New president for Grantham Rotarians as they reflect on a challenging and rewarding year
A new president has taken over a Grantham Rotary club after a challenging year in which it has been able to keep active.
Kevin Hale became the new president of Grantham Sunrise Rotary Club after his predecessor, Anita Asken, handed him the chain of office.
In her final speech, Anita said: “The club has managed to achieve a lot during this very difficult year. We have supported the community in so many ways, and to that end I am proud of each and every member.”
In reply, Kevin said: “The tireless dedication of our members epitomises all that Rotary stands for.”
The Sunrisers celebrated their achievements at their first face to face breakfast meeting since lockdown. They toasted their achievements with a glass of fresh orange and spent a few minutes in silence in respect of member John Cussell, who passed away.
Despite a tough year for community clubs and organisations during the pandemic, Grantham Sunrise Rotary Club has been keeping active.
In the first face-to-face meeting, Sunriser Lez Jones put together a presentation to show the members and guests exactly what the club had done throughout the year.
The biggest project was creating a sensory garden and outdoor classroom at Ambergate Sports College, which involved all club members.
The annual bulb-planting went ahead with thousands of daffodils and croci being planted throughout town, in ‘making Grantham beautiful’, and weekly litter-picking teams set out to make it cleaner, too.
The Rotary Star Awards, for good citizenship in local schools, went ahead via Zoom links, and the club donated and dispatched laptops to schools as well.
There was continued support with provisions of food to Grantham Passage and Foodbank, and internationally Sunrise collected and donated schoolbooks for Gambia, and supported the End Polio Now project.
A new information board was produced for South Lincolnshire Blind Society on the High Street and members helped to redecorate Grantham Museum in readiness for reopening.
It supported a host of other projects including provisions for the town’s vaccination centre, and raised money to support other local projects with monthly quiz sessions.