Leamington Rotary Club celebrates fundraising successes both in town and internationally

Rotarians in Leamington have plenty to be proud about as they celebrate their latest fundraising successes.
Myton team (L-R): Sarah Stallard, (Community & Events Fund Raising Manager)
Holly Kerrigan  (Head of Marketing and Communications) and
Kathryn Metcalfe  (Lottery and Community Fund Raising Support Officer)
Rotary team (L-R): Michael Dorr, Barry Frith, Mike Wilkinson and Barry Andrews (President).Myton team (L-R): Sarah Stallard, (Community & Events Fund Raising Manager)
Holly Kerrigan  (Head of Marketing and Communications) and
Kathryn Metcalfe  (Lottery and Community Fund Raising Support Officer)
Rotary team (L-R): Michael Dorr, Barry Frith, Mike Wilkinson and Barry Andrews (President).
Myton team (L-R): Sarah Stallard, (Community & Events Fund Raising Manager) Holly Kerrigan (Head of Marketing and Communications) and Kathryn Metcalfe (Lottery and Community Fund Raising Support Officer) Rotary team (L-R): Michael Dorr, Barry Frith, Mike Wilkinson and Barry Andrews (President).

The Rotary Club of Royal Leamington Spa raised a campaign record £5,124 for Myton Hospices through its Trees of Light over the Christmas period.

Residents of Leamington, Whitnash and the surrounding area, gave generously to the campaign, making donations in memory of absent loved ones and the total was an 11 per cent increase on the previous year’s donations.

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Club president Barry Andrews has said: “Without the generosity of the people of Leamington and Whitnash, the magnificent work of the Myton Hospices would not be possible. We are delighted that we have once again been able to channel such generosity to such a worthwhile cause in such an especially memorable way.”

Brian Bassett (Vice President)  Andrew Lound (speaker in the uniform of a White Star shipping line officer) and Barry Andrews (President).Brian Bassett (Vice President)  Andrew Lound (speaker in the uniform of a White Star shipping line officer) and Barry Andrews (President).
Brian Bassett (Vice President) Andrew Lound (speaker in the uniform of a White Star shipping line officer) and Barry Andrews (President).

The club also held its annual Evening Dinner at Stoneleigh Deer Park Golf Club on March 3 raising £1,881 - an an increase of 27 per cent on last year’s profit.

The special guest speaker was Andrew Lound, a celebrated expert on the Titanic disaster of 1912, who fascinated the assembly with his illustrated film presentation Titanic - the Return of a Dream.

Purple crocuses planted in October as part of a national rotary campaign in which the Leamington club took part are now in bloom.

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The flowers, bought from the Royal Horticultural Society, were used as part of the Purple for Polio fundraising drive to fund the final stage in the complete eradication of poliomyelitis worldwide.

The Rainbows crocus planting team.The Rainbows crocus planting team.
The Rainbows crocus planting team.

The Girl Guides Rainbows group of St Mark’s church in Rugby Road planted the corms donated by the Leamington club in the remembrance corner of the church yard.

Co-ordinated by the Leamington in Bloom programme, other locations where the Purple for Polio crocuses can be seen are in the Dell at Warwick Place, St Mary’s Residents’ Association’s communal gardens in Radford Road, Shrubland Street School’s garden in the Eagle Recreation Ground, and the old burial ground in New Street.

For more than 30 years Rotary International has supported the campaign headed by the World Health Organisation and other global organisations, which has led to the incidence of the crippling viral infection being reduced from a ‘hopeless’ epidemic to the 27 cases now reported only in Pakistan, Nigeria, and Afghanistan.