Rotary Club
of Castlebar
2003-2004
Celebrating 26 Years in Castlebar |
Rotary Club
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What is Rotary?The Rotary Club of Castlebar is part of the large international humanitarian service organisation, Rotary International, which is dedicated to providing humanitarian services, encouraging high ethical standards in all vocations and helping to build goodwill and peace in the world. In Castlebar there are almost 30 members and we support a number of local Castlebar and Mayo Charities as well as participating in major international programmes such as the Polio Plus programme.
CommunityWe usually participate in a number of activities related to the Sacred Heart Hospital - parties for the Alzheimers Unit patients, cinema outings and concerts/parties for the patients of the main hospital. As an example of Castlebar rotary acitvities see photos of the party and concert held for patients in the Sacred Heart Home, Castlebar. Support for The Mayo Women's Refuge was provided from a James Bond Film Premiere. Castlebar Rotary supported Mayo Emigrants Liaison with a film premiere in 2001. Support for St. Brids special school took the form of a donation to assist in the purchase of new school bus. This is just a flavour of the wide range of local charities supported by Castlebar Rotary Club.VocationalCastlebar organises a local Youth Leadership Competition on an annual basis. Each year local winners from Castlebar and Mayo competed in the regional final in Athlone. The high standard of these students in accounting for themselves and the confidence they show never ceases to amaze us - they are truly incredible.Mock Interviews for Leaving Certificate Students are a regular feature of the Castlebar Rotary year also. Interviewers representing a wide variety of professions, vocations and trades put young students through their paces in preparation for the world of work and interviews. InternationalExamples of activities under the International heading include an appeal to support victims of Indian Earthquake Disaster that occurred January 2001. Some £3000 was collected the week following the earthquake in early February and donated to Unicef for immediate use in the earthquake zone. Castlebar Rotary also shipped 40 boxes of aid to the Turkish Earthquake in 1999 donated by local Castlebar people. Our initial target was to fill 10 boxes. In the event, however, some 40 'Aquaboxes' were filled with materials useful to those suffering in the aftermath of such a disaster.The Rotary Foundation CharityThis major charity fund of Rotary International has the goal of contributing $800M by June 2003 in a bid to eliminate polio completely from the planet. The Polio Plus project is being carried out in association with the World Health Organisation and another major contributor is Bill Gates, who contributed almost $90M recently to the Polio Plus programme. This is a vaccination programme which searches out the last remaining pockets of the disease in remote rural areas, often in very rough terrain. Volunteers transport vaccine and distribute it to literally millions of people in a few days at a time.Ambassadorial Scholarships are an important part of the Rotary Foundation programme and Castlebar regularly hosts scholars as speakers and for social visits. Previous Highlights:Aquabox Collection for the 1999 Turkish Earthquake |