About the Rotary Club of South Cotswolds
The Rotary Club of South Cotswold (RCSC) covers the towns and surrounding villages of Malmesbury and Tetbury with a membership, both men and women, drawn from all parts of the community and walks of life. They meet once a week (Monday evenings) to share a meal, and out of the friendship this generates comes a desire to be of service both locally and beyond. The Rotary motto is "Service above self". The Club meets this responsibility by both raising funds to support local charities and voluntary groups and by running or supporting local events that are considered as being of particular benefit to a town, village, group or charity.
Three examples illustrate both these aspects of its work. First the club raised money to support Hope for Tomorrow, the charity founded in Tetbury, bringing mobile chemotherapy treatment to cancer patients in the mid-west. In Malmesbury the club makes a financial contribution in support of the weekly luncheon club run for the elderly. As for providing benefits to communities rather than providing just financial support a good example is the Tetbury firework display, which the club puts on each year as a community event, to celebrate this fine British tradition in a safe and family orientated environment.
There are 1845 such clubs across the UK and Ireland with some 55,000 members and from time to time we all take part in international initiatives aimed at supporting particular aspects of need. Currently we are participating in the drive to finally eradicate polio across the world, a highly successful initiative started back in the 1980s which has seen major inroads towards ridding the world of this terrible disease. By acting internationally we can tap into other funding sources - for example every £1 we raise here in South Cotswold in support of ‘polio plus’, Bill Gates (Mr Microsoft) more than doubles the money raised. He has promised $355 million if we raise $200 million internationally.
All of the above and many more initiatives obviously require fund raising on a significant scale each year and the club is most grateful for all the support it receives from the communities it serves.
Finally the RCSC is a relatively small group of people who come together locally to try and make a difference to the communities in which we live and work whilst also having fun and enriching our own lives and those of others in the process.
If you would like to learn more about our Rotary club, why not come along to one of our meetings?