Racing pundits enjoyed a double win at a special race meeting at Southwell Racecourse, thanks to Rotary. As well as the exhileration of placing bets, participants were able to help Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign, raising over £9,000.
District 1220 set up a special meeting at Southwell Racecourse, selling over 1,450 tickets to club members and race-goers. In addition to ticket sales, the race sponsorships brought in £1,800 and there was a bucket collection.
The seven special races were televised on the TV Channel ‘At The races’ on Sky and Virgin Media as well as betting shops throughout the country, helping to raise further awareness of the cause. The programme and race cards featured several pages about Rotary and also polio eradication. Races all mentioned Rotary or polio from ‘Rotary AG’s Gee Gees Polio Eradication’ race to ‘Print Monkey Supporting Rotary Polio Eradication Race’.
Organiser Terry Leivers says it has been very worthwhile: "It was an amazing event at Southwell Racecourse with hundreds of tickets sold. The place was really buzzing and we had 53 of our 58 clubs represented as well as groups of Rotarians from Grantham, Lincoln and all over Leicestershire.
"The publicity was excellent with the announcer mentioning Rotary and Polio Eradication on a regular basis. We made a profit of £9,000 on the night and are delighted with the result.
"This was a relatively easy event to organise and could be done at any of the smaller racecourses which are part of the same group. There was little for us to do on the day as the racecourse take care of everything, we just found sponsors, sold tickets and boosted End Polio Now.
"Thank you to everyone who has supported the event and for helping save lives."
