Events

Galapagos Islands Talk – 13th April

A presentation on 13th April by our Club President and Partner on their experiences when recently visiting the Galapagos Islands.

Venue:  The Plough, Aylesbury at 7:15pm for 7:30pm start

Aylesbury Mayor – Club Visit – 27th April

A visit and talk from the Aylesbury Mayor, Nidhi Mehta.  Guest evening.

Venue:  The Plough, Aylesbury at 7:15pm for 7:30pm start

Rotary Rocks – 1st May

At the Limelight Theatre, Aylesbury, on Friday 1st May.

Full details in the Upcoming Events

Evening Historical Walk – 11th May

Guided walk by Club member Roger King for members and guests.

Monday 11th May – details to follow.

Club Annual General Meeting – 18th May

Members only

Venue:  The Plough, Aylesbury at 7:15pm for 7:30pm start

A guided walk through the Waddesdon Estate countryside

In aid of Dementia UK

The Rotary Club of Aylesbury Hundreds would like to thank our sponsors for the support they gave us for our recent STRIDE Charity Walk:

Waddesdon Manor Events Management

Waddesdon Cricket Club

Dementia UK

Digital Services Tring

Dayla Drinks

Wenzel’s

Morrisons

Tesco

The event was enjoyed by all who attended, and especially by those that took part in the walks through the beautiful Waddeson Estate countryside.

Thank you for all your support with your fundraising for Dementia UK.

Our popular and successful Rotary Rocks programme comprises charity fundraiser concerts featuring both locally and nationally recognised acts, for example Man The Lifeboats, Totally Blondie and The Dung Beatles. 

Apart from raising money, the programme also seeks to bring our community work to a wider audience through promoting acts representing different musical genres.

To date there have been seven gigs raising in excess of £6,000 for eight charities. The gigs are held at the Limelight Theatre in partnership with The Queens Park Arts Centre. The most recent event on Friday 1 May 2026 featured the debut gig of The Live Cherry Pickers Music Society (aka The Dung Beatles) raising a record £1,027 for Young CarersBucks.

The next gig will be in May 2027 – for more details see Upcoming Events.

Each year the Club arranges for the sale of poppies at a number of locations in Aylesbury, in support of The British Legion.

On Remembrance Sunday, at the Memorial In Market Square, the Club’s wreath was laid by our Honorary Treasurer, Roger King.

In support of the Rotary International Polio Eradication Programme.

Members of our Club helped The Kingsbrook Rangers plant crocus bulbs in the grounds at The Kingsbrook School. There were 4000 bulbs! Loads were planted at the school and others donated locally. We look forward to seeing a magnificent display at the school and across the estate in the spring.

Shoeboxes

Members of the Interact Group with club President Peter Linford at The Kingsbrook School, Aylesbury filled 20 shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. These go to support children who might not otherwise receive a Christmas gift.

The Club held its 2026 Technology Tournament on Monday 16 March at The Grange School, Aylesbury.

Students were asked to design a vehicle to clear rubble from a 2m pipeline. Each team was given a motor, batteries and construction materials to design and build their vehicle in 4hrs. They then had to demonstrate it to our judges, either clearing the rubble out of the way, or collecting it and bringing it back along the pipe.

Across Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced stages, great ingenuity was shown by the teams, which came from The Grange School, Aylesbury High School, John Colet School, The Cottesloe School and Aylesbury Grammar School

We were hosted again by The Grange School. Many thanks go to them and their brilliant team of Student Skippers, who helped the event to run smoothly. Aylesbury Mayor Cllr Nidhi Mehta presented the awards.

Winners in Foundation were Aylesbury High School (who also won Best Portfolio, where they set out their ideas and planning); Intermediate winners were The Grange and Advanced was won by Aylesbury Grammar School. Congratulations to them all.

On Saturday 24 January we held our Rotary Club Youth Competition, Youth Speaks 2026.  A brilliant Youth Event kindly hosted by Church of the Holy Spirit. Our winners were from Aylesbury High School, with their debate: Should social media be banned for <16s globally?

As Chair of Judges, Laura Kyrke-Smith MP and her fellow judges chose our worthy winners from five competing teams, with topics also including That modern workplace culture is fundamentally biased in favour of men and Failure teaches students more than success.

Mayor Nidhi Mehta joined Laura in presenting the awards.

