President's Message

Welcome to the Rotary Club of Chislehurst’s website. It is an honour and a pleasure to be asked to be President of the Club for this year. I hope you will enjoy reading about who we are and what we do. 

Many of you might have heard about Rotary from seeing us collecting on the streets at Christmas, from attending our Summer Fair on Chislehurst Common or heard the booms of the annual Chislehurst fireworks in November. What many do not know is that Rotary extends much further than just our neighbourhood.

Worldwide there are over 35,000 local Rotary clubs and a membership of over 1.2 million people. Just in the UK we have almost 1,700 clubs and 50,000 members from all walks of life. As a Rotarian you may visit any club and meet new friends and contacts, it’s like having an extended family in almost every part of the world. Personally, I have met and spoken with Rotarians on Cruise ships around the world and exchanged views about what Rotary does within our different communities.

In our Club we raise money through our fund-raising activities which is spend locally and internationally.

Locally we help deserving charities such as Marjorie McClure school, and Demelza to name but a few. We also hold an annual party for the senior citizens in our society, encouraging social contact and banishing loneliness.

Internationally we send support to disaster-stricken areas affected by floods, earthquakes, famine and war, giving shelter and clean water via Rotary organisations such as Shelter Box.

Rotary Internationals main focus has been the eradication of Polio worldwide which in the history of Rotary has had extraordinary success. More recently we have been partnered by the Bill Gates Foundation There are now only a handful of Polio cases left in the world but sadly the fight will never be over until there are no more. Then the world will be safe from this terrible disease.

It may sound as if we are only about work and fundraising, but we also have many social events and have a lot of fun together. We meet twice a month on Monday evenings for dinner and a good chat. We have a variety of interesting speakers to also entertain and tell us about their jobs, charities, and hobbies.

Have a read through our website and learn more about our club. We are also on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly known as twitter). Send us an email and come to a meeting or just respond and say you are able to help at an event. You will always find some like-minded people and learn more about us. You may even want to join!!