Annual Panthers Visit – Sunday 14 December 2022

Great evening at the Motorpoint Arena. Entertaining game, good to see Panthers winning and thanks for the Shout Out

Annual Thanksgiving Event – Tuesday 22 November 2022 by Zoom 6pm to 7.30pm

Thank you to everyone who attends the 2022 Thanksgiving event. It was great to meet up and see old friends again and to give thanks for the successes in 2022. Special thanks to Natasha Wheatley talking about her recent projects, and to our two returning 2021 scholars Zaimal Azad and Natalie Rudyj.

    

2022 Scholars meet Lord Mayor and Sheriff of Nottingham – Friday 22 July 2022 – Lowdham

Today two of this year’s scholars Anna Beacroft an Eli Todorova met with the Lord Mayor Cllr Wendy Smith and the Sheriff  Cllr Nicola Heaton to discuss their projects and how they could help in the City. It was a very informative meeting and they look forward to working closely with the City on their return. Many thanks to the Lord Mayor and Sheriff for hosting the event.

July 2022 Strategy update Tuesday 12 July 2022 – Sir John Peace Building, NG2

This week, we had a really positive strategy meeting between the management team and trustees.

Scholars often return to Nottingham to help support and develop the scholarship for future generations.

A huge thanks to Richard Donovan and Experian for hosting the meeting and helping to guide discussions.

Scholars meet Chair and Vice Chair of Notts County Council – Friday 1 July 2022 – County Hall

Some of our past and current scholars visited the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Nottinghamshire County Council today.

As ambassadors for the county, we’re keen to inform the County Council about the work that is undertaken by our amazing scholars.

This morning, Ell and Ellie spoke about their upcoming trips to the USA and Elisia had a chance to speak about life post-scholarship and her upcoming projects. Cllr John Ogle even led a tour of the building and the Chamber.

We are very grateful for the support of the Nottinghamshire County Council in connecting scholars with relevant organisations and individuals to ensure the greatest impact in the county, which often continues for years after scholars’ return trips.

2022 celebration event – Wednesday 15 June 2022 – Antenna

We just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who came along to our celebration event last night. Tom’s keynote presentation about innovation in business was hugely inspiring and it’s great to hear about the progress he has made in his own life and career in France following his scholarship in 2001.

There were also updates from past and current scholars with lots of exciting stories and upcoming projects.

The event would not have been possible without the hard work of Tom Pullen, Tori Harrison, the speakers and of course, all of you who came along to share stories and reconnect with the scholarship.

Thanks to Antenna for hosting and some amazing images (see our Facebook post ).

Keep your eyes peeled for more updates and events coming soon.

Natalie and Zaimal both travel to the USA in the next few weeks and we can’t wait to share some updates from their journeys.

Zaimal Azad on Women’s Hour – Thursday 26 May 2022 – BBC Radio 4

Zaimal was on BBC Woman’s hour today! She was brilliant and you can listen to her interview from the 42:20 mark via the link below:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017k90

2022 Lowdham Supper Wednesday 11 May 2022 – Lowdham

It was fantastic to see the new scholars meet some past scholars to share ideas and stories about what the scholarship entails. The Notts Roosevelt family continues to grow and make each scholarship special and fulfilling.

2021 Thanksgiving event – Tuesday 23rd November 6pm to 7.30pm – Zoom

Following on from the successful Zoom event last year we will again be holding a Zoom Event to thank alumni, Trustees and supporters who have made it possible to continue the scholarship and give the life changing opportunity to young people in Nottinghamshire.

There will be guest speakers and updates on what’s been happening during the last year.

Eventbrite link to follow, or register your interest here

Sustainability Subgroup 10th August 2021

Our 2019 scholars, Henry (who has recently joined a local innovative battery storage startup, Cheesecake Energy) and Sam (who is now a civil servant working on UK net zero public engagement), held their second Sustainability subgroup event bringing together Roosevelt alumni and US counterparts with an interest in the topic.

