Fundraising and Service

At our meeting on July 8, we were delighted to welcome the Buttsbury RotaKids’ officers, Headteacher Ann Robinson and RotaKids leader Annie Watson, to give us their annual presentation on what they had achieved this year.

Most Impressed

It was a special pleasure to give them our June Newsletter, featuring their receipt of the Rotary Presidential Citation at the school Assembly a few weeks earlier, and that wasn’t all – also featured was their visit to the D-Day commemoration at the Living memorial.  As last year, they were delighted, examined it closely and passed it around amongst themselves excitedly.

After lunch, RotaKids President Sam McFeely introduced himself and his fellow officers of the club; Vice President - Sophia Anderson; Secretary - Isabel Bailey; Treasurer - Arnav Gupta; and PR - Izzy Hadassi who all took it in turns to take us through their presentation.  They all spoke from memory without notes, speaking clearly so everybody in the room could hear them easily.  

The whole presentation went off without a misstep.  We were all most impressed by their completely professional performance belied by their young age!  Awesome!

Raised So Much Money!

The main charity which they chose to support was Cancer Research UK (CRUK) for which they held a number of events.  They started with a sponsored HOOPLA (or Hula Hoops as we oldies knew it!) raising over £2100 in late January (see our February Newsletter for a report at the time).  Other events including Fill-a-Tube(£657), a choir performance - year 3 and 4 (£219), “Go Purple for a Day” (£286) and another Enterprise Day (£1712).  Total raised for CRUK – a phenomenal £5045.75.

But this wasn’t all.  They said “We organized a “Break the Rules” day which raised £575 for the school, we had a “Pyjama Day” for Children in Need raising £726.80 and … we raised £314.80 for Comic Relief by selling red noses and wearing red to school.”

Kenya Connection

Head Teacher Ann Robinson had visited Ciamanda Primary School in Kenya (site of our Rotary Club’s first borewell or our water project) which is a partner school of Buttsbury and after seeing the teaching conditions there, they held a special Kenya Day where they wore Kenya flag colours, ate “Kenyan” food for lunch, organised their desks in rows as in Kenya, and eschewed all technology for a day.  This raised over £1000 which was enough to fence the perimeter of Ciamanda school!

Service Above Self

This may be the Rotary Motto, but it exemplifies the other achievements of the children.  Not only did they raise money by the above activities, but also undertook other service projects such as they:  

• Knit/crocheted “Forget-me-Knots” to provide comfort and stimulation to those with Dementia.
• Attended a Dementia Awareness day at Hanningfield Reservoir
• Met with local Councillor Mr Lawrence to discuss climate change and sustainability concerns they
• Did a “Litter Pick” with our Rotary Club and the Infants school
• Remembered all those who fought for us in WWII by going to the 80th Anniversary commemoration with 103 year-old Don Sheppard at the Runwell Living Memorial, being interviewed there by ITV.

Finally, they are extremely proud of winning their third Rotary Presidential Citation in a row!

Impressed by their Achievements

It was a fun-filled year in which they’ve certainly demonstrated the Rotary ideals of fellowship and service.
President Patrick thanked them for coming along to tell us what they had done during the year and congratulated them on their achievements, commenting on how impressed he had been by their presentation.  It fell to Vice-President Stephen King 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 Rotarians assembled there.

A last word from Buttsbury Junior School Headteacher Ann Robinson, who told us she was very proud of the children, who had clearly prepared well, achieved so much over the year, and had coped well with the occasion!
She added “It was lovely to join the Rotarians for their Monday meeting and the Rotakids were looking forward to sharing their successes with everyone.  The children spoke confidently and the amount of money raised, over the year, was very impressive, totalling £8,000 for a variety of charities - with over £6000 for Cancer Research UK.”
“The Rotakids have enjoyed their role and are looking forward to future charitable endeavours in their secondary schools.”
“We would like to thank the Rotary Club for the lovely lunch and their company.”