The Rotary Club of Church Wilne welcomed Diane Aram, Chair of Draycott Village Fund, to its Speaker Evening. She gave an inspirational and heart warming talk on the growth of community spirit within Draycott Village. Starting in 2011, with Adrian Perkins' idea of persuading people of the village to have a Christmas Tree with white sparkly lights attaching to their homes, starting with 70 houses it has now grown to 200. After Christmas, the Tree brackets were used for Flags to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee, there was also the "Draycott Party in the Park" to celebrate the Jubilee. Meanwhile on the back of the community feel good factor the Draycott Scarecrow Festival was born in 2012 from one of many ideas generated by Ian Aram. 75 scarecrows have now grown to over 100.

The Draycott Village Fund then came into being, money made from the Festival was spent on street lights. During Christmas 2012 the newsletter and first Dickensian Christmas Market were held at the Christmas light switch on. The turnout was fantastic! In 2013, to celebrate St Georges day, flags were placed in the Christmas Tree brackets. We would like to thank all those involved in the community, supplying the Christmas trees, flagpoles, flags, lights, timers etc all at cost with no profit being made. Treetops, both Churches and the School are supplied free of charge. Nor is there a charge for putting trees and flags up and taking them down. In 2013 "Open Gardens" was organised and the Scarecrow Festival raised £3,000, which was invested in the Dickensian Market, "In Bloom Competition", "School Garden", in 2014 the yard sale, wellie planting and litter picking was added and the village entered the "Draycott in Bloom Competition" and won the Silver Gilt Award. Lots of support from local businesses and community volunteers. For more information email: draycottcommunityfund@hotmail.co.uk

Rotarian John Cook

For more information on Rotary and our speaker evenings, please contact Rotarian John Astell at: rccw1220@gmail.com