We present the cheques

It was with great delight that on June 21 at our Monday lunch we were able to hand over £15,000 in total from the proceeds of  our spectacular Soapbox Derby to the agreed recipients of the designated major charities.

The sum of £5,000 each was presented by retiring president Ed Harrison to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Hope & Homes for Children and Little Havens Children’s Hospice.

They were received by Gianluca Di Pasqua, representing Friends of MSF, by Catherine Butt, Community Publicity Manager for Hope & Homes (the charity that supports disadvantaged children in Romania) and Peter Hall, Area Leader for Voluntary Income at Havens Hospices.

All three recipients were unanimous in thanking the Rotary Club of Billericay. Peter Hall said: “This means so much to us. We have to rely on such generosity and, to put it bluntly, this helps us keep our neck out of the woods”. Catherine and Gianluca expressed their thanks in similar terms.

This cheque presentation followed the £2,000 already handed, as agreed, to Quilters Junior School for their participation and support and £1000 to Rotary’s End Polio Program and smaller donations to other local youth organisations.

It was our pleasure to have as our guests, David Randall representing the Rotary Club of Billericay Mayflower, who had provided tremendous support to the event including manning two entrance gates throughout the day, and Danny Lovey from the Rotary Club of Basildon Concord which had helped man one of the gates.