Peace Project 2024 - D-Day Landings 

The Peace Project Brynmawr Rotary has undertaken with us has left a huge impact on our understanding of our part in the Worlds peaceful future - our voices can make a difference at home and overseas and understanding the past helps us work towards a future filled with understanding and peacefulness - one action, one world can make a differnece to someone and that difference could be a fundamental changing moment. 

This year we visited the D-Day landings and completed the trip in Paris before heading home and visiting the Bayeaux Cemetery on the way tothe ferry - each of us had to write about different things on the visit as well as refections of learnign [ which may be shared at a later date] However we all learned much and have benefitted gretly by being part of this Peaceful understanding of the atrocities of war!

Day 1-

During my visit to the Musée de la Libération museum, I was extremely impressed by the remarkable stories of the resistance and facts that the museum captures. The museum, which is located on the site of a former bunker used during the Liberation of Paris in World War II, provides a remarkable voyage through history.

Walking through the underground chambers, I could feel the history about stories of bravery and sacrifice. The artefacts, personal letters, and immersive exhibits brought to life the experiences of those who battled to free Paris from occupation, making history feel extremely personal and current.

Day 2-

Today we visited Utah beach where the first American attack against the Germans happened. It was a powerful experience and walking along the beach seeing everything so peaceful was in a way overwhelming because just thinking about everything that happened here just a few years ago and all them people dying trying to protect the country. It was a lovely experience but it was hard to imagine how such a pretty place was once a war zone. After the walk along the beach we visited the museum where we got to see pictures and items found from some of the soldiers who died fighting in the war. Again that was unbelievable seeing everything the soldiers had to deal with and the experiences they had to deal with while fighting in the war.

Then we visited the Normandy American Cemetery which was an emotional and humbling experience. As I walked along the rows of perfectly aligned white crosses and Stars of David, stretching endlessly towards the horizon, I was struck by the sheer scale of sacrifice made on those distant shores during World War II. The cemetery, perched on the bluffs overlooking Omaha Beach, seemed peaceful and serene, yet the history it represents is anything but. Standing at the edge of the Memorial, gazing out at the vast expanse of the English Channel, I imagined the chaos and bravery of the D-Day landings. The names etched in stone and the sound of the wind through the trees created a poignant reminder of the young lives lost far from home, their final resting place a testament to the enduring bond between nations in the pursuit of freedom. The visit left me with a deep sense of respect and gratitude for those who gave everything for the world we live in today.

We then went to the German cemetery in France, we saw a 320 kilograms steel wreath. With poppies and forget me not flowers the poppies where a reminder of peace in countries of common wealth, cornflowers are the peace symbol of France and the blue forget me not flowers are from Germany a reminder of death at war. There are 22,000 soldiers buried but… 300 hundred of the soldiers body’s was not found so they made a memorial statue with all there names on. There grave stones was not looked after they were cracked and stained and pieces missing. There was not much people there and not much daylight there where certain areas where it was dim it was a very diffrent exprience compared to th e american graveyard. The latest body found was in 2021 it was a man named Michael WittMann he was buried with his tank nothing left but a skeloton they found his id and made his grave. Mr Wittmann was a professional at taking down tanks in the war he was also very good at manoeuvring them to.

Day 3-

Today went to the Bayeux tapestry, walking in and seeing the 70 meter-long Romanesque embroidery from the 11th century was amazing. Every scene of the tapestry had so much detail, it was very impressive, the story was shown very clearly through the pictures that were sewn on. Seeing the tapestry and listening to the narrator tell the story made it very easy for us to understand what happen in the battle of hastings from start to finish. 

After the Bayeux tapestry we went and visited the cathedral which was an amazing experience. Placed in the centre of a beautiful and cosy village, the cathedral stands out in the best way possible. I found myself staring at the building in complete awe of all the details in the stone. When we ventured inside, we were met with beautiful stained glass windows and seriously impressive sculptures. My favourite thing about the experience was that it didn’t matter how many times we walked around, we kept finding new details we had missed the previous time.

