Christmas fundraising events raise more than £83,000

The Skipton Craven Rotary Christmas charity events in November and December raised a staggering £83,617 for local charities.

The ever-popular Great Skipton Santa Fun Run, which in November saw 2500 people run, jog, walk and wheelchair around a 5/3-kilometre course, raised a total of £73,005, through entry fees, anonymous donations and charitable donations by teams and individual participants.

The Santa Sleigh, together with Santa collections at Morrisons and Tesco raised £10,612.

Peter Ripley, The Lead Organiser of the Santa Fun Run said: 

“The £73,005 raised from Great Skipton Santa Fun Run is an incredible achievement and reflects the continuing success of this annual community event, which began in 2010 with 400 participants. Since then, the number of participants has increased to 2,500, and we have raised a grand total of £601,544.

I am immensely proud of what we have achieved.

This event takes a lot of planning, which involves many organisations and individuals, not least the Team at Skipton Town Council, my colleagues at Skipton Craven Rotary and Skipton Rotary and our 43 Commercial sponsors whose financial contributions have considerably reduced our operating costs.

We needed a minimum of 50 officials on the day, so I am most grateful to my fellow Rotarians not just from our Club but also from several other Clubs, their spouses, Friends of Rotary, the Skipton Freemasons, Modality Partnership, Manorlands and Marie Curie for helping us out on the day.

And finally, to Lesley Tate at the Craven Herald and the Team at Your Skipton Radio for some wonderful coverage over the years.

Sadly, all good things do eventually end; we are a small Club with an ageing membership, and some key players are wanting to stand down.  But fortunately, our friends at Skipton Rotary have come to the rescue, thus ensuring the future of The Great Skipton Santa Fun Run.”

Brian Stott, President of Skipton Craven Rotary said:

 “Congratulations to Peter Ripley and his Team for yet another successful Santa Fun Run in this our final year as organisers.

We pride ourselves in being part of the Skipton Community, and the support for our Christmas fundraising activities clearly shows how much the people of Skipton value our efforts.

The Santa Sleigh has been an annual feature for the last 30 years. Over 12 nights in December, we walk the streets of Skipton and surrounding villages covering many miles overall. As each year goes by, the hills get steeper and the routes longer, but everywhere we go, we are cheerfully greeted by whole families - often with their children already in their pyjamas, no matter how cold the weather - who want to see Santa. The joy of seeing Santa and the generosity of donations to our Charity are palpable.

Thanks must go to our Friends who helped us out, especially to our partner charity Skipton Step into Action, whose members covered two of the 12 nights.”

A list of the charities that The Rotary Club of Skipton Craven has supported during the last year and throughout the current year,