The Rotary Club of Bristol

About The Rotary Club of Bristol

Meet our President

Lynn Thorley

President

Welcome to Bristol Rotary Club’s website.
Hello & thank you for visiting our website. I'm Lynn Thorley, the President of our club for the Rotary year starting in July 2024.
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‍I was born and raised in Clevedon and, after 14 years living near Oxford, moved back to Bristol in 1998. My career has mainly involved sales and marketing with a brief period in my early 20s as a DJ in Scandinavia!

Our club is a welcoming, thriving, vibrant club that has attracted people from all walks of life and that is what appealed to me when I joined. For over a hundred years it has had a tradition of initiating and supporting projects that make a difference to people’s lives here in Bristol and overseas. With a focus on helping a variety of local charities, we particularly enjoy encouraging young people to achieve their potential through working with existing organisations and by running a range of exciting youth competitions. Bristol Rotary Club often work collaboratively with other Rotary Clubs, giving our time to help international charities and also organising events to raise funds for joint projects. In recent years we have helped others in Ukraine, Nepal, Africa and Fiji.

We usually meet on Monday evenings, 2 or 3 times during the month, either in person or on Zoom & also have many social activities. We regularly attract interesting speakers to our meetings from a wide range of life experiences. There also occasional trips abroad to our twinned Rotary clubs in Hanover, Stockholm, Porto and Bordeaux. Whatever your interests there is always something that will appeal. If you would like to find out more about how you or your organisation could make a difference and potentially become a member of our club, please do get in touch via the contacts page on this website.

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Active Members

in Bristol

Club Meetings

per year

Special Events

& counting

Our Club

'Looking Back, Moving Forward'

A Recent Club Project

2018 saw the opening of the refurbished Meadow Vale Community Centre, supported by RC Bristol. The refurbished building was Phase1 & was never going to be large enough to provide the full range of services & facilities so badly needed. In 2019 the small community group, supported by RC Bristol, made an audacious bid for Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funding. We emerged victorious, securing £200,000 enabling us to move forward on Phase 2. Rotary living up to its claim "We're for Communities" & being "People of Action"

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Diversity, Equality & Inclusion

As a global network Rotary works hard to build a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change, Rotary values diversity and celebrates the contributions of people of all backgrounds, regardless of their age, ethnicity, race, colour, abilities, religion, socioeconomic status, culture, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

We're creating an organisation that is more open and inclusive, fair to all, builds goodwill, and benefits our communities. We know there are no easy fixes and that challenging conversations and work lie before all of us. Rotary’s strength has long been our ability and commitment to bringing people together. We want people with differing perspectives and ideas who will help Rotary take action to create lasting change in communities around the world. We will tap into that strength now as we stand with those who are working for peace and justice. Rotary will do our part to listen, learn and take action to ensure that we continue to contribute to making positive change. Rotary & the Rotary Club of Bristol have no tolerance for racism.Through Bristol Rotary Club, you'll find unique opportunities to get involved. Everyone is welcome in Rotary come and join us and find out!

Our History

Our club was the first Rotary Club formed in the south west. We celebrated our centenary in style in November 2017 with a thanksgiving service and champagne reception for 100 and a Centenary Ball for 500. We commemorated our first 100 years with a special centenary project raising £100,000 for refurbishment of a community building in Meadow Vale, Bristol.

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Major Projects of the Past

We have been involved in several major projects both locally and internationally including Run For The Future.

Raising awareness about Prostate Cancer, Run For The Future was an annual 5k family fun run on the Downs from 2006 to 2015 raising over £280K for research at local hospitals & universities and more importantly increasing awareness & changing perceptions amongst men so that many more now seek advice.