Fund helps nine groups

Winners in the latest round of Rye Fund awards gathered in the Council Chamber at Rye Town Hall last Wednesday January 18. Nine voluntary organisations received a total of £5,800, to help finance a variety of new projects and running expenses.

Kenneth Bird, chairman of the steering group, welcomed them and explained the origins of the Fund and how it is able to provide regular annual assistance from its endowment fund, administered by the Sussex Community Foundation and dedicated for use of local charities in Rye and District. Since its foundation in 2008, with the benefit of generous individual donations and government matched funding, the Fund has achieved an invested endowment fund of £120,000 and given grants totalling more than £35,000 to local voluntary organisations.

A representative of each recipient stepped forward to receive a certificate and give a brief description of their group’s work. These were:

• Camber Community Group, represented by Julie Kemp and Mike Botten
• Counselling Plus by Verra Papaspyrou and Jenny Willsher
• Playden WI by Joan Taylor and Amy Breeds
• Rother Youth Group by Meg Stone and Chris Hollands
• Rye & District Community Transport by Pat Hughes
• Rye & District Dementia Action Alliance by Daliea Redman;
• Rye Harbour Sailing Club by Caroline Wylson and Richard Hopper;
• Rye Museum Association by Jo Kirkham
• Rye Wurlitzer Academy by Richard Moore and Michael Wooldridge.

Also present were the Steering Group and local panel members, with town clerk Richard Farhall and Stephen Chamberlain from the Sussex Community Foundation. For the first time we had a video recorder operated by Hugh Kermode so that the proceedings can be embedded on the Fund’s website.

Photo: Hugh Kermode