A NEW rotary club has donated more than £400 to a Burnham-on-Sea rescue charity.

Axbridge Rotary Club along with other businesses in the area, raised £425 for the charity by hosting a quiz night at the town hall.

The club was formed last year and is a sister organisation of Burnham-on-Sea Rotary Club.

Club founder Ric Canham, said: ‘We’re a small and very new group so to raise this much from our first event is terrific, many thanks to everyone who took part or contributed including help from The Lamb, The Crown, Alvis Bros and PNT Electrical.

"The BARB volunteers do an amazing job.

"This April alone they’ve been called out nine times to a variety of incidents ranging from rescues in mud to searches for missing people.

"Their funds come entirely from donations.

"Rotary is about all supporting communities and the Axbridge Club is proud to be up and running and playing its part.

"Our future planned projects include maintaining local road signs, Christmas tree recycling and days out for underprivileged children.

"We’ve big hopes for our club and so many initiatives we want to support.

"Not only can we make a difference here at home but also overseas by working with our wider Rotary network.

"Trust me, helping others is wonderfully addictive, it’s a real win-win situation."

Around 1,800 Rotary clubs are active across the UK and Ireland, which proudly boast 51,000 members collectively.

Each club raises tens of thousands of pounds for community projects and charities and people volunteer their time – supervising and organising community events, coordinating educational programmes and supporting businesses.

A BARB Search & Rescue spokesman said: “We are hugely grateful to Axbridge District Rotary for this generous donation towards our life-saving work.” “As a small, independent charity we rely 100 per cent on donations to keep running and so support like really does make a difference. Our thanks go to everyone at Axbridge District Rotary and we wish them well for the future.”