Bay of Islands Rotary Club has a very positive community reputation and strong community links that enables us to deliver successful projects in the following areas:
While we do lots of hands-on projects, many need some level of funding so we both run our own fundraising activities such as the hugely popular sausage sizzles, but also collaborate with other events performing roles such as marshaling in exchange for contributions to our funding.
Note that funds received go through our club Charitable Trust.
A top priority for the club is supporting youth with a focus on providing youth with opportunities to grow themselves as leaders.
Within Rotary there are some very well recognised leadership programmes such as the Rotary Youth Programme of Enrichment (RYPEN) for secondary students and Rotary Young-persons Leadership Awards (RYLA) for young adults among others.
We have close links with the schools in our area of coverage.
Projects include things like Usborne Pictorial Dictionaries to Year 5 students in 12 local schools or sponsoring candidate(s) to the highly respected Rotary National Science Forum in Auckland.
We all benefit when the environment improves.
The projects the club engages in are varied whether tidying up a roundabout or adding a bridge in a park through to teams helping on a regular basis with the walking and cycling tracks near Russell and Paihia.
Rotary is the founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and the club supports this annually with a donation. We also contribute to various Rotary Rotary programmes providing disaster relief, especially in the Pacific such as Shelterbox and Emergency Response Kits, but also in other ways such as club teams helping the Hawkes Bay Recovery efforts.
Additionally, we do projects into the Pacific to help with specific needs whether water and sanitation or supplying used clothing to poor villagers and much more.
There are many good causes locally where, just as others volunteer to help us, we put our hands up to help them. Examples are regular support for local food banks, helping with Daffodil Day fundraising.
Some of of our projects are just for the fun of it like the family-oriented Beach Dig and Sandcastle Competition in January each year.
Being a part of a supportive community and part of Rotary internationally, we have access to a wide range of resources. Here are some ways that you can assist us:
– Elizabeth Andrew
(Author)
