Christmas 2024

The Rotary Club of Ashford have again been busy over the Christmas period. We commenced our annual Christmas Collections around the Ashford and Stanwell area at the beginning of December and our Christmas Float with Santa on board was truly magnificent. Unfortunately we were unable to continue with our normal collections as regrettably the float acquired some mechanical problems and we could not visit every area as a necessary replacement spare part for the vehicle was not readily available.

We carried on with a replacement Christmas Float the “Santa Express Train “ which we took to various static locations in the area, including the Tesco Superstore at Town Lane to enable the children to see Santa and inform him of their Christmas requests and give him their Christmas letters. Our members and volunteers were truly amazing in adapting to a completely new role.

We attended the Ashford Wide Christmas Market in early December for a Christmas Tombola to raise money for our Presidents Charity “Air Ambulance” and other local worthy needs. At that time the Christmas Float was operational and people had a chance to see it in all its splendour outside Ashford Library and Santa was also there to see all the children.

As the market is in the late afternoon and it is getting dark early our brightly lit Christmas Float was very visible and many local children had the opportunity to see Santa as well as having various Christmas treats while the adults enjoyed some seasonal mulled wine whilst visiting all the various stalls in Church Road.

It was truly very busy and we were kept at full speed on our tombola for the whole duration of the Ashford Wide Market.

We also displayed our Christmas Tree in St Matthews Church in their annual Christmas Tree Event. The Church looks lovely with all the Christmas trees displayed by local clubs and businesses all around its interior. Our theme this year was Rotary International’s  theme “THE MAGIC OF ROTARY”. 

The many Rotary Clubs throughout Great Britain and Overseas achieve so much with their members to help not only local communities and charities but projects throughout the world. This is the magic that united people can bring about change in so many needed situations, however, we all know that this is only achieved by much effort and hard work and of course people all “pulling together”.

We are so very grateful to the people of Ashford and Stanwell who donated so generously to our collections. The monies raised will go towards helping our local Charities and other local communal needs throughout the coming year. We do hope that next year we will be able to be back with our normal programme  and fully operational Christmas Float and that Santa will be able to visit our usual Ashford and Stanwell areas.

From Us All at Ashford Rotary we hope you had a very enjoyable Christmas and wish everyone a Happy and Healthy 2025