Rotarian returns from Czech trip (From The Advertiser Series)

Darlington Rotarian returns from Czech trip

8:00am Thursday 6th September 2012 in News

A ROTARY club member regaled colleagues with tales from her trip abroad during a recent meeting.

Dianne Mousley presented Darlington Rotary Club president Roland Lang with the banner of the Prag-Bohemia Club, following a visit to Prague.

She had been in the Czech Republic as part of a meeting of the International Federation of Flying Rotarians (IFFR), one of a number of specialist groups within the Rotary organisation.

A total of 90 Clubs worldwide make up the Federation membership, which is for Rotarians with a particular interest in flying.

Dozens of members flew their own planes into Prague airport for the occasion.

Mrs Mousley’s father, Charles Strasser - a member of the Rotary Club of Jersey - is a former worldwide President of IFFR.

Mr Strasser fled from his native Czechoslovakia in 1938, when he was 11, just before the Nazi invasion.

Six years later he joined the allied forces and participated in the final victory.

Before his 21st birthday he founded a company that would go on to employ hundreds of people and have international trading connections with many countries.

In 2000 he received the OBE for humanitarian services and Mrs Mousley was proud to tell the Darlington club members that he has now been awarded the merit cross for his work in the second world war.