MEMBERS of Skipton Rotary Club gathered at The Coniston Hotel to see John Wright take over as new club president.

Mr Wright, a retired construction director who has spent most of his working life managing major building projects overseas, including Nigeria, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and most recently, Hong Kong, Singapore and China, takes over from outgoing president, Mark Ludlam.

Mr Wright, who is married to Mary, has lived in Skipton for many years, and now has a home in Grassington. He will serve as club president until handing over the role at the end of June next year.

He recently attended the Rotary International convention in Toronto, Canada, which was attended by 24,000 Rotarians from across the world and which had the theme ‘be the inspiration’.

Mr Wright’s main objectives during his year will be to continue to serve the community and to increase membership, with special emphasis on increasing the number of women members. He also plans to have fun organising charity events, such as the very popular family event, the dragon boat races, which was held for the first time earlier this year, and will be held again, next year in May, once again at the Coniston Hotel.

This year’s event, which was held in glorious sunshine, saw 17 teams take part, including from Airedale Hospital, Kingsway Vets, Skipton Building Society and Coniston Hotel, together raising more than £20,000 for charities, including the Alzheimer’s Society, Manorlands Hospice and Martin House Hospice.

In the last year, up until the end of June, the club has raised more than £40,000 for various charities and good causes, including Abbeyfields, Brooklands Community School, Childline, Embsay School, Embsay with Eastby Village Institute, Ocean Trust North, The Principle Trust Children’s Charity, and the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust.

Skipton Rotary runs the charity car park on Saturdays at Skipton Building Society’s head office at The Bailey, Skipton. The club, which has about 40 members, meets most Wednesdays at 6pm at The Tempest Arms, Elslack.

To find out more about the club, its work and how to join go to: facebook.com/skiptonrotary or the website : skiptonrotary.org .