Mandurah District Rotary Club continues good work despite COVID-19

Unfortunately there were some losses due to COVID-19 where projects had to be cancelled; one of these projects being the dominant fundraising project for the club.

However, innovative strategies were put in place which enabled the Club to follow through with elements of some of these projects, creating some excellent outcomes.

During this past year Mandurah District Rotary have inducted 15 new members, increasing the club's membership by 65 percent.

Five of those people were new to Rotary, and had never experienced the Rotary environment before. Of the 15 new members to the club, six were women; increasing the total number of females in the club to 10, which is nearly a third of the club.

Community projects are just some of the areas our club are involved with mentioned below:

Sail into Life created a committee comprising of Rotary members from all three clubs in the Peel region, Pinjarra, Mandurah and Mandurah Districts.

The committee also included partners from the Mandurah Offshore Fishing and Sailing Club and APM Disability Support Service.

A total of 11 people per day are required for the day (Sunday), all being volunteers and Rotary members.

The club received a District Grant of $3,000 towards a new rescue dingy for the successful Sail into Life program.

The Golf Day raises a lot of funds. This project is held in November and involves all three Rotary clubs in the Peel region.

A gala dinner finishes off a day's golfing.

This night promotes Rotary to around 200 guests. The total raised was $18,000 of which $9,000 went to Passages and each club received $4,500.

Bikes for Humanity is another project which has risen in levels of ability and production due to increased membership numbers.

The Mandurah Rotary Family Fun Day and Duck Race is a project which has been offered to the community for 10 years now. The preparation for this event starts in July, with the event happening on Easter Saturday.

This project involves everyone, from members and families to local businesses and not-for-profit services and connects with sporting groups, schools and recreation services.

Only two weeks prior to this year's event running it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 regulations.

An element of this project is the selling of raffle tickets. This is done by members, their families and is also offered to local groups as a fundraising opportunity for them.

Groups who sell tickets receive a percentage of the ticket price for their organisation.

The event offers a full day's entertainment with music, dancers, actors, activities for children and vendors both food, cottage industry and small businesses.

The Rotary Club of Mandurah Districts supported 29 sports clubs and community groups resulting in a distribution of $9,512 to those organisations.

Additional funds supported:

The outcome of this event was overwhelming considering the event was cancelled.