Best Team Chair went to a team from The Kingsbrook School.

Our winners will progress to the District Finals

We went a little early with Young Chef this time, holding our local heat on 22 November 2025. We were again hosted by The Kingsbrook School.

To a budget of £12.00, students from secondary schools across Aylesbury prepared two course meals, including dishes such as Pan-fried cod loin with potato dauphinoise, Salmon in white wine sauce with couscous and Sri Lankan skewered chicken. Desert options included Raspberry compote with dark chocolate shavings, Poached pears and Brazilian carrot cake. All had to be completed in 2hrs

Judges Daniel Richardson, Head Chef at Hartwell House and Adam Parsons, General Manager at the Five Arrows in Waddesdon (and a former Young Chef contestant!), seen here with the Mayor of Aylesbury Nidhi Mehta,  tasted every dish and settled on a winner from The Kingsbrook School, whose Chicken breast with mushrooms and baby pots and desert of Lemon Mousse are shown here

Prizes were provided by Hartwell House, The Five Arrows and The Woolpack at Stoke Mandeville.

Our winner, seen here with Daniel Richardson and the Mayor of Aylesbury, will now go on to the District Final in February 2026.

Other events for students coming up in early 2026 include Youth Speaks, our debating competition, in January, and our Young Artist and Young Writer competitions, in March.

ROTARY ROCKS – THE DEAD CHERRY PICKERS MUSIC SOCIETY – 1 May 2026

WONDERFUL DEBUT GIG

On 01 May 2026 we featured the debut gig of The Dead Cherry Pickers Music Society (aka The Dung Beatles).  This superb band of talented musicians performed their ‘original stuff’ to an enthusiastic and appreciative capacity audience.   New music from old friends. (The Dung Beatles first played for us in 2019.)

The concert raised a tremendous £1,027 for the Young CarersBucks charity.  Many thanks to everyone who came.  Massive thanks to the Dead Cherry Pickers for all their energy and hard work in bringing their studio songs up to gig standard, and to our partner charity Queens Park Arts Centre without whom we could not run our shows. Thanks too for the raffle prizes kindly provided by – Heritage & Sons Funeral Directors; Chiltern Railways; ATG Theatre Waterside; Tesco; Rogue Bowling; Rococo Lounge; Sizzling Pub & Grill – The Plough; Queens Park Arts Centre; Michael Anthony Estate Agents; Miller & Carter; Caffe Nero; and members of the Rotary Club of Aylesbury Hundreds

TREMENDOUS ROTARY ROCKS CONCERT – TOTALLY BLONDIE – 7 JUNE 2025

A truly sensational Rotary Rocks charity fundraiser concert on Saturday 7 June 2025 at the Limelight Theatre in Aylesbury when the phenomenal Totally Blondie who first played for us in 2023, returned to entertain an enthusiastic and appreciative capacity audience.

A tremendous £867 was raised for The Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity. Many thanks to everyone who bought tickets and raffle tickets, to Totally Blondie, and to our partner charity The Queens Park Arts Centre who looked after everyone so well.

Thanks too for the raffle prizes provided by; Heritage & Sons Funeral Directors; Fergie’s Fitness; Queens Park Arts Centre; Totally Blondie; Tesco; Rogue Bowling; Rococo Lounge; Michael Anthony Estate Agents; Morrisons; and members and friends of the Rotary Club of Aylesbury Hundreds.

ROTARY ROCKS – MAN THE LIFEBOATS – 9th March 2024
MEMORABLE EVENING

Man The Lifeboats

Another memorable gig by Man the Lifeboats who first played for us in 2019. Their unique and original blend of ‘full throttle alternative folk’ was enjoyed by an enthusiastic and appreciative sell out audience. A lively and happy evening – a tonic for these troubled times!

Nearly £750 was raised for Buckinghamshire Mind. Many thanks to everyone who bought tickets and raffle tickets, to Man The Lifeboats, and to our partner charity The Queens Park Arts Centre who looked after everybody so well.

Thanks too for the raffle prizes provided by; Heritage & Sons Funeral Directors; Rococo Lounge; Waterside Theatre; Queens Park Arts Centre; Miller and Carter; Morrisons; Man The Lifeboats; and members of the Rotary Club of Aylesbury Hundreds.