We held a fascinating Zoom meeting on Tuesday 10th August. Professor Stanley Whittingham, a Nottingham born, American chemist who won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in developing lithium-ion batteries was the US speaker. He showed how the technology had been developed to now have over 350Wh/Kg at 90% retention. 

Henry Franklin, Roosevelt Alumni and Research & Development Engineer at Cheesecake Energy showed how energy can be stored using compressed air so that solar/wind energy ca be stored and used when demand is high. Cheesecake Energy is an exciting University of Nottingham spin out providing cutting edge battery technology.

Sustainability Subgroup Inaugural Event – Wed 21 April 7 – 8pm

We had a vey successful initial meeting with over 50 virtual guests. Our 2019 scholars, Henry (who has recently joined a local innovative battery storage startup, Cheesecake Energy) and Sam (who is now a civil servant working on UK net zero public engagement), set up a sustainability subgroup to bring together Roosevelt alumni with an interest in the topic.

The idea came about after Herbert, a 1972 scholar who is aiming to make his village net zero, got in touch with Sam following our stunning Thanksgiving event in November. After a fantastic kick-off meeting with around a dozen interested alumni, the subgroup decided to run quarterly talks open to the public with different sustainability themes (ideas included climate and space, climate and heritage etc). The USP is that each talk will have both a UK and a US speaker.

It was agreed that the first event should be an introduction to sustainability to make the topic and group accessible to all, and also to celebrate the momentous time in history for climate on various levels, with Nottingham’s leading 2028 goal, the UK set to host the UN’s COP 26 Climate Change Conference and the US’ $2 trillion climate plan.

We were very grateful that Lilian Greenwood, MP for South Nottingham, was our UK speaker, whilst insights on the Biden Administration’s climate plans were provided by Darryl Young.

Thanksgiving Event – Zoom – Wed 25 November 6pm – 7pm

Building on last year’s Thanksgiving event at Reds we held a very successful virtual Thanksgiving event this year. It was held by Zoom from 6pm to 7pm on Wednesday 25^th November. Being a virtual event we had attendees from the UK, USA and Norway. There was an opportunity for virtual networking event after the meeting. Read more

The key speakers were two of our alumni – Nick Beighton CEO of ASOS and Chris Aylett Chief Executive of the Motorsport Industry Association – as well as an update from Tom Cable our 2020 Mayflower Roosevelt scholar.

 

danSoup’s Mental Health Awareness event – Zoom – Thursday 29 Oct 6.45pm – 9pm

JOINT WINNER – BEN FELSTEAD and BLUE TONIC!!

An exciting evening online making great ideas happen!. Elisia Denton (2015 scholar) and Debbie Clarke founded Notts Soup in 2017 and have now expanded to cover Derbyshire re-branding as danSoup. This Soup is focused on Mental Health and the four ‘pitches’ are below. Further details at https://dansoup.eventbrite.co.uk and choose the October event.

Watch 4 people pitch great ideas that use arts activities to address mental health in Derbys & Notts. Discuss. Vote for which to fund.
About this Event. Listen to 4 different ideas for projects using arts/creative activities to enhance mental health – see details of the selected ideas below. Discuss and network vote on which should be funded.
Everybody pays a fiver.* All the money from ticket sales goes to funding the projects selected by the audience, together with donations from THiNK, Lubrizol and the Institute of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham. The first prize is over £500. A second prize depends upon ticket sales so buy one now and help make good things happen!

The four ideas
Blue Tonic – a charity recently established to encourage people to get involved in a wide range of restorative activities in and around water.
The Island – helping young men to share their inner thoughts and anxieties working with songwriters and illustrators.
Painting Nottinghamshire – getting communities outside painting local scenes to combat isolation and depression.
Naturally Creative – activities in inspirational woodland for families and children with a neurodevelopmental disorder and/or learning disability.

