Page 22 - Jigsaw June 2021

ROTARY CLUB NEWS
Zooming, hand-up boxes and photography?
Our regular support for the vaccine centre in Thrapston has continued with our club, and others from Kettering and Rushden, providing help with car parking and queue marshaling. We also continue to support the local food banks.
We continue to have a range of interesting speakers at our Zoom meetings and are often able to make a contribution to support the worthwhile causes they represent. Among recent talks we were really pleased to be joined by members of the Thrapston Community Rotary Shoebox appeal when Robin Ince gave an update about the scheme. It was great to
be able to congratulate those who support the local scheme so well, and we hope schools
and the local community will continue to give support to this excellent scheme. We were also impressed to hear from Debbie Hodge about how a global grant of $1.125 million from the Rotary Foundation (Rotary’s own charity) had helped equip and provide training for health professionals on the latest Mercy Ship “Global Mercy”. The vessel is the largest purpose built NGO hospital ship and a total of 300 different Rotary Clubs across the world worked together to enable the grant to take place. On a different scale, Ken Billington gave a talk about Trade Aid. This was an initiative of the Rotary Club of Grantham Kesteven and aims to provide “a business in a box”. The idea is to “give a hand up, not a hand out” and help individuals help themselves in a sustainable way. Each box provides new tools and equipment to enable people in remote areas to earn a living and start a business. The initial six boxes were: Builder, Carpenter, Blacksmith, Mechanic, Tailor/ Seamstress and Teacher. A Handyman Box
was later added and customised boxes can be provided to meet special needs.
Regular readers will be aware that the club offers a range of youth competitions. We
were pleased to receive entries for the Rotary Young Photographer competition. Special congratulations go to Fraya Lowe, who won the Junior Category, to Aiden Lowe who was runner up, and to Elizabeth Blackie who won the Senior Category. The winning photographs
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Elizabeth Blackie’s photographs which won the Senior Category in the competition
have now been entered in the Rotary District 1070 Competition and we await the results of that competition with interest!
Lastly, more good news! Club members have been able to start helping disabled sailors again at Sailability at Grafham Water. Whilst not yet able to offer the full range of sailing opportunities that were available before the pandemic it is good to be able to help the Sailability charity in its work!
Further details of the club and about Rotary can be found on the Thrapston and Raunds Rotary Club Facebook page.
ROTARY SHOEBOXES
Last year we changed over to the Rotary Shoe boxes. These boxes still help children in the same areas as before.
The difference is the cost of sending the boxes – half of what we were paying. This enables us to send twice as many. We are grateful for all those who donate to us toys, games etc. We can send these boxes all year round and also can do for households and older people. If you would like to donate items or money to help fund the boxes-please contact us via our Facebook page www.facebook.com/Thrapston- Community-Rotary-Shoebox-Appeal
or email us: theburchbunch@btinternet. com. Items can be dropped of at 10 Heron Ave, NN14 4JF. We thank you all for your continued support.