Saluting our Army Cadets

Without the help of the Perton Detachment of the Army Cadet Force Christmas wouldn’t be quite as happy for thousands of children in Wolverhampton.

Each year the Detachment Cadets, their Officers and Adult Instructors devote hundreds of hours to helping our Rotary Santa Sleigh visit children in neighbourhoods around the City – bringing a little bit of extra Christmas magic with it.

A major part of the training for any cadet is citizenship training and through participating in community projects like our annual Santa Sleigh cadets build an understanding of how a community functions and the difference that they can make.

Membership of the Army Cadet Force gives cadets a great opportunity to learn leadership skills, discipline and self-confidence to help equip them for life. You can find out more about joining or volunteering with the Army Cadet Force here – https://armycadets.com/

We’re massively grateful for all of their help and thanks to your support we’ve been able to make a donation to the Detachment to help support their activities through the year.

Supporting The Well Food Bank

Your support for our Christmas and Grand Slam of Darts collections has enabled us to make a further donations to support the work of The Well Food Bank as part of our Club’s ongoing efforts to support local charities and good causes.

The Well is a local Christian based charity that provides food and other essential items to families and single people struggling to buy food and other essentials. Since the project started in 2006, The Well’s volunteers have delivered food and toiletry parcels to over 100,000 people and thanks to your support are delivering food parcels to over 120 homes each week.

Small Grants available for Local Groups

Wolverhampton’s four local Rotary Clubs and the James Beattie Charitable Trust have teamed up to offer small grants to local groups.

We’ve got a fund of £10,000 available to help individuals, Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise groups working in our community to overcome problems arising from deprivation, poverty, disability and lack of opportunity.

We know how small grants can have a big impact, helping individuals and groups through challenging times so we’re offering groups and individuals who are established in their communities the opportunity to apply for grants of between £250 and £500.

Applicants will be expected to demonstrate how a grant would make a difference to the well-being of local people and open up opportunities for them to develop their abilities and skills.

We’ll need to know the number of people who will benefit from the grant and the extent and duration of the impact on them and the community. People benefiting from the grant must have a connection to the Wolverhampton area in terms of living or working in the City, or receiving services from an organisation based there.

Submitting your application:

First download your Application Form here.

Complete and email your application (as a Word attachment) to rotarysmallgrants@gmail.com by no later than 25th January 2024. Please quote CGF23/24 in the subject line followed by the name of your organisation.

What happens next?

You’ll receive an email acknowledging receipt of your application. Your application will then be evaluated by an assessment team, who may need to contact you to ask for further information by email or telephone.

By 15th April you’ll be receive an email from us telling you whether or not your application has been successful – payments to successful applicants will be made very shortly afterwards

Celebrating Wolverhampton’s Young Citizens of the Year

It was a pleasure to welcome Imane Sbihi and Eva Abley – the joint winners of the 2023 Wolverhampton Young Citizens Award in the 13 – 18 age group – to our meeting on Monday.

Imane is an asylum seeker who escaped from Morocco and since settling in Wolverhampton has immersed herself in voluntary work. Eva, who has cerebral palsy uses comedy to inspire others to cope with disability and came fifth in Britain’s Got Talent.

In all ten young Wulfrunians were recognised for their outstanding community service at this year’s Wolverhampton Young Citizens of the Year Rotary Awards Ceremony – Eva Abley, Luis Enache, Harmon Kambo, Gabriella McKenzie, Dirran Mehta, Imane Sbihi, Shawna Gibbs, Karolina Jaks, Chloe Lambert and Alethea Parsons.

The Young Citizen Awards – which were devised by the City’s Rotary Clubs – are now in their tenth year and celebrate young people aged between 13 and 18 and between 19 and 25 who live, study or work within the Wolverhampton boundary and whose personal courage, care for others, achievement or contribution to the community deserves to be recognised.

Santa is visiting Claregate

Our Sleigh will be visiting Claregate with Santa on Saturday.

We’ll be posting a link to the live Sleigh tracker on our Facebook, X (Twitter) and Thread accounts at 4:45pm on the night so that you can follow the Sleigh on the route

Please share with your friends and family in the area and remember to donate to the Rotary Sleigh appeal so that we can help the work of local good causes throughout the year.

To donate £2 by text just text SNOWMAN2 to 70480.

Supporting the Wildside Activity Centre

Hidden away in Whitmore Reans the Wildside Activity Centre is a green oasis helping people of all ages and abilities to reconnect with nature by offering a range of adventurous and environmental activities which help to promote wellbeing and an appreciation of the natural world.

The Centre is especially proud of their work with people who have disabilities or special needs and they are always looking for further opportunities for enjoyment of the outdoors and adventurous activities, particularly seeking to reach groups suffering deprivation and social exclusion in the local neighbourhood and the wider community of Wolverhampton.

The Club and its members have been supporters of the Centre’s work for many years and we’re glad to have been able to continue that support by making a further donation to help the Centre with its work.

The donation will help support Wildside’s work with young people giving them opportunities to learn new skills, to build confidence and to develop a love of nature.

Rotary at the Races

We’re looking forward to a great night of racing and rugby at Wolverhampton Racecourse tonight.

Rotary Club members will be around the course collecting to support local good causes so if your lucks been in with the bookies please remember to donate generously

📅 Saturday 9 September
⏰ Gates Open: 15:25
🏁 First Race: 17:25
🎫 https://www.wolverhampton-racecourse.co.uk/whats-on/saturday-night-at-the-races-saturday-9-september

WolvesRaces | #RugbyAtTheRaces | #RotaryAtTheRaces

Supporting the Way Youth Zone

School holidays can be a tricky time to keep young people happy and entertained but we’ve been pleased to be able to provide funding to help The Way Youth Zone run its Holiday Club is for 8-12 year olds in Wolverhampton over the Summer.

The Holiday Club provided a great range of activities including team games, climbing, arts and crafts as well as the chance to chill with friends in the recreational area and play some pool or watch a film.

Take a look at the video for a glimpse of the amazing summer the Holiday Clubbers had.

Supporting the Good Shepherd

We’ve pledged £1,000 to the Good Shepherd, as part of the Big Give Christmas Challenge.

The Christmas Challenge is the UK’s biggest match-funded campaign and over seven days starting on the 28th November supporters of participating charities have the opportunity to double their donations – doubling the value of our pledge to £2,000.

The Brothers of the Good Shepherd have been supporting the most disadvantaged people in Wolverhampton for over 50 years in their mission to end homelessness, support recovery, and create pathways out of poverty. 

The charity provides a range of services to people in need, including food and clothing banks, homelessness prevention services, and support for people with mental health problems. The donation from the Rotary Club of Tettenhall will help Good Shepherd to continue providing these vital services to our community.

Good Shepherd need to raise pledges of at least £3,000 by the 1st September in order to take part in this years Big Give so please follow the link to pledge a minimum £100 to help them – https://community.biggive.org/s/pledge?campaignId=a056900002RGLO5AAP