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.

Motivating speakers We’ve been lucky to have welcomed some inspiring speakers so far this year. Rachel Walsh, from the mental health charity MIND, explained the work of the charity. Cecile Roberts, CEO of Emmaus Norfolk and Waveney, talked about a project based in Ditchingham, helping the homeless rebuild their lives. We welcomed Kieran Murphy, Diss Town Council’s youngest councillor, who spoke about what inspired him to join at such a young age. In March, Patricia Field, a consultant graphologist, visited the club to give a presentation about handwriting analysis. And in April, Robin Wraight spoke about Rotary’s many youth programmes.

Business as usual In October 2021, we resumed our regular Rotary Club meetings at the Park Hotel. It’s been great seeing people face-to-face again.

Memorable events It was my privilege to lay the club’s wreath at the Remembrance Day service on Sunday November 14. Several other members guided people around the new route to the memorial, making a real difference on the day. The club’s Youth Team organised a very successful musical evening to raise funds for Dictionaries4Life. Part of Rotary’s Basic Education and Literacy Focus, these illustrated dictionaries were presented to Year 5 pupils in ten local schools. In December, we hosted a performance by Fine City Chorus with all proceeds going to Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign. We also organised for Santa, his sleigh and elves to visit the Mere. Thanks to the generosity of Diss residents, we raised a total of £800 which was distributed equally between our four nominated charities: the Salvation Army (Diss branch), Citizen’s Advice branch, the Dove Dementia Café and the Banham Zoo Conservation Project.

International charities supported Monies to purchase three water survival boxes to purify water were sent to the Philippines after typhoon Odette. And, working in partnership with the Diss & District Rotary Club, we held street collections at Mere’s Mouth to support the Ukrainian refugee crisis. Combined with our online giving page, we raised over £9,000 in the first week and almost £20,000 in the second. The generosity of the Diss community was tremendous. The first tranche of money left promptly, on 7 March, for the Diss & District Rotary partner club in Moldova.

Local service projects Many of our club members helped with the COVID vaccination roll-out programme at the DYCC and at Diss High School.

Diss & District Rotary Club

Rotary is a global network of 1.4 million neighbours, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves. Club Secretary David Crawford explains how this makes Rotary well-placed as an organisation to act and help others in times of crisis.

Help for Ukraine Diss & District Rotary Club has a direct relationship with the Chisinau Cosmopolitan Rotary Club in Moldova. And when the war broke out in Ukraine, we could quickly see how we could make a difference. During the first week of the war, we joined up with the Diss Waveney Rotary Club and quickly mobilised a team of street collectors in Diss. Thanks to the generosity of the people of Diss and the surrounding area, we reached our first milestone of £10,000 in the first week. Our overall total ended up being almost double this. Using our connection, we were able to channel the money raised directly to Rotarians on the ground in Moldova.

Help for Diss A little closer to home, one of our ongoing local Rotary projects is supplying ‘starter boxes’ for the Sanctuary Supported Living project in Diss. Sanctuary provides accommodation for the homeless in 26 purpose-built rooms and self-contained flats. The boxes we provide contain the essentials for a person moving into accommodation for the first time. Rotary members, and friends of Rotary, donate most of the items. But we’re always grateful for the generosity of local townsfolk who either contribute new or used goods for boxes, or money to buy new items. The number of boxes supplied varies depending on the need at Sanctuary. But as a guide, over the last 15 months we’ve supplied 20 boxes and keep a small stock ready for when we receive the ‘call’.