Category: Fundraising

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Ascot Ladies Day

Over 600 people today attended the Ascot Ladies Day event organised by Club member Ken Whalley and his wife Jan. Now in its tenth year the event has become regular fixture in the social calendar of many of those attending and has raised thousands of pounds for Rotary and other local charities.

Held at the Wolverhampton Rugby Club those attending were treated to an excellent meal and to entertainment from the Bill Bailey Jazz Band and later the opportunity to don lederhosen for a spot of traditional post race oompah band action.

Throughout the day we were able to follow the racing and fashion action on screens around the marquee and to lay bets on our fancies with the assistance of an on site bookie. As in previous years the ladies attending the event dressed fit for the Royal Enclosure and proved once again that you don’t need to be at Ascot to have great ladies day at the races.

The day was a tremendous success and once again all due to the work of Ken and Jan – our congratulations and thanks to them for organising such a great day.

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Charity Golf Day

14 Teams braved the blustery, high winds at Worfield Golf Club to support our Charity Golf Tournamment today but the scenic surroundings inspired some excellent golf, together with the occasional watery graves on the 9th and 18th holes!

With 18 holes of golf, pre-match bacon butties, post match dinner and entertainment everyone enjoyed a great day, which was rounded off with the award of prizes for the Best Team Score, Nearest the Pin, Longest Drive and a Booby Prize. But the real winner was Rotary International’s Foundation Charity Polio Plus Fund which benefited from the day’s proceedings to the extent of £2,250.

At the Prize Giving, when thanking all who had taken part and contributed to the financial success of the day, the President of The Rotary Club of Tettenhall, Jim Murphy explained that the day’s proceeds would be used towards the Club’s ongoing efforts in support of the Rotary Foundation Charity ‘PolioPlus‘ programme which aims to eradicate polio from the world and which to date has raised some $163.4 million towards Rotary’s latest US$200 Million Challenge.

These contributions will help Rotary raise $200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $555 million will directly support further immunization campaigns in developing countries. Since the PolioPlus program’s inception in 1985, more than two billion children have received oral polio vaccine, with only 4 or 5 countries throughout the world still reporting cases of Polio.

Our thanks go to all who sponsored and supported this very worthwhile event and in particular to our main sponsors Decantae Mineral Water, TATA Steel, Business Report, Keith Bradshaw and Barclays Business and to the organisers of the day David Cave and Chris Kraushar.

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Rotarians Tackle Wolves Fans

Football fans were urged to dig deep for a charity that provides powered wheel-chairs for disabled young people when they arrived at Molineux for the local Black Country derby clash with West Bromwich Albion today.

Wayne Hennessey, Rachael Hayhoe Flint, Mick McCarthy and Marcus Hahnemann join Eric Johnson of Tettenhall Rotary and Jaymi (CORR) Portman to promote the bucket collection at the Wolves v Albion match.
COPYRIGHT GAVIN DICKSON/ EXPRESS & STAR03/05/2011


A collection was made by members of Tettenhall Rotary Club in aid of the wheel-chair charity, Power Pleas. This was the 17th time that Tettenhall have arranged such a collection at Molineux. During that time, more than £36,500 has been raised, of which over £20,000 has gone to Power Pleas. In the last three seasons, six wheel-chairs have been provided for Wolverhampton youngsters like Penn Hall School pupil, Jaymi Portman, 16 above. In addition, some £14,000 has been donated to Compton Hospice as part of Tettenhall Club’s continuing commitment to the Hospice.

For some years now, Tettenhall Club has received tremendous support from Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club. This year’s collection raised £2,004 and Tettenhall Club were delighted to be told that this year, the amount collected was to be doubled by a generous donation from the club’s own charity, Wolves Aid.

So, another very successful day in Tettenhall’s fund-raising activities thanks to the continuing generosity of Wolves fans and of Wolves Aid who were richly rewarded with a vital win over the Albion on the day – much to the disgust of the Club’s several Baggies supporters!

Our thanks also to the Express and Star for publicising the collection in advance of the day and for their kind permission to use their photography in reporting this event.

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Mayor attends Charity Casino Evening 2011

Following on from the success of the Club’s first casino evening last year this evening over 100 Rotarians and friends gathered in the company of the Mayor and Mayoress of Wolverhampton to find who would carry away the title of the Rotary Casino Champion 2011.

