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*** CAERWYS. SHOW. JUNE. 13TH 2026 ***

One of the most popular social events of the year for the people of North East Wales will once again take place at Ty Ucha Farm Caerwys on Saturday June 13th.
Each year The Caerwys Agricultural Show gets bigger and bigger, offering a huge range of attractions which brings in visitors from far and wide.

This year’s competitions include, Livestock, equine, shepherding and young handlers as well as vintage tractors and classic cars. Other attractions include a food fare, produce stalls, floral arts displays, a dog show and of course, The Main Event, – THE GRAND PARADE.

Once again The Rotary Club of Flint & Holywell will be supporting the event as they have done FOR THE PAST 25 YEARS.

The Rotary Club, which itself is celebrating its 70th Anniversary this year will be providing bars to keep the visitors refreshed during their visit. Due to the increasing numbers of visitors, Club Members with other volunteers now provide two bars, -the main Show Bar and the more relaxed Marquee Music Bar. Profits from these bars are shared 50-50 with the Show organisers, and these proceeds help The Rotary. Club to continue supporting numerous local needy causes as well as The Annual Christmas Float and international disaster relief requests.

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Welcome to the new Interact Club in Holywell.

Flint and Holywell Rotary are delighted to welcome the formation of a new Interact Club in Holywell.  Interact (short for International Action) Clubs are for young people between 11 and 18 who are very keen to contribute to community activities by working closely with Rotary.  They are going to be an invaluable asset.

The Club has been formed from the Youth Club attached to the Holywell Churches, and they have chosen a very appropriate name ‘Friends in Faith’.   The new Club will meet every 2 weeks at the Well Being Centre, and will be delighted to welcome anyone interested in joining them and wanting to get involved in some really meaningful activities.  Just come along.  They will soon have their own Facebook page so you can follow their work.

Their inauguration and Charter Ceremony was on Sunday, and the pictures show the new Club President Stacey Nyanjowa cutting the celebration cake with Rotary President Steve Blakesley – the two Presidents with Rotary Assistant District Governor Steve Walker and the Charter

DOUBLE SUCCESSES AT YSGOL TREFFYNNON

The many followers of our Facebook and webpage know that Rotary are keen to support the talents of our young people, and we do this through our local schools in competitions, offering awards and prizes.

We had the pleasure of reporting in January that their team in the Youth Speaks competition were the winners in the round for Flintshire Schools.  The fantastic news is that they went on to be the best for all schools in our district.  Our Rotary district covers all of North Wales, East Cheshire, the Wirral, Merseyside and South Lancashire !  A wonderful achievement by Esther, Katie and Jack (pictured below). Our huge congratulations and thanks to teacher Mrs Siobhan Henry for all her time and support.  All our club members are soon to have the pleasure of hearing their presentation.

Through the huge support of teacher Mrs Beverley Hartley, students in years 7 and 9 took part in a Rotary Young Writer competition.  They submitted essays on the subject of ‘Happiness in Nature’ for external judging.  Judges said that their task was difficult as the standard was high, but awarded first prize in year 7 to Matilda, and in year 9 to Siobhan.  ‘Highly Commended’ certificates also went to Alex, Max, Ophelia, April and Eva.   Two other special awards were made, to the student in each year who, in Mrs Harley’s opinion had made a really special effort, and these went to Layla and Hari.  Well done to everyone.  The picture below shows the award winners with Club President Steve.

Our Rotary Club makes huge efforts to encourage schools to participate, and we can offer Young Writer, Young Poet, Young Artist and through Mold Rotary Youth Speaks. Young Writer and Young Poet can be in both Welsh and English. Apart from Ysgol Treffynnon, no other school responded.  If any teacher reading this, or indeed any parent who thinks their school should take part, please get in touch with us. We would be pleased to work with you.

A big thank you to everyone who helped with the Marie Curie collection this weekend at Tesco, Broughton Retail Park .

People were very generous and we raised £2,089.36. A tremendous achievement which was only made possible by friends and partners helping us out.

The Rotary Club of Flint & Holywell were honoured to receive a visit from Peter Robinson and his wife Jan, at their weekly meeting at The Springfield Hotel, Pentre Halkyn.

Peter gave a most interesting talk on The History of The Rhyl Lifeboat from its beginnings in the middle of the 19th Century when the lifeboat was little more than a small open fishing boat, “propelled” by four oars through its various reincarnations leading up to the most recent immensely powerful jet turbine powered craft now in service.