Tickets are £5 plus 98p online booking fee

Tom Cable’s Table Top Video on the Mayflower Pilgrims – 3rd June 2020

Tom Cable has published a short ‘table top’ video on the Mayflower Pilgrims on our Roosevelt Facebook page ( https://bit.ly/374fTO8 ). This is following his scholarship to the US at the start of the year where he researched the Mayflower Pilgrims journey from Scrooby, via Leiden to New England and their meeting with the Wampanoag tribe. The scholarship was funded by Notts County Council and the video has been approved by them for publication.

This video is particularly suited for children to learn about the Pilgrims and to start discussions about what their journey meant in today’s society. If you know of any teachers who may want to use this material please feel free to share.

Tom will be doing further Mayflower work when he is able to access his photographic equipment and wardrobe so he can develop ‘in character’ roles. Tom has also done short “tabletop” videos historic events which will be of interest.

70th Anniversary Celebration Event – 26th November 2019

Thank you to everyone who came to the 70^th Anniversary event. It was great to see so many new faces and reconnect with old friends. The event started with drinks and sliders, courtesy of our excellent hosts Reds True BBQ of Queens St. Chairman Mick Burrows started the evening started the evening explaining that we have now passed the 180 scholar mark since the original 4 scholars John Adams, Dennis Greensmith, Fred Riddell and Denis Goldsworth left in 1949. Each scholar has a unique experience and brings back valuable learning points for their employer / county. There were speeches from the Lord Mayor and alumni Elisia Denton (2015) and Sheridan Chilvers (2011).

Among the guests was Dianne Allen, representing the Nottingham City Business Club which has a strong relationship with the scholarship since its beginning. Indeed Eleanor Roosevelt spoke at the club on a visit in 1962 when she was collected at the Nottingham Station by one of the 1958 scholars Christine Attenborough in her Morris Minor! We welcomed back Clive & Jeanette Dobbs (1970) who have returned from New Zealand to live in Bingham. Our ’youngest’ alumni  was Michael Smith (1960) and we had alumni form each of the following decades. Mick rounded off the evening explaining the vision for the scholarship was to grow the number of scholars to 5 per year. This would be a challenge for the Trustee in finding supporters who could help both financially and in spreading the benefits of what the scholars had found.Full details below.

70th – Full write up  Lord Mayor Speech.   Chairman speech  Videos

 

Interesting to Know Event – 17th July 2019

In another first Sheridan Chilvers and Tori Harrison gave a talk on the scholarship at the Interesting To Know event in July. The event has organised by Len Simmons and held at the Congressional Church Centre in Nottingham. Tori and Sheridan explained what the scholarship is about, its history and its goals.

Annual Celebration Event – 5th July 2019

Another excellent evening at the Manners Arms in Knipton hearing from the 2018 scholars Tori Harrison and Ben Felstead – what a trip they had. Delighted to also hear from John Brewington (2003) and the success he has had since returning especially with his firm Drain Markers ( https://drainmarkers.co.uk). Also heard the initial plans of the 2019 scholars Sam Preston, Henry Franklin and the Mayflower scholar Joe Danks. Thanks to Gareth Bartsch and family for hosting the event for the third year running at their lovely Country House ( https://www.mannersarms.co.uk )

Pictured at the event Top (L->R) : Sheridan Chilvers, Ben Felstead, Russ Blenkinsop, Cllr Kevin Rostance, Joe Danks. Bottom row Henry Franklin, Sam Preston, Tori Harrison, Lord Mayor Rosemary Healy.

Visit to US Embassy – 27th June 2019

Our three 2019 scholar visited the US Embassy and were hosted by Anna Martz the DCAO. This visit is key to establishing key contacts within the US for our scholars projects. Anna and Sarah-Jane were excellent hosts in the true spirit of American hospitality.

Meeting with Chairman of Nottinghamshire County Council – 5th Jun 2019

All three of our 2019 scholars met with Cllr Kevin Rostance, the Chairman of Nottinghamshire County Council. They were also joined by Cllr Kay Cutts the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council to discuss their projects and how they might benefit the county. A wide range of topics were covered and advice given for potential contacts in the UK and the US and how to best target the needs of the county. Pictured above are Joe Danks, Sam Preston, Cllr Kevin Rostance and Henry Franklin.

