LEDBURY Rotary Club has organised a fun evening with the objective of fund-raising to enable the Rotary Club to provide help for the Projects it is supporting during this year.

Rotarian Graham Chick said “Anyone who enjoys a traditional country Barn Dance – with a slapup supper – should attend this exciting event. Why not come along to Colwall Village Hall at 7pm on Friday, March 23, and enjoy the evening knowing you have contributed towards making a better life for others less fortunate”.

Many people will know Whiffeldy the local group from near Hereford who specialise in ceilidh music and on Friday, March 23, are providing the caller and some five musicians playing a range of traditional instruments including a Chalumeaux, a five-string bass guitar, a recorder, a fiddle and an accordion.

The cost of a ticket also provides a scrumptious buffet supper and variety of puddings, there will be a pay bar and raffle.

The main focus of International charity projects being supported are: Shelter Boxes which provides disaster relief world wide in the form of a large, green Shelter Box with contents tailored to the disaster but typically contains a disaster relief tent for an extended family, blankets, water storage and filtration equipment, cooking utensils, a stove, a basic tool kit, a children’s activity pack and other vital items.

Boxes cost £600 and last year Ledbury financed two that were sent to help in Somalia and a further box for the Turkish earthquake disaster in November.

Other projects for our support this year are for Mercy Ships a charity that has two medical/hospital ships staffed with volunteer surgeons and other medical staff that visit various desperate areas and perform both life-saving and life changing operations.

Ledbury Rotary will support one of the charities aimed at improving water supply and improved sanitation into remote parts of Africa and help finance the Jaipur Limb Centre, an organisation that started in India but is now active in Africa providing artificial prosthetics for people that have lost limbs in accidents or from amputations.

In Kenya there are immense problems being created by deforestation as trees are burned for fuel; we have also contributed this year to a project aimed at school children in Kenya to make a fuel from alternative waste materials for use in their schools and homes for cooking.

Sight Savers International work largely in Africa combating the disease known as river blindness and part of the funds raised will assist staff in performing cataract operations and generally helping to eliminate avoidable blindness. Barn Dance tickets cost £12.50 each and are available from The Three Counties Bookshop at 6 High Street, Ledbury.

For those who want something more relaxing, Ledbury Rotary has arranged for the Spring Charity Concert to be held at St Michael’s Church in Ledbury on Friday, March 30, at 7pm. Tenor Joshua Mills along with Philip Holland on piano and Anna Perry on clarinet will form part of this exciting programme together with the Wynne Harries Trio and further support from Malvern St James.

Tickets for this special event cost £8 and are available from the Three Counties Bookshop in Ledbury. All proceeds will go towards the Hereford Royal National College for the Blind, the charity Rotary president Tony Knight has chosen to support this year.