We Raise Our Game And Reap The Reward

What a double success we had in supporting the Billericay Christmas Market! Firstly, we raised over £1600 on our raffle; secondly, we gained some exciting new entrants for our own SoapBox Derby.

Club members were out in force to support the Market, so superbly organised by Rotary Club of Billericay Mayflower. It was another great success – the sun shone, the skies were blue (and so were we as we shivered in the cold!), but tens of thousands of people thronged Billericay High street to take part, to buy Christmas items and enjoy the entertainment.

Our special themes were the 2017 Soapbox Derby which takes place on Bank Holiday Monday, May 1, 2017 and our grand Christmas raffle which was drawn at the end of the day.

We had two soapboxes on display which delighted the passing children given the chance to sit in and try out – budding racing drivers or just future competitors in the years to come?  Reaction to the 20-16 event was unanimous - “great event”, “thoroughly enjoyed it,” “looking forward to next year.”

We were able to answer enquiries about whether entries were closed yet and hundreds of people took our information flyers and asked where they could find more information. We explained that it was all on the website at www.billericaysoapbox.co.uk ).   And we gained five new entries with another four possibles.

And the figure of over £16,000 raised by our second major initiative, the annual Christmas raffle which was drawn later that day, was a major bonus – almost £400 more than the previous year.

The winners were:

1st Prize (Mountain Bike and Helmet):    Stephen Greene

2nd Prize (Luxury Christmas Hamper):   Alison Connor

3rd Prize (Case of Wine):                       Jennie Emson

4th Prize (Large Fruit Basket):                Louise Reason

Heroic RotaKids

The prizes of a mountain bike, a case of luxury wine and  a wonderful basket of fruit supplied by Ben Curtis as usual tempted  the customers but, while members  and wives played a valuable  part in selling tickets, the real heroes were the 7-10 year old members of our RotaKids club from Quilters Junior School.

Enthusiastic, thrilled and excited, led by head teacher Mike Wade and their organising teacher, Helen Kilby, they were vociferous in attracting the crowd.  They looked great in their club RotaKids tabards and just loved having a microphone in their hand to shout out the prizes.  BBC and Sky – please note, there were some budding commentators out there!  And many said: Can we come back next year?  Of course, they can.
Our thanks to the generosity of the towns folk and all those who came from outside Billericay.  A great result and all the funds will be donated to the Caribbean Disaster Appeal, Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign and other charities supported by Rotary.  Our thanks also to District Governor Terry Dean and his wife Pauline (District Governor for 2017-18) for supporting us and buying Raffle Tickets from our RotaKids, and to our AG, Peter McCafferty  for making the prize-winning raffle draw.