Over the recent months our nation has been beset by numerous disasters on a national level. As you are no doubt aware your local Rotary Club, the Rotary Club of Northbridge, has approached you to assist us in raising funds to help alleviate, in some way, the suffering occasioned to our fellow Australians. We, the members of the Club, have been blown away by the response and generosity of the members of our local community to our requests.

 

 In October last year we conducted a bucket appeal at the Plaza for funds for the relief of drought-stricken farmers and we raised an amount just shy of $20,000.00. This was followed the next month with another bucket appeal at the Plaza to raise funds for victims of the bushfires then devastating the mid north coast of New South Wales which raised just under $16,000.00. Two months later we were back again asking for money for the victims of the fires then raging down the South Coast and nearly $26,000.00 to date has been raised. This is a grand total of some $61,500.00.

 

In dealing with funds raised by means of these appeals when, quite often, there are national appeals being conducted to raise substantial funds for the same cause, we have found that while the needs of the individual victims of the particular disaster are being helped financially by those national appeals, quite often community amenities are destroyed. However, the repair or replacement of those amenities which would greatly assist the devastated community achieving some return to normality do not qualify for assistance and literally fall through the cracks. To overcome this problem, we try to work with the local Rotary Club in that area and direct funds to helping restore those amenities and allowing the local community to rebuild as an interacting community.

 

In the middle of all this we conducted our regular annual ‘Tree of Joy’ at the Plaza to solicit Christmas presents for The Smith Family’s Annual Toy and Book Appeal for underprivileged children. This appeal resulted in our collecting enough presents to fill 24 waist-high, 75 litre, self-standing green plastic garden bags. Another magnificent effort by the local Community.

 

We, the members of the Rotary Club of Northbridge, wish to gratefully acknowledge the generosity of our Northbridge Community and to place on record our sincere thanks and gratitude for the material and financial assistance you have provided so readily when asked by us.

 

Karin Eurell

In typical Rotary fashion, we partner with another Rotary Club that is located close to the disaster zone.  In this case, we connected with the Nambucca Rotary Club and the $15,000 raised from our first bucket appeal has been distributed already to where it is badly needed.

Nambucca Council provided Rotary with contact details of the 38 people who registered for Council assistance as they had lost their home in the bush fire.

The 38 names and phone numbers were allocated to 6 Rotarians to call and present them with a cheque for $300.

The President of Nambucca Rotary told us: “I have called 6 people so far, two cried as they were so overwhelmed by Rotary generosity.”

A further $1,400 is being donated to Out of the Ashes for porta loos –for people who have lost their home and are living in a tent.

The balance of $2, 200 will go to BlazeAid to assist farmers in the area by providing fencing materials which will be purchased locally.