Rotary’s Dragons’ Den style Zoom meeting

The Rotary Club of Macclesfield Castle invited three ‘Dragons’ to hear presentations from each of five local charities which had been finally selected from 11 initial applications.

In the Dragons’ seats were Rotarian Keith Dobson, and members of the local community Valerie Herbert and David Earl.  

In a Dragons’ Den-style pitch event held on ZOOM, each charity had just 10 minutes to pitch for funds up to £800.

Each of the 5 local charities proposed a project which would have a direct impact on the local community and for which they were seeking funding from the local Rotary Club’s Charity Fund. 

After hearing the presentations, the Dragons carefully deliberated on the award of money to each of the projects.

Macclesfield Parish Church Scout and Guide Group were awarded funding towards a project to provide an external storage facility for their equipment and thereby increase the internal space available in their premises for their activities. 

Macclesfield Male Voice Choir were awarded funding towards increasing accessibility to a wider group of people including open singing events and concerts in local care homes. 

The Rossendale Trust were awarded funding towards the provision of Nintendo consoles for residential adults with learning difficulties.

The Disability Information Bureau were awarded funding towards the provision of mobile phones for members of their Welfare Team working from home to support local people who may not have access to the internet.  

East Cheshire Hospice were awarded funding towards materials to help organize their Annual Christmas Run. 

Rotary Club President Chris Watson was delighted at the success of this event which was organized by Jim Richardson, Brian Reader and the Community Service Committee: “The local Rotary Club organize many events to raise funding. We receive wonderful support from local people at these events. Along with most fundraising groups, the opportunity to fundraise has been severely curtailed during the pandemic. We are keen to use some of the money that we have been able to raise to support local charities towards achieving their projects. In addition to funding, we are also keen to offer our time, skills and effort to work with others in the local community”.

Dragon Chairperson Keith Dobson, a Trustee of the local Rotary Club said: “The presentations were all superb. It was difficult to choose between such worthy causes. Together the presentations gave an insight into the tremendous activity of local Macclesfield charities”.