A LITTLE ABOUT CIRCLE EVENTS

The rain held off for our annual BBQ at the Gollchers’ home. Ralph is easy to spot with the grandchild held aloft in the background

We were pleased to to welcome our latest member, Peter Galvin, who was enrolled at the September 2011 meeting.

Peter is congratulated by Ralph with the Circle Membership Officer, Brian Lillis, on right.

Of course Santa Claus turned up for our Christmas Party held at Rochdale AFC.

Thanks not only to Pat Gerard but also the considerable efforts of David and Angela and their daughters for a great afternoon.

Musical Friends are a highly talented group of singers, who perform mainly for charity.

They provided a superb show based on Music from the Musicals for our Circle Charity Evening.

Francis House Childrens Hospice offers the families of very sick children a respite from their role as carers, and provides the children with a loving home from home.

It is an exceptionally effective and deserving charity and it was the beneficiary of our President’s Charity last year. Angela and David are pictured here making the presentation.
 

Our 1,000th Meeting

The 1,000^th circle meeting was marked in 2009 with a magnificent evening hosted at Rochdale Town Hall by Circle President John Welsh and his wife, Ann.Guests of honour included Grand President David Taylor and his wife Kathleen, Grand Vice-President Joe McNally and his wife, Philomena, Director Paul and Pat Mainon, Provincial President Frank and Mary Rafferty. Rochdale MPs Paul Rowen and Jim Dobbin with his wife, Pat, and the Mayor and Mayoress of Rochdale Robin Parker and Ann Jones. Former Grand Presidents Mike O’Malley and Phil Barnes also joined the celebration.

 

The Bursary Fund

Rochdale Circle have promoted the use of the Bursary Fund to assist young people, where they have chosen to take time out to assist others

 Mrs Biesty, the head of RE St. Cuthberts School.and some of the pupils, who travel on the Salford Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes to assist the sick and infirm, are pictured below at the presentation of a further £700+ by John Welsh

The work that the students undertake involves working in the hospital in Lourdes; cleaning, feeding the sick, making drinks and talking with the patients. Another aspect of the work they will do is to take the sick to the various services, which involves pushing wheelchairs and special carriages called voitures. The work can be extremely gruelling in the heat and the hilly terrain yet the students find the work very rewarding, and many return to Lourdes the following year

Rochdale Circle meet on the first Tuesday of the month at The Royal Toby Hotel on Manchester Road, Rochdale. We are usually joined by members from other circles for a short formal meeting followed by a meal and socialising.

Our aim is to be a social organisation for Catholic men and for their families and we organise an entertainments programme, which is a mixture of regular and one-off events.

Typical events include

Interested in joining us?

Here are a few telephone numbers, where you can contact Rochdale Circle members.

John Colligan 01706 632533      Brian Lillis 01706 658543   

Alternatively, here are their email addresses

johnandpamcolligan@hotmail.com     btlillis@gmail.com        

They will be very pleased to answer any queries.