A NEW name has appeared in the list of Rotary organisations in Yorkshire.

The Moors Gateway Rotary replaces the Helmsley & District Rotary club.

A charter ceremony took place in Kirkbymoorside on Monday, October 15, in the presence of Nigel Arthurs, district governor of Rotary in Yorkshire, Humberside and North Lincolnshire.

The president of the new Moors Gateway Rotary, Stephen Croft, explained the reason for the name change. “Moors Gateway paints a picture of where we are, not just in one town but serving all the communities along the south western edge of the North York Moors,” he said.

Helmsley Rotary was formed in 2005. At that time it had the youngest founder president in Great Britain and Ireland when Pennita Wilshire was elected.

In support of Rotary’s Global Polio Eradication, 5,000 purple crocus bulbs will be planted this month on the approaches to Kirkbymoorside. Moors Gateway Rotary meets at Kirkbymoorside Library on Mondays at 6.30pm.