Club Presentation: RC Croydon Whitgift

As a Trustee and Director of the Rotary Foundation UK one of the great jobs we undertake is to process all the very generous donations given by Rotarians as legacies to the Rotary Foundation.

One such donor was Carole Milne who passed away a few years ago. She was a member of the Rotary Club of Croydon Whitgift which has since then unfortunately folded.  She has left a very large legacy to the Rotary Foundation which is fantastic.

As a result of this gift and others I made some enquiries with the Rotary Foundation as to whether they could be awarded posthumous membership of the Arch Klumph Society (AKS).  To my surprise I was told that no one had ever requested posthumous membership before. I made further enquiries and as a result persuaded  Past RI presidents Gordon McAnally and Francesco Arezzo to agree that anyone donating more than $250,000 as a legacy to the Rotary Foundation would be awarded an AKS posthumously.  We have already made this award to one Rotarian, Carole will be the second and there is another in the pipeline. These will be the first three such awards in the whole of Rotary and it is hoped this can be rolled out across the Rotary World to encourage more Rotarians to think about the Rotary Foundation in their wills.

Therefore on this special occasion I want to posthumously honour Carole and recognise her amazing contribution to the work of The Rotary Foundation.  We are delighted to welcome close members of Carole's family who are with us today to receive this presentation in her memory.