Clubs/societies

THE Mayor and Mayoress of Harrow attended the first round of an international public speaking contest held at the Harrovians Speakers Club.

Councillor Mrinal and Mrs Rama Choudhury were invited to the borough's branch of Toastmasters International, a worldwide club providing training and experience in public speaking.

Cllr Choudhury then presented certificates of participation and awards to the winners of the contests for best speech and best evaluation of a speech.

Toastmaster club meets on a Monday evening and members attend with the aim of improving their public speaking and calming their nerves.

Between 10 and 20 are normally at each meeting, which also helps them improve their listening, evaluation and leadership skills while making new friends.

Typically, there are half a dozen topics for impromptu speaking, followed by about three prepared speeches of just over five minutes each.

For more information contact www.harrovians.org.uk

LATE-NIGHT Christian volunteers have committed to helping people in need on the streets in Harrow.

The first group of Street Pastors were presented at Harrow Civic Centre on Thursday, January 26, and will soon be patrolling the streets on Friday and Saturday nights, giving out bottles of water and offering assistance to people who have been drinking or who run into trouble in a bid to reduce crime and make people feel safer.

A DAWN dawn chorus walk is being held in Harrow on the Hill by guide Michael Robinson
around Harrow School's otherwise private nature reserve, Newlands Woods, and golf course to identify birds, and participants should meet at 6.30am on Saturday, May 7, on the green outside Blues Restaurant and Bar in High Street.
The following day Jonathan Edwards starts his series of 2011 Hill walks with one about St Mary's Church, supported by churchwarden Pauline Chandler, for which walkers should meet at 2.30pm on the green outside Blues Restaurant and Bar ready to pay £3 for adults and £2 concessions, with children free.
Both are organised by the Harrow Hill Trust.

A LOBBYING group for Harrow pensioners that is working with less than a quarter of the funding of its predecessors is to meet next month.
Three separated organisations with a combined subsidy of £60,000 - the Partnership with Older People panel, the Older People's Reference Group and the Harrow Pensioners' Forum - were replaced with a single body, the Harrow Older People's Assembly, and a grant of just £13,000 from Harrow Council, at the end of last year.

Radio Northwick Park will be holding a Christmas fundraiser at Harrow-on-the-Hill station in College Road on Saturday, December 11, between 9am and 6pm.
Volunteers dressed as Father Christmas and elves will be collecting donations while passengers will be able to listen to the live shows broadcast from the station's studio at Northwick Park Hospital.

Harrow Choral Society is holding A Festival of Christmas Music for Choir and Audience at Harrow School's Speech Room in High Street on Saturday, December 11, at 7.30pm.
Tickets for the concert, which features readings by actor Clive Swift, are £15 or £7.50 for the under-16s and can be ordered via 0208 863 7830 or ollypet@hotmail.com

Harrow Public Transport Users' Association is holding a meeting of bus users on Wednesday at 2pm at Harrow Baptist Church Hall in College Road, Harrow, at which residents can quiz bus bosses.

A TALK about the cutlery used at 10 Downing Street is to be held on Wednesday (Oct 17) at 8pm at St Mary's Church Hall in Church Lane, with adults £3, concessions £2 and children free.
Speaker Christopher English, a member of Harrow Hill Trust, is secretary to the trustees of The Silver Trust, a collection of contemporary silver that has been commissioned for use by the Prime Minister and guests at his home.

LEARN about French glass artist Rene Lalique and his Art Noveau jewellery through a talk to be given by jeweller David Callaghan.
The Frenchman, who lived between 1860 and 1945, is the subject of the free lecture organised by Harrow National Trust Association.
Lalique's designs became acclaimed after making jewels for Sarah Bernhardt and then exhibiting at the great Paris exhibitions of 1894 and 1900 and in turn he attracted the attention of Calouste Gulbenkian, who purchased over 150 major items of jewellery from him, of which many are now exhibited in the Portuguese capital Lisbon.
From 1900 onwards he concentrated on works in glass and Lalique glass is still made today to his original designs and patterns.

Where? Harrow Arts Centre, Uxbridge Road, Hatch End
When? 8pm on Monday, September 6
Cost? Free
Contact? See the talk programme at www.hanta.btik.com

HARROW on the Hill's heritage association, the Harrow Hill Trust, is asking gardeners and allotment holders to bring plant to sell or swap at a charity fundraiser.
Proceeds from the event, on Sunday, May 16, between 2pm and 4pm at Meadow Neighbours Garden, in Waldron Road, Harrow on the Hill, will go to the Tanglewood Club, which provides leisure activities for adults with learning difficulties.
The club is now based at Harrow Borough FC's Earlsmead Stadium in Earlsmead, South Harrow, after an appeal run by the Observer that followed it being booted out of its old home.