Barry Durman; Immediate Past President and Community Services GB&I 41 Club

I just wanted to say what a fabulous experience it was to join your Christmas Parcels Convoy for 2017. I had seen the video of your departure on Facebook in 2016 and was amazed by the number of vehicles, so when Bob offered to ask if I could join you in 2017, I said yes please.  

It is an exceptional exercise in logistics and is so good on several Levels: 

1                     It is good for German children to give presents to those less fortunate and to learn about these other countries

2                     It is great for the RT Family with the 4 clubs working side by side collecting the parcels

3                     It is smashing for us to see the children in these countries and to realise that our children are so lucky in comparison

4                     It is nice for the children to receive some welcome Christmas presents.

5                     It is brilliant, for those delivering the presents, fellowship and camaraderie and working together as a team

6                     It is good for International relations, especially if a few more countries get involved 

The highlights for me, apart from spending 48 hours non stop in a coach, were going to a few deprived houses to visit families, seeing children open their presents and getting to know all the “Moldies”.

I was very touched when Manuela from Austria LC, showed the picture of all the Moldovan children’s hands waving to say thank you to the German children, who had donated all the parcels.

I am very hopeful that GB&I 41 Club will play a more active role next year. I know that Dave Campbell and Peter Good, as well as myself, would like to attend next year and we will be trying to set up a collection operation to add to the 132000 parcels we all delivered this time round. It does complement our National Presidents Charity as it is not a fund raising exercise to compete for funds, it is more ACTION. I will be discussing this at our next Board Meeting in a few weeks time 

All the best for 2018 and pleased include us in your planning. It would be great if we could start off with 5000 parcels. 

Barry Durman

PS Thanks to Bob Parton (and Gisela) for being my mentor, translator and home host !!