Day 4-

Visit to Arromanches circular cinema

100 days of ww2 is the example given in the 360 degrees moivie theatre in Arromanches The first thing I saw was to seem to be a bout sailing across the sea to gold beach that was a bit mysterious. The second thing I saw was an army rushing
across to fight against Germany but at first it was calm
but, then I stared hearing guns being fire and people
screaming after they stared avading back there land
then after a while got there all there land back and a big crowd started cheering then the movie ended.

Gold beach:

As the British arrived onto Gold beach on June 6th 1944, the beach was surrounded by Germans. The larger boats they traveled on could not be driven onto the shore and had to doc in the deeper part of the sea. Luckily they had smaller boats that could take men and some resources from the bigger boats to the shore. Not many soldiers would be taken at one time due to the side of the boats. The other, more smaller boats were able to be docked close to the shore where it was easy to arrive onto the land and start the attack. Although, the men on these smaller boats were not able to get straight off and onto the land causing them to have to travel through water and get all their heavy equipment and uniforms wet. This made the experience even more difficult and the ascent upwards and even more challenging journey. As we traveled down further towards the beach, it gave me time to reflect on how all the efforts that the soldiers had made all those years ago have affected our lives and our future.

Then we visited the British memorial it was a moving experience, one that showed personal reflection and a sense of history. Approaching the monument, the pillars of names in stone were overwhelming, as each name was cut short by war. But finding my relative's name was humbling and heartbreaking, as this is a reminder of the sacrifice and the cost of conflict that's shaped my family’s st

British cemetery
Today we visited the British cemetery, and the first thing I noticed was how different it is compared to the American and German cemetery. While I was walking around reading all the names of the soldiers who fought in the war, I realised there is a lot more information about our soldiers on the grave compared to the other graves, for example there was their names, dates of births, when they died, and a little message from each of their families. The graves were also clean and tidy and all in line with each other with lots of flowers on all, which in the other cemetery there was hardly any flowers. There was also a section where some of the Germans who died in the war were buried in the same place, these graves was also kept clean and had flowers on to show respect and peace. Walking around it made me feel emotional reading all the names and ages that these men died fighting for peace, some of them as young as 19.

Day 5-

P. Durock

This place still stands today showing us the impact which was made in the Second World War. With a few buildings still standing near the beach but left deserted and ruined from the impact of what a war can bring. Walking around P. Durock we got to see half blown up buildings, walls which still held the bullets from many years and wood that was black from a fire outbreak during the war. This place just highlights a insight view of what would of been expected during world war 2 and how scary it would of been to be in that position, watching many boats on the coast arriving in with men ready to fight.

Day 6-

Disney marvel trip

The disney marvel trip was great my favorite ride was the tower of terror because your in the dark going up and down and then stopped you at the top looking over the hole of the park. And there was a ride called the avenger and it had three turns and it goes 55 mph.

Today we went to Disney land, it was very early start but it was well worth it. Everyone in the group was so excited to see the one if the most magical places in the world, walking down Main Street looking straight ahead at the Disney castle was so surreal, I never want to leave! We definitely made the most of all the rides in Disney. Towards the end of the night we decided to stay and watch the fire work show at the castle and honestly it was amazing, the fire works and the show on the castle was very Impressive and I felt like I was a little girl again. Even though this was a peace trip and everything we’ve done has been amazing and very memorable I think that Disney land has been a very good way to finish the trip.

Day 7-

Eiffel Tower
The most iconic structure in Paris did not disappoint. Despite it being a cloudy and rainy day making visibility poor, the view from the very top was still spectacular. Even on a gloomy day like the one we visited, the tower was still full of people. My favourite level was the first level as it had a cafe and outdoor bar with a beautiful seating area looking over all of Paris.

