President Phil's Address

Helping the Community

Firstly a big thank you to our past president, John Murray. During the last year John set in motion a structural committee to look at how our club functions and how we can meet some of the challenges going forward.

We are a vibrant club but recognise that to meet these challenges there will be a need for change. The recommendations of the structural committee that was set up are now being implemented and a key focus will be to continue our drive to modernise our club with new activities and different methods of working.

Our club covers a very giving community: Newton-le Willows, Earlestown, Burtonwood, Lowton and Golborne and our main drive will be to give a helping hand to those who generously support us at our Christmas float and Beer Festival events which are our two main fundraising events. This will not only be in the form of donations but also networking and bringing groups together. Our support will be to community groups, schools and other organisations.

Our aim is to help others but we also need help ourselves. Last year we offered local community groups the chance to become ‘santa’s little helpers” for our float collections. This was very successfully and another way to connect with our communities. We will repeat this exercise this year.

We will also support communities around the world who are less fortunate than us. Rotary International and Foundation is the world’s fifth largest charity organisation and in recent years has been the main driver in eliminating polio. We will also continue to support Disaster Aid initiatives.

The driving values of Rotary is “service above self” and in staying true to those values we will aim to achieve them through Fellowship and Fun so you will also see us involved in other events in our community. To achieve this we will be looking for new members who have the time and energy to spare so if you are interested please contact us via the details on our website. Finally to dispel any myths we are a dual gender club.

So an interesting and exciting year in prospect and one where we can continue connecting with the community.

Many Thanks.

President Phil