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Hi I'm Bob Barrett, I'm proud to be the President of the Swindon Thamesdown Rotary Club for the 2011 to 2012 Rotary year.
As you would expect i have a number of great local charities for our club to get behind and support this year in no particular order we have "The Open Door Centre" which is based in Gorse Hill and provides a specialist day resource for adults with learning disabilities. Next we have a charity which has been very successful in other areas of the UK but is new to the Swindon, having only just opened their doors on the 15th July, Hop Skip & Jump provide unique day care facilities to local disabled children. Our club will be helping them settle into our community by providing the help and support they'll need to get started. Additionally we will continue supporting the Swindon Epilepsy Support Group in our three year plan to establish the group as a fantastic resource for those who are affected directly or indirectly by Epilepsy.
This year we also joined forces with the Marlborough Rotary Club and the Prospect Foundation, Love Hope and Strenght, Friends of Ridgeway and the Avebury Parish Coubncle to put on the first ever Avebury Rocks sponsored walk and rock concert, although most of the work to host the event took part before my year even started the very successful event kick-started what i hope will be a Great Rotary year!
The Avebury Rocks event has raised £31,194 for the Prospect Hospice
This year we also have some of our old favourites to support including CCIN who will be getting their new minibus after several years of hard graft by the club to land the matching grant. STEP, the Prospect Hospice and the Swindon Therapy centre will also be supported; all these do fantastic work for our communities both local and around the world so really deserve our help and support.
Rotary is not all about Fundraising, fellowship is also plays a large part in the enjoyment of Rotary so we will have the usual round of social functions to keep our spirits high starting immediately with BBQ at Lydiard park and later a "Meet the charities night" whereby we can socialise on an informal basis with those who use and provide the charitable services in Swindon and really get to know them as people first hand.
We have a lot to do, it's going to be a very busy and rewarding year - I can't wait to get Started!
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