Fundraising

To enable us to give financial help to all the good causes that we support, we run various fund-raising activities each year. You can help us to continue this support when you make purchases from Amazon by using Amazon Smile which donates 0.5% of the basic purchase price to our charity at no added cost to you. When you enter Amazon Smile, you can enter our charity name "Rotary Club of Reading Maiden Erlegh Trust Fund" in the charity box

Our most recent event was a charity bridge drive which raised over £950. This is in addition to the £5000 we raised over the Christmas period with the help of the Inner Wheel Club of Reading Maiden Erlegh.

In recent years, this has been our most important fund-raising operation from support to Santa's grotto in a local garden centre in the weekends leading up to Christmas. The garden centre gives us a percentage of the charge made for each child to visit Santa. We also make bucket collections and are grateful to the garden centres concerned for helping us with this and allowing us to make donations to our charities. 

 One of our major fundraisers is an annual golf tournament. This year's event will take place on Thursday 11th July 2019 at Sonning Golf Club. Monies raised will go mainly to the Alexander Devine Children's Hospice (alexanderdevine.org) with the remainder to other causes supported by Rotary.

 We also run the Reading Charity Art Fair, a major exhibition of local art and sculpture. Artists pay to enter their work and we get a percentage of the price of any items sold. The next Art Fair will take place at Leighton Park School from 25thto 27thOctober 2019. See www.readingcharityartfair.org.

 Periodically, we run a "challenge" to raise money through sponsorship. These have included the Three Peaks Challenge, climbing the highest mountains in England, Wales and Scotland in 36 hours, a cycle marathon and "swimming the channel" in a local swimming pool. 

There are a host of other activities, including: 

  • A trolley dash - Waitrose kindly gave us the opportunity to sell tickets for a winner to indulge in a three-minute free shopping spree in their Woodley store.
  • Pantomime - Wargrave Theatre Workshop have regularly given us a dedicated performance of their excellent annual pantomime by which we raise money by selling tickets.
  • Hexagon Concert - we prepare and sell the programme for a concert organised by local schools
  • Bonus ball - members participate in a weekly draw with the collection going to charity
  • We also sell poppies in Broad Street, Reading each year for the Royal British Legion.
  • An annual sale of goods in the Woodley centre pagoda.
  • Participation in the Woodley Carnival. 

We are always on the look-out for new fund raising opportunities.