Emma Spearing Runs The Adidas Silverstone Half Marathon

Emma a freind of Jenny Mills, Harry's sister ran the marathon in memory of Harry in March 2009.

You can sponsor Emma here.

Meningitis Research Foundation 20th Anniversary June 2009

June sees the start of the Meningitis Research Foundation’s 20th year of supporting families affected by the disease, raising awareness and sponsoring research into the disease that will ultimately lead to a cure.

Website Meningitis Research Foundation

Harry’s Garden at Butterfly World (opening June 2009)

Friends, teammates & family including those from Harry’s lunch (Sept 2008), Jack & Jill Playgroup, Quoitings Playgroup & Spinfield School have been busy growing sunflowers & sweetpeas to plant up in Harry’s Garden.

Fern Alder, the designer is working on site and the garden is beginning to take shape ready for Press Day on June 4th. The garden incorporates sporting references (including rugby posts!), a giant hedgehog made from grasses, a wild flower bank, ball shaped flowers and woven willow branches. A local farmer donated the straw bales (ref cricket!) and June Kingsbury has created some wonderful scuptured feature rugby balls, footballs and minature hedgehogs.

From then on, visitors will be able to tour not only Harry’s Garden, but also the Future Gardens Competition gardens, and the Butterfly World site. There will be a temporary Butterfly House until the main dome opens in 2010 and having recently visited the site, it is really impressive.

Click here to see photos of a recent visit to the site.

Websites:-

Harry at Future Gardens

Butterfly World

Previous Harry Events

Harry's lunch

Meningitis Research Foundation

37th Marlow Mini Rugby Tournament March 2009

The Harry Mills Memorial Cup was presented to the u12s Champions by Andy Gomersall – in this case a draw between Jersey and ?? after a nail biting final.

It was particularly touching that Rhys Durkin from London Irish, winners of the Cup in 2008, and his father John came especially to support Harry’s Trophy. Rhys suffered from meningitis when he was younger and his father attributes his recovery to a trial drug from Chile.


136 teams attended this year’s tournament which features A & B competitions at all ages ranging from u7s to u12s.

Bucks, Berks & Oxon Cross Country League

The Harry Mills Memorial Cup was presented to Luke Southby of Spinfield School at the final Cross Country Event of the season in March 2009. Luke has excelled at cross country running for a number of seasons and recently has shown great strength of character in battling back to full fitness after injury.

Softcat - Raise £13,000 for Harry

Softcat, a Marlow based software company that has been ranked in the Top 3 Best Companies to work for, chose Harry as their Charity of the Year.

Over a period of 12 months the company and its employees have undertaken activities including the Santa Fun Run, Skydiving to hosting a May Ball &, Auction and Hot Potato and curry Day. The Meningitis Research Foundation has visited the company to give a presentation on the work of the charity.

Softcat Have recently presented the Mills family with a further cheque for £6,000 making the total for the year £13,000. Peter Kelly founder of Softcat and Martin Hellawell Managing Director were presented with a pair of Harry's socks which were worn throughout the day whereupon they donated a further £100 - click here to read more.

Harry Mills Team Maker award - Youth Sport Trust National Talent Orientation Camp

Over 100 talented athletes from a range of sports attended the 2009 Talent Camp on 11th January 2009 at Loughborough University. They were joined at the Closing Ceremony by Jason Gardener, Olympic 4 x 100m relay Gold Medallist who presented the awards including the Harry Mills Team Maker. This year, the award was won by Klara Weaver, a 14 year old rower, a unanimous decision by the coaching and mentoring staff.

Klara has actively included and supported the Rowing team during the camp and as a direct result of her influence, all the other rowers have benefitted hugely from the whole National Talent Orientation experience. Throughout the workshops she was an excellent role model, leading by example. Klara actively encouraged her group to think and come up with suggestions and had a very positive impact on all the rowers resulting in the whole group becoming more professional in their approach to the workshops.

Klara shone particularly in the Army Command tasks – the Army Officer leading the team building session said, ‘Klara had some fantastic problem solving ideas and achieved respect from her team mates through a calm and confident manner.’

Klara’s Mum writes:

Klara moved to the UK from Baltimore, Maryland USA almost 10 years ago when she was 6 years old. She considers herself both American and British (and indeed is a dual passport holder), which places her in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. This is perfectly appropriate, as Klara has always been attracted to water and has swum competitively since she was 4 years old. She is a Pisces so perhaps that explains it!

At 12, when she was in Year 7 at Latymer Upper School in West London, she announced that she was going to swim for GB in the Olympics. Then, two years later, she discovered rowing. She immediately fell in love with the river and the feeling of gliding over the water at all hours and in all weather conditions. Latymer is lucky to have a boathouse right on the Thames, and she is able to train 6 days a week. In Year 10, Klara and her partner won gold in the women’s J15 doubles race beating out over 20 competitors. Sport has been a very important part of her life and has helped to shape her goals and aspirations. She now has her sights set on 2012 and rowing for Great Britain.

Klara is deeply honoured to have received this award, which is named after such a wonderful team player. Working with and motivating others as part of a team has always been important to her in life and in rowing, and she hopes to put these skills to good use as she develops her rowing career and reaches her full potential both as a competitor and as a person.

2nd RFU Talking Rugby Dinner

The 2nd RFU Talking Rugby Dinner was held at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre, on Friday 28th November 2008. This is the evening prior to the England v New Zealand match at Twickenham and was attended by RFU Past president Peter Trunkfield, Simon Winman (RFU Head of Funding & Facilities), Ed Morrison (RFU Elite Referee Manager) and Dave Loveridge (New Zealand All Blacks 1980s). Thanks to Alan Black, RFU Leisure Rugby Manager for remembering Harry.

£750 was raised for the Harry and The Meningitis Research Foundation through the kind donation (the second time Trevor has donated a decanter) of a hand blown ‘last drop’ crystal decanter donated by Trevor Fulton.

Links:

http://www.rfu.com/
http://www.thelastdropltd.co.uk/