Chislehurst Rotary Club - <>

Chislehurst Rotary Club

Welcome to the Facebook page of the Rotary Club of Chislehurst, a very lively, active club of which I have the honour of being President during the year 2016-17.

Our club has been in existence for nearly 50 years and is still ‘going strong’ with approximately 40 members. Our club is quite diverse, with 25% women, and members come from all walks of life. The one thing that we all have in common is the desire to provide service to the community, both locally and Internationally.

We are particularly keen to welcome younger members to our club and are reviewing new membership options to facilitate this ambition.

Rotary International has a worldwide membership of 1.2 milllion; our Motto this year is “Rotary Serving Humanity”. Among our proudest worldwide achievements has been our contribution to the elimination of polio. This drive was started many years ago by a Rotary club in the Philippines which wanted to eliminate polio from a single island by means of mass child vaccinations. Today we are on the verge of eliminating polio from the world; only 2 countries now have new cases of polio, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Rotary contribution has inspired others, such as the Bill Gates Foundation, to provide massive financial support to finally rid this world of this horrendous disease ….forever.

Our four main fund-raising events this year will be:
- Firework Night on Saturday, 5th November 2016 at the Chislehurst Recreation Ground;
- Christmas Collections during December 2016: static collections at Ruxley Manor Garden Centre and Sainsbury’s during weekends; Santa and his sleigh touring local streets during weekday evenings.
- “An Evening with local celebrities” at the Tamasha restaurant in April 2017.
Summer Fair on Saturday, 10 June 2017: Held on Chislehurst Common, this is always a very popular fun day for all the family.

Rotary is not solely about fund raising. It is also about giving: not just monetary donations but also giving one’s time and giving practical help and advice to others.

Examples of Service projects in our Local community include our work with primary schools in Chislehurst on CRISP (Chislehurst Rotary in Schools Project) and CREAM (Chislehurst Rotary Encouraging Active Music) and with older schoolchildren on ‘Youth Speak’, a nationwide debating competition run by Rotary.For the older residents of Chislehurst, we will be providing two social events: an afternoon tea, with entertainment on the 14th January 2017 and another event in May 2017.

Examples of International projects in the last few years have included donating computers and Sensory equipment to a Special Needs school in Kerala, support for schools for orphaned street children in Kenya, and an educational youth empowerment project for youth in the tea estates in Sri Lanka.

Rotarians are always welcome to visit any other rotary club worldwide. This fosters friendly links and enables joint service projects. Our Chislehurst club enjoys particularly strong links with a Rotary club near Lyon and one in Delft. With these clubs, we have a bi-annual visiting programme.

For our own members, we have an active social calendar throughout the year. We enjoy visits to places of interest, theatres, etc. and dining out, especially at Christmas, Valentine’s Night and Chinese New Year.

If you would like to know more about the work of Rotary, or if you are interested in joining, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Arun Watts
President 2016 - 2017

Tags: Community Organization