On Saturday 18 January 2025 we held our Annual Young Chef
competition. We were hosted for the second time by The Kingsbrook
School.

Amazing work was done by the students, as it always is at this event.

There were dishes here you would happily have paid good money for in a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Our winner, from Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School, prepared seared duck breast with green beans, roasted carrots and a sweet cherry compôte. This was followed by a desert of passion-fruit soufflé.

Our second placed chef, from Waddesdon Church of England School, prepared fish and chips, with a desert of lemon tart and mixed berries.

In third place was The Kingsbrook School, where our young chef prepared pan roasted salmon with passion-fruit sauce, steamed garlic green vegetables and new potatoes; a desert of honey and cinnamon pear upside down pastry served with cream followed.

Excellent meals were also prepared by students from The Grange School and Aylesbury High School.

Our chief judge was once again Daniel Richardson, Head Chef at Hartwell House. Daniel has been an enthusiastic supporter of this event and of local young chefs for many years and has our continued appreciation.

Our winner takes a meal for four there. Our runner up has £100 towards a meal at The Woolpack in Stoke Mandeville. We are indebted to both locations for their generosity.

Our winner, coached by Daniel Richardson, then went onto the District Finals which were held in Bedfordshire on the 8th February. She won the District Final.

The winner of Beds, Bucks and Herts District Young Chef Final, who is from the Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School, with her meal and the District Chef Judge.

The 2025 Technology Tournament was held on Monday
10th February, hosted by The Grange School, Aylesbury.
There were a large number of entries from schools in the
Aylesbury Vale area, and there was a very interesting
challenge set for the schools and teachers this year.

They had to use their STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Maths) knowledge, alongside their team
work skills to tackle the challenging brief that had been
set.

There were awards for the winners at Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced levels, and for the Portfolio.

Planning, Building and Testing

The Foundation winners were from Cottesloe School, and the
Intermediate and Advanced winners were from Aylesbury High School.

Presentations of the awards were made by the Mayor of Aylesbury, Cllr Alan Sherwell, accompanied by Aylesbury Hundreds Club President, Ann Routledge

On Thursday 16 January 2025, we held our first full Youth Speaks: A Debate, competition since the pandemic. We were kindly hosted by Church of the Holy Spirit, Bedgrove, to whom we extend many thanks.

We had seven teams from Aylesbury High School, The Grange School and St Michael’s Roman Catholic School.

Laike Twiss, Bard of Aylesbury, chaired the judging panel, supported by ourhost, Rev Martin Kuhrt and Mr Andrew Bell, Independent Celebrant.

Topics under discussion included Should punishment be the main purpose of prison?, Do boarding schools do more harm than good? and Video gamesshould be banned for children under 16.

Our winning entry in the Intermediate stage (age 11-13) came from Aylesbury High School, with Do boarding schools cause more harm than good?

Runners up were The Grange School.

Winners of the Senior Stage (age 14-17) were St Michael’s RC School, with This house would ban internet access for under 11’s. Runners up were alsofrom St Michael’s.

The winners progressed to the District Finals which were hosted by our Club at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Bedgrove on 6 and 7 February.

The winners of the Intermediate stage were Aldwickbury School, Wheathampstead, and the Senior stage winners were Redbourne Upper School, Bedford.

Thank you to everyone who donated winter, warm coats at the 2 drop off points- Bierton Coffee Shop and St Mary’s Church, Aylesbury. The collections were very successful, and we are very grateful for the generosity of the people of Aylesbury.

The coats were distributed locally to:

Women’s Refuge

The Catholic Church homeless kitchen

Aylesbury Vineyard storehouse

Aylesbury Street angels

Thank you all.

Ann Routledge

President Rotary Club Aylesbury Hundreds

A Thank You Message from the Aylesbury Hundreds Rotary Club President.

Aylesbury Hundreds Rotary club have been busy since the end of November collecting for local charities. It has been very enjoyable, and as well as spreading good cheer and putting smiles on children’s faces, we have raised a good amount for local charities.

From 2^nd December, our Rotary club visited many roads and estates around Aylesbury. We visited Stoke Mandeville Parish this year for the first time and were well received, and plan to return next year.

The total collected during December with our mobile Santa float was £5358

We had 2 weekends collecting at Chiltern Garden Centre and Tesco Tring Road. The total collected on those weekends was over £1,700.

