DROITWICH Spa Rotary Club held its last-ever meeting this week after over 84 years of service to the town.
The rotary club is perhaps best known as the committed group which organises the town’s hugely popular Santa Sleigh each year alongside the Droitwich Lions.
However, the club has decided to close down due to the age of many of its members, meaning they were unable to be as active within the community.
The group enjoyed a final lunch on Tuesday (June 20) with many former members joining to share their memories.
The group was first formed in 1938 and has met most weeks ever since, usually at lunchtime.
The group continued to hold meetings on Zoom throughout the pandemic.
They have spent the last few years meeting at the Old Cock Inn.
The popular Santa Sleigh would give families the chance to meet Father Christmas, with local elves carrying donation buckets and all the cash raised going to local charities.
The Santa Sleigh is set to continue with Droitwich Lions running it.
The Rotary House was built in 1958 using funds raised by the club with matched funding from local businessman HB Everton.
However, in 2021 the rotary house was handed over to be run by Droitwich CVS so it could continue to be used by the community amid the club’s concerns about their ability to maintain and administer the building.
Other rotary club activities have included handing out ‘Good Citizen’ awards to extraordinary members of the local community.
And the group has donated cash to local charities including the Droitwich Spa foodbank, St Richard’s Hospice and Acorns Children’s Hospice.
Residents have been paying tribute to the rotary club and its members on social media.
Coun Richard Morris described the news as ‘very sad’ and thanked the rotary club for ‘brilliantly’ serving the people of Droitwich over the years.
Alan Humphries added the club would be ‘very much missed.’
And Lucy Droitwich thanked them for their ‘kind donation’ to allow the start of Droitwich’s Bereavement Café.
