John Bonnington
24th August 2010

Stephen Pentice
10th August 2010

Stephen Prentice, who has gathered together an archive of the Fife county town of Cupar, spoke to members about his collection. He brought along examples of photographs, and collages fashioned from old Cupar scenes, for Rotarians to view. James Storrer was delighted to recognise two 'weel kent' faces on a photograph of the Albert Tavern, which was owned by his maternal great great grandparents (the Robertsons). James' grandmother is looking out of an upstairs window, while his great grandfather William Robertson is standing with his father David beside a horse and cart, at rest in front of the tavern.

MacMillan
3rd August 2010

At last week's meeting of the Howe of Fife Rotary Club, Giff Bradley gave a moving account of how the Macmillan nurses had supported his daughter, Sharon, as well as the whole family, when she became ill with terminal cancer in 1991.

Now Giff is a volunteer speaker for Macmillan Cancer Support and will take part in a fund-raising event at Blair Atholl Castle on 28 August 2010. This will involve abseiling down the tower of the castle, as described in an article in last week's Fife Herald. Sir Menzies Campbell, Honorary member of the Howe of Fife Rotary Club, was present to hear the talk, commenting afterwards that he could identify with the experiences that Giff had related.

News was also relayed to Rotarians that the ShelterBox organisation had recently sent 400 of its tents to help the humanitarian effort in Pakistan. Members of the Rotary Club of the Howe of Fife have diligently supported the organisation over the years and were unanimous in agreeing to buy another shelterbox.

In the picture: President Rod McCall thanks Giff Bradley for his presentation.

Linda Ballingall
20th July 2010

One of the newest members of the Howe of Fife Rotary Club, the effervescent Linda Ballingall, formally introduced herself to members at last week’s meeting at the Village Inn, Pitlessie.
For nearly a decade and a half, Linda worked in PR, Marketing, Event Management and Tourism with the former Glenrothes Development Corporation, where she was known as ‘the Singing Tourist Officer’. In fact, in 1983, together with the GDC's public relations officer, Tom Johnson, Linda was instrumental in establishing a successful tourism strategy for the new town. This involved putting on events, organising activity holidays, even master-minding visits from royalty. Throughout that time, Linda’s considerable musical talents helped publicise Glenrothes, with duets with well-known singers such as Kenneth McKellar and Bill McCue, as well as appearances on local and national media. In 1989, Linda and Tom set up Crown Public Relations, and were awarded the GDC contract for PR and tourism. Linda and Tom subsequently went on to establish Fife Tourist Promotions Ltd, who, in conjunction with the Scottish Tourist Board and North East Fife District Council, were spearheading the 1990's campaign for the re-instatement of a Kingdom of Fife Tourist Board. On wind-up of GDC, Fife Tourism Promotions Ltd. ceased and the promotion of tourism in Glenrothes was handed over to the local authority. Crown PR continued until 1998, when ill-health forced Linda into retirement. On recovery, Linda worked with Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs.

After taking over 54 leading lady roles in operettas and musicals for over 32 years, Linda is now a professional singer and the Rotary Club of the Howe of Fife has already had reason to be thankful for her talents. In April, Linda organised a concert featuring herself and ‘singing partners’, John Grieve and Craig Smith, in aid of one of the Howe Rotary Club’s chosen charities, Chimwemwe, a project that supports vulnerable street children in Malawi.

Sandy Rennie led members in a hearty round of applause for Linda’s entertaining presentation, which left the audience with the impression that there was more, much more, to hear of her life story – but that would be for another evening.