The charities that we support have been enthusiastic in helping us on our rounds each evening. This year the local charities we supported were:

Chiltern Neuro

Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research

PACE

Emmetts Genies

Community Christmas Lunch

Florence Nightingale Hospice

Wheel Power

The Aylesbury Society

Lindengate

Young Carers

We were also supported by the Parrish Councillors from Stoke Mandeville.

I would like to say a big thank you to the following :

• NISSAN, Aylesbury who loaned us a wonderful X Trail (painted with reindeers and adverts about collections) to tow our float around during the 3 week collection period
• David Hastings who did a large majority of the towing
• Motts Coaches who allowed us to store the float during the Christmas period
• Trackit247 who provided the tracking service for our float
• Matthew (farmer) who very kindly lets us store our float in his barn when not out on Santa duties!
• All members and families who helped with the collections
• All the volunteers from the charities who helped with collections.

We could not have achieved what we have without everyone’s support and enthusiasm, so thank you all.

Finally and very importantly I would like to thank all the residents around Aylesbury for their generosity and support of all that we do. Without that trust and support, we would not be able to donate to the local charities that are list

Thank you again

Ann Routledge – President – Aylesbury Hundreds Rotary Club

On Monday 2nd February the Club inducted a new member, Charles Adomah-Boadi.

On behalf of the Club our President Ann Routledge welcomed Charles to our Club.

PLANS AND ROUTES
Here are the details for the Santa Float Rounds, the Statics, and
Collection Points. Also for the Float Rounds see the route maps by clicking on the relevant date.
Don’t forget you can track the locations of the Float on-line.
Just Click:

Find Santa

Date	Route/ Location	Starting Point & Time	Supporting Charity
8 Dec	Rivetts Estate	Rivetts Sports Club 5:45PM	PACE
9 Dec	Elm Farm South	Elm Farm Shops 5:45 PM	Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research
11 Dec	Stoke Mandeville Composers & Athens Ave Est	Athens Avenue 5:45 PM	Emmetts
12 Dec	Kingsbrook Primary & Secondary Schools	Statics – Primary 6:00 PM, Secondary 6:45PM	Wheelpower
13 &14 Dec	Tesco Supermarket, Tring Road	Static – Sat 9:00AM Sun 10:00AM	Club Charities
16 Dec	Bedgrove 3	Ambleside	Community Christmas Lunch
18 Dec	Bedgrove 1	Wellbeck Avenue	Chiltern Neuro
19 Dec	Broughton Pastures	Richmond Road	Aylesbury Society

Aylesbury Hundreds Rotary Club – selling roasted chestnuts.

Members from the Rotary Club of Aylesbury Hundreds were in Market Square on Sunday 23rd November selling roasted chestnuts in support of the Aylesbury Town Council’s Grand Christmas Lights Switch On.  All profits from the sale are to be shared between two of the club’s 2025/26 charities, Young Carers and Florence Nightingale Hospice.

Merry Christmas

The Club evening on the 29th September was an enjoyable guest evening, with the induction of our latest new member by our Club President Ann, Dorothy Howlett, and a presentation of our donation to the Florence Nightingale Hospice of £867 which was raised at the latest Rotary Rock Concert, earlier this year.

Dorothy has attended our meetings on several occasions and more. We know her to be a hard worker and is eager to be part of our team. She was a qualified nurse before retirement and has been very active volunteering at the Florence Nightingale Hospice, and is now an Ambassador for them .

Lindengate Visit Monday 1st September

Following on from our Club visit to Lindengate in September, Andy Ward from Lindengate came to our Club meeting on 6th October and talked about what they do for Dementia and Carers and their Memory Pathways group.

Our President Ann presented the Club donation from the BiertonFest music summer event of £530 to Andy Ward.

Many members attended an evening at the Lindengate Charity, Wendover Road, Aylesbury for an informative tour and talk, followed by a delicious buffet prepared by themselves.
The aim of the charity is to improve the mental and physical wellbeing of people who attend the
centre.
It is unbelievable when you visit to see how they manage the 6-acre garden. It is a mental health charity, managing people of all ages. From young children to older folk with Dementia.
There is a small active team managing the charity and they are supported by over 200 volunteers.

