Events

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.
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Charity gig for Young CarersBucks – 01 May 2026 – The Limelight Theatre, Aylesbury

It’s not often that you get the opportunity to attend the debut live gig of an established and much-loved local band playing their own music – don’t miss out!!

The Dead Cherry Pickers Music Society was formed in the pandemic lockdown of 2020 as an endeavour to record original songs, self-penned by the members, all of whom hail from the Aylesbury area. 

Core members include Steve Hillier (guitars, vocals), Martin Kent (keyboards), and Phil Toler (bass, harmonica); Danny Prendergast has contributed guitar parts to some of their recorded output along with drum parts by session players Max Saidi and Matt Manning. For their live debut they’ll be joined by Mike Ashton on drums. Whether there will be further live appearances remains to be seen!

The Dead Cherry Pickers’ members also play in the renowned Dung Beatles rock band.

The band has recorded three albums and additional singles, all available on Spotify and other streaming platforms. A new album is to be released soon. The material is diverse in style, from power-pop to acoustic to funk to prog to jazz. The debut concert will feature predominantly their original material with a few ‘tasteful’ covers. All proceeds from this seated concert will go to Young CarersBucks at CarersBucks – working with young people aged 5-16 with a caring role and living within Buckinghamshire. Registered Charity No. 1106745 https://carersbucks.org/information-for-carers/young-carers/

DATE: Friday 1 May 2026 8pm Bar opens 7pm

VENUE: Limelight Theatre, Queens Park Arts Centre, Queens Park, Aylesbury, HP21 7RT

TICKETS: £16.00 from Queens Park Arts Centre

Tel: 01296 424332

If you’ve yet to discover the band head over to Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon or your favourite streaming platform and have a listen, or go to: https://www.facebook.com/TheDeadCherryPickersMusicSociety/

https://www.youtube.com/@DCPMS

Promoted by the Rotary Club of Aylesbury Hundreds

The next gig is on 01 May 2026 featuring The Dead Cherry Pickers Music Society and raising money for Young CarersBucks – for more details see Upcoming Events.

Our popular and successful Rotary Rocks programme comprises fundraiser concerts featuring both locally and nationally recognised acts.

Apart from raising money for worthy charities, 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 six gigs raising in excess of £5,000 for eight charities. The gigs are held at the Limelight Theatre in partnership with The Queens Park Arts Centre. The most recent event on Saturday 7 June 2025 saw the return of the hugely popular ‘Totally Blondie’ who in 2023 helped us raise £750.00 for Dementia UK. Their latest concert raised £867 for Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity.

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.

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.

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.

Watch out for our next Rotary Rocks gig – they are always a good evening out, and always raise funds for local charities.

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.

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.