Charity Donation Night

The Rotary Club of Kilrymont St Andrews took great pleasure this week in distributing a sizeable chunk of the year’s hard-earned charitable funds to a number of local charities.

President Ewen Allan noted that in the last year the Children In Need Charity had donated £37 million of funds while in the same period Rotary UK had donated in excess of £40 million.

Past President Brian Gray, in welcoming representatives of 10 local charities to the meeting, pointed out that although the Club’s membership of 30 Rotarians was by no means large, all members were very active in pursuing the Club’s aims and regularly punched above their weight by raising an average of £12,000 each year. This was donated to local, national and international charities.

He also pointed out that the £75,000 raised during the years of the annual Kingsbarns Charity golf outing had invariably been donated to young peoples’ charities, which had been the main focus of the Club’s inception 21 years ago.

The remainder of the evening involved presentation of funds to the charities present by Assistant Governor of Rotary Area 6 and Immediate Past Present Isobel Clifford and Vice President Elect Mike Dow.

Receiving cheques were Rymonth House St Andrews; Dundee Association for Mental Health; Teenage Cancer Trust (a UK-wide charity); Families First St Andrews; Friends of Craigtoun Park; St Andrews Brownies; Scorpions Roller Hockey; Cosmos After School Club; Fife Deaf Children’s Society; St Andrews Cubs and Scouts.

Not present but who were also given donations were St Andrews Colts; Scottish Air Ambulance; Breast and Prostate Cancer charities.

Representatives of all the charities in attendance, in offering their thanks, informed and entertained the membership by giving short addresses on the aims, projects and results of their very varied organisations. Most – although not all – of the organisations mainly targeted help and support to children and young people, aged from infancy to 24 years.

During the course of the evening, Kilrymont Rotary donated a total of £5500 pounds to the invited guests.