Charity Champions at Ruddington Grange – RUDDINGTON.info

Ruddington Grange Golf Club was established in our village in 1988. However, unless you’re a regular golfer, it’s possible you don’t know very much about it.

The attractive 18-hole course and facilities, accessed from Wilford Road, are also available to non-members. As well as the extensive, tree-lined grounds being a haven for local wildlife, there’s a pro-shop onsite, food and drink are available at the club every day and its clubhouse offers various venues to cater for special events – from weddings and funerals to small family functions. Moreover, it is home to a legacy of giving to good causes, via numerous charity fundraisers each year, which are supported by over 600 members who see themselves as a ‘family’.

‘Charity Days’ at Ruddington Grange Golf Club (RGGC) began with the Johnson family and then ownership transitioned to the late John Pownall and his family, who carried on the tradition. It was a propriety golf club then, upon Mr Pownall’s death, it was gifted to RGGC for its members to run – in effect ‘rent’ – although the estate is still owned by the Pownall family.

The golf club has three, key, annual fundraisers for charities; Kidney Research Nottingham City Hospital / ‘Padraic Fundraising Day’, The Children’s Society/’Children’s Day Fund’ and Nottinghamshire Leukaemia Appeal. These are organised by Eamonn Gavigan, Margaret Thorpe and Terry Bradley, respectively {pictured top}.

“It’s a golf club with the biggest heart I’ve ever come across, with the amount of fundraising that goes on” says RGGC General Manager Jennie-May Smith. “When I joined, the business in March 2022, I had no idea how big the community and the golf club was. We have these three significant Charity Days in the year, but we also have others – for example our Vice Captain this year is in a band and he ran an evening with them to raise money for Ukraine… and they raised £3,500.”

Margaret Thorpe on The Children’s Society / funding for children and young people –  raising £150,000 for different charities over the past 30 years.

Margaret explains: “We call the charity ‘The Children’s Day Fund’. It started in 1991 and we used to give the money raised to The Children’s Society. I was adopted through them and so it was one way of returning a good life that my twin sister and I have through The Children’s Society. They then decided to given up their adoption agency and the Quorum family took it on board, so we used to give money to them. But we decided to pledge £3,000 pounds a year to the Quorums and the rest would go to local charities. For example, a little disabled girl (in Clifton) needed a computer, so we brought her a computer.”

Margaret modestly admits her charity is slightly ‘low key’ in comparison with Brad’s and Eamonn’s, as they don’t raise quite as much money: “We made £6,500 last year and that was for the new charity called ‘My Bag’ which we take on board now. This is a charity that provides for children to go into foster care – a bag of goodies. When they come out of foster care give them toiletries, and the rest of it – all ‘the necessaries’ – because some have no money, or very little. That charity takes one penny in the pound – that’s all it takes. We pledge them £3,000 (hopefully) every year, and the rest we will split between other charities.

You can find out more at www.ruddingtongrange.com.

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