Saturday 29th June saw the return of Best Foot Forward to Aldersley Stadium in Wolverhampton. The weather was kind, not too hot and no rain, perfect for runners and joggers. This year’s Charity Pot stood at £11,700. This is the money donated by our very generous Patrons which is then released to our nominated Charities by completing circuits of the track. The number of Participants this year was a record at 590 people who completed 15,352 laps, another record. Consequently, the Charity Pot was fully released. The nominated charities for 2024 are the Central Youth Theatre, Wolverhampton MS Therapy Centre and the Rotary Charitable Trust.

Participating teams such as Wolverhampton Coronary Aftercare Support Group were also raising funds for their own causes.

As always, our Participants represented a complete cross section of abilities; there were serious runners, endurance runners, joggers, people in wheelchairs, walkers, babies in prams, and many canine supporters. We had the usual queue at 8 am with the runners keen to get on the track. Some of those runners were still there at 8 pm! This year thirty Participants did over 100 laps, another record. DG Makunda Chidrawar and DGE Jane Cooper paid us a visit and did some laps. We had a visit from Councillor Linda Leach, Mayor of Wolverhampton. Rotarians from the other Rotary Clubs in Wolverhampton did some laps for us. Making an event like Best Foot Forward run smoothly requires a lot of work, so our thanks must go to the twenty seven Rotarians who volunteered to help on the day. We also had three helpers who, whilst not Rotarians, put in a lot of work; Carol Lowndes, Alder Allen and Richard Maule-ffinch. Any report on Best Foot Forward would be remiss if it did not thank Geoff and Carol Lowndes and Mike Boyce. Our thanks to them for their hard work organising Best Foot Forward and ensuring the event was so successful. – – – But of course none of this would have happened without our generous Patrons, our backers the James Beattie Trust, the Exprees & Star and the City Council and our Participants, so our grateful thanks go to all of you.

Richard Horrell, Chairman Best Foot Forward Committee.

The Rotary Club of the City of Wolverhampton.

Compton Care have created a Recognition Wall in their lovely garden.

This wall recognises those organisations and individuals who over the years have been pivotal in  supporting Compton Care. The Rotary Club of the City of Wolverhampton were heavily involved in the setting up of Compton Hospice in 1982 and have raised funds for a number of projects over the years. Rotarians from the club attended the official opening of the Recognition Wall.

In association with the Rotary KidsOut charity, clubs across Great Britain and Ireland gave a huge number of disadvantaged children a day out to remember. Last year, 20,174 children visited 73 venues free of charge.

This year on June the12th.,the Rotary club of The City of Wolverhampton once again played its part by arranging for local children to have a day out at Twycross Zoo and Warwick Castle.

Here’s what one school told us:

“Our group had a fabulous day and really enjoyed seeing all of the animals (and completing the treasure hunt which was a big success!)

Even our more quiet and reserved pupils came home smiling and were very animated having experienced the parakeets, monkeys and giraffes.

One pupil described it as the ‘best day ever’, and all enjoyed themselves with the added surprise of an ice cream.

Several pupils checked out of their day as feeling grateful and asked I extended this to you and Rotary Kids Out.

Thank-you again for thinking of us and providing our children with a fabulous day out.”

PDG Richard Green

Another Wolverhampton School joins the happy band of recipients for our Alumni Books4Home scheme – this time it’s St. Teresa’s Catholic Academy, in the capable hands of Rotarian Polly Bhambra….and with a new, additional  gift from Rotary – a fun resource that accompanies the story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Teachers can bring the story to life with the soft toy showing the caterpillar emerging from his felt cocoon and becoming a beautiful butterfly!

Picture shows Deputy Head Tammy Picken with Polly and the childrenwho were thrilled to accept our latest gifts.

PDG Richard Green

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Once again it was our great pleasure to take the Rotary Junior Technology Challenge to Uplands Primary School.

Over the two days of Wednesday and Thursday March 13^th and 14^th.. 96 year 5 children were keen to learn how to become engineers by building a bridge for a squirrel to cross in safety. On the first day, after an invitation from the presenter Richard Green, the children named the squirrel, by a majority vote, ‘Bob’ and on the second day he became ‘Sammy.’

The children were completely engaged and enthusiastic, providing the Rotarian team with great satisfaction at being able to give encouragement and knowledge to young people.

The children had given their teams some unique and amusing names. The winners on the first day were ‘The Good Girls’ with runners up ‘The Science Squad’ and on the the second day it was ‘Shooting Stars’ with ‘Red Robot Devils’ the runners up.

Thanks are due to club members President Charles Cox, Norman Holmes, Stuart Williams and Richard Horrell together with District Youth Service committee members Robyn and Trevor Davies and Peter Langdon for coming along to be part of the team; also we give a very special thank you to Brian Bailey who worked extremely hard in preparing the copious amount of material and equipment needed in advance.

PDG Richard Green

At the 26^th annual mega limb camp carried out by the Rotary club of Bangalore Peenya in January 2024, supported by a grant from Rotary Jaipur Limb UK, 1777 amputees and others suffering from deformities received lifechanging support.

595 artifical limbs, 551 callipers, 74 LN4 artificial hands, 510 crutches and 44 wheelchairs were made available free of charge. The men, women and children who benefitted were of all ages ranging from the very young to the very elderly.

The RJLP trustee and director for India, Past District Governor Richard Green was on hand to give advice and encouragement to the dedicated team of technicians and Rotarians who worked tirelessly over 5 days, from 8am until 10pm every day.

Of the many recipients, one example was 10 year old Ravindra, deformed from birth, whose feet and legs were so mishapen that he could only crawl around the ground in his village.

After he had been assessed and had plaster of paris moulds made, the technicians were able overnight to make specially fitted artifical limbs. Once these were attached Ravindra was able to raise himself up onto a walking frame and immediately propel himself around.

One little boy who has his dignity and hope restored. His smile tells the story.

Our purple for polio crocus, planted in Bantock Park with the help of children from Merridale and Low Hill Primary schools last October are now in full, beautiful bloom, reminding us to complete the job of eliminating the sourge of polio.  From a situation where there were 1000 new cases a day across 125 countries in the world when we started in 1985, we are winning but can’t give up the fight. In 2023, there were just 6 new cases in Pakistan and 6 in Afghanistan.

PDG Richard Green