Michael Williams
President 2016/17

Welcome to our website

My personal welcome to you as you find out about the work being done by The Rotary Club of Baldock. 

Awareness of Rotary

I have lived in Baldock for over 50 years, belonging to several charitable organisations over the years, with some working closely with Baldock Rotary Club. My awareness of what Rotary did within the community was fairly clear. When I joined I realised Baldock Club was part of the largest service organisation in the world.  There are 1.2 million Rotarians in 34,000 clubs doing good throughout the world. As part of this huge community our Club is committed to serving our local, national and International communities.

End Polio Campaign

In 1984 Rotary became a major partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative along with other major players including the World Health Organisation and UNICEF.  The task being to achieve a world in which Polio has been eradicated. At the start there were 125 countries where Polio was endemic. Whilst we are almost there with only 3 countries left, there is still a significant task in war torn countries - Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria with cases being reported. Our club will still continue to support this objective in my year as President.

Engaging with Young People

We are active in Knights Templar School with an Interact Club, a young Rotary Club with a very similar objective as Rotary. It has been established for 5 years and growing. We also have many competitions aimed at the youth of our area. I would like to see more entrants for these from our local schools.

Support for our community

We support many worthwhile needy projects throughout our community when help and support is needed and required.

I want to involve our Club more into the local area. We are well known for our Christmas lights in Baldock town centre which we have done since 1978. The Christmas sleigh collection is very welcome as it visits all the streets in Baldock, and some in Ashwell, Stotfold and Weston, leading up to Christmas. This year we will be helped by Baldock and Ashwell Scouts helping a lot of them to obtain badges. Our satellite club in Stotfold needs members as it grows to become a full Rotary Club. I am easily contacted from our website if anybody has a suggestion that will involve us more in the area.

Fund raising is a large part of our Club, and whilst this involves a lot of our own time, we derive good fellowship doing it. Several events are organised each year to involve the communities in our area.

Cystic Fibrosis Trust

For my chosen charity this year I have nominated The Cystic Fibrosis Trust. This is a dreadful disease that needs help to find a cure to prevent a lot of our younger generation dying before they reach 30.

Maybe you would like to become a member of Rotary

I hope you enjoy exploring our website and if it sparks an interest in joining either Baldock or our Satellite Club in Stotfold, you will be most welcome. If you would like to find out more about Rotary please click on the button Join Rotary / Make a difference at the top right of this page you can leave your details and our Membership Chair will contact you.

Our catchment area is Baldock, Stotfold, Ashwell, Caldecote, Weston, Newnham, Radwell, Clothall, Wallington, Rushden, Sandon, Hinxworth, Bygrave.