Middleton Rotary Club celebrate another very successful Christmas raising over £6,000 for local groups

Date published: 24 December 2018

The dust is beginning to settle on yet another very successful Christmas period of escorting Santa around the streets of Middleton, a service the club have been performing for years 50 years now. 

For most, it signifies the start of the Christmas festivities and many are heard to say that they know Christmas is here when they hear the music and see Santa on his sleigh.

This year saw the Rotarian’s starting their rounds on Monday 3 December and escorting Santa for twelve weekday evenings up until Wednesday 19 December, to the delight of the children (and parents) in the Middleton area.    

An extra evening was included this year as the sleigh was taken around the Rhodes area, this was included after many requests had been received by the public over the last few years.

Believe it or not the planning process for this project starts back in June with the application for the street collecting licence and continues through to December with all sorts of issues to contend with and plan for.

Keith Trinnaman coordinated the project again for 2018 and said: “We have had yet another brilliant Christmas period even surpassing that of last year.

“We have had fantastic support from volunteers outside Rotary from local groups and charities who very much supplement the club members themselves and I would like to thank each and every one who has helped this year, without this help we really would struggle to keep the wonderful tradition going.

“When you see the joy that it brings to so many in the community it is a tradition that we must continue to bring to Middleton.  

“In the street collections the fantastic people of Middleton have donated a brilliant £5,323 over the twelve evenings, and we also had a brilliant day at Middleton Tesco, on Saturday 15 December, when we raised a further £755.”

The net proceeds of the Christmas collection gets given back into the local Middleton community mainly through the clubs ‘dragons den’ initiative, where local groups, individuals and charities are invited into the club to present what they do in the local community and the reasons why they require funding. 

President Kit Wellens said: “Our ‘Dragon Den’ process helps bring the club and the local community closer together, the support we have received from them during our collections is proof of this. 

“I cannot thank the local community enough for their generosity, it really is so heartening to know that we at Middleton Rotary serve within a community that proves itself, year after year, for their care, giving and great support - long may it continue.”