The evening started off on a special note as the Mayor, Councillor Malcolm Gwinnett, announced that having met his fundraising target for his two nominated charities – Promise Dreams which aims to fulfil the wishes of seriously and terminally ill children and the Deanesly Centre which treats cancer patients at New Cross Hospital – he would continue to raise funds for the remainder of his year to benefit the MS Therapy Centre in Wolverhampton – a charity dear to the heart of many Rotarians in Wolverhampton.

Whilst the President’s wife came a notable second  the winner proved that with gambling as with most other things in life experience counts as Rotarian Bali Singh was the clear winner and our new Casino Champion 2011. Our thanks to all who attended and helped to make the evening a success and in particular to Rotarians Jag Gill, Bali Singh and Sammy Chung who organised the event. Monies raised will be used in support of local Rotary charities.

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Renowned Gardening Broadcaster helps Rotary Water Aid Charity

Nearly 100 Rotarians and their guests spent this evening in the company of horticultural Broadcaster, Howard Drury.

Born in Lincolnshire, Howard started his horticultural career early selling lettuces at the age of 6 and working in local nurseries before going on to Edinburgh Botanic Garden as a Student, leaving with honours and all but one of the top awards. Following a move to Birmingham he worked for 20 years as a Horticultural Training officer and as a researcher and presenter on Central TV’s popular Gardening Time programme.

Howard’s entertaining and informative presentation included 50 illustrated gardening tips and hints as well as a quiz and a valuable opportunity for the keen amateurs in the room to find the answers to their gardening problems.

The event, which was organised by Club member Doug Evans, was a huge success and raised funds for Village Water, a project supported by Rotary International which provides clean water and sanitation in underdeveloped countries.

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Santa Sleigh

Tettenhall Rotary Club’s Father Christmas Sleigh aims to bring a little magic to children and communities at Christmas and at the same time raise funds for good causes. But as organiser Roger Timbrell said ‘the real magic this year was how the Christmas spirit, generosity and warmth of welcome of the people in the communities we visited shone through the inclement weather’

Although the weather forced some cancellations over £5,000 was raised for Compton Hospice, Midlands Air Ambulance and other Rotary charities. This included £237.29 at the switching on of the lights event at Tettenhall, £3971.81 collected outside Sainsburys at Perton, £366.04 outside the Co op at Codsall and £389.83 during the three evenings that they visited the communities of Fordhouses, Low Hill and Old Fallings. The Club wishes to apologise for not being able to visit Claregate, Blakeley Green, Aldersley and Bushbury as planned on Saturday 18th and Wednesday 22nd December. Heavy snow and ice forced them to have to cancel for safety reasons.

Our thanks go to Stratstone Land Rover in Wolverhampton for loaning the tow vehicle for the Father Christmas Sleigh and David Gregory, the manager of Sainsburys Perton for his support and for donating sweets. In addition, Blakemore’s Cash and Carry and the Co-operative also kindly donated sweets for Santa to give out to children.

We are also grateful to the school choirs of Codsall High School, Bilbrook Middle School, Perton Middle School, Perton First School, Perton Sandown First School and Smestow School who sang carols around the sleigh outside Sainsburys, Perton, throughout the day on 10th December.

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Christmas Charity Carol Concert

We were delighted this evening to be entertained by the Prince of Wales Brass Ensemble – which is made up of players from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra – who performed a programme of seasonal music supported by the choir of St Dominic’s High School for Girls in Brewood. As is usual there was plenty of opportunity for the large audience to sing along with a number of traditional carols and to partake of mince pies during the interval.

Over the 15 years that the Club has staged this event over £20,000 has been raised in support of local good causes.

The proceeds from this years concert were raised in support of Compton Hospice to help them to provide clinical and support services for people with life limiting illnesses. The annual running cost of the Hospice is over five million pounds and with Government funding only meeting one third of this the Hospice depends on the support of a number of local fundraisers.

With snow falling as the concert came to an end this was a truly magical start to the Christmas season and our thanks go to the Prince of Wales Brass Ensemble and to the staff and girls of St Dominic’s for their performances, to the University of Wolverhampton Science Park who kindly allowed the use of their Auditorium, and to Rotarian Peter Maddox and his family who organised the event.