THE Rotary Club of Oswestry invites applications from local organisations for grants from the Mary Hignett Bequest Fund. Local author, teacher and naturalist Mary Hignett left half of her estate to the Club to administer to support small projects in the areas of sport and the arts in the Oswestry area.
Successful applicants to the Mary Hignett Bequest Fund in 2017-18 included Oswestry Makes, The Wilfred Owen Festival, Llanymynech Bowling Club, Porthywaen Silver Band, Oswestry Community Games and Hirnant Community Hall.
This year’s Club President Ian Glenister says: “It is a privilege for the Rotary Club of Oswestry to help implement Mary Hignett’s vision through the wide variety of projects that the bequest fund is able to support. It is very rewarding to see the enthusiasm of the applicants and to be able to help these projects come to fruition.”
“One example is Oswestry Makes 2018 who obtained funding to support a festival throughout October celebrating the opportunities that exist to learn how to make things and all the incredible craft talent that there is around Oswestry. This year’s theme is Flowers of Peace and Remembrance and members of the public are invited to make flowers to decorate the town.”
Ian continued, “I am delighted to be ‘opening’ the exhibition at Oswestry Library by local multimedia artist Ticky Lowe at 11.00am on October 8th as Ticky creates her pop-up creative laboratory to deconstruct and examine native wildflowers in microscopic detail before reconstructing them in 3D in a much larger scale.
“Visitors to the lab will be able to see the existing collection of wildflowers and watch Ticky and her volunteers create a poppy and a cornflower illustrating the detailed botany of these flowers of peace and remembrance. The exhibition will run until 27 October.
“Members of the public can book onto Ticky’s free flower making workshops at Oswestry Library from 1-3pm on October 9th and at Qube from 1-3pm on 18th October – all supported by the Mary Hignett Bequest Fund.”
If you know of an arts or sports group who could apply for funding to get their project off the ground or over the line they have until 30th November 2018 to submit their applications.
Application forms can be found on the Club website www.rotarycluboswestry.co.uk where the useful guidance notes available there should be read before supplying a completed application to rotarycluboswestry@gmail.com