We were all amazed at what the organisation achieves and how much they help our community.
The grounds are open for visitors and are made very welcome.
Look at the web site to see just what they do. www.lindengate.org.uk

On the 4th October the Club held a social and fundraiser evening at Bierton Village Hall in support of Young Carers Aylesbury. This is one of the Club President Ann’s chosen charity for this Rotary year. The fun
evening raised £681.

Previously at the Club meeting on 29th September, Yasmeen Azizul from Young Carers Bucks had given us a very informative presentation on their work and dedication in support of Young Carers.

youngcarers@carersbucks.org

Aylesbury MP, Laura Kyrke-Smith, attended a Club meeting in August and outlined a number of her objectives on behalf of the Aylesbury constituency.

The Club has invited her, and she has accepted, to become an Honorary Member.

Andy Ward from Lindengate will be with us at our Club meeting on 6th October and will be talking about what they do for Dementia and Carers and their Memory Pathways group.

Plus a presentation of our donation from the BiertonFest music summer event

This year our club are supporting the Young Carers as a local, well deserving, charity.

Yasmeen Azizul is coming to our meeting on the 29th September to give an interactive talk to our members about the work they do and how we can help and support them. It should be an interesting evening.

We look forward to meeting Yasmeen on the 29th.

Students from across Aylesbury Vale took part in Rotary competitions this year.

Our Young Chef Winner went on to win the District Final, then the Cluster Final and came creditable Runner-Up in the National Final. Huge congratulations to her and thanks to her teachers at Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School for their support and to Chef Daniel Richardson and his team at Hartwell House for coaching her to such a magnificent standard. We are grateful to have been hosted by The Kingsbrook School for the second year.

Our Youth Speaks Winners from Aylesbury High School went into the District round, where they addressed the audience on Do Boarding Schools Do More Harm Than Good? at the
Intermediate Stage. Our Winners from St Michael’s Catholic School addressed This House Would Ban Internet Access For Under-11s at the Senior Stage District Final. Both teams gave
creditable presentations. We extend our thanks to Church of the Holy Spirit, Bedgrove, for hosting both the Local and District heats.

We ran our second Young Artist Competition this year. Our contestants had the option of their preferred medium for the subject of Wonderful Water and produced an inspirational range of work. Our judge Prof. Ian Brooks of Leeds University selected winners from St Michael’s Catholic School,
commending our artists for “excellent use of symbolism” and “a really nice depiction of the flood of water”. Congratulations to those artists. Our Junior winner’s picture of the flooded wineglass also won the District Competition at the junior stage. Brilliant work!

Our Technology Tournament, hosted for the first time by The Grange School, was in February. Students had to build a rocket launcher! The ingenuity on display was awesome. Rockets shot up into the sports hall from all manner of different designs.

We look forward to Rotary Year 2025/26 with the possibility of more schools entering more Youth
Competitions.

TREMENDOUS ROTARY ROCKS CONCERT – TOTALLY BLONDIE – 7 JUNE 2025

A truly sensational Rotary Rocks charity fundraiser concert on Saturday 7 June 2025 at the Limelight Theatre in Aylesbury when the phenomenal Totally Blondie who first played for us in 2023, returned to entertain an enthusiastic and appreciative capacity audience.

A tremendous £867 was raised for The Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity. Many thanks to everyone who bought tickets and raffle tickets, to Totally Blondie, and to our partner charity The Queens Park Arts Centre who looked after everyone so well.

Thanks too for the raffle prizes provided by; Heritage & Sons Funeral Directors; Fergie’s Fitness; Queens Park Arts Centre; Totally Blondie; Tesco; Rogue Bowling; Rococo Lounge; Michael Anthony Estate Agents; Morrisons; and members and friends of the Rotary Club of Aylesbury Hundreds.

Watch out for our next Rotary Rocks gig – they are always a good evening out, and always raise funds for local charities. Next date is 1 May 2026 at The Limelight Theatre. Act to be announced soon.