River Siene:

When we arrived at the dock, we waited in line for around 20 minutes until we started to board the river cruise. The line was full of other tourists just like us who were here to view the sites of Paris. We boarded the boat and headed towards and decided to sit by the window. Some of us went on the upper part of the ship to get a better view of the sites. After a while, the cruise started and we headed slowly down the Seine river through Paris. We passed many sites such as The Grand Palais, The French National Assembly - Palais Bourbon, The Place De La Concorde and many others. The guide talked eveyone through the tour also adding comments at every place we went past. When we had gone past all of the places on the tour, we went back the way we came.This tour had helped us to learned more about Paris than we knew before. and it was a really memorable and unforgettable experience.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

Donec leo mi, fringilla ac ornare a, fringilla ac eros. Maecenas nisi. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec leo mi, fringilla ac ornare a, fringilla ac eros. Maecenas nisi.

After almost a year of cancellations we've finally completed a 15,000ft skydive for 9 different charities, the charities that were chosen were Mind, Mencap, Young lives vs Cancer, Alzheimer's, YoungMinds, Parkinsons, Cancer Research Wales, Hospice Of The Valleys and End Polio Now. Overall we raised £7074.58 which will be shared out to the charities that was chosen! We'd like to say a massive thankyou to everyone who has donated, we're all very grateful and we'd also like to thank Brynmawr Rotary Michelle and Donna for their hard work behind the scenes and making sure we all got to jump.

On Sunday the 2nd of June we hosted a Rotary Family picnic at Gilwern outdoor education centre where we all came together to play some games, drink some tea/coffee and eat a lot of good food. We'd like to thank everyone who showed up and made the day successful, it was nice to be able to share idea's and discuss some future plans. Hopefully there will be another picnic in the near future so we can unite as one family again!

Half Term Activities

Come and join us on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of half term for some free activities and lunch at Brynfarm Community House from 11:30am- 1pm.

On Tuesday between 11:30am-1pm there will be fun finger painting and lunch!

On Wednesday between 11:30-1pm we will sort out the garden ready for your plants to be planted!

And on the Thursday between 11:30am-1pm you can decorate some biscuits with icing pens!

Hopefully we will see you all there for some Half Term fun.

Copy Details Please and Return as below:

Registration Form for District Picnic

Family of Rotary Picnic RSVP

Please return this completed form by email to: Admin@Brynmawrinteract.co.uk

It would be helpful if the numbers were received by May 25^th, 2024, please.

District Picnic

26-04-2024

Dear Family of Rotary Members in Southern Wales [District 1150]

This communication is for the attention of Interact, Rotaract and Rotary Clubs and includes RotaKids if as family members they can attend with an accompanying Rotarian and Inner Wheel members.

We write to invite you to join us at the first District 1150 ‘Family of Rotary Picnic’ and request that you share this communication with all members of your family of Rotary Clubs so that they may consider joining us at Gilwern Outdoor Adventure Centre,  Ty Mawr, Gilwern, Abergavenny, NP70EB on June 2^nd 2024 from 2pm-5pm [ish] to enjoy some intergenerational fun and friendship time together as members of the Family of Rotary. We include the invitation to include your family members as we believe without their support, we cannot achieve what we do in Rotary’s name and if you bring your grandchildren, they may see Rotary in a different light! 

It seems to us when we brain storm ideas or talk about our own futures, particularly as some of us are about to leave Interact as we head into Rotaract, University, working or into apprenticeships, that there are clubs across Wales who we have never met, who may be as wonderful a club as Brynmawr is, and who we might have liked to have visited and may when we are settled in future would want to meet with too – others will we believe think the same and this event could be a celebration of our sameness as well as our difference’s, whilst we meet in a focussed event to bring us all together – and we hope it could be annually arranged by others across Wales on a rota. But importantly it allows the integration of us all at a financial cost that fits our own pockets, it will create a way to share our Intergenerational Rotary journeys and to enable acknowledgement that we each have the same goals ‘to do good whenever we can and to make a difference’ whatever our ages, in reality we also whatever our age all like to enjoy a bit of fun…so, the picnic is going to have a bit of fun available for everyone.