 

Meeting with Lord Mayor – 30th May 2019

Two of our three 2019 scholars, Henry Franklin and Sam Preston met with the Lord Mayor to discuss their projects and how they might benefit the city. Cllr Rosemary Healy was most interested in the projects and gave valuable advice of who to meet with prior to detailed planning of the scholar’s travels. Pictured above are Henry Franklin Lord Mayor Rosemary Healy, Russ Blenkinsop (NRMTS Secretary) and Sam Preston.

 

Annual visit to Panthers Game – 16th December 2018

After our initial debuts at making online videos a group of Alumni and friends watched the Nottingham Panthers match against Guildford at the Nottingham Motorpoint Arena. Great evening but shame about the result. This was the annual event where we joined our friends from Lowdham Colts who took 250 players / parents to the event.

Meeting with Ken Clarke MP and Chris Aylett (Chief Exec of British Motorsport Industry Association and 1969 alumni) to discuss scholarship – 4th October 2018

Sheridan Chilvers arranged a meeting for himself, Mick Burrows and Russ Blenkinsop with Ken Clarke MP and Chris Aylett (pictured above) at County Hall to discuss the future direction of the scholarship. All agreed the scholarship had a tremendous heritage, was unique to Nottinghamshire and makes a life changing difference to the scholars and the people they work with on their return. Ideas discussed included stronger links with US affiliates and stronger marketing.

Learning more about the County – 12th July 2018

Tori Harrison and Russ Blenkinsop went to County Hall at the invitation of the Chairman of the County Council (Cllr Sue Saddington – current Trustee) to learn more about the County and to see the tremendous work the councillors do on behalf of the people of Nottinghamshire. The key discussion was the possibly move towards Unitary councils which would have a major impact on Nottinghamshire. Thanks also to Keith Ford for a fascinating discussion on the County.

Celebration Event – 29th June 2018

The experiences of the 2017 scholars were shared at the annual Celebration Event held on 29th June 2018 and hosted by the Manners Arms, Knipton. An energising and inspirational evening in which Gareth and Miles gave talks on their 2017 experiences with Tori and Ben outlining their plans for their 2018 travels. New this year was a talk from an Alumni _ Martin Rudge gave an excellent talk on what it was like to be a scholar in 1968.

Pictured at the event are (left to right) Tori Harison (2018), Martin Rudge (1968), Chair of Nottinghamshire County Council Sue Saddington, Russ Blenkinsop (Secretary/Treasurer), Ben Felstead (2018), Barry Saddington, Gareth Morgan (2017), Miles Waghorn (2017), Lord Mayor Liquat Ali, Mick Burrows (Chairman).

New scholars meet Old Scholars – 23 May 2018

New scholars Ben and Tori were welcomed into the Nottingham Roosevelt family where they met previous scholars. Pictured L to R are Sheridan Chilvers, Ben Felstead, Gareth Morgan, Russ Blenkinsop, Rachel Armitage, Angelena Efstathiou and Tori Harrison.

 

New Scholars Appointed – Tori Harrison and Ben Felstead

Congratulations to Tori Harrison and Ben Felstead for winning the 2018 scholarships.

Tori is a fundraiser for Framework Homelessness Charity and is individual passionate about social justice. By working with not-for-profits in America she hopes to find the most effective strategies build relationships between charity and supporter and to encourage greater assistance for homeless people in Nottinghamshire.

Ben is a Community Arts Practitioners and work for Nottinghamshire YMCA. He will be travelling across the USA exploring how the Creative Arts and Digital Medias are being used to impact not only participants’ artistic expression, but also their attitude and behaviour, community cohesion and wellbeing. His planned route is Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, El Paso, New Orleans, Nashville, Jacksonville, Atlanta and New York.