The Club held its end of Rotary year 2024/25 celebration at a BBQ hosted by our President, with the handover to the Club officers for the 2025/26 Rotary Year.
A very enjoyable evening at the conclusion of a very successful and positive year. The Club Officers were sworn in:

SHELTERBOX 25TH ANNIVERSARY
FRIARS SQUARE EXHIBITION – 31 MAY 2025

In 2000 the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard set up a project to provide help to people in disaster areas by putting together boxes of items that families needed. The boxes contained tents, sleeping mats, cooking and eating equipment, water containers and filters, mosquito nets, solar lights, not food nor medicine, but items to help people cope. This was the start of the
ShelterBox. 24 boxes were initially made and distributed, within 4 years there were 26000 distributed. The project grew with the support of Rotary Clubs around the world and more than half of the funding comes from Rotary clubs. ShelterBox also now provides Repair Kits to help people rebuild, and there are warehouses set up in strategic locations to respond quickly to
needs. When Shelterbox and Rotary work together after a disaster, the combination of Shelterbox’s technical expertise and Rotary’s global connections, its clubs and members means that support can be provided as soon as it is needed.

See the video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mafPm5Kdg1loe44yoTSkyxrArmZQqYoc/view?usp=drive_web

To celebrate the 25th anniversary and show the work of ShelterBox and Rotary to provide support and relief in disaster areas, the Rotary Club of Aylesbury Hundreds set up a stand in Aylesbury Friars Square on Saturday 31 May.

Our Support will continue each year

CHILTERN HILLS RALLY – CLASSIC CAR EVENT 2025

The Chiltern Hills Rally 2025 was held in Weedon on Sunday
May 18th. Members from the Rotary Club of Aylesbury
Hundreds attended and provided support with judging the
entries and car parking management. A very enjoyable day.

Another example of your local Rotary Club and its members
helping to support their community.
Interested in learning more about us, and possibly providing
your support? CONTACT US

The Club held a Santa Float collections Cheque Presentation Evening with the representatives from the Charities and Good Causes who provided support and collectors on the Santa Float Rounds in December 2024. The representatives were from The PACE centre for children with motor disorders, Emmett’s Genies, Florence Nightingale Hospice, The Aylesbury Society,
Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research, and Community Christmas Lunch.

A talk by Linda Grantham from Enrych Buckinghamshire. Enrych believe that every adult should be able to choose how they live and be empowered to realise the choices they make. Their mission is to work collaboratively to eliminate social isolation and improve wellbeing for adults living with disability.

https://www.enrychbuckinghamshire.org.uk

A Guest/Friends evening at The Plough, Aylesbury, at 7:00 for 7:15 pm

Students from St Michael’s Roman Catholic School, Aylesbury, entered the Rotary Young Artist competition 2024, supported by the Headteacher, Mr Adam Palmer, the Art Teacher, Mrs Josie Whitfield, and Club President Peter Linford.

The theme for the artwork was Rebuilding, and each student was asked to provide a short talk about their artwork. The judging, on behalf of our Rotary Club, was undertaken by Prof. Ian Brooks, https://www.inkwyrm.com/. The winning entry is entitled “Under Construction”, the judge said: A really thoughtful piece with a strong idea behind it. Love the bits of brain all doing different things.

The artist used pencil to create texture of the head and pen to exaggerate the meaning of building good mental health. The entry went into the District 1260 final where it won the Young Artist award.

A thank you from President of Aylesbury Hundreds Rotary Club
Christmas 24 , the 2 Rotary Clubs in Aylesbury (Aylesbury Hundreds and Aylesbury) decided to work together to bring festive cheer, joy and laughter to the children and adults of Aylesbury. At the same time hoping to raise money for the local charities we both support.

We are pleased to report that the 2 clubs raised more than £10,800 and that will be shared equally between the clubs for distribution to their chosen charities, 14 in all.

We asked each charity to help with volunteers to collect around the various areas and the response was fantastic. Helpers from each charity turned out to support the Rotarians in all
weathers, even during Storm Darragh! So, a big thank you to them.

Aylesbury Hundreds chosen charities were:

Chiltern Neurological Centre

Emmett’s Genies

Aylesbury Society

Florence Nightingale Hospice (Hospice at Home)

St Mary’s Christmas Lunch

Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research

PACE

As President, I am very proud of our club members for their commitment and hard work during December, despite the dreadful weather we encountered on many evenings and
days.

I must say a big thank you to Aylesbury NISSAN, who supplied a 4×4 X Trail car to tow Santa around Aylesbury. Also, for their assistance in providing drivers on some evenings.

Without the generosity of NISSAN, we would not have been able to tow Santa around during those 3 weeks in December. So, we and the local chari?es that have gained from the collections are truly thankful to them for their generosity and support for the 2nd year running.

