A DALE journalist is to become Darlington Rotary Club’s first female president.
Sue Campbell was one of the first women to join the almost century-old club about eight years ago and has been the chairwoman of its youth services committee for the past two years.
The Gainford resident will take up the position on June 21. Ms Campbell, who is also a member of Teesdale Ladies’ Choir, first became involved with Rotary as a youngster when she was one of the founding members of a Rotaract club in her home town in Yorkshire, but only rejoined Rotary later in life through colleagues who were already involved.
She said: “There’s a very good Rotary club in Barnard Castle, doing excellent work for the town, but I mainly worked in Darlington when I joined the Darlington club.”
She added that while newer Rotary clubs had started taking on female membership much earlier, the older, more traditional, clubs, such as Darlington, took a bit longer to open up.
With more than 70 members, the Darlington club is one of the biggest in the North East.
Ms Campbell, who works for the Teesdale Mercury, said: “Rotary is essentially a fundraising group with millions of members and thousands of clubs across the world.
“We [the Darlington club] have given hundreds of thousands of pounds over the years.
“We do support regular causes like St Theresa’s Hospice and the Samaritans, but anyone can apply for money.
“It could be an electric wheelchair for a disabled child or maybe it is someone who wants to build a school in Malawi.”
The club’s fundraising efforts have been significant with its annual bike ride raising in excess of £40,000 and its Christmas tree recycling scheme collecting about £10,000 this year.
Of being elected president, Ms Campbell, a journalist and public relations consultant, said: “I do feel quite privileged to do it.
“I am very proud to be the first woman president, but it is not about being the first woman president, it is about being a good president.
“I would like to develop the links we have with young people because they are the future of any organisation. I would also like to communicate more about what Rotary is.
“It is going to be a very busy year, but I am looking forward to it.”
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