Thanksgiving Event – 23rd November 2017

From all of us at #NRMTS, we hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving! This year, we’re thankful for all the scholars and trustees (past and present) who have come together to help carve out a future for this special organisation. Pictured above Rachel Armitage, Miles Waghorn, Sheridan Chilvers, Mick Burrows, Ed Attenborough, Russ Blenkinsop, Liz Blenkinsop. Also here celebrating on the night Sarah Edwards, Amanda Roberts, Nigel Roberts, Yvonne Armitage; and by phone Sarah-Marie Taylor.

Gareth Morgan on Notts TV- 11th October 2017

Gareth Morgan was a guest on Notts TV with boxing legend Steve Ward talking about his trip and all things Nottingham with host Kate Chaplin. Watch the full program here.

Lord Mayor visit – 27th September 2017

This year’s meeting with the Lord Mayor was attended by two of this year’s scholars, one of the 2015 scholars and two Trustees. The Lord Mayor shared his passion for the history of Nottingham, literacy and wildlife and listened to the plans for the 2017 scholars travels. We also discussed how important initiatives like Elisia’s Nottingham Soup were in building communities.

Pictured at the event are (left to right) Russ Blenkinsop (secretary), Elisia Denton (215 scholar), Cllr Merlita Bryan (Trustee), Gareth Morgan (2017 scholar), Angelena Efstathiou (2017 scholar), Lord Mayor Michael Edwards.

Gareth Morgan appears on Alan Lindsey Radio Nottingham show – 20th September 2017

This year’s scholar Gareth Morgan appeared Alan Lindsey’s show giving details about the scholarship and his planned travels. The interviews was in two parts

Part 1 :

Part 2

Celebration Event – 30th June 2017

The experiences of the 2016 scholars were shared at the annual Celebration Event held on 30th June 2017 and hosted by the Manners Arms, Knipton. An energising and inspirational evening in which Rachel and Sarah gave talks on their 2016 experiences with Angelena, Gareth and Miles outlining their plans for their 2017 travels.

Pictured at the event are (left to right) Miles Waghorn (2016), Dr Nigel Chapman (retiring Chairman), Russ Blenkinsop (Secretary/Treasurer), Rachel Armitage (2017), Chair of Nottinghamshire County Council John Handley, Margaret Handley, Gareth Morgan (2017), Sarah-Marie Taylor (2016).

Celebration Event reported by Nottingham Post, Notts CC, West Bridgford Wire

Full write-up of NRMTS Celebration Event 2017

Sully on the Village Screen 31 March 2017

Russ organised the inaugural Film and a Pint at the Old Ship / Lowdham Village Hall. Following on from the success of the Lowdham film festival (early March each year), the Lowdham Community are running a series of films on the last Friday of each month. This is a chance to see recent films in a Village environment at a reasonable price, with no parking issues, great refreshments and walking distance from some great pubs. A hidden gem.

Nottingham Soup initial meeting – 13 March 2017

Elisia Denton’s initial event based on her detroitsoup.com experience took place on Monday 13th March and it was a fantastic atmosphere. There were 4 great pitches, the audience were very interactive and a lot of connections were made. There has been a lot of positive feedback about the event. 68 people attended and 340.89 was raised. The winner was a lady called Hilary and her business is called Ginny’s Good Yarn- She delivers person centered lifelong learning for people with dementia and she wants to use the money to set up a group in the City as she currently operates in Southwell. She wants it to be a diverse, multicultural and interracial group. She even got a write-up in the local Bramley newspaper.

There are some pictures and tweets about the event at #nottssoup on twitter. The next soup is Monday 10th July 6.30pm at THiNK.

Rachel introduced Chi Hack night at Broadway Cinema on 13 February 2017

Rachel organised an initial meeting to see the impact Chi Hack night had made in Chicago and see if anything similar can be done in Nottingham. Key event was a Skype call with Chi Hack night founder Chris Whitaker @CivicWhitaker who Rachel met whilst on her travels. 80% of adults now get their information through the web – some of it is easy to find, some of it is difficult to find and poorly laid out. Hack nights enable collaborations of local people, developers and policy makers to produce Apps that benefit the local community using readily accessible Government data – just shown in a useful format that is easy to use. See the Chi Hack night site for how local people have helped Chicago.

