Submitted by Stephen Rhodes, Rotary Club of Brampton
“Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” (Horace)
The adversity of COVID19 has brought out the best of the Rotary Club of Brampton. In fact, the Regeneration Outreach Community has just nominated the club for a "business group" vitality award through Volunteer MBC.
“We are truly grateful for this honour,” says Rotary Club President Dittie Voegele. “It’s been an unusual year for Rotary because of Covid19, and while our mission to help those in need has not changed, our focus has been on our hospital, local food banks and International projects that are fighting the pandemic.”
Rotary committed $100,000 to fight the Pandemic - $50,000 to our hospital for PPEs, $30,000 to Regeneration and St. Louise Outreach for their food banks and $20,000 for International initiatives in March of 2020.
“Since then, with help from some of our member businesses, we have raised another $75,000 to support Regeneration’s Marketplace Operations and grocery purchases, including $5,000 from members’ support for Coldest Night of the Year. Club members also provided on average 30 hours a week in volunteer time over the past 15 months,” President Dittie says.
Our newly-formed Peace Committee raised $7,000 for Peel Children’s Aid Society through our Show Your Love auction. As participants in Run, Walk, Cycle for Veterans our members raised $2,000.
Two of our members spearheaded a project to provide 47 Tablets for use in schools in Jamaica. And our Rotary Santa Auction raised $5,000 for Alzheimer`s Society.
“We have had to find creative ways to support people in need in our community and our members have stepped up to get directly involved and that is great to see,” says President Dittie. Rotarians and their families are actively involved on an almost daily basis as volunteers in the Foodbank It has taught us that we can make a tangible difference, even in these difficult times.”
