Applauding Their Achievements

Each year we give our RotaKids clubs an opportunity to present to us and give us an annual update on what they have achieved this year.  This gives us a chance to applaud those achievements, and an opportunity for each of them to shine as they present to an adult audience.

At our meeting on July 17 we were delighted to welcome the Buttsbury RotaKids’ officers, headteacher Ann Robinson and RotaKids leader Annie Watson, to give us their annual update on what the RotaKids have achieved this year.

It was a special pleasure to give them copies of our June Newsletter which featured a report of their receipt of the Rotary Presidential Citation, and their photo on the front cover.  They were delighted and devoured it excitedly.

Malcolm Acors had brought along a microphone and speaker to help the children and this worked very well.  Their main charity for the year, voted upon by the whole school, was the British Heart Foundation, and they held a sponsored racket and bouncing ball event which had raised £3414! – the winner managed over 160 bounces!

But this wasn’t all, amongst the other actions were:.  

• They wore purple at school to raise money for Cancer Research on “Go Purple Day”
• During Dementia Awareness week they worked to make the local area more Dementia Friendly, making posters for display in local high street shops.
• They organised a “Break the Rules” day where, e.g. they wore their sweaters round their waists, had socks rolled down, drank fizzy fruit drinks and didn’t tuck in their shirts
• They ran an “Enterprise Day” in which the different classes staged competitions and sales to see who would make the most money – a year 5 class won.  But they raised over £1500!
• They wore pyjamas to school twice to raise money for “Comic Relief” and for “Children in Need”, for which they also sold “Pudsey” badges and ran games and competitions.
• They donated to the Billericay Food bank
• They held a fundraising event - “Jeans for Genes”
• They remembered all those who fought for us by hosting a WWII veteran on Remembrance Day

And finally, they were delighted with their Rotary Presidential Citation and featured it in their presentation.

Great Fun

Speaking to the children during the meal it was clear that they had become good friends and had great fun in their RotaKids roles. They had enjoyed putting themselves forward for election by their classmates and were proud to wear their RotaKids badges. They’ve certainly demonstrated the Rotary ideals of fun, fellowship and service.

Our member Les Sheppard, also a governor of the school, commented “The children spoke enthusiastically and confidently about their activities over the past year. Their enjoyment shone through and they were great representatives of the school.”

President Roger thanked them for coming along to tell us what they had done during the year and congratulated them on their achievements, and it fell to Peter Greene to propose the vote of thanks to the RotaKids for all that they had achieved, and the professional quality of their presentation.  There was unanimous applause from all assembled there.

Buzzing

A last word from Buttsbury Junior School Headteacher Ann Robinson, who told us “Thank you for the lovely lunch yesterday - the children had a great time and were buzzing when they got back to school - hopefully not just from the fizzy drinks!  We were very proud of them - especially with the confident way they tackled the questions!