Awards Evening

Presentation Evening, Wednesday 29th July 2026

Rotary Club of Senlac St Leonards

Every year the Rotary Club of Senlac St Leonards has the pleasure in passing on donations to various charities and local good causes. On Wednesday, 29th July, at Cooden Beach Golf Club the Rotary Club followed tradition and presented awards from their charity funds and a share of this year’s car show profits. President Colin Goldsack explained, “Sadly the weather was too perfect, it was so hot the footfall was well down on previous years. This means we don’t have so much money available, but we will still be making signification donations”. Colin thanked the Car Show organiser, Dave Miles and Chris Folley, who organised the stalls and catering, and all the Rotarians and volunteers who helped. “Without their work the show would not have gone on.”  There were three recipients this year, Surviving Christmas, Rye Heritage Centre and the Rotary Club’s own group, the Yellowmen which works in north-west Kenya. 

 Chris King of Rye Heritage explained that the centre piece of the display was a model of Rye, “We have many tourists and school parties visiting and now have three different videos with light, sound and subtitles in various languages. The Rotary Club’s donation will help us to continue to enhance the visitors’ experiences.”
Lionel Parr accepted the donation on behalf of Surviving Christmas, “Like most charities we are finding it harder the raise money. We have about 150 people for dinners on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and prepare about 1200 hampers for handing to those who cannot get out. This donation will help us to continue what we have been doing for the past 40 years” 

Rotarian Eddie MacCall who started and has led the Kenyan Yellowmen for the past 25 years said that over the years they had worked in schools, given hygiene training and help, built clinics and accommodation for both schools and clinics, “Although we are winding down because of our ages, there is still work to be finished and this donation will help with that.”

The evening also included the handing over of two other donations.

The first was to Bexhill Boxing Club who have been raising the funds for a second-hand minibus. The Rotary Club of Senlac St Leonards helped with a donation of £1000 as a contribution towards the final amount needed, as did the Rotary Club of Bexhill. Coach Terry Freeman who had come in the bus said, “The mini bus is going to  make life so much easier for transporting the boxers around, at the moment we have to use the coaches’ cars. As a club we don’t teach knock out, we teach contact and we help a lot of deprived and wayward youngsters and have even helped some drug uses to stop the habit and actually get work.”

The next and final donation went to the Sidley Hub, a new community centre in the village, which provides a lot of community support and is available for use to other organisations. Jay Wooton from the Hub, was so pleased, “The £3,000 will buy needed furniture for us in the café and each table will have a Rotary plaque which will be seen by many people. The fully accessible facility is open to all and at the moment we are doing school holiday activities and food. We’d welcome anyone to come along and see us and have a look around. The Hub will be a fantastic place for the community as a whole.

Winding the evening up, President Colin said it has been a pleasure supporting these good causes and thanked all for coming.