January
24th – Meeting
It seemed strange meeting again after so long a break – and at a new venue – the Royal Chase. Our new meeting venue offers us much more space and so we hope to make good use of this in the future. We continued our Visioning process looking in particular at recruitment of new members. We have a number of ideas of how to do this in the future. Hopefully this will include some sort of high profile event. Meanwhile our current plans for the Cycle Ride and for our Youth Speaks event, to be run in association with local schools, are making good progress. We will also soon be meeting once more to make plans for this year’s Gold Hill Festival.
Kids Out Letter
Dear Shaftesbury Rotarians,
On behalf of us all at KidsOut, I would like to say a huge thank you for the £100 donation, to go towards the Rotary Christmas Toy Box Initiative. This is a wonderful contribution and I would ask you to pass on our sincere thanks to all those involved for their generosity and support.
Christmas is always tough for families in refuge, with this year harder than usual. Most children arrive at refuge with only the clothes on their back, restricted to a single room with their mother and siblings. Mothers struggle to provide basic essentials, let alone toys for their children at Christmas.
The Rotary Christmas Toy Boxes provided 5435 children in Refuge with brand-new toys to support mental health and make the world a little kinder.
“Refuge life can be difficult, especially for families, and the added pressure for parents to ensure their children have presents to open on Christmas morning causes a lot of stress and upset for our mums – especially if finances are tight. However, your toys mean we can provide our amazing families with the opportunity to have a lovely Christmas Day… please know your toys will be put towards making a child smile this Christmas.” – Refuge support worker
KidsOut is the fun and happiness charity and we believe every child deserves to build happy memories. If you would like further details on what we do, please visit our web page www.kidsout.org.uk.
Thank you once again – your support makes a real difference.
Best,
Sandra Doherty
Head of Children’s Services
Reminiscing – January 2020
Casino Night – The Sepsis Trust
Shaftesbury Rotary broke out the Black Tie and Ball Gowns for the annual fundraising on behalf of the Sepsis Trust. It has become a tradition to get together for a Casino Evening in the depths of Winter to add a bit of sparkle to our lives. 15 couples attended the evening and pitted their wits against the dealers on Poker, Blackjack and Roulette. Gambling was strictly prohibited, participants were playing with a fixed quality of chips with the aim to have some fun and win one of the 3 magnificent prizes that had been donated.
David, Rob and Emma volunteered to be the dealers and kept the evening moving with some exciting games.
As everyone had generously contributed towards the food and drink it was difficult to get the second session going after the meal, but once started it was almost impossible to stop. In fact, the Poker table started for a 3rd session after the prize giving.
The magnum of Champagne was won by Judith on a single chip on the roulette table which broke the bank – and she said she’d never played the game before!
The second price went to Steve who had been down to his last chip before his luck turned and ended with a credible 2nd place.
It a cliché to say that fun was had by all, but the biggest winner of the night was the Sepsis trust as we raised £350 in donations.
Many thanks to the participants, the cooks who provided such fantastic food and Sadie and Martin who hosted the event.
Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Here we have an interesting article from the Rotary magazine:
At Rotary, we understand that cultivating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture is essential to realizing our vision of a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change.
We value diversity and celebrate the contributions of people of all backgrounds, across age, ethnicity, race, colour, disability, learning style, religion, faith, socioeconomic status, culture, marital status, languages spoken, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity as well as differences in ideas, thoughts, values, and beliefs.
Recognizing that individuals from certain groups have historically experienced barriers to membership, participation, and leadership, we commit to advancing equity in all aspects of Rotary, including in our community partnerships, so that each person has the necessary access to resources, opportunities, networks, and support to thrive.
We believe that all people hold visible and invisible qualities that inherently make them unique, and we strive to create an inclusive culture where each person knows they are valued and belong.
In line with our value of integrity, we are committed to being honest and transparent about where we are in our DEI journey as an organization, and to continuing to learn and do better.
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