“Roll Up, Roll Up For The Grand Raffle”

Who could resist  the cries of

our Rotakids? Nobody!

Our daughter club, Rotary Club of Billericay Mayflower's annual Christmas Market saw club members out in force to support the event with four marquees showcasing different activities.  The largest marquee housed our Grand Christmas Raffle, and others showcased the Soapbox Derby coming again due to popular demand in May 2019.

Rotary Recognised

First the Raffle.  Another great day, with club members again buying nearly £700 of tickets in advance, and, thanks to their generosity, not only did we sell another £950 of tickets to the public, but kind visitors and residents of our town also donated over £120 to our charitable causes saying they didn't need a raffle ticket, they just wanted to donate to such a good cause. Rotary's value is clearly recognised!
Final total - nearly £1800 raised in one day.

It's quite an effort selling that many tickets but most members were able to help on the day, and we were well supported by members of our two RotaKids clubs, the RotaKids of Quilters Junior School and Buttsbury Junior School.  How are such young children so mature?  Where do they get their repartee from?  One young girl had a 100% success rate - all the time she was there nobody refused to buy a ticket from her, . Others had a tremendous time on the microphone "reeling in the punters".  They all had great fun!

All the prize-winners have already received their prizes:

• Case of Wine - Jonathan - 00157
• Hybrid Bicycle - Angela - 00596
• Food Hamper - Mel - 01142
• Fruit Basket - Jan - 00874
• Billericay Print - Elizabeth - 00586

Soapbox Derby - It's all GO!

Reserve the date - May 6 2019.  it's going to be another terrific event!

Not only were there two soapboxes on display at the entrance to the market, but we had a major installation of other soappboxes and related information.

• One complete tent made over to photos and posters from our 2017/8 events,
• One tent containing a huge 65-inch video screen (our thanks to Quilters Junior School for lending it to us) which showed continuously throughout the day, all 30 videos of the last three Soapbox Derbies. The screen had crowds around it all day long and was again a major talking point in the nearby pubs and restaurants.
• One tent showing off two 2018 soapboxes - "Dr Hans Zharkov's Mongo Lander" - of Flash Gordon fame, complete with flashing lights and sound effects.  Also in this tent was the "Happy Feet" Soapbox from the Rotary Club of Wickford, the team members of which were on hand all day in their penguin suits (they were warm!) showing off their creation, handing out publicity flyers and most importantly, encouraging passing children to sit in and "drive" the soapbox, much to the children's delight.

And that wasn't all!  There were also other soapboxes:

• "The Canvey Chugger" steam engine from the Rotary Satellite Club of Canvey Island,
• "Tom" - the American jeep - a private entry from Tom Acors
• "The Flying Scotsman" steam engine from Wardell Armstrong - the Complete CARnage team.  Team members in full Scottish dress were there most of the day, like "Happy Feet", showing off their creation, handing out publicity flyers and encouraging passing children to sit in and "drive" the soapbox, much to the children's delight.

Not only were all these soapboxes on our stand but they were almost all part of the Christmas Parade, showing off in front of the crowds as they followed Father Christmas along the High Street.

Our grateful thanks to Complete Carnage, Happy Feet, Canvey Chugger, Dr Zharkov and Tom for bringing along their soapboxes and giving so much of their time to publicize the 2019 Soapbox Derby!

Many people stopped to tell us how much they had enjoyed the last three events and they were “definitely” coming along in 2018, and others told us they were definitely going to enter a soapbox in 2019.
The effort was so worthwhile!