Otter Valley Rotary working with our action group

By Ottery St Mary Friends of Phyllis Baxter Action Group in collaboration with Keith Spittlehouse.

Rotary is an international charitable organisation with over 15 separate Clubs in Devon. The Otter Valley club meets in Ottery and is primarily a social and fund raising group of like minded people and also offers voluntary support for local events and activities. You may well have seen them volunteering at Devon County Shows and the Honiton Show or have participated in their twice yearly Pub Quiz. All of the funds they raise are distributed to meet local needs and sometimes elsewhere at times of major national or international disasters as the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

Otter Valley Rotary made a bucket collection at Sainsbury’s on February 10th that reached over £1750, a record for a one day collection. Rotary made the collection up to £2400 and sent this to Shelterbox who are already working in Turkey and Syria providing shelter, bedding, clean water and cooking facilities for those unfortunately displaced from their homes. Shelterbox is a charity initiated by Rotary in the South West and now is prominent in providing urgent needs worldwide.

Their presence and support over the years have included helping at local cycling events and their very popular duck race, has undoubtedly been appreciated not only by the organisers but also by the participants.

Who can forget the happy smiles of children at Christmas meeting Father Christmas at local stores?  We still remember the first Christmas of those who moved to Cranbrook, found they didn’t have a Father Christmas, and asked Otter Valley Rotary for help, how quickly they responded to their request and rearranged their schedule to the new town to the delight of young and old. For a number of years 'Santa' has visited and provided Christmas presents to every pupil at Millwater SEN School.    

Otter Valley Rotary is currently supporting many local groups and individuals including Ottery Help Scheme projects and charities in the wider area including Honiton and Cranbrook. They have sponsored the Ottery Silver Band which plays carols and seasonal music at their Christmas event in West Hill.

An ongoing project is the annual Community Raffle which over 15 years has raised more than £400,000 for over 40 participating organisations such as scouts, playgroups and many charities. In simple terms the Rotary provides the tickets overprinted with the name or logo of the organisation and also provides the prizes (with a first prize of £1000). When the organisation sells the £1 ticket it keeps 90 pence for itself passing only the remaining 10 pence back to Rotary. Since it is a non-profit project Rotary adds additional cash prizes depending on returns.     

Numerous local organisations which have participated each year have found this project adds considerably to their income with no cost and little effort on their part.     If your Club or organisation is interested in participating in this raffle please contact the raffle organiser at 01404 44408 or e-mail mthuxtable@aol.com

Meantime Rotary have been giving thought to the forthcoming Coronation in May and have agreed to run a competition for local schools similar to that they undertook for the late Queens Silver Jubilee. They will supply junior schools with paper plates and will ask pupils to decorate them with a Coronation theme. The best will be awarded book token prizes and winning entries displayed in a shop window in town around the time of the Coronation. They are also hoping to arrange a digital equivalent for Senior Schools. If you are interested please check with your school.

On behalf of the members of the Ottery St Mary Friends of Phyllis Baxter Action Group, we would like to thank the Chairman and members of the Otter Valley Rotary for their support to the many events organised by the Action group and to our community.