VIDEO: Thanks to Rotary Club supporters

The Rotary Club of Horsham thanks everybody who contributed to its various Christmas collections,and supported the Charity Christmas Market .

Together they raised more than £5000 and enabled us to help about 50 needy individuals and families as well as making donations to the Horsham Night Shelter Project and the ARK Project which did tremendous work in helping the homeless and needy of our town.

2012 proved to be a very busy and fruitful year for the Club with record donations of £41000 being made , meaning that we have donated over £100,000 in the last 3 years, predominantly in helping local people and organisations, but also assisting international disasters and Rotary’s efforts to

eliminate Polio.

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We believe that this makes us probably the largest independent non-political and non –religious charity in the area.

Much of our Giving since March 2011 has been connected with our ‘making a difference to Horsham’ scheme whereby we donate, generally, fairly small sums to local people where a little help will make a large difference to their lives.

164 Requests were received in the first 21 months of operation with the vast majority being satisfied…. a total of over £27000 has been donated.

We work with various organisations such as CAB, Social Services, Debt Advisory Services, Y Centre and many others in this area and the main difference we can make is reacting very quickly with no bureaucracy or red tape to small requests which need urgent resolution.

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Set4Success, the local charity that supports talented young sports people who live or go to school in the Horsham District, presented a further 21 Awards at a ceremony at South Lodge Hotel with guest celebrity Paralympian Sophia Warner . Set4Success is a partnership between Horsham Rotary Club,

Horsham Council, local schools headed by Millais, and local Businesses including Ringway and DC Leisure. The next Ceremony will be held in late Spring 2013…. applications will be accepted online until mid April. Visit www.set4success.org

Our partnership with Horsham Council also resulted in the 4th Annual Pancake Races with ‘Mascot Races’ as an added entertainment; Easter and Christmas Charity Markets; fun Shop Competitions for youngsters including the ever popular Trick or Treat.

These events raised several thousand pounds for Charities generally chosen by the participants and winners. In addition, Horsham Council joined us in producing another ‘Pudsey & Pal’s Party’ in the Carfax in celebration of Rotary’s partnership with the BBC’s Children in Need Charity.

This year we raised £4150 for the Charity.

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Over the last decade the Club had tended to focus much effort locally on activities involving young people. Included are our annual ‘Kids Out’ day at Chessington World of Adventure in cooperation with the fantastic QE2 School; and participation in National Competitions Young Chef, Young Writer,

Young Photographer, Young Engineer and Youth Speaks together with local secondary schools. In 2012 we also worked with Sussex YMCA to provide help and support to some youngsters and several of our new ‘Young Rotary’ Members ran the Brighton Marathon to raise funds for them.

Horsham Rotary’s membership has increased by 50% over the last 18 months as a result of changing the Club so that it caters for people from different lifestyles, and also encourages Corporate and Family memberships.

Anyone who is interested in learning more about the Rotary organisation and how it helps the Community in Horsham and worldwide … please visit our website www.horshamrotary.org.uk or email us at [email protected] . You might even like to think about joining us so that together we can make an even bigger difference to Horsham.