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On the 6th August the Rotary Club of Guildford Wey (RIGW) visited the Oakleaf Centre in Woodbridge Road to update themselves on the work that they do. Oakleaf offer a wide range of services to clients to empower them to gain the skills, support and the confidence needed to manage their mental health and achieve their goals. On site there are IT and practical workshops, together with counselling sessions to enable their clients to be better prepared for job applications.

They offer :
Wellbeing Activities & Courses
Designed to build confidence, physical health and wellbeing; reducing isolation and loneliness.

Work-Related Training
Courses in IT and Gardening help our clients gain the skills and qualifications needed to return to the world of work.

Employment Support
Our ‘Path to Success’ Employment Project delivers tailored employment training and mentoring for clients.

Counselling Clients have access to counselling sessions with our BACP-registered service to aid their recovery.

Click Here for PDF of access to services

A reflective resource titled ‘My Journal for My Journey’  has been carefully designed to support patients as they approach the end of their life. It will help individuals engage more confidently with doctors and healthcare professionals, while also creating space to reflect on their personal journey and wishes.

The journal includes prompts covering areas such as:

• Preferences around care and decision-making as health changes
• Who they would like contacted (or not contacted) after their death
• Personal choices such as music for their funeral
• Reflections on priorities, including quality versus quantity of life

The books are provided to patients completely free of charge, ensuring that anyone who may benefit from them can access this support regardless of their circumstances.

Feedback from patients has been overwhelmingly positive. Many have found that it supports meaningful conversations and helps them feel more prepared, more heard, and more at peace. It has even been commented that this resource would be valuable for everyone, regardless of whether they are currently unwell or not.

The ‘Rotary Club of Guildford Wey’ was very pleased to be able to contribute monies, in August 2026, to allow the publishing of the Journals so patients can access this resource freely, and help them to make their wishes known at a crucial stage in their care.

With thanks to the Rev Mark Witherden, Chaplain of the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust for creating this resource. Contact: Spiritual Care :01483 406835 Ext 4044

This is a vote of thanks to GBC and the Castle grounds team for looking after the plants around our HexB tiles. Despite the current run of heatwaves the plants are surviving and flowering. Hopefully their pollination will be assisted by the resident solitary bees in our HexB tiles.

The Rotary Club of Guildford Wey was pleased to be able to assist in the setting up of stalls and Gazebos for the Wood Street annual fair and their re-adjustment on the 20th July to accommodate the Wood Street Jazz Festival held in aid of Guildford Challengers. Of course we also assisted in the dismantling of the event and are pleased to report that some £17,000 was raised for Challengers. We were pleased to be able to assist in some way to the success of the event. Many thanks to our President Elect, Steve Johnson, for organising & directing our efforts

On the 7th July some 13 members of The Rotary Club of Guildford Wey held mock interviews with pupils from year 11 of Kings College. This is done to help pupils with cv writing and the interview process where one can be confronted with sometimes quite obscure questions.

The President of the Rotary Club of Guildford Wey was privileged to have been invited by the Mayor of Guildford, Jane Tyson, to attend the celebration of Armed Forces day in Guildford, beneath the Guildhall Clock.

The start of the new Rotary year 2026-27

Andy Bowen Ashwin, past President congratulates incoming President Chris Shorter who in turn presents the office of President Elect for 2027-28, Steve Johnson, with his jewel of office.

See more of our growing Club at www.rotaryinguildford.org

Being involved the Guildford Repair Café we were pleased to be able to show our Green credentials at the Big Green Day in Guildford High Street on Sunday the 14th of June. A really well supported day with a lot of interested in the Repair Café

Such a lot of work by the Guildford in Bloom committee (GIB), Sallie Barker, Sian Davies and many others, to set up the event in the  Castle grounds on Saturday the 6^th June and Rotary Guildford Wey were only too delighted to assist with marshalling on the day.

Unfortunately it turned out to be not quite the Summer’s day the organisers were hoping for ! A grey start turned into a very soggy afternoon so due credit to the musical performers attending in the afternoon and to the Guildford Fringe for organising the entertainment.

An early dry spell allowed our Mayor, Jane Tyson, to open the event and also gave the opportunity for the Mayor and past Mayor Sallie Barker to visit our HexB project which was the brainchild of our Rotary member Andrew Day. The installation has been very well received by members of the public and local councillors who were very impressed and seen nothing like it – all said well-done Rotary for our contribution to the town.

We welcomed people at the entrance, encouraged people to go to see our HexB tiles, helped the flower stilts girl with her visit to Tunsgate, ran various errands, ran the raffle card reader and so helped collect most of the money on the day, plus generally chatting to people from the various organisations and the public.  We also helped with some of the packing up at the close down such as with gazebos for Guildford Fringe and GIB

For more Photographs of the Event CLICK HERE

Following on from this year’s successful GLive ‘Schools Got Talent’ production on the 10th March, we were very pleased to be able to pass cheques to our four schools that entertained us. The monies were for each individual school’s ticket sales. Overall a total of £3,145 was distributed to the schools