If you are coming - you need to bring your own Picnic’s, as that way no-one can say they do not like whatever is in your sandwiches! Be it smoked salmon, egg or red sauce as they are in your baskets, you made or purchased them and you fetched them with you! We will however be selling hot and cold non-alcoholic drinks and perhaps a cakes stall as we are quite good at baking [DG Mary loved our afternoon tea and the cakes!] 

There is ‘Free Parking,’ and toilets are available for all on-site and if it rains, we have access to an indoor hall too. 

For those who like walking there are some fabulous walks within the Adventure Centre, the birds and local non-human wildlife is wonderful - so please also make sure you bring tidy footwear! We are organising woodland bingo, crazy golf, team games, boules, maybe cricket and other more relaxing games – but we are thinking a tug of war between clubs might be fun too! We might to aid our fundraising for our Peace Project trip to the D-Day landings in August have a few fundraising stalls onsite as well - so please bring some £1 coins!

We do however need to know approximate numbers from attending clubs, so that we can advise the centre and to also help us with our plans and to write those pesky but much required risk assessments.

We ask that you please return the form attached with approximate numbers of all clubs associated with your club, RotaKids, Interact, Rotaract and Inner Wheel with a named contact for each club, so that we can communicate directly with that contact, and they then can cascade any other information regarding the event.

We will be updating our website which you can follow – www.BrynmawrInteract.co.uk  - Or on social media Facebook Brynmawr Interact Group, Brynmawr Rotary, – Instagram @Brynmawrinteract

We really hope you will join us with our Brynmawr Rotary mentors and friends.

Yours in Rotary Friendship

Isobel John and Mali Davies

Co-Presidents and Brynmawr Interact Members

D-Day Landings Peace Project Visit. 

Can you help us please?

We are exploring the impact of the D-Day landings as part of our ongoing Peace Project. 

If you have family members stories you would share with us please make contact,  as we would like to be able to pay homage and respects to those brave people when we visit Normandy in August 2024 -

If you are a historian with local knowledge we would welcome a group meeting so we can learn from your knowledge.

If you are able to help us with ways of fundraising for this trip we would also welcome hearing from you, we currently are fundraising for the visit, by arranging bag packs, raffles, coffee mornings and would welcome any support you can give.

Please email us: admin@brynmawrinteract.co.uk

Peace Project 

Four years ago, we decided as a Interact group that we were going to start a project to enable us to help each other because of Covid Lockdown. We decided that we'd call it a 'Peace Project' so we could learn about peace within are community and also worldwide whilst also supporting each other with actions on positive mental health as being locked in [so to speak] was not a positive time in many households and being able to share frustrations and be part of online projects was a positive vision for our group and sub groups where we all created different actions and took leads in community areas.  [more information can be found below about them]

After Lockdown, we continued with our projects, but when the Ukraine War occurred, there were questions and discussions about different countries with conflicts, hidden and seen borders, reason for what was happening, people being displaced and then being housed in Blaenau Gwent. This led to discussions of what were unseen borders and our differences particularly if you were a refugee landing up in BG! We took action had fundraisers and helped one local refugee who had a sporting talent but needed kit, so we helped him and then others with our collections.

These discussions developed our first trip to learn more was built around our learning about our part in living peaceful communities.

We went on are first trip to visit the whole of Ireland which included Northern Ireland and Eire in 2022 and we got to travel around Ireland looking at historical monuments such as the Peace Wall in Belfast. The Peace wall had an incredible impact on some of us as we saw a wall that divided was being recognised to express one’s own feelings.

We visited the Titanic exhibition to understand migration from back then when people were leaving their homeland to seek a better life for them and their families.

Whilst in Northern Ireland we also visited the Giants Causeway to hear the stories of Fin. 

