Dear Old
Cambrian,
It's been a few months since
the last "electronic newsletter", but I know you've all been keeping up with Old
Cambrian events and news, as the web site continues to receive a fantastic
number of "hits" on a daily basis. One day last month, over 12,000 people
visited the site in a 24 hour period!!! That is just unbelievable, and the
rolling daily average for the past six month stands at 2,953 hits. Don't you
guys have anything better to do??
The events publicised in the
last newsletter on 29th March, have all come and gone. Most are recorded on the
web site, and for some we even have photos.
Remember, if you are
organising an Old Cambrian event, or just merely meeting up informally with your
old school mates, please let me know. I will advertise your event on the web
site, and in exchange all I ask is that you send me a brief report and a photo
or two to publish on the web site. I get lots of e-mails from people (not always
Old Cambrians) asking to be put in touch with "old boys" they see in photos
and reports of reunions and mini-reunions. On a weekly basis I hear of so many
success stories of people being re-united after many years of being out of touch
with each other. It makes the work I do on the web site so worthwhile, and
I get a BUZZ every time!
So, for the Old Cambrian
Society event coming up, plus also some other items I have been asked to
publicise:
Old Cambrian Society
(Canada) - a Mid-Summer Party/Informal Get Together is taking place
next Saturday, 24th July in Guelph,
Ontario.
John Heppes and Hal
Oliver thought it was about time they met again for a chat and a beer
over a curry lunch. The get together is open to all Old Cambrians, their
spouses/partners, ex-Kenya High School (The "Boma"), etc. that may be living in
their part of the world.
Old Cambrian Society
(Kenya) - advance notice for the Annual Dinner-Dance, to be held on
Friday, 1st October at the Norfolk Hotel,
Nairobi.
Old Cambrians from all around
the world are invited to this the highlight of the Old Cambrian calendar. As
luck would have it, I'm going to be in Kenya at the time, so my wife and I plan
to attend the Dinner-Dance. More details and tickets can be obtained by
e-mailing either Mumo Mwendwa (mumo@muvokanza.com) or Richard Kimenyi (rkimenyi@hotmail.com) - Richard is the
General Manager of the Norfolk Hotel.
Old Cambrian Society
(UK) - now this is VERY advanced warning!
Instead of the traditional
annual dinner held in London on a Friday evening in April or May, we are going
to try something completely different for 2005. We plan to make it an Old
Cambrian Society "weekend", and it will be held in Dover, Kent on
Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th June 2005. Plans
are still at an early stage, but with the wonderful help of Mike McFarnell and
Rod Dimech, the programme is piecing together. The rough outline is as
follows:
Saturday, 11th
June - Inter-house golf competition at one of the
local golf courses
-
For those like me who do not play golf, there are plenty of
historic sites in and around Dover, or you could take a day-trip to
France
-
Informal gatherings at lunchtime
-
If there is enough interest, then a get together in the evening
could be arranged
-
2.30pm to 5pm - a chance watch the Dover Pageant, which
is held at Dover College just 150 yards from Dover Town
Hall.
We are planning to have a private marquee overlooking the arena, where we will
be able to watch
the Pageant, continue to relive memories of
our (misspent?) youth, etc.
- after the Pageant we would say our "goodbyes" and head off home, or to
our next destination.
Details of prices will be
announced in Jan/Feb 2005, but at present it is looking like £30 (thirty pounds)
to cover the lunch and entry to the Pageant. Golf and other activities will be
extra. At a later stage I will publish a list of recommended and
reasonable-priced hotels and guest houses where people can stay for the Saturday
night.
We welcome Old Cambrians from
around the world who wish to attend this special event, and it will be a great
opportunity for people to meet up over a whole weekend rather than for just a
few hours one evening.
So that I can start to gauge
numbers, if at this early stage you feel you would like to attend the weekend
(or just part of it, e.g. the golf, the lunch & pageant, or both) could you
please let me know by e-mailing me at: webmaster@oldcambrians.com
Charity Appeal on behalf of
"Nyumbani" - In Kenya,
there are 600 deaths or more per day due to HIV/AIDS – that’s one death every
two minutes. UNICEF estimates 1.2 million children under 15 have lost at least one parent
– that is 12% of the population. Stuart Eastwood has e-mailed me asking for
assistance from Old
Cambrians, and the text of the Nyumbani Appeal
leaflet can be found at a link on the web site, at: http://www.oldcambrians.com/NyumbaniAppeal.html
Stuart writes "These kids are so vulnerable. Their only chance of life
rests on people like us and I hope that we who lived in Kenya and loved it
so much will step up and give us some support and in that a small way add
to their connection with the country that gave us so much". If anyone
wishes to help by donating something to this very worthwhile cause, please
e-mail Stuart at: stuartinuk@tiscali.co.uk
Dave Lichtenstein (ex-DoY) plans to
climb Africa's 4 snow clad mountains ...... in
September/October 2004, and wonders if anyone out there would like to join
him. The mountains he plans to tackle are: Elgon, the Ruwenzoris,
Kenya and Kilimanjaro. For more information, please visit the web site at: http://www.oldcambrians.com/events.html and
go to the relevant
link.
As always, if you know of Old
Cambrians out there who are not yet registered on the web site Alumni page,
please urge them to contact me.
That's all for
now!
Steve Le
Feuvre
& Secretary, Old Cambrian
Society (UK)
