Always rising to a challenge

The challenge of growing giant sunflowers for fun and fundraising or challenging the design skills of our future young engineers - Rotary has it covered. St Ives Rotarians set themselves a Horticultural Challenge. Needless to say, the competition was fraught with all sorts of shenanigans and much accusation of sabotage, but was great fun and produced some monster sunflowers this year.

Thirty two Rotarians undertook the six week sponsored challenge to see who could grow the tallest sunflower. All seedlings were supplied by Oakington Garden Centre. CoOrganiser Philip Sadler said: “The weather was tremendous for growing sunflowers. Competitors produced some giant specimens. All money raised will go to Rotary’s own charity. Their work includes the world-acclaimed End Polio Campaign, as well as supporting disaster relief around the globe.”

The grand-champion, with a sunflower measuring an astonishing 11ft 2½ inches (3.41 metres), was David Smith who received a trophy and bottle of bubbly.

Enthusiastic, budding young engineers from Year 6 (10 to 11 year olds) at Bury school took part in Ramsey Rotary’s Junior Technology Tournament. As with all participants, the challenge was to design and test a scale model for a red squirrel crossing. It had to span a 40cm path (4 metres in real life) and be at least 20cm (2 metres in real life) above a path for adults and children to walk underneath. Only tools and materials provided by Rotary could be used. Each group had to assemble a portfolio to include drawings, notes on how ideas were thought through, challenges overcome and reasons for choosing the final design. The design had to fit into the animal sanctuary environment and include sponsor badges for Rochester Bridge Trust and Rotary. The exercise was a huge success with pupils producing some exceptional design ideas. Both staff and children enjoyed the challenge and are looking forward to more Rotary initiatives. All children received a Rotary cer- tificate of participation.

To ensure the challenge was suitable for all age groups the test was put to Rotarians at one of their meetings! They had to abide by the strict rules on material used and the time allowed to complete the exercise. The build of the crossing was tested for wind, rain and snow, simulated by using an electric fan.

The challenge was a great success producing a variety of designs and ideas.