Peter has been a member of the RNLI in Rhyl for many decades now and served for a long period as Coxswain. Indeed he is not the only member of the Robinson Family involved with The Lifeboat, his son Calum is also a current crew member and his wife Jan runs the Lifeboat Shop in Rhyl. The Rotarians listened intently to Peter’s vivid recollections of his own “rescues” and also about past tragedies including one when the entire crew of a Rhyl Lifeboats was lost in a vain attempt to save others.

Peter brought with him a moving film showing actual rescues, some of which were found to be deeply disturbing, especially where those included irresponsible parents taking their small children out to sea with no equipment and not even life jackets!

The Club President Steve Blakesley thanked Peter on behalf of his members for his superb interesting and most moving talk. The Rotary Club has been consistent supporters of The RNLI both financially and practically, and each year Rotarians have managed the gates to the local Flint RNLI’s 5th November

Success in Youth Speaks for Ysgol Treffynnon

Huge congratulations to both teams from Ysgol Treffynnon in the Flintshire schools round of Youth Speaks 2026. Youth Speaks is a Rotary competition (organised by the Mold club) where teams of 3 have 15 minutes to debate a chosen topic. One member is the Chairperson does the opening and closing, with a Proposer who makes the case, and then an Opposer who argues against. There then follows a ‘question from the audience’ that requires an unprepared response. Both teams gave immaculate presentations and had clearly prepared exceptionally well. It was an absolute pleasure to see young students perform so well in presentation and public speaking skills.
The great news is that the team of Katie, Jack and Esther achieved first place in their group. Their topic was ‘Do mental health days do more harm than good’. They now go to the next round which will be against schools from North Wales, Merseyside and Cheshire.
The team of Alice, Eylul and Cameron, whose topic was ‘should social media be restricted to under 16’s’ were narrowly beaten by Mold Alun School, but their presentation was impressive.
Appreciation and credit from Rotary goes to all these young students, and to the teaching staff, Mrs Siobhan Henry and Mrs Shelley Wright, who give such huge support and encouragement. Well done everyone.

Rotary Club Christmas Stars Appeal – Evening Leader Article

The Flint & Holywell Christmas Stars Project was created by Rotarian Barry Harrison three years ago, and since then, each year has been more popular than the previous one.. Barry is now in his mid 80s but is still one of the most active Rotarians in the Club and is the driving force behind many of the Club’s fund raising activities. Despite his age, Barry is still a practicing pharmacist in Deeside where he is held in the highest affection by the community. Indeed Barry is the first port of call for many local people with ailments or simply looking for advice.

The Deeside Community still remember his devotion to his professional duty right throughout the Covid Pandemic. When many others where sheltering at home, Barry remained on the front line, working right throughout this dreadful period, even though he actually contracted the virus! Nevertheless as soon as he had recovered, he was back in the pharmacy.

The Rotary Club “Stars Appeal” involves the distribution of small plain stars to local children, via Schools, Local Churches, Libraries and Community Centres, and in the case of Flint, from The Town Hall. The stars can then be decorated by the children as their personal memorial to grandparents or other close family members who have passed and are no longer with them to celebrate Christmas.

When Barry asks, other Rotarians find it impossible to refuse! Locally based professional furniture designer Paul Islip came up with a design for a suitable box and as the photo shows, this contains the stars, coloured pens and a box to collect donations and a section for the returned stars to be placed.

36 of these boxes were then manufactured by Truwood Furniture, free of charge to The Club from their unit in Mold where fellow Rotarian Gordon Cook is CEO. The boxes are then loaded with the stars etc by Rotarians who delivered them to the appropriate outlets. The completed Stars are then collected placed on display. In the case of Flint, they are hung from a large Christmas Tree and railings to the front of St Mary’s Parish Church, Church Street, in time for the Annual Christmas Carol Service, whilst in Holywell the returned “Stars are displayed along the railings fronting The St Winifred’s Guest House.

The stars are distributed entirely free of charge, but of course many parents and other local organisations can make donations which in turn helps the Rotary Club to continue supporting local needy causes.

So admiring of Rotary’s Christmas ‘Stars’ appeal that WellBeing volunteer Michelle is taking some to Australia, where she will be spending Christmas with her son Samuel. Michelle says she will find a Christmas tree in a Brisbane Church where a star giving the best wishes from Holywell

*** IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM FATHER CHRISTMAS**
Every year I get millions of letters from children, giving me their list of presents they want me to deliver on Christmas Day.
Every one of these letters will be responed to, with a little help from my friends and helpers in the Rotary Club of Flint & Holywell.
Unfortunately, quite a lot of these letters do not include an address, so if you would like a response from me or one of my elves,
DON”T FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR ADDRESS