Local Projects

We support many local projects, including:

Downs Syndrome and Special Needs Support Group
Seaford Lifeguards
Seaford in Bloom
Waves
Seaford Museum
Seaford Scouts
Seaford Guides
Primary Schools in Seaford
Special Needs Schools in Seaford
Seeability
Lewes Railway Land Wildlife Trust

Children with Cancer

This local charity provides support for children who suffer from cancer and their families.
We give them ongoing support, including cleaning their caravan each Spring.

Children with Cancer Fund website

Chestnut Tree House

Chestnut Tree House is the only children's Hospice in Sussex, and we have been giving them support in the last few years. They do remarkable work for the children who stay there and their families, and they are looking to cater for more and reach out to a larger area.

Chestnut Tree House website

Thanks For Life - End Polio Now

Welcome to 'Rotary Day - Thanks for Life', an annual project involving the clubs and members of Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland (RIBI), to highlight the humanitarian work of Rotarians with the number one aim of helping to eradicate polio throughout the world.

2011/12 is the third year that Rotarians across Britain and Ireland will be working together on and around Rotary Day - 23rd February, the anniversary of the first Rotary meeting in Chicago, USA, more than 100 years ago - to raise awareness and understanding of Rotary in their community, attract new members and maximise donations to The Rotary Foundation to assist polio eradication.

More information on Thanks for Life

St Wilfrid's Hospice

St Wilfrid's in Eastbourne is our local Hospice, and we provide them with ongoing support.

Searchlight

Searchlight is a Charity offerring a residential, day care and respite centre for adults with physical and mental learning disabilities. It is based in Newhaven, and we have given it support over the years, the most recent being a donation to help them to buy a new minibus.

We also provide transport for their residents to take part in the annual Disabled Sports run by Rotary.

Friends of Chernobyl's Children

Friends of Chernobyl's Children is a registered charity which devotes its energies to raising funds to bring children from Belarussia to the United Kingdom for a month every year. The charity targets children from orphanages or disadvantaged homes, aged between six and thirteen. These children are in great need and come from social situations that make it difficult for them to get the care they require at home.

This was our President's project for 2009-2010

Friends of Chernobyl's Children website

Seaford in Bloom

Each year we support Seaford in Bloom, to enable them to decorate the town with flowers.

Seaford Head Community College

In the recent past we have continued to support Seaford Head Community College with funding for their Performing Arts bid. This was for replacement and additional modern sound and lighting technical equipment. In addition we have made available money to provide prizes for students who have achieved in the fields of Maths, English, French and Community Service.

Reading and Maths at Seaford Head Community College

The Club is now in the third year of assisting with reading practice for the new intake at SHCC. The adult helpers are Rotarians and wives of Rotarians and the group has been meeting with their tutees on Friday mornings during term time. This is now being increased to Mondays and Fridays to accommodate those for whom Friday was a difficult day. The scheme has been considered a success by both the School and the adult helpers. At the end of the academic year the Club presents the regular pupil attendees with an Illustrated Dictionary. For the past two years we have also been helping with remedial Maths for year 7 students, which is also proving very successful.There are now more than 25 Rotarians and friends taking part in these schemes.

Rotary Youth Leader Award

The Club supported two candidates for this year’s Rotary Youth Leader Award course which was held at Woodrow High House, Amersham, Buckinghamshire in the Easter holidays. The two participants gave a talk to the Club on their return and it was evident to all that they had not only enjoyed the course but had gained substantially from it in confidence and leadership skills. The Club is hoping to be able to sponsor two Candidates again for the 2010 Course.

Safety in Action

The Safety in Action scheme in our area is run jointly by Sussex Police and Lewes District Council. It involves children from Primary Schools in the LDC area coming attending the course for a morning or afternoon during a week in the Summer Term. This year’s course was held at Newhaven Fort. The children learn about the various dangers that they may encounter in everyday life from the threat of electrocution from entering electricity substations and flying kites near power lines to safely crossing roads and railways and being wary of strangers becoming too friendly. The Club supports this very worthwhile project with helpers at each session who do anything from filling ‘goody bags’ to timekeeping for the events and financially by sponsoring one of the prizes gained by the winning schools. We look forward to being involved again in the 2010 event.

Just One

As part of our commitment to promoting literacy skills amongst children worldwide as well as in our local community, we have provided funds to Just One (a charity based in Nepal) which is dedicated to bringing basic education to the Street Children of this impoverished country.

These funds will be used to purchase much needed books for a library which the charity is setting up in the capital Kathmandu. In this way these young people will be given the opportunity of improving their lives and hopefully becoming full members of their society.

Shelter Box

Because Rotary is a world-wide organisation, we are in an ideal position to get help to disaster areas when the need arises. One way in which we help is by supplying Shelter boxes, which provide basic equipment for people who have lost their homes. This includes a large tent, cooking equipment, basic provisions.

Christmas Sleigh

Every weekday evening in December (up to the 23rd), we visit the streets of Seaford with Father Christmas and his sleigh, giving sweets to children and collecting money for our charities. We also have the sleigh in Broad Street each Saturday morning in December, and on Christmas Eve. This annual event, very popular within the town, has been running for over 50 years.

Car Boot Sales and Farmers Markets

In May 2011 we ran our first Car Boot Sale and Farmers Market at the Martello Fields in Seaford. This proved to be a successful venture, and we intend to repeat this at regular intervals.

Christmas Draw at Morrison’s

For the past 15 years during October Seaford Rotary Club have been running their Christmas Fund Raising Draw by selling raffle tickets in Morrison’s (formerly Safeway) to raise money for community causes. Rotary members sell ticket to local shoppers in store where they can stop and view ‘Rotary’s Community Activity Board’ where fundraising details and photographs of events and supported charities are colourfully displayed.

Car Parking!

Seaford Triathlon and Half Marathon are prestigious sporting events for the town which take place in September and March. This attracts hundreds of people to the Martello end of the seafront. Seaford Rotary Club in conjunction with Seaford Town Council undertakes to organise and manage the car parking facilities for participants and spectators for the weekend. Money raised from the car parking goes to support local charities. We also carry out Car Parking duties for other functions.

Exchange Project

This project is based at Crouch Gardens in Seaford. Anyone in the community can join to learn basic gardening skills. They have about 150 members from various backgrounds including wheelchair users, SeeAbility members and children that have been excluded from school.

Exchange Project website

Having Fun!

We believe that we can achieve the best results by having good fellowship within our Club, which we mainly achieve by having fun! We get together to go to shows, and we organise trips out to places of interest (recently we've been to Harveys Brewery in Lewes and Portsmouth Dockyards). Each year we get away for a few days with our partners to relax and enjoy one another's company (this year we went to King's Lynn, next year we're going to Stratford-upon-Avon). And we have an annual President's Night in the Spring, which usually takes the form of a Dinner Dance at a local Hotel.