Bradford Blaize was formed in September 1981 and still has 9 of the founders as members of the club. Rotary is the largest international service organisation with over 1.4 million members spread around the world. It has 7 main aims:

• Promote peace
• Fight disease
• Provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene
• Save mothers and children
• Support education
• Grow local economies
• Protect the environment.

Bradford Blaize participates in this in many ways:

1. We provide over 240 dictionaries every year to Year 6 children in several Bradford inner city primary schools.
2. We send up to 90 underprivileged children on a day out every year to Light Water Valley.
3. Every year one or two teenagers are sent on weeklong training courses to build their leadership skills.
4. Over many years we have supported local charities such as local hospices, Mind, Cancer Research and others to help improve health in the region.
5. Over the last 11 years, we have purchased and planted more than 5,000 trees on behalf of the Forest of Bradford.
6. We have been a long-term supporter of The Bradford Metropolitan Food Bank.
7. In recent years we have sent funds for Ukraine as well as supporting some Ukrainian refugees by purchasing equipment for their school-aged children in Bradford.
8. Over many years we have supported charities in Eritrea and Ethiopia whose main aims have been to provide medical help and education for children in that region.
9. We make regular contributions to Shelterbox and Aquabox which are 2 Rotary Charities that send shelter and water filtration to areas where there has been a natural disaster such as floods, hurricanes and earthquakes.
10. In addition to all of this many small local charities have been supported on an ad hoc basis from Men’s Sheds to the local Parkison’s support group.
11. Finally, we have supported Rotary International in their campaign to eradicate Polio. This campaign started in 1985 when there were 125 endemic countries and hundreds of cases per year. Today there are only 2 endemic countries and even here there have recently been less than 10 cases per year.