The Rotary Club of Swindon Old Town hosts breakfast meetings at the Westlecot on Wednesday mornings (excluding the 5th Wednesday of the month).

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Meetings start at 7.30am with the normal format being:

• Club business

• Invited speakers talk about their charities or interest

• Continental breakfast.

 

The Club supports various charaties both locally and further afield. Each year the incumbent President chooses the charities to be supported.

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This year the President is Gary Walker and he has chosen to support:

• Prospect Hospice

• Foodshare

• Shelterbox

• Desai school in Nairobi Kenya

 

Prospect is known  to all of us and I'm sure everybody will know  someone who has used their services. 

Foodshare is a small project based at Goddard park school on the Parks, offering food parcels to families struggling through these tough times, they are currently  feeding up to 90 families. 

Shelterbox is a great charity providing tents for displaced people all over the world, often among the first relief providers to arrive. After the Turkey/Syria  earthquake on the Monday 6th February Shelterbox had a tented village set up by the Wednesday. Look them up at shelterbox.org

Desai school is a project the Club has supported for some years, first building the school in one of the poorest areas in Nairobi, since then supporting the school in numerous ways including providing the teachers pay.

 

So how does the Club raise the money to support these projects?

The main event is the Duck Race which this year will be held on 29th May. In addition to the main duck race, there is a corporate drake race and a schools race. The day also includes a dog show and lots of charity stalls. The event normally raises somewhere between £10,000 and £14,000.

This year's other big project was to organise the car parking at Commonweal School for the Town Gardens light trail. This raised £1,800 for Prospect. 

Other small events held this year included a race night and a quiz night, both at Westlecot, and curry night to raise money for End Polio.

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Lots of events are lined up for the coming year, including a bowls night with some of the Westlecot members.

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