Rotary club celebrates successful year

Palm Beach Rotary Club is celebrating the end of a busy but very successful year having raised $154,000 for local, State and international charities.

According to the club, about $139,000 have been given away with a portion kept aside to pay for ongoing fundraising.

Retiring club president Laurie Smith said money-making projects for good causes had been an integral part of the club’s activities during this Rotary year.

“Helping local young people has been our priority,” he said.

“The purpose of Rotary funds is to share them around and provide effective and meaningful support.

“This year has been dynamic with a lot of wonderful events and we have been introduced to a number of inspirational community members.”

Among those supported by the club this year was young modern dancer Tegan Tweedie.

With the support of Palm Beach Rotary Club, she attended highly competitive national dance school auditions in Sydney.

Five national dance schools chose just five to 10 students from the 800 who auditioned and Tegan was offered places at three schools.

For the first time last year, the club sponsored Kwinana Industries Council’s iDiversity Project which works with special needs high school students to ensure they are job-ready.

The club also paid for senior high school students and young workers to attend leadership training camps, day trips on the sail training vessel HMAS Leeuwin and school awards and bursaries.

In December, the club held its golf ball drop raffle which enabled it to donate $7500 to both the Secret Harbour Surf Life Saving Club and Hillman Cricket Club and $1500 to the Rockingham Police and Citizens Youth Club.

Rockingham City Pipe Band was also given a sizeable donation to supply chanters for new recruits.

Palm Beach Rotary has worked to alleviate local poverty by buying 10 emergency shelter kits for distribution to the homeless through the Salvation Army and donated $7000 the Soul Soup Patrol.

Internationally, much work has been done in East Timor in co-operation with the Kwinana Rotary Club.

Water has been supplied to local schools and villages and hundreds of obsolete laptop computers have been reformatted and supplied to Timorese school students.

Desktop computers will also be reformatted and supplied to the nearby island nation.

The club has helped the Days for Girls group supply sanitary requirements to poverty-stricken women overseas.

Two of the biggest national recipients of club funds were Cystic Fibrosis Australia and the Telethon Kids Institute’s brain cancer research.

Each received $25,000 from two gala dinner and auction nights which raised $84,391.

The Yarloop and Esperance fire relief appeals both received sizeable donations.

In addition to the numerous individual and group donations, Palm Beach Rotarians are sponsoring the formation of a new Rotary Club in Baldivis.