Page 14 - District Interactive Magazine June 2019
P. 14
Literacy Box milestone According to Lucy Chappell, Community
Fundraiser for the Merlin MS Centre, which is just
Roborough Rotary Club, in Plymouth, has outside St Austell, the donation was “surprisingly
presented the 1,000th “Literacy in a Box” pack to generous and one of the largest single donations”
be donated to children globally. the Centre has ever received.
Each box contains enough materials for 25 Merlin gets no Government funding but works
children to improve their reading and writing hard to support the people of Cornwall who were
skills. There are, for instance, 25 packs of experiencing the symptoms of multiple sclerosis,
assorted coloured pencils and pens, with the a disease brought about by damage to the nerve
same number of rulers, and 50 exercise books; fibres around the body. The centre, which is the
plus, two boxes of 100 white chalks and a only therapy base in the county for those
mechanical pencil sharpener. Also in the box are experiencing such neurological conditions,
some footballs and inflation needles for the pump. provides transport from such towns as Bodmin
In due course, textbooks will be added. and Hayle, and offers services to patients
including access to specialist physiotherapy and
The charity is supported by Rotary International hyperbaric treatments.
in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI).
The way the Rotary Club has been helping is
Charity ‘stunned’ through its annual Coast and Clay Cycling
Sportive event, where Merlin Centre supporters
The Rotary Club of St Columb, near Newquay, have manned the feeding, water and support
has stunned a Cornish multiple sclerosis charity stations along the route.
with a donation of more than £6,000.