Whilst being in Ireland we got to speak to a very special women Margaret who was living off the grid in County Fermanagh, she was very welcoming and gave us a tour of her modest cottage and told us her routine and what she has to do to get water, collect and cut peat and logs to make a fire and how she cooks whilst living without gas or electric in her little cottage.

The visits to many parts of Ireland will be recorded further below in time as they deserve articles as each was special.

After a very successful trip to Ireland, we looked further at what differences of opinions and humanity could cause and we decided on a trip to Poland because we wanted to see and understand the things that occurred in the World War 2 to see what the remnants of such in a place like Auschwitz was,

That was the most surreal experience and was an emotional trip, but it was important to us to go and pay a respect to the people who had lost their lives and to hear stories at Schindler’s Factory museum of those who survived.

Whilst being in Poland we also got to meet up with a Polish Rotary group and met Interactors, Rotaractors and Rotary members who shared their ideas and what they've managed to achieve as a group which was very inspirational, we then got to eat a traditional polish meal with the Rotary group and over dinner we discussed working together to help the people in the community. There were Ukrainian refugees at the meeting and sharing their stories was a strange privilege but made us know we needed to be part of a peaceful solution somehow.

We're hoping to go back to Poland to help with the Orphanages!

Now we are planning a trip to visit the D-Day landings and are currently working towards our voluntary hours which helps enable our attendance and looking at funding streams, creating fundraisers all to pay for the trip.  We hope to learn more from the visit and to understand more of how those lives being lost has enabled us as young people to have the futures and peace we can work upon at home and Internationally.

When there we are going to see more inspirational things and hopefully come back with more ideas for the future to benefit our part of being able to live freely.

Update on our 'Easter' volunteering

Throughout the Easter School Holidays, some of our members were able to volunteer at the community house where activities had been prepared and planned for the young people to take part in by Rotaract members. Lots of different activities were enjoyed from cake decorating, to egg decorating, easter egg hunts, making cards, planting seeds ready for transplanting intothe garden and enjoying of the many fun activities.

Each household also had a breakfast and lunch pack to take home on the days there were no activities and whilst at the house so they enjoyed tasty lunches.

Afternoon Tea Fundraiser

On March 2nd 2024 the Brynmawr Interact group came together to host an afternoon tea to raise money for End Polio Now. We spent the morning preparing the sandwiches, cakes and setting the tables to make sure everything the perfect for when the guests arrived.

After the guests finished eating they was then shown a powerpoint by one of the interactors on the history of polio, followed by a speech by another ineractor who told everyone what he's done/going to do to raise money for End Polio Now.

Following the successful afternoon tea we then counted all the money that was raised which came to a total of £520 that is a equivalent of over 1,400 vaccines.

We support the Foodbank work

As an interact group we come together a several times a week to help support the foodbank.

A foodbank is about coming together as a community and making a difference tothose who need a little help at certain times in their lives, and our helping helps create a positive impact on other peoples lives and that is an aim we have agreed as an interact group to help to make a difference within the community.

We help sort and distribute the donations every week and we also work togther to keep to food pantry topped up from donations or purchased items bought by Brynmawr Rotary with funds they riase or have had donated, these items enables the foodbank to exist.

Why our young people are committed to Ending Polio sooner rather than later

We want to end polio sooner because it's a terrible disease that can cause paralysis and even death. By eradicating polio, we can ensure that future generations are protected from this devastating illness. It's a global effort to vaccinate everyone and eliminate polio from every corner of the world. The sooner we achieve this goal, the safer and healthier our world will be for everyone.

Youth Club at the Community House

When we can we attend the community house to support the volunteers, Rotaractors and Rotary members to run the fun sessions at the Bryn Farm Community House.

Attending is 50p per child and this includes a light snack or meal with a drink and the activities.

Where we meet and what we do

We have our Community Interact meeting after the youth club once a month at 6pm.