ANTON Rotary Club, which meets every Thursday evening for a few hours at the Oak public house in Smannell, has been able to raise in excess of £12,000 for local charities this past year.

Their president, Barry Hawgood, until the middle of this year, says he has been delighted by the way the club has achieved such a high rate of success in raising funds that have been distributed to various local charities in Andover.

Last Christmas, on behalf of the club, he was able to present £1,000 to the Andover Young Carers and another £1,000 to the Bruce Trust, a charity that enables anyone with a disability, physical or educational, to enjoy boating on the Kennet and Avon canal in properly adapted canal boats.

Each of these charities were given a further £1,000 each during the middle of this year, along with £1,000 to the Andover Food Bank, Wizz Kidz and 3Smiles, these latter two charities supporting disabled children and families in Andover.

Many people ask how the club raise this money that enables them to contribute to local charities, especially when many of these charities are finding it hard to keep going as a result of local and national cuts to grants for charities. The answer lies in the efforts that the members of the club put in to organising and undertaking fund raising events throughout the year as well as physically helping out where the club is asked to.

Two good examples of the physical help they have given are Norman Gate School, Vigo Road. There the members built a 100 metre pathway through some woodland to create a wonderful sanctuary of peace and quiet for teachers and children to go to when they needed that time to allow a child to find peace and tranquillity away from other children. The other physical activity that really did stretch the team was the re-working of the garden of the Andover Young Carers. Over 30 tons of hardcore, sand and pebbles were used in the reconstruction, as well as creating a sandpit, an outside chess board and donating a new table tennis system for outside use — this task taking six weeks to complete in members’ spare time.

The fund raising events the club has taken on included another metal detecting event, two of which this year have raised in excess of £3,000; a swimathon in conjunction with the Andover Leisure Centre and a show at Thruxton race circuit (in concert with the other Andover rotary club), all of which provides the club with the funds to be redistributed back into the Andover community for local charities.

Finally, to round off their year of activities, the club is able to look back on a proud record of work and support for the Andover community which has also included taking a number of children to Marwell Zoo as part of Rotary National’s ‘Kids Out’ event that takes special educational needs children to an adventure park near their home town. For Andover in previous years it has been Paulton Park, near Romsey. Also, a number of the children went on a day’s outing to one of the Bruce Trust boats. During the weekly meetings, which are divided up to ensure members have a social time, visits by speakers on a wide spectrum of subjects together with business meetings to enable planning for the way ahead.

What has the club got planned for the next year? Christmas is coming and the club’s newly built ‘Santa’s Sleigh’ will emerge to raise some monies this year for homeless young people at a crucial time. A further metal detecting event in March / April and on Saturday, 1t July, provided all goes well, the club is organising a major Andover ‘Family Show’ to be held on the playing fields at Charlton in partnership with the Andover Rotary Club.

All proceeds will be going to support local charities. Visit the club’s web site at www.antonrotary.org.uk New members are always being sought, both female and male, to join a vibrant and worthwhile organization.