Rotarians support lots of charities

The Rotary Club of Eccleshall Mercia has recently awarded grants to several worthy local organisations, and to a Rotary-run Disaster Relief charity - after being very busy with raising generous donations from the public in Eccleshall and surrounding villages, through the Club’s Hook a Duck stall at various events, December’s many Santa Sleigh fundraising activities, and bucket collections held outside the local Co-Op store.

Despite being a small club in terms of membership numbers, Eccleshall Rotary are active in the community, and looking for new members to help them continue with their fundraising activities to enable them to support more charities, and to help with project service volunteering work in the area. You can see some activities the club supports on their Eccleshall Rotary Facebook page.

President Sylvia Keris, who is also an ambassador and volunteer for other local and international charities, recently presented a number of cheque donations to several organisations, and was able to meet in person some of those who would be benefitting from the grants in the local area.

These included an award made of £600 to Tittensor Primary School towards the cost of buying Chrome Books to help the children with their lessons, for which the school teachers, pupils and PTA were delighted, and invited Sylvia along to a special school Assembly to hear them sing and give their thanks.

Eccleshall Stay and Play Group were given £150 to purchase a sensory tent with equipment that they wanted, to provide a quiet space, which some children who attend the regular playgroup would benefit from.

Rotary president Sylvia was able to meet the mums, play with the children, and see the Sensory tent, before presenting the cheque to the group's founders Hayley Wall and Lucie Talbott.

A £200 donation was given to the Buddy Bag Foundation (BBF), to help towards the cost of the Buddy Bags which contain essential clothing, toiletries and comfort items, for children who have been taken into the safety of a Refuge, away from domestic violence. Sylvia also acts as the collecting point for knitted teddies and fabric toiletry bags which are included in each Buddy Bag.

And with the help of a bucket collection, and other fundraising, a donation of £1,000 was made to Disaster Aid UK & Ireland (DAUK&I) for their Syria/Turkey Earthquake appeal, and an additional £1000 given to DAUK&I's Ukraine Appeal. This charity is run by Rotarians, (all volunteers) who send trained Disaster Relief Response teams to areas where there has been conflict or natural disasters - providing essential supplies such as home rebuilding equipment or tents (as appropriate), water filters, tools and other provisions, to help those in emergency situations.

Eccleshall Rotary Club would like to thank members of the public who showed their support with fundraising activities over the last few months, that enabled the club to make donations to these local and International charities.

Report by Sylvia Keris