SIR: I am pleased to report that the Rotary Club of Westhoughton was very successful when it toured the streets of the town for over two weeks in December with Father Christmas. We were able to raise the excellent totalof £4035. This was in part by the timing of Christmas allowing us to include an extra evening in the Daisy Hill area and also a Sunday collection at Asda in Middlebrook, as well as our traditional Saturday collections at Sainsbury's and Market Street, Westhoughton. We were also helped mostly by fine weather.

The sleigh also had a post box, and Santa was able to read all the letters that children sent to him, and did his very best to reply to them all before he came round on Christmas Eve.

The money collected will all be used for projects and groups in the Westhoughton community over the next year. In the last year, we have carried out a number of initiatives in Westhoughton, including an Easter party for 170 senior citizens, a five-a side and rounders competition for local primary schools, arranged the "Youth Speaks" competition for local high schools, sponsored a day of the running of Bolton Hospice, arranged for Natalie Kaalman of Daisy Hill to go on an exchange visit to Peru, and supported some 20 other local causes.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to the people of Westhoughton and neighbouring areas for their generosity, which was quite magnificent, and of course to the thousands of children who came to see Santa, as his sleigh toured round. We counted over 6000.

If any gentlemen in the district would like the opportunity to talk to a member of the Rotary Club about the work that we do, then please ring our secretary, Tony on 01706-750001 (day) or 01942-810151 (evening).

Rotary is now on the internet, both nationally and for our District (1280). A very Happy New Year to all at the Bolton Evening News!

Phil Wood

Press and publicity officer

Broomway, Westhoughton

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.