Children from village school striving to help people around the world

For the children at St John’s Primary School have become mini rotarians, taking part in a series of fund raising initiatives and projects that have a global impact.

Read Rotakids was set up after a member of Padiham Rotary Club went along to the school to give a talk about the work the organisation does and to present each of the students with a dictionary.

The children were so fired up by the work of the rotary club, that exists to bring continents and cultures together to exchange ideas to improve the lives of people in the UK and around the world, they wanted to form their own club.

So Read Rotakids was born in 2014 and one of the first projects the children took on was to start collecting glasses for Vision Aid.

And the youngsters have managed to bring in a staggering 500 pairs that will be sent around the world to help some of the 13 million children that are missing out on an education because of poor eyesight.

The Rotakids are now helping the North West Air Ambulance that is well supported by Padiham Rotary Club.

Relying entirely on public donations, the service needs to raise £3M a year.

The children heard about the service at a lunch they were invited to with the Rotary Club at the Higher Trapp Hotel in Simonstone. Inspired again, the pupils have already started collecting donations of paperback books to sell to raise money for the air ambulance.

This weekend pupils Christopher O’Connor, Evie Brown, Dylan Jones, and Olivia Stevens will be representing their school and village at the Rotakids district conference at Lancaster University.