What are some of our fundraising projects?

We raise funds by running two major events each year and all the money raised is given to worthy charities and needy people locally  nationally and internationally.

In November we have our Annual Charity Golf Day fundraiser and in December we run our Christmas Trailer Raffle at Eastland. We have other fund raising sources from our sales of Rotary Cakes and Puddings, plus other initiatives as they come to hand. New members often bring fund raising ideas to our group – and the more we raise – the more we can give away to the needy.

Where does the money go?

We have a very large list of where our assistance and funds are allocated. Gifting is done by the members after consideration and consultation and we are very careful to ensure we get great value for any assistance or money we gift.

Some areas where we assist are :

Safe Futures Foundation / Women’s Refuge – financial & hands on support for women and children who are the victims of domestic violence.

Eastern Volunteers – We developed and have funded a mobility vehicle for incapacitated people to use for private holidays & transport at very low cost to them. The vehicle is fitted to take a wheelchair and several passengers.

Ringwood Men’s Shed – Helped provide assistance in creating and  setting up the shed and provided air conditioning for their recreation room

Disaster Relief – We supply shelter boxes for communities overseas who have experienced events such as cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis and natural disasters. They are complete kits to set up a mini “house” with all requirements for a group of people. We also provide funds to buy equipment to provide clean fresh water to communities who lack good sanitation and clean water.

Homeless Assistance – We collect food for the homeless at East Ringwood IGA and distribute it via Wesley Mission. We have also provided food that can be provided to families who are homeless to put in their children’s school lunches. We also provide hats, scarves and warm socks for the homeless in Maroondah which are distributed by Wesley Mission so that winters are a bit warmer and more comfortable for those in desperate circumstances.

Youth Refuge – We provided funds for the Ringwood Men’s Shed to construct a new Chicken Coop which replaced their old coop which was falling down.

Maroondah Community Assist – We provided funds to this agency so that they could make up hampers to provide to those in the local community who are doing it tough

Irabina Autism Services is a facility for children with Autism in Bayswater.  We have recently cleaned up the garden beds, planted new plants and updated their sensory playground by providing sensory walls for the children that were constructed by the Ringwood Men’s Shed with funds provided by us.

Youth in our Community – We founded and run the Annual ANZAC Day Maroondah Schools ANZAC Service which is attended by most of the schools in Maroondah each year.

Additionally, we support a Rotary Youth Driver Awareness program that graphically helps year 12 students understand the hazards of the first years of driving after they get their licence.

We also support a driver education program for disadvantaged learner drivers with the L2P program in association with Maroondah Council

We are involved in Youth Exchange. A local student has recently returned from Brazil after spending a year there and he was an excellent ambassador for Maroondah and Australia.

As well we have an incoming student from Brazil for a year and she  is studying at one of our local secondary colleges and learning about Australian culture and our way of life.  She is representing her country very well.

Additionally we have a student on exchange in Germany for 12 months and she already appreciates that the climate in Germany is very different than our own.

Further we sponsored four students to attend the National Youth Science Forum this year and this experience has helped these students clarify what direction in science, medicine, engineering etc they would like to follow upon leaving school.

Lastly we have sponsored a young man to attend RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awardee) which will assist him as a leader in his career.