At the Rugby Dunsmore Rotary Club Burns Night on 27th January the Friends of St Cross was presented with a cheque for £2,700 for the Diamond Jubilee Appeal to add to the £2,000 which had already been donated last June.
Mike Hutton, the President of Rugby Dunsmore Rotary Club for 2013-14, said that he had selected The Friends as his Charity of the Year because “St Cross is a valued essential part of Rugby town and really merits the support of all the citizens of the town and the Rotarians”. The money was raised at various events throughout the term of Mike’s Presidency including a Jazz Night, a Fifties Night and a Golf Day and was supplemented by a share of the monies raised at the Spring Fair which supports a wide range of local and international charities.
The Burns Night was attended by 122 Rotarians and their distinguished guests from all three of Rugby’s Rotary Clubs who enjoyed a traditional Burns Night Dinner and speeches which were followed by a superb concert by Bilton Silver Band and a short dance to the music of the bagpipes.
Willy Goldschmidt, Communications Lead for the Friends, thanked Mike and his fellow Rotarians for their outstanding support for the appeal and pointed out that a further £1,000 had been raised by a team who had taken part in the Run for Rotary last September. The Mayor of Rugby, Councillor Ramesh Srivistava is also a member of the Rugby Dunsmore Rotary Club and Willy thanked him for his support for the appeal and also the members who have been contributing to the 5p collections! The dinner guests were astonished and delighted to hear that the Appeal had collected over £43,000 of which over £1,000 was in 5p pieces and that the Appeal had probably received over 1,000 donations from the community. Willy also announced that the Friends had now asked the hospital management to initiate the project to relocate the Blood Taking Unit and it is hoped that the new facility will be opened in the late spring subject, of course, to the success of the Appeal.