Money raised by this year’s classic car show has been given to Rye community transport and Rye Girl Guides, two of the local charities to benefit from the event in June.
The Rotary Club of Senlac St Leonards donated nearly £5,000 to four charities at a dinner held at Highwoods Golf Club, Bexhill, on Wednesday August 13. The donations were from the proceeds of this year’s show held at Rye Rugby Club said Dave Miles from Senlac St Leonard’s. “I’m delighted to hand out this money tonight, for me it’s the best part of organising the show.”
Pat Hughes from Rye and District Community Transport explained what the money would be used for. “We have scheduled bus services, a dial and ride and provide transport for all age groups from school children to the elderly, single passengers and groups. We need a new bus, so this money will go towards a new one. Thank you so much.”
Dave Miles thanked everyone who helped put on the classic car show, especially Rye Girl Guides who received a special donation. Ruth Hayes from the Guides said “We are a very diverse group and the donation helped us take some of our guides, including those with special educational needs, to camp in Ireland. They gained so much from the experience.”
Warming Up The Homeless and Senlac St Leonards’ own charity, the Yellowmen, also received funding.
Trudy Hampton of Warming up the Homeless said, “We help so many people who are homeless or in temporary accommodation as well as running a foodbank. I’m so grateful to receive this money which will help fund our services.”
The next car show will be held on June 21 2026, again at Rye Rugby Club.
Image Credits: Tony Ham , Colin Goldsack .
I’d like to say how grateful we at Rye & District Community Transport are to the Senlac St Leonards Rotary Club for the wonderful donation. This is going towards our replacement for the John Izod Memorial bus (sadly went to ‘bus heaven’ a few months ago) which we are hoping to get on the road (if we can get the last bit of fund-raising done, donations welcomed) in the very near future. The John Izod bus is used for Homewood home to school transport, on the 326 Rye Town bus service, for primary school groups going to swimming, sports, etc and for adult groups including Rye Bonfire and Rebellion Drummers so it is a pretty crucial part of our fleet.
And the show itself was just such a brilliant day – I thoroughly enjoyed myself and saw some wonderful cars including a Citroen DS that I would have loved to have had and a Ford Anglia which took me right back to my misspent youth in 1968! Thank you Rotary Club of Senlac St Leonards for all the hard work you put in to make the show happen. And you’re doing it again in 2026!