Sarah on BBC Radio Nottingham 22 January 2017

Sarah makes a return visit to the BBC Radio Nottingham studios discussing the Sunday papers and her travels with John Holmes and Tom Beasley. Programme starts at 10am with gardening section and then Sarah first appears around 11.15am. Listen here

Nottingham Panthers 11 December 2016

Great win for the Panthers. Looked straight forward at first but fought back well in normal time to get to 5-5. Tense extra time until we finally won the penalty shoot out. Great fun, and the right result! Ice Hockey at its best.

Rachel Armitage appears on ITV Central 8th November 2016

Sitting in front of the US Capitol, Rachel explained the background to the scholarship and gave diplomatic answers  to the questions

See the ITV write-up here and interview here

First Alumni Get together 6th October 2016

The first Alumni get together started at 6pm at the Curious Manor in Nottingham City with their great choice of real ales. We then moved on to Goose Fair to see the sights and smell the aroma of the Fair. Being prior to the weekends the rides were slighty longer!!.

Celebration Event – 8th July 2016

Celebration Event reported by Nottingham Post – read here

The experiences of the 2015 scholars were shared at the annual Celebration Event held on 8th July 2016 and hosted by the Manners Arms, Knipton.
Click here for more details

Rachel will be investigating voter registration and democratic engagement activities in advance of the 2016 Presidential Election. She is looking to co-create new educational resources with young and marginalised communities in the city, thereby breaking down barriers that might prevent them from engaging with democracy.

Sarah will be researching the effectiveness of different methods of teaching horticulture in schools throughout the US and investigating how urban farms are successfully implemented in city areas. She is looking to bring the lessons from the IUS back to Nottingham.

Laura Hailes appears on ITV Central News 15 January 2016

Laura Hailes appeared on ITV Central News as speaking on behalf of NUH about the winter pressures facing the NHS. Great to know one of our scholars is working in such a key institution and making a difference for all of us

Elisia Denton mentioned in Forbes magazine 8th December 2015

Speaking at the Impact Hub network event in New York Elisia said ““This place is like a big plate full of culture,” she said. “I’ve found that to start a business you have to have a strong network of people to support you, and companies are less likely to fail that way. One guy I met said, ‘Once you’ve got to the top, you have to send the lift back down and help someone else up.’ People are willing to help anyone willing to try.”

Read article here

A SCHOLARSHIP which has helped dozens of young people travel to America to further their careers celebrated its 65th anniversary.

The Scholarship was established on 5th November 1946 by the Lord Mayor of Nottingham, Francis Carney, after discussions with Dwight D Eisenhower on 20th October 1945. The objective was to recognise the great services rendered to the Nation by the late Franklin Delano Roosevelt as President of the United States of America during the Second World War and to perpetuate a local tribute to his memory by founding the Scholarship.

To mark the occasion Haven and Bunny Roosevelt attended a black tie event held at Nottinghamshire County Council. Haven is the grandson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and has hosted many scholars on their travels to the USA. The evening was organised by the Chairman of the scholarship Sir Andrew Buchanan the Lord Lieutenant of Nottingham. The event was attended by past scholars from each of the seven decades that the scholarship has sent Nottinghamshire people to the US.

Evening Post article is available here

The event also saw the launch of a new book “American Adventure – The 1959 Journal of a Roosevelt Scholar“ by Keith Taylor the 1959 scholar now living in Boston (copies available via NRMTS secretary).

Haven Visit to Nottingham High School

In December 2009 Haven Roosevelt visited Nottingham to meet with the Trustees, He visited the Nottingham High School, Wollaton Hall and the Major Oak amongst other Nottinghamshire attractions – and also slipped across the border to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire