Wheels for Max

Max on “the beast” 

As part of the Rotary Club of East Coast Bays’ business plan, the club set an objective to encourage a style of membership that is open, communicative and with strong fellowship and Rotary family involvement.

With guidance and great leadership from our District 9910 Governor Peter Garnett who is a member of our club, the club President Caroline Campbell has developed a culture that encourages and values the input of all club members and supports and enables new ideas.

One of our new and younger members suggested in his three minute talk, that the club look at some different and more innovative ways we could raise funds for our various projects. The “Give a Little” website was one vehicle he suggested we should explore.

The Give a Little concept is already a well-established system for giving, but it had not been used as a platform by our club before. Once we had the green light from the Board of Directors, there were several steps in the process we had to undertake to ensure our page was set up properly as a registered charity, but once completed, we were good to go.

Before long we had our first fundraising project and the “Wheels for Max” campaign began.

Max, a 12 year-old with a form of cerebral palsy that affects all four of his limbs, had his heart set on a 4x4 all-terrain wheelchair, known as “the beast” that would enable him to enjoy a more active and participative life. 

With our club’s own push via social media and the help of the local newspaper, the Give a Little campaign was very successful and more importantly, over just five weeks, proved a fast and efficient way to raise the $15,000 that was needed for this life-changing piece equipment for Max.

This project highlighted what is great about of the Rotary Club of East Coast Bays.

A collaboration between some of our newest members with their fresh perspective and ideas, in partnership with longer term members who knew how to best leverage the funds we had raised by applying for a Matching Grant. Combine this with the support and encouragement for this new thinking from everyone else in the club and the outcome was a fantastic result which culminated in the donation of the “The Beast” to Max on February 23 on Rotary’s 111^th birthday.

Words: Amanda Chambers, Member and PR Director, Rotary Club of East Coast Bays, NZ

Girls’ Sheds Tour

”Sheddie” Marilyn Bulford with her amazing “Girl’s Shed” collection admired by Takaro Rotarian Gillian Craven

As the 2015-2016 Rotary year began, the Rotary Club of Takaro, NZ was looking for a new project to reignite the club, and after some brainstorming, the “Girls’ Sheds” project was born. Fortunately the club had some experience with this type of event, having held “Garden Tour” and “Man Cave” projects several years before. 

 

The Rotary club first developed a talent pool of member’s skills to help identify gaps and then found people with the needed skills to enhance the project team.  Tasks were allocated and time frames set for completion. It quickly became clear that the club was onto something great, so the excitement grew and a launch date of Valentine’s Day was chosen. 

Club members were able to cover most functions using their wide pool of skills, including extensive promotion on social media using a regularly updated Facebook event page and Eventfinder, plus posters throughout the community, all supported by an advertising campaign on radio and in newspapers.

21 Girls’ Sheds on 15 sites around Palmerston North participated in the project and each also donated items for the raffle. 

 

On Saturday February 14 the weather was perfect. Each of the 260 ticket holders met at the community hall and picked up a map and a guide for the day and viewed a PowerPoint presentation with photos of the sites, so guests could choose which ones they were most keen to explore and maybe buy some of the products on sale there.  Raffles tickets were purchased, picnic lunches collected and the tour began to see what the “girls of Palmy” and surrounding areas are doing in their special spaces.

 

The $860 ticket sales for the donated raffle covered the day’s costs, including lunches. 

Two Rotarians were assigned to each site to act as guides and security for the “Sheddies”. The guests found out about what local women do in their sheds and were amazed at the variety creativity and talent on display, including doll making, garden art, glass, cheese making, soap making, jewellery, quilting plus other interesting ventures. 

The overall outcome was a sensational and fun day for everyone involved, as illustrated by the feedback received:

·       “Sheddie” exhibitor Julie Nolan said, “What a great day ... hanging out with Carla, Suzi and Kea telling people about sculpting and how therapeutic and fulfilling it is. Thanks Rotary for an awesome event.”

 

·       Guest Julie Smart said, “A fantastic day thank you.  We had so much fun and a lot of laughs. Loved the hospitality, the friendly Rotary welcome and the privilege of seeing some of the talents in the various sheds and some gorgeous gardens. Thank you.”

 

·       President Elect Heather Browning commented, “There are so many positive things that happened. Friends getting together for a day of fun to head out on a mystery tour to see what girls do in their sheds, Takaro Rotarians working so well together to ensure the day was a success, and our wonderful "Sheddies" volunteering their time and their sheds to make this day the awesome experience it was for everyone. But the best thing about the Girls’ Sheds Tour was that we achieved what we set out to do. Together we have raised more than $7000 for youth projects in Takaro! Thank you everyone for your support and participation.”

 

To conclude this project, Rotary invited all of the “Sheddies” to a club night and presented each of them with a framed thank you certificate from Takaro Rotary. 

 

Greymouth Summer Street "Fare": February 2015

Just Jazz performing at the Greymouth Rotary Summer Street Fare

Rotarians and a Rotarian partner at work, Centre Gary Hopkinson, onion man Dave McMillan plus Chris Stoop—husband of a Rotarian

The Greymouth District Council, in the South Island of New Zealand, is going through an urban redevelopment programme and has been engaging with the community through an extensive consultative process.

Several members of Greymouth Rotary have experienced summer fetes, in Southern France, that  bring together visitors and locals with food stalls, music and local fare. Typically a town square is closed off and tables and chairs are provided for the community who can purchase food and drinks from food stalls and enjoy eating whilst listening to local musicians.

Greymouth Rotary partnered with the community and  closed off a street in the centre of town, recruited 12 food stalls,7 art and craft stalls and organised professional musicians to entertain.

The event was an outstanding success. It may become a regular feature on the Greymouth calendar.

According to Council's economic development coordinator 'The event was a fantastic, vibrant and community building event. I have had lots of positive feedback and thoroughly enjoyed it myself.'

This was a community building project rather than a fund raiser and club members used their Rotary networking skills to generate a most successful 'Fare'.

Rotary and Lions combined to run a food stall to promote one of our local food products and thus generated a modest donation to our local Air Rescue Trust. 200 venison burgers and many plates of gourmet sausage tasting samples were sold in just two hours.

Thanks  to the support of the community and the registered stall holders the Rotary Club of Greymouth was  able to run the event on a modest budget.