The Rotary Club of Leighton Linslade held their annual May Day Fayre on Monday May 5th 2008 and was its usual success. Club President Alan Bradley opened their Fayre, along with local dignitaries at 10am and it went through until 4pm during which time the Club was able to raise over œ8,000 (over $15,500) for our nominated charities. The main aim of the Fayre, which has been a firm fixture of the Town?s social calendar for 23 years, is for local charities and organisations to meet and greet the public, gain exposure of their aims and also, maybe, to raise much needed funds. All of the stall holders reported as having an excellent day with masses of interest and, where appropriate, record amounts of funding. At last count it is estimated that they raised over œ5000 for their various causes so with our amount over œ13,000 ($25,000) was raised for charity on the day. The theme of the May Day Fayre this year was "Sporting Leighton" and ÿwe were assisted in our "crowd-pulling" antics by hosting a heat for the World's Strongest Man competition. The top 4 strong men from this competition will go on to the English, then UK, then World championships so we may have seen a future champion at our Fayre. (I am still staggered by the weights these guys lifted throughout the day - I couldn't even lift one item off of the ground once but these guys did it numerous times in different events!) There were also a number of our sporting organisations present and they all reported a lot of interest in what they aim to accomplish and several new members were signed up on the day.

(I'd like to have been able to add some photographs but unfortunately no one in the Club had the time to go around to take them as, being only 22 members strong, it was a case of "all Club hands to the pump" to ensure that it went off well.)

The May Day Fayre is the last of our yearly fund-raising events held by the Club, with the others being the "Brain of Leighton" quiz, hosting the Christmas Eve Carol singing on Leighton Buzzard's High Street and we have just started holding Summer Charity Balls so, for a small Club, we are doing very well in supporting our local charities.

Alan Layzell
R/C of Leighton Linslade