Members of the Rotary Club of Bath are celebrating ending 2016 in style after raising £34,000 for charity in the last few weeks of the year, from three high-profile public events.
The Annual Rotary Fireworks display on 5th November raised a record-breaking £21,000, a ‘Defeat Polio’ supper and auction of restaurant discount vouchers raised over £11,000, the most the Club has ever raised from a supper event, and the retiring collection at the largest-ever Rotary Community Carol Service in Bath Abbey raised over £2,000.
President, John Vickery, said: “We’re delighted to have been able to end the year by making such a difference to charities locally and internationally.
“Our polio fund-raising will mean over 20,000 children in some of the poorest parts of the world will be inoculated; money from the Fireworks will be going to Bath & District Samaritans, and the Jessie Mae children’s charity; and the carol service collection will be shared between the Samaritans and Bath’s outstanding co-educational special school, ThreeWays School.”
The Rotary Club’s final activity for the year is their traditional city centre street collection.
Members are supporting Father Christmas in Stall Street until 23rd December, collecting for local charity, the Southside Families Project.
Several local groups are providing musical entertainment alongside the Rotarians, including the Bath Jubilee Waits, Park Lane Big Band and ensembles from Beechen Cliff, Hayesfield, Royal High, Monkton Combe and Weston All Saints schools.