Rotary welcomes people from a wide variety of business and professional background.

What we all have in common is an ability to make time and a willingness to give service.

We also share a strong sense of fellowship and fun in make our own and other community’s a better place to be.

Should you wish to learn more about us, or be considered for membership, please email info@rotarywoking.co.uk or call 01483 762832

Since August 2011 the Club membership has increased. A warm welcome to John Goodridge; Jane Cooper; and Sreeparna Roy.



Harry Wells Trophy 2011

Harry Wells was a member of our Club who died a few years ago. He was an engineer in the Oil Industry and had a keen interest in promoting engineering amongst local young people. After his death, the Club decided to award the Harry Wells Trophy annually to a student at Woking College who was chosen by the faculty for the excellence of his project work.

This year's winner is Garth Pollock and his tutor tells me that he designed and built a fan cooling system with digital speed control. He designed it from scratch with minimum help from the college tutors and built it with no assistance as part of his A level project. His tutor Sean Little regards him as a particularly worthy winner from all the 24 students who entered the competition.

Pat Wells presented Garth with the trophy plaque and a cheque prize.

Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Visit to Woking Club

The Rotary Club of Woking hosted a visit by a Rotary Foundation student, Andreana Lefton, from the United States who had won an Ambassadorial Scholarship for one academic year to be able to serve abroad as an ambassador of goodwill to improve international understanding.

These Scholarships are Rotary Foundation’s oldest and best known programme, being founded in 1947. It sponsors scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students as well as qualified professionals pursuing vocational studies.

While abroad, scholars serve as goodwill ambassadors to the host country and give presentations about their homelands to Rotary clubs and other groups. They must maintain full-time academic studies in addition to the ambassadorial aspects of their scholarship.

After returning home, scholars share with Rotarians and others the experiences that led to a greater understanding of their host country.

Today’s Ambassadorial Scholars may be tomorrow’s community and world leaders.

Andreana gave an account of her family’s influence on her life and personal experiences in various parts of the world leading up to her selection from a shortlist of over 70 students to be awarded a Rotary scholarship. In 1974 her Mother had taken up a teaching position in Australia for both white and Aboriginal children in some of the most spare and rugged places on earth and was alarmed by the racism and exclusion that dogged the Aboriginal community.

As a master’s student and Rotary Scholar in London, Andreana has been working with Roma Gypsy refugees, tutoring children while analysing education policy. “I’ve learned that it’s not only people who tell stories: governments do too, often with serious consequences.”

For her dissertation, Andreana is exploring what happens when certain groups are left out of official policy narratives – and what we can do to ensure a more inclusive education system.

Woking Rotary Swimathon - 23rd October 2011

More than 250 people took part in the 4th Rotary Club of Woking Swimathon event on Sunday.

Teams of up to six were sponsored by family and friends to swim for 55 minutes each hour between 9am and 6pm at the Pool in the Park with the aim to raise at least £10,000 for local charities and other worthy causes. Each swimmer averaged between 10 and 20 lengths.

The annual event was started by the Mayor of Woking, Councillor Ken Howard, and attended by Stephen Henderson, Dealer Principal at Trident Honda which again sponsored this year’s Swimathon. More than 45 volunteers helped out during the day.

Stephen Henderson commented, “Trident Honda is very proud to be sponsoring this very worthwhile event once again. It's great to see so many people getting involved and having fun whilst raising money”.

The past three Swimathons have raised more than £40,000 and money raised this year will be all donated to a number of local charities.

Woking Rotary Club Invites Schools to grow the tallest and Largest Sunflowers

Woking Rotary Club invited pupils at 10 schools in the area to take part in a sunflower growing competition and on 13th October the Club President, Graham Fagence presented prizes at Bourne Valley Garden Centre to those children who had grown the tallest sunflower as well as the flower with the biggest head. The aim of the competition was to provide a gardening experience to many children in the school or at their home with a competitive element which would be both instructive and fun.

The Club in conjunction with the Bourne Valley Garden Centre provided growing compost, seed pots and the seeds, together with accompanying growing guidance notes, to be planted by not later than 4th April. On 14th September the four tallest and four largest flowers were selected by each school to establish the competition winners. The winning schools and pupils who achieved the best growing results in each category were awarded prizes of vouchers valued up to £50, for spending at the Bourne Valley Garden Centre, accompanied with framed certificates.

Barnsbury Junior School had the winner of the largest diameter sunflower at 39cm grown by Oak Class.

St Andrews School had the two winners for the tallest sunflowers at 3m 59cm and 2m 99cm.