Collections & Celebrations - Dec 2019

Christmas Collections - 2019

It’s a cold and frosty morning in early December when the main entrance to Tesco at Elmers End is once again filled with the sound of carols and Christmas songs.  Beckenham Rotary Club is starting its annual collecting for local children’s charities. It takes some of the Tesco customers a while to get into the Christmas spirit but after two days we are nearing our first £1,000.00
 
Next we take the sleigh into the streets of Beckenham with door-to-door collections for six consecutive evenings.  Despite inclement weather, and two particularly wet outings, the cash rolls in and we add a further £5,000.00 to our total.
 
And then comes the bag-packing! Through the generous support of Marks & Spencer and Waitrose we are allowed to offer bag-packing services to their customers.  Whether the customers risk our help, or prefer to pack their own bags, nearly all are generous to us and are pleased to donate to our collections. 

Even those without cash - as our new card reder gives us the opportunity to collect card payments.

We are collecting from rail customers at Shortlands Station on a day when there was a fault with the signalling! Not the ideal day to collect but we still do well.
 
We are nearing the end, and with a day of collecting alongside our friends at Tesco Express and a final day at Waitrose on 23rd December our programme comes to an end.  A busy month and our grateful thanks to all those who helped us reach our total - a new high of over £11,500.00
 
All the money raised from our Christmas collecting goes to support local children’s charities.       

Everyone who helps or gives money to Beckenham Rotary Club at this time really does help to change young lives. 

In January 2020 we held our GCT lunch, when President Dinah marked the occasion with the presentation of a 50 year membership certificate to Rotarian Peter Duncan and the presentation of a cheque to representatives from the Honeypot charity. 

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