to hear about his career as a Category 1 Referee and FIFA Assistant Referee. Graeme told us of his involvement in the game of football as a referee and gave us an insight into some of the games he had officiated at. He was involved at all levels, taking charge of school and youth football matches, matches in the Scottish professional leagues, the Scottish cup and running the line at international matches, which of course included a fair amount of international travel. He outlined a wide, varied and enjoyable career as a referee and met many people who are household names in the game of football.

Also on Friday, Rotarians took part in Football Shirt Friday through the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK to raise money for life-saving research into bowel cancer.

Photos show Graeme and Graeme with club vice-president Tom Marchbank who is wearing a Hamilton Accies football shirt.

17/04/2026

LEND WITH CARE

At today's meeting of Dumfries Rotary we heard from Charlene Henderson about Lend With Care, a revolutionary microfinance initiative, which helps people in low-income countries work their way out of poverty. Through Lend With Care, you can lend from as little as £15 to fund an entrepreneur or small business. Once your money is repaid, you can choose to recycle your loan to support more low-income entrepreneurs, make a donation or withdraw your funds.

Lend With Care is run by poverty fighting charity, CARE International UK who operate in 11 countries and 100% of the money loaned goes directly to the low-income entrepreneurs that lenders choose to support.

A hairdresser with a degree in History, our speaker Charlene is a Past President of Rotary Club of Thornhill and District where she has been a member for the last 12 years. When she was serving as International Convener for her club she came across an advert for Lend With Care, researched it, and suggested to her rotary club that they might support an initiative to lend money through Lend With Care. The club initially loaned £150 and followed it up with another £150 bringing their total investment to £300. As loans are repaid Thornhill Rotary has reloaned their money to others so that to date the club has given £1200 in loans with only a £300 investment.

The concept of Lend With Care fits well with the primary school curriculum so Thornhill Rotary went along to a meeting of primary school head teachers to see if this could be introduced to schools. Now two schools are taking part in Lend With Care with Thornhill Rotary donating £15 to each school to start them off with their minimum donation.

Charlene is pictured with club President Francis Toolis

14/04/2026

04/04/2026

CHARITY GOLF AM AM

Why not sign up for our charity golf AM AM this June...

04/04/2026

EASTER MESSAGE

Thanks to the Rev Tim Linford, minister at Troqueer Parish Church, who delivered our Easter message at Friday's lunchtime meeting. Tim is pictured with club President Francis Toolis.

23/03/2026

PRIMARY SCHOOLS SPEECHMAKING

The first round of the Dumfries Rotary Club Primary Schools Speech Making contest was held at Saint Andrew’s School on Thursday 19th March, where 21 primary school pupils gave three minute speeches on the subject “What Music Means To Me”. Nine pupils went through to the Grand Final which is on Thursday 16th April 6pm again in Saint Andrew’s Primary School.

Organiser, Rotarian Rab Smith said the quality of the speeches was very good and he is looking forward to the final, when the topic is “My Favourite Person”

The nine finalists are pictured along with club President Francis Toolis, Rab Smith and the head teacher of Saint Andrew’s Primary, Barry McIntyre.