Rotary Centenary Event

In November 1919 Swansea Rotary Club was chartered. The third in Wales after Cardiff and Llanelli.

This year Rotary Swansea commemorates its club centenary with a series of events throughout the year - watch this space for more information.

The club organise a number of fund raising initiatives throughout the year including race nights, fashion shows, curry evenings, musical evenings in Swansea Mansion House as well as two big Boules tournaments Marina Boules May Bank Holiday Sunday and Mumboules in September (see photograph above) in conjunction with Rotary Mumbles.

They support a number of charities, community organisations and school projects.

It was a pleasure therefore to support them again at their centenary dinner this evening at which I was invited to make the opening speech. My speech is below. The evening concluded with a Q&A with Swansea Director of Football, Leon Britton.

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Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of the Swansea Council can I congratulate you on reaching a hundred years old. This makes you twice as old as Swansea’s City status, which we are also celebrating this year.

Swansea is a great place to live. As a City it has everything you would want if you live here, work here or want to set up a business here: friendly, welcoming people; deep-rooted communities; good sporting and cultural links, fantastic scenery; and a strong sense of identity.

Our bay, our beaches, our countryside, the Gower area of outstanding natural beauty remain second to none, whilst our two universities continue to grow from strength to strength, as evidenced by the student accommodation that is popping up all over the city.

With this being our 50th anniversary as a City, I have been proud as Lord Mayor to help spearhead events to commemorate that birthday: inviting community groups up to the Mansion House to celebrate with us; a spectacular air show; awarding freedom of the City to Alun Wyn Jones, Catherine Zeta Jones and the 157 (Welsh) Regiment of the Royal Logistic Corps; a royal visit; and the free firework show which was held on the beach just a few days ago.

These birthday celebrations have been a reaffirmation of our pride in Swansea and its people, and everything that offers to those of us who call it home.

On your one hundredth anniversary I would like to pay tribute to the tremendous work you do here in Swansea in raising money for charity through the many events you put on and of course Swansea’s two big Boules tournaments.

The Council has a long association with Swansea Rotary, for example through the High Fives awards, which I attended this year as Lord Mayor, and which rewards the many inspirational young people in all our local communities.

Rotary Clubs are one of those organisations, which if they did not exist, we would have to invent them.

But they are nothing without the hard-working and dedicated individuals who offer many hours of their time, freely and without hesitation, to keep them running - tirelessly raising money for good causes, quietly offering support and encouragement to the many talented individuals in all our communities who have so much to offer, and carrying out all the organising work behind the scenes that make events like this possible.

I offer my thanks to each and every one of you for all that you do as part of this amazing organisation and I am pleased and proud to be continuing the association between Swansea Council and Rotary by joining you at this dinner this evening.

Can I wish you an enjoyable and successful event and look forward to the next hundred years of collaboration and charity work for the rotary and the mayoralty?