Rotary’s wishing well cash goes to food bank
East Kilbride Rotary Club have given a struggling local food bank a muchneeded cash boost after reading about their plight in the News.
Club members who volunteer for the East Kilbride Talking Newspaper were shocked to hear that the Loaves & Fishes had run out of food for the first time in nearly three decades as the charity struggles to cope with increasing demand on their services.
The Rotary’s £500 donation came from the proceeds of the club’s wishing well at James Hamilton Heritage Park.
Officially opened by the then Provost Russell Clearie in June 2007, its construction, funded by the club, was carried out by club members assisted by volunteers.
In the first few years a few break-ins were attempted, with varying success and in one case in 2009 severe damage was caused.This necessitated rebuilding of some of the brickwork incorporating additional steelwork.
This new design has proved to be effective and apart from a few minor acts of vandalism the well has had a trouble free existence for the past nine years.
Since its opening over 223,000 coins, excluding a wide variety of“foreigners” have been thrown into the well totalling over £14,000.This has allowed the club to make eighty two donations to a wide variety of East Kilbride organisations who work within and help to develop our community.
After some additional funding by individual rotary members, a total of £14,290 has been handed out.