Past presidents join forces to run Market Harborough Rotary Club this year

Rather than a single president leading the club for a whole year, as is customary, the club – which raises funds for local causes - has six former presidents who will each reprise the role for two months.

The new rotary year started on July 1, kicking off with a meeting at the bandstand in Welland Park to handover to the new presidents.

The first president is Rotarian Hilary Hearnshaw who thanked immediate past president Led Dodd and commended his commitment to the club, describing him as ‘caring, reliable, supportive, willing, self-effacing, active and present’.

Highlights of the previous rotary year included the Rotary SwiMarathon, the planting of over 100 trees in Welland Park, the monthly Carer’s Café which served festive treats at the town’s Christmas

Fair and helped with the East Midlands Rotary Disability Games in April. They also held collections for emergency packs for the earthquakes in Morocco and Libya, and to support the Matt Hampson Trust and Home Start.

Following Hilary, over the next 12 months, the presidents will be Gordon Etherington, Chris Davies, Rennie Quinn, Ian Clarkson and Chris Etherington.

Many of the rotary activities will be repeated over the next year.

Hilary said: “This is a new scheme for club president job-share, but we think it will work very well. All six presidents are experienced Rotarians and the club has an exciting programme of events for the year ahead.

“We welcome enquiries from anybody wanting to find out more about us. Please look at our website.”

Visit www.rotary-ribi.org and search ‘clubs’ for more details.