Commonwealth of Kentucky bound - A Rotary visit to the Bourbon and horse racing capital of the US of A

Three members of Taunton Vale Rotary have recently returned from a visit to the State of Kentucky in the U.S.A.

The three Rotarians, were among a dozen members and partners from Taunton Vale, Yeovil and Chippenham Clubs taking part in the Rotary Friendship Exchange.  Over two weeks, they stayed with a number of American Rotarian families in several cities and towns in the Mid-west state including Louisville and Paducah among others.

The Kentucky Rotarians were generous in their hosting and showed off much of their beautiful state. Highlights of which included a tour of the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, just days before the 2024 PGA Championship opened as well as Champions Day at the Churchill Downs race track during the famous Kentucky Derby season.  Other visits included a tour of the Corvette production line; an underground boat tour of one of the famous Caves of West Kentucky; boating in the Lakes area as well as the obligatory tour of one of their many Bourbon distilleries. They were honoured to be given a tour and help out at two of the Kentuckians charities 'SOS' and 'Water Step' as well as hosted to a dinner at another charity Gilda’s Club.

A party from Kentucky will visit Somerset in Mid September when we will share with them the beauty of our local area and local enterprise. 

Glorious Corvettes

A toast to Bourbon

Visiting SOS, a charity set up by Louisville Rotary that distributes medical supplies no longer wanted in the US to countries in need all over the world.

WaterStep, another Louisville Rotary charity providing clean drinking water across the globe.