Fantastic fundraising year for Rotary!
The Rotary Club of Banstead has raised a staggering £24,700 for charity this last Rotary year 2019-20!
The group is delighted to have raised the impressive sum which has been donated to a number of charities.
This year, members organised the Charity Walk which raised more than £7,000 for 9 local causes including MNDA, Alzheimers Society, Citizen’s Advice Reigate & Banstead, Epsom & Ewell Foodbank, HomeStart EEB, Mary Frances Trust, .Princess Alice Hospice, Sunnybank Trust and St. Raphael’s Hospice.
General donations clocked up over £3,500 for over 30 charities supporting people who are blind, have mental health issues, or who homeless or in need of a food bank.
Other events have included the Village Fair, dinners at members’ homes, race night, a quiz and collections at Waitrose Banstead and ASDA Burgh Heath.
The well loved Christmas Santa Sleigh rounds raised over £10,700! Charity partners supporting the Rotary Club on the collection rounds included Banstead Macular Group, 3rd Banstead Scouts, Home Start EEB, Dyscover, Banstead Five Churches, Age Concern Banstead and The Beacon School. Further donations were made to other charity partners including Epsom & Ewell Foodbank, Epsom & Ewell Talking News, East Surrey Talking Newspaper, The Diamond Centre, Princess Alice Hospice, QEF Banstead, Crossroads Care Surrey,and, National Autistic Society Surrey.
President John Draper congratulated all Rotarians for their hard work and dedication in raising the charity sums mentioned above. He also raised £1100 for his chosen President’s Charity, Children With Cancer Fund, Polegate Members were also commended for their work in the community which includes helping school pupils with the Young Chef, Youth Debates public speaking and Beacon School Interact Club. The Club held weekly dinners each month with a diverse and interesting range of speakers.
Banstead Rotary Club President John Draper stepped down at the club's Zoom meeting on 30 June. Rotarian Paul Lufflum will take over as the club's new president from July 2020.
A Club Spokesperson summarised the last Rotary year with the following words, which includes the impact of COVID-19 on the charity:
"It is amazing how quickly the year has flown by. The Club Members feel very humble and honoured for the support received from the people of Banstead and our key charity partners.”
"The theme of Rotary International President Mark Daniel Maloney was “Rotary Connects The World," which was a great theme how we connect to the world and make a difference globally.
We wanted to build stronger relationships with our charity partners and Inner Wheel, as well as to carry on the good work and recruit new members. The Club excels in organising fantastic community events. This is complemented by the International team who organise events and projects to support Rotary polio eradication through the charity End Polio Now, and, our relationship with our twin club, Louviers-Le-Neubourg.”.
Covid- 19 has has a huge impact on our fundraising abilities and we have not raised as much money as we were going to because events like the Charity Walk, Race Night, Quiz, International Dinners and Village Fair were cancelled. Social distancing is going to have a greater impact on how we organise our events in the future and how we hold our Cuddington Golf Club meetings. We have to adapt to new the new ways of holding meetings and having a cashless society. Our last dinner meeting was on 3 March, and since then we have regrouped online for weekly Zoom meetings. If you would like to join us, volunteer, learn more then please visit www.bansteadrotary.com or follow Banstead Rotary on Facebook & Twitter.
