Ceilidh and Concert - Calling the Tunes for Smile Train

Taunton Rotary Club hosted a highly successful St Patrick's Eve ceilidh at Trull Church Community Centre on Saturday 16th March to raise money for Smile Train UK, a charity that helps children with a cleft palate and issues related to an affliction that effects children across the globe. 1 in 700 babies globally are born with a cleft lip and/or palate. Clefts cause difficulties eating, breathing, hearing, and speaking. Many children around the world are living with untreated clefts. Most have difficulties eating, breathing, hearing, and speaking. Smile Train is the largest cleft-focused organization providing training, funding, and resources to empower local medical professionals in 70+ countries to provide 100%-free cleft surgery and other forms of essential cleft care in their own communities. The event was another example of the way Rotary supports work among young people locally and globally while having lots of fun and laughter of course.

This was followed in quick succession by a Spring Concert by the students of our Corporate member Richard Huish College in aid of Smile Train. A large audience was entertained by talented young musicians performing a wide spectrum of music with a full orchestra playing popular classical pieces, cameos from ensembles playing and singing music from different eras and culminating in a stirring finale by the Big Band. A grateful audience dug deep and contributed generously to a retiring collection for our charity.

For more information about Smile Train visit www.smiletrain.org.uk