The Oswestry Cambrian Rotary elves and Santa have completed their fifth street run just before Christmas. The final collection figure for the 2021 collection is a magnificent £6000 that includes nearly £500 from the Santa Grotto on the Oswestry Live night collected for the Mayors Charity.
A spokesperson for The Oswestry Cambrian Rotary said, “Now they are a fully registered charity, thist figure can be enhanced by Gift Aid. This money can now be distributed around our local groups and other Rotary supported charities and projects. The collection is more than last year and is a magnificent figure in these difficult times and is due to the generosity of our community.
“Thank you to Traditional Products for allowing us to store our Sleigh on their premises. Mikes Bike’s for the maintenance on the Sleigh and Red Square Garage for the donation of a large battery to power the lights and sound system on the sleigh
“Thanks also to B&M Bargains, Rachel and team at Morrison’s, Katie Frost at Sainsbury’s, Stans at St Martins and David Clough at Oswestry Town Council for our static site arrangements.
“Additional elves from the community have also helped so a very big thanks to Vicki Evans and “Girls on the Run” elves, Whittington Together, Whittington Castle, Whittington elves and Oswestry Farmers Group, Mike Perry at West Felton, Tony Ridge and the Gobowen elves. Without your help the drive-by collections in the villages would not have been possible.”
President Anna Pugh said, “Santa was greeted with warm smiles on the street rounds and static sites and seeing the faces of the children was wonderful. With another difficult year that we have all endured and the difficulties local groups and organisations are encountering, the money collected will be a great help in supporting them.”
Just a few statistics from the 2021 collection.
Nearly 450 hours were spent as Santa, driving the sleigh, as elves and dealing with the money.
More than 145 hours were spent by Rotarians preparing the sleigh and other ancillary work and admin to get it to happen.
The sleigh travelled 160 miles around Oswestry, Morda, Gobowen, St Martins, West Felton, Whittington and Park Hall.
The Oswestry Cambrian Rotary is ready to welcome individuals and couples of 18+ from the local community who want to be “people of action”. They normally meet face-to-face at The Wynnstay Hotel, Church Street, Oswestry on Thursday evenings at 7.30pm and meet in the bar. Alternatively, you can join our meeting from anywhere via our Zoom account connection.
For more information on what their new style of Rotary has to offer contact Mike Lade on 01691 570917, info@oswestrycambrianrc.co.uk or see ww.oswestrycambrianrc.co.uk.
Pictured: Gobowen Santa and his elves.
