Rotary round-up Diss Waveney Rotary Club What’s Diss Waveney Rotary Club been up to over the past few months? President Elaine Bootman – provides an update. illustrated dictionaries were presented to Motivating speakers
Year 5 pupils in ten local schools.
We’ve been lucky to have welcomed some
In December, we hosted a performance by
inspiring speakers so far this year. Rachel
Fine City Chorus with all proceeds going to
Walsh, from the mental health charity
Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign. We also
MIND, explained the work of the charity.
organised for Santa, his sleigh and elves to
Cecile Roberts, CEO of Emmaus Norfolk and
visit the Mere. Thanks to the generosity of
Waveney, talked about a project based in
Diss residents, we raised a total of £800
Ditchingham, helping the homeless rebuild
which was distributed equally between our
their lives. We welcomed Kieran Murphy,
four nominated charities: the Salvation
Diss Town Council’s youngest councillor,
Army (Diss branch), Citizen’s Advice branch,
who spoke about what inspired him to join
the Dove Dementia Café and the Banham
at such a young age. In March, Patricia Field,
Zoo Conservation Project.
a consultant graphologist, visited the club to give a presentation about handwriting
International charities supported
analysis. And in April, Robin Wraight spoke
Monies to purchase three water survival
about Rotary’s many youth programmes.
boxes to purify water were sent to the Philippines after typhoon Odette.
Business as usual
And, working in partnership with the Diss &
In October 2021, we resumed our regular
District Rotary Club, we held street
Rotary Club meetings at the Park Hotel. It’s
collections at Mere’s Mouth to support the
been great seeing people face-to-face again.
Ukrainian refugee crisis. Combined with our online giving page, we raised over £9,000 in
Memorable events
the first week and almost £20,000 in the
It was my privilege to lay the club’s wreath
second. The generosity of the Diss
at the Remembrance Day service on Sunday
community was tremendous. The first
November 14. Several other members
tranche of money left promptly, on 7 March,
guided people around the new route to the
for the Diss & District Rotary partner club in
memorial, making a real difference on the
Moldova.
day. The club’s Youth Team organised a very
Local service projects
successful musical evening to raise funds
Many of our club members helped with the
for Dictionaries4Life. Part of Rotary’s Basic
COVID vaccination roll-out programme at
Education and Literacy Focus, these
the DYCC and at Diss High School.
36 Diss Matters Summer 2022