Our other volunteer drivers, David Has?ngs and Julian Smith must be thanked for their time, given freely. We are in awe of their towing skills!

We store our float/sleigh at a farm in Aylesbury and a big thank you to him for allowing us to use his facilities. Motts of Aylesbury must also be thanked for storage during December.

THANK YOU to the people of Aylesbury for continuing to support our Santa collections during December, around Aylesbury, town centre, Tescos and Chiltern View Garden Centre. We know that years of providing this service has resulted in trust from residents in the knowledge that all the money raised in the collections goes to worthy local causes.

We look forward to joining with Santa again next December. If you are interested in helping us as a Friend of Rotary, or as a Member, please contact us via the CONTACT link.

At the beginning of December the Mayor of Aylesbury held his Carol Service at St Mary’s Church, and volunteers from Aylesbury Hundreds Rotary Club supported the evening with the preparation and serving of Mulled Wine and Mince Pies.

The service gave an opportunity for the community to come together to celebrate the Christmas festivities. An evening enjoyed by all, and a privilege for our Club to help with the success

December 2024 – Santa flew into Aylesbury and with the help of the two local Rotary Clubs (Aylesbury and Aylesbury Hundreds), and local charities/good causes, he visited as many locations as possible in the Aylesbury area.

Santa’s Carol Float travelled around many of the Aylesbury estates, and a number of pre-publicised static locations around the town.

The aim as always was to bring Yuletide cheer to Aylesbury residents and visitors, while raising as much money as possible for our local charities, good causes, and foodbanks.

Here are some memories from the visits, which we hope you will enjoy:

A HUGE thanks from us all at Aylesbury Hundreds and Aylesbury Rotary Clubs to the people of Aylesbury for your welcome and generosity as we visited areas around the town with our Santa Floats before Christmas. This event is always a joy and this year was no different. To see all those happy faces greeting Santa warms hearts even on the coldest of nights.

Our thanks also go to Nissan Aylesbury, who provided a vehicle to tow Santa about; to Motts, and to Friars Square, who allowed Santa to rest in their yards during the day; to our volunteer drivers, who made sure Santa could be seen around the town; and to Trackit24/7 for their support with the tracking system. Thanks also to Chiltern View Nursery and Tesco Tring Road for hosting us.

We were joined on a number of rounds by local charities and good causes. Thank you everyone for volunteering and joining us.

We look forward to seeing you all again next December
2025.

If you would like to help us as a Friend of Rotary on our Santa
Sleigh rounds next December, or would like to learn more about us and Rotary, then please CONTACT us.

Guided walk from Roger King
Meet 6.30 pm Corn Exchange Arches,
Market Square
Guests welcome
No need to book
Nominal charge of £2.00 per head
Food at The White Hart (optional)

‘The Coronation’ a talk from

Lt Col Charlie Field
Deputy Chairman
C P J Field

A Guest evening at The Plough, Aylesbury, on Monday 15th April, 7:00 for 7:15 pm

Mary’s Meals presentation – David Chapman

Presentation on the work of Mary’s Meals https://www.marysmeals.org.uk and possible support.

Guest evening to be held in the Club private room at The Plough, Tring Road, Aylesbury.

Meeting starts with dinner at 7:30pm. Arrive 7:00 to 7:15pm.

A very successful Rotary Fundraiser for British Heart Foundation enjoyed by all, and celebrating 25 years of Fergies Fitness classes at Bedgrove Pavilion.​

Presentation of Cheques from Donations on the 2023 Santa FloatRounds – 19 February

Cheque Presentation Evening at The Plough, Aylesbury with our Santa Float Charity Partners. L to R Paul & Kim Walters St Mary’s Christmas Dinner Appeal, Louise Walker The Pace centre, for children with motor disorders, Roger King The Aylesbury Society, Kirsty Robson Chilterns Neuro Centre, Kate Favell Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research, Eve Hellyer WheelPower and Peter Linford President

Mayor of Aylesbury Cllr Steve Lambert visited the club on 4th Marchat The Plough, Aylesbury
With Vice President Ann Routledge and Treasurer Roger King

Members and Friends of the Club held a very enjoyable Christmas Dinner on 27 November at The Woolpack Inn, Stoke Mandeville.