Around Thames Valley in 80 Ways Closing Ceremony

To wrap up the Around Thames Valley in 80 Ways project, a Closing Ceremony was organised to provide a forum at which the Rotary clubs participating in the transport relays could exchange experiences and show off the photographs they had taken. Most importantly it would also be the occasion on which the total sum raised by District 1090 for the Rotary Wheel Appeal would be announced.

The Closing Ceremony took place at Adams Park Stadium, the home of Wycombe Wanderers football club and Wasps rugby club. The guest speaker was Martin MacElhatton, the CEO of WheelPower. Other guest included Mike MacKenzie, the Chairman of the Poppa Guttmann Trust, his wife Sandy and Emma Lau of WheelPower.

There was a display of photographs from the 22 clubs from 6 areas that took part in the relay. Some of the clubs had put a lot of effort into providing photos of different forms of transport in which their relay baton had featured. An award was made to the individual club that had pictures of the most modes of transport - Kingham & The Wychwoods Rotary from the White Area.

A second award was made for the most innovative means of raising funds for the Rotary Wheel Appeal. Although they had not had sufficient support within the Yellow Area to undertake a relay between clubs, the award went to Wokingham Rotary. They used multiple forms of transport to and through London, and undertook a sponsored walk across the roof of the O2 Arena. Sponsorship was secured through the imaginative use of an online money-giving site.

The third award went to the Rotary Loddon Vale as the single club raising the most funds for District 1090's contribution to the national Rotary Wheel Appeal. In total 25 clubs in the district raised