Middleton Rotary Club celebrating 75 years of service

The history of Middleton Rotary Club dates back to 6 March 1933 when 20 men held a lunchtime meeting at the Lynwood Cafe, Long Street Middleton to discuss forming a Rotary club.

The weekly meetings continued and ten weeks after that first gathering an application was made for membership of Rotary International.

The club's charter was granted on 5 August making the Rotary Club of Middleton number 386 of Rotary International of Great Britain and Ireland. The club was admitted on 21 August 1933.

Drawn from the professional, commercial and industrial life of Middleton, those 20 men became the first members of Middleton Rotary Club.

From the very beginning, Middleton Rotary aimed to help members of the community. Despite the climate of industrial depression in the mid-1930s, Rotary annually sponsored a student from Queen Elizabeth Grammar School to study at the University of Manchester.

The yearly sum of £250 - which could have bought a good house back then - was to mark the Borough of Middleton's Golden Jubilee celebrations.

During the war years, the Rotary became a holding operation until peace returned. Following the war new members joined and 1946 saw the launch of the Middleton Inner Wheel Club.

The 1950s saw Rotary Club membership surge. Money raised during this time by members helped pay for the re-hanging of the bells in the Parish Church of Middleton and numerous community projects were launched. A careers exhibition for the area's youth was held and a Comforts Fund for Broughton House - a home for injured and disabled ex-servicemen - was set up.

Throughout the 1960s focus was placed on developing community services and the Rotary aim of 'Service above Self' could be seen in the re-furbishment of the St John Ambulance Brigade Headquarters and the raising of nearly £500 for a guide dog.

The 1970s saw life in Middleton changing with new, larger companies taking up residence, which was also reflected in membership of the club. In 1974 Middleton also ceased to be an independent borough and became part of the enlarged metro borough of Rochdale.

While still supporting regional and local charities, functions were also organised to raise money to support International Aid programmes for under-developed countries. Projects such as the sinking of wells in India and Pakistan, helping to establishing Eye Camps in remote areas to combat blindness and sending emergency boxes to places struck by natural disasters, were just a few of the causes that Middleton Rotary club got behind.
The 80s began again with a climate of deepening economic depression and this was reflected in the setting up of vocational committees, which were discussing ways of supporting work experience programmes for young school leavers.

Support for overseas projects continued with the club's involvement with the Ranfurley Library, the sponsoring of the Ndola Hospital Blanket Scheme, the hosting of group study exchanges from the USA and Japan and the sponsoring of a young handicapped Middletonian to participate in Handi-camp in Norway.

In 1983 the club celebrated its Golden Jubilee and marked the event by floodlighting the 14th century Parish Church. Basking in the golden glow, it was a fitting tribute to the Rotary Club of Middleton in its 50th year.
It has been 25 years since the Golden Jubilee celebrations - but the dedicated work of the members to raise money and awareness of local, national and international causes has continued.

Since 1983, the club has raised £65,000, which has been used to support an array of causes.

Current president Norman Wellens said: “We've helped many causes, Cancer Research UK and Christies Hospital to the scouts, brownies and guides, youth clubs, elderly people and the former Alderman Kay School and helping students at Middleton Technology School with mock interviews preparing them for the real thing when they are about to leave school and look for work. Our work spreads across the whole spectrum of Middleton life and those who have needed financial help.

“Our main fundraising time is at Christmas when we do the Christmas float around Middleton, an event that is very much looked forward to by many Middleton residents. We have also been sending shoeboxes full of presents over to disadvantaged children across the world for many years.

“But we also support projects across the world, particularly in Africa, Uganda, Kenya, India and South America.

“We've been involved in developing the mobile hospital in Africa, which later changed into the mobile hospice in Uganda and a major water project in Kenya.”

Over the years the Middleton club has seen many changes. Once thought of as a closed group with sons taking over from their fathers, the club now boasts members from many different fields and in 1987/1988 welcomed women for the first time.

Mr Wellens added: “The Rotary is still a growing movement. Our main concern at the moment is completing the water project in Kenya and we have also just taken on prostate cancer as one of our charities as many of our friends and colleagues have suffered from the disease. We've entered a full team in the Great Manchester 10km run next year to raise as much money as possible.”