Fundraising and charities supported

Baddow Races

A major event in the middle of May each year is the organisation of a 10 mile road race, and a 2 mile fun run, centred around Great Baddow Millennium Community Centre.  The 2026 date is Sunday 17 May.

This event has been held annually since 1986 and Chelmsford Mildmay Rotary has been organising it since 1994.  Chelmsford Mildmay is delighted that we are now partnering as organisers with Chelmsford Rivermead Rotary. We are grateful to all our sponsors. All the money raised goes to help support local charities.  For more information go to the Baddow Races website .

Santa Sleigh

2021 saw us embark on an exciting new project, to build a Santa Sleigh to help with our fundraising activities to benefit local charities .

Work started in June on the construction of the sleigh. We were gifted an old caravan and trailer which provided the perfect base for our sleigh. We were supported financially by NFU Mutual, local businesses and family and friends of club members.The construction was completed in November with the final lights and music added at the end of the month. Since 2022 we have been sponsored by Beaulieu Chelmsford.

In 2024 we toured North Springfield, Beaulieu and Channels, Boreham, Ford End, Little Waltham, Broads Green, Great Waltham and Howe Street with all-day visits to Sainsbury's Superstore, White Hart Lane, and Morrisons Superstore, Regiment Business Park. For more information visit Santa Sleigh.

The Wilderness Foundation UK

The Wilderness Foundation education and therapy programmes help young people and adults reconnect to society and themselves through outdoor facilitation adventures, therapy and mentoring. The programmes highlight the positive impact of wild nature on personal and social wellbeing. 

"Our aims include using the outdoors, nature and wilderness experiences to bring about measurable, positive change and improved mental health within disadvantaged and vulnerable young people and adults, enabling them to lead a healthy and active life and improve their personal sustainability, independence, belonging, self-esteem and resilience."

The Children's Society East

The Children Society East works with families and young people across Essex, Hertfordshire and Norfolk and Chelmsford Mildmay supports their Community Hidden Harm Awareness Team CHHAT. This team supports young people who live with parents with alcohol and drug addiction.

Six years ago CHHAT almost collapsed through lack of funding and were saved by a number of key community partners, Chelmsford Mildmay Rotary being one of them. Seeing the value of the work undertaken we have been extremely pleased to have continued to support them.

Due to the confidential nature of this work we liaise closely with a key worker to ensure we provide support through donations at key times such as Christmas. 

Members also responded to a request to find painters and decorators for the Society’s premises in Chelmsford.  The club did more than that and members redecorated rooms including the reception, the training room, two meeting rooms, the corridor and disabled toilet.  We provided the paint and labour and saved the Children's Society East thousands of pounds.  

Other local charities

We support many other local charities in various ways, be it with financial help, physical help or publicity.

The Rotary Foundation is Rotary’s own charity 

Throughout the world, Rotary Foundation funds improvements in health, supports education and helps to alleviate poverty. One of the main projects spearheaded by Rotary Foundation is the eradication of Polio through its support of a global vaccination programme. From a staggering 125 polio endemic countries in 1988, Rotary's efforts helped to reduce this to just two. Polio is still endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan and so there's no letting up in efforts to rid the world of polio.

International Projects

Through Rotary International we support a number of international projects. 

As a club we have had two major projects with South Africa and Tanzania.

South Africa Internet Classroom Project

For a number of years we have been ‘twinned’ with a local Rotary club in Klerksdorp, South Africa. One of their objectives, was to construct a classroom from a cargo container, equip it with computers, printers and classroom equipment, and site it in a local township so that disadvantaged local children had access to the internet to complete their school studies.

In 2020 Klerksdorp Rotary Club commissioned their first ‘Internet Classroom’ which is providing superb facilities for local children. Klerksdorp Rotary has identified three more townships that would benefit from such a classroom.

We wanted to be a part of this successful work so fundraising began to enable us, with the oversight of our Klerksdorp colleagues, to provide a compete classroom provided by the Rotary Club of Chelmsford Mildmay. This project was so successful that our club fully funded a second classroom. To date there are now four such facilities across townships close to Klerksdorp.

Computers for Tanzania

A major international project was providing equipment for schools in Tanzania.
For seven years Chelmsford Mildmay Rotarians collected unwanted but usable computer equipment, professionally cleared hard drives, packed, loaded and shipped to Tanzania schools. 
See Computers for Tanzania.