ASHTEAD VILLAGE DAY 12^TH JUNE 2010

A spectacular parade of military vehicles, historic buses and beautifully maintained specialist cars kicked off Ashtead Village Day this year in a parade from The Street down to Barnett Wood Recreation Ground.

There the crowds were waiting for BBC TV’s Nicholas Owen to declare the Village Day formally open. Given the good weather and a sell out on the programmes, Ashtead Rotary Club was quietly confident that this would prove to be one of the better years for fundraising. In fact the Ashtead Village Day on 12th June raised a record amount - circa £20,000 for worthy causes.

A substantial donation will be made to Help for Heroes / Headley Court and the remaining funds will be divided equally between local and international

beneficiaries over the next twelve months. Details will be posted on the Ashtead Rotary website in due course. It is estimated that the charity stallholders represented at Village Day also raised further funds amounting to a similar total.

The Rotary Club awarded a total of 4 Community awards this year to very deserving local figures – Bryan Elphick, PC Jason Woods, Karen Morgan (Guiding) and Val Hickmoth (Guiding/Brownies) and these were presented by Nicholas Owen. (Double click on thumbnail to enlarge)

Bryan Elphick

PC Jason Woods

Assistant District Commissioner

Karen Morgan

Val Hickmoth

As well as the helicopter rides, big wheel and a great variety of stalls, a novel feature this year was Meiron Owen’s Performing Ducks which delighted adults and children alike when they were shepherded through various tunnels and obstacles by young sheepdog Kenny all the way from Wales

Ashtead Rotary Club President Keith Allardyce said: “This makes all our efforts worthwhile when we see the whole community come together to have fun and to raise huge sums of money for local and international good causes. We would like to thank everyone in the village and surrounding areas who supported our Village Day this year including the stallholders, advertisers and the shops which sold the programmes.”

Anyone interested in learning more about Ashtead Rotary Club should contact Brian Griffin on 01372 275860. Men and women from all backgrounds are welcome.

ASHTEAD VILLAGE DAY 2009

The 26^th Annual Village Day on 20^th June brought great weather and after several days of Ashtead Rotarians tramping the Barnet Wood Lane Recreation ground, measuring up and white-lining 100 differently sized plots, the day burst into life with the arrival of the motorcade procession coming down Woodfield Lane from the Peace Memorial Hall Car Park with a 1930’s bus, a Guy truck, lots of Minis celebrating the 50^th birthday of the marquee, and some lovely classic cars kept in line by a genuine US Sheriff’s patrol car. The procession was led by our VIP, the lovely TV personality Andrea McLean, being chauffeured in one of a record entry of Caterham Super Sevens, sitting about 1cm off the ground. Mind you - Andrea holds an RAC Class 4 racing licence so she might actually have more appropriately been at the wheel!

Andrea who is a local resident, performed the opening ceremony and events got off to a terrific start with the first of the Motor Cycle Stunt Displays which scared the living daylights out of some citizens who found the front fork of a trail bike perilously close to their handbags at times. Undoubtedly this was the centre of attention this year with their nerve-jangling displays over 3 sessions during the afternoon but there was something for all age groups with the children loving the animal petting farm, the chairoplanes , the cup & saucer ride, the mini bunjee jumping and the giant slide. Other youngsters took full advantage of the Ferris wheel, the Harrier jet simulator, the football challenge and the Surrey Police speed gun trials. Everyone enjoyed the many other attractions including the ever popular Dog Show and the many arena performances including the Poptastic dancers, Downsend Lodge football display and Maypole dancing by pupils from Barnett Wood Lane Infant School.

The combined churches tea tent was very popular and presence of dozens of local charities kept alive the ‘village fete’ atmosphere as did the live music from three bands on good form – the pop band Atlantis, The Bluebell Railway Silver band and the Pilgrim steel band. A great day for everyone in our village!

The Rotary Club of Ashtead Community Awards for 2009 were as follows –

1) Group Award: Ashtead University of the Third Age (U3A)

2) Individual Award: Details to follow

Len Wood (responsible for preparing & printing the Programmes) commented: we had some doubts about whether we could match the success of last year’s Village Day but a combination of hard work over several weeks and cooperation with local businesses - plus the tremendous support of the public - has meant that we have succeeded again.

Rotarian John Jones who was responsible for advanced sales of programmes and colleague Jack McFarlane who organised sales through local business outlets would like to thank the following who were key to the success of the Programme side of things:-

ExxonMobil who generously funded the printing costs. All the businesses which advertised in the Programme and the following traders who stocked the programmes for sale: William Dyer The Butcher in Craddocks Parade, The Post Office in The Street, The Post Office in Barnett Wood Lane, Ashtead News in Woodfield Lane and Oakhill Garage, Grove Road

Ashtead Rotary Club President, Tim Ashton, commented:

“I can report that we had a tremendous turnout from the village and surrounding areas – somewhere between 7000 to 8000 people in total - and while the accounts have not yet been finalised it looks like we will just match our last year’s fundraising total of £20,000 which is very pleasing in these recessionary times. It is anticipated that the charity stalls which took part will have raised approximately £30,000 for their causes in addition. Our thanks to Andrea McLean who opened the event, to ExxonMobil who funded the Programme printing, all the businesses who advertised in our Programme and those who sold them in their shops, all the participating stallholders and finally all the hard working Rotarians, Friends of Rotary and Inner Wheel helpers who made the day possible. One name cannot be missed – David Mitchell-Baker, who has announced that this will be his final year as operations manager for the event. He has been the key player in my team for many years and those who will succeed him in 2010 him will have a hard act to follow. A sincere thank you, David”

So that they can make Village Day even better next year, the organisers would like feedback from those who attended and a website has been set up for this purpose: AVDfeedback09@ntlworld.com

Photographs of village Day will be published on the website of Rotary Club of Ashtead in due course as well as on those of The Ashtead Residents Association and St Giles & St Georges.

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Ashtead Rotary now has its own web site. Go to the following pages:-

http://www.ribi.org/ and type Ashtead into the "Find a Club" box.

ASHTEAD VILLAGE DAY 12TH JUNE 2010

ASHTEAD VILLAGE DAY 12^TH JUNE 2010