More about us D2 | York Rotary

MORE ABOUT US

What we're about.....

We currently have over 80 members, male and female, and are a friendly, welcoming group, with a range of social events as well as our weekly lunch meetings that most members attend - though for some members this is not practical due to their work commitments.

The Rotary club of York was inaugerated in 1921 and after 100 years of service York Rotary celebrated our centenary year 2021/2 in some style

We are very active in the York community, carrying out many fundraising events and providing service supporting vulnerable individuals and community groups through fundraising, mentoring, the provision of professional expertise, in areas including youth, age, disability, refugee, abuse; working in partnership with local charities, schools and other organisations.

Annual fundraising via the Dragon Boat Challenge and other activities amounts to approximately £120,000, 2/3 of the Dragon Boat Challenge funds go to charities selected by teams, the balance of funds along with funds raised by other events totalling £45,000 to £40,000 goes to to charities selected by York Rotary.

For more details of activities see the details below and for more information click on the links for the individual items.

Our events and activities

York Rotary Dragon Boat Challenge

This fantastic event has been held annually in July since 2003. The event involves 70+ organising volunterrs, approximately 700 competitors, 24 charity stall holders and several thousand spectators. The 2025 event raised £113,000 supporting approximately 50 charities. Since its inception the event has raised approximately £1.7m. Click here to view the Dragon Boat portion of the website.

RYLA Courses:

Rotary District 1040 organises Youth Leadership courses on an annual basis and York Rotary interviews and selects two or more candidates, we pay for their course and organise transport to and from the course centre. Feedback from students has indicated that these courses are invaluable in raising the confidence and leadership skills.

Refreshments of Pathfinder driving courses

We provided refreshments for three week long Pathfinder Driving Courses for under 17 drivers every year.

Mock interviews for school pupils

Approximately 50 mock interviews are carried out on line for school pupils as preparation for forthcoming university interviews. The mock interviews are often the first interview experiences that pupils encounter and the experience is found to be very valuable.

General fundraising:

In addition to the annual Dragon Boat Challenge York Rotary organises many other fundraising events to support charities, often raising a further £15,000 per annum, such events include daily refreshments and stalls event at St Crux (as well as raising funds this event provides affordable refreshments and recycles unwanted goods), concert events, quiz evenings, street collections and other fundraising events.

School support:

Support is regularly provided to individual schools in need.

For Haxby road school equipment to improve the environment and for performing arts has been funded, along with a bulb planting project that schools were able to participate in.

During covid we provided laptops for schools to aid online learning for pupils who did not have available facilities. We are currently part way through a project, in partnership with York Vikings and York Ainsty Rotary clubs to provide Chromebooks for York High School. The Chrome books are to be used to promote meaning learning in "Reflection", the School's space for those who have committed misdemeanours

International support:

Traditionally York Rotary has supported many international projects, including Ebeneezer school, Aquabox (facility to purify water for use in areas of international need) and since the start of the Ukraine conflict collecting and arranging shipment of aid to Ukraine. To date 339 full banana boxes of died food have been collected and shipped to Ukraine, as well as sleeping bags and funding to enable the purchase of generators, click here for more information.

Gifts to the City:

Over the years York Rotary has participated in or provided gifts to the city. In ? in partnership with the other York Rotary clubs a tactile map was provided near the West end of York Minster. To mark its half centenary we presented a clock in Minster Gates to the City and in 2025, using funds left from our centenary year we funded and organised the restoration of the Minster Gates clock in partnership with York Minster. Other projects have included restoration of the sundial on College Green in 2000/21.

Baggage handling/marshalling:

The provision of baggage handling services for York 10K and the York marathon on an annual basis is a fun way of providing great service to these important events. We also provide marshalling services for the York trialthlon.

Family tree planting project:

This project was a partnership led by, and administered by, York Rotary. In conjunction with Treemendous a site was found for a tree planting project and 1,200 trees were planted.

The project offered to plant a tree at no cost to the parents of every child born in York in 2018/19. Over 1,100 babies were registered.

Since then we have maintained the developing woodland and we have held several Family Day events with parents invited to visit the site and help tend the trees, and meet other families.

For more information click here

Outings for elderly and lonely:

A summer outing with afternoon tea is arranged for lonely and elderly and in the winter a theatre visit or afternoon tea outing is organised. These events are important for people who are often lonely or are rarely able to go on outings.

International Friendship:

For over 30 years York Rotary has had a partnering arrangement with Erlangen Rotary in Germany, we exchange visits every two years and we also participate in online events sharing ideas and international friendship, this was found to be particularly invaluable during Covid lockdown periods.

Support for College students:

Prizes are awarded to apprenticeship students at York College, the prises comprise vouchers that winning students can use to buy tools to assist themselves with their trade.

Drivers and general support for Physionet:

Physionet organises the collection of surplus NHS equipment which is then stored, sorted and repaired where needed prior to being distributed to needy countries. We assist the project by providing drivers to visit NHS premises around the north of the country and the transport of the equipment to the storage depot as well as helping to load lorries when equipment is due to be transported abroad.

Socks for the homeless:

For many years in the run up to Christmas we have collected socks for the homeless. For a homeless person receiving a clean dry pair of socks gives them a much needed boost.

More information:

For more information or to enquire about becoming more involved in our activities or possibly becoming a member follow this link.