Charity Day

The weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Kirkcaldy was held at the Dean Park Hotel on Tuesday 2nd August, with this week being the Charity Day meeting. President Mark Rossiter welcomed thirty members of the club and eight guest to the meeting.

President Mark reminded members that Kinross Rotary Club were looking for help with supplies for the Ladies programme in Ethiopia, Mark also plugged the District conference again mentioning that Leven Rotary Club had invited us to get together with them on one of the evenings during the event.

There were no visits to other clubs and the raffle raised £29. PP Iain Gow mentioned that he would collect the tickets for the Perth Concert. Secretary’s Announcements were brief with a reminder of the Club Council meeting on Monday 8^th August.

As it was Charity Day there was no designated speaker however representatives from some of the beneficiary charities were in attendance and were offered the opportunity to say a few words as they were presented with their cheques by President Mark.

First up was Karen Russell from Fife Society for the Blind. The Charity concentrates their efforts in three areas, rehab training which enables people to remain as independent as possible, opticians that can provide complex prescriptions not available through the High Street Opticians and finally technology training whereby the partially blind are trained I the use of computers etc. One of their pioneering ventures is to offer a standard optician’s service with the income raised being directed back into the charity.

Tumong Edwards represented Maggie’s and talked us through an example of the different ways in which the Centre had helped one lady and how the assistance from the centre was extended to both the Ladies mother and Son.

Yvonne Bryce from Alzheimer Kirkcaldy mentioned that within Fife they work with 6500 people both through their centre and via 1 to 1 home support. She highlighted that Alzheimer’s is not specific to the elderly, there are sufferers from as young as 40 years old. The charity would like to provide more groups through Fife and is always on the lookout for volunteers to become ‘Dementia Friends’.

Mandy Henderson talked about the busy programme offered by Linton Lane Centre which is not only for youth but citizens of all ages. Recent introductions include community lunches and this year they hope to provide a Christmas lunch. They have an ongoing foodbank in operation five days a week.

Rachel Chair accepted the cheque on behalf of CHAS and explained that with 16000 families across Scotland in need of their help they had created a new service offered by their ‘Diana Nurses’ whereby two full time nurses worked within the hospitals to identify and help those in need of support from CHAS. She was delighted to announce that Rachel House is now 20 years old.

Mark McMillan from Deaf Action spoke together with his interpreter Mark Sherwin and was able to give a personal example of how the charity helped families such as his by offering sign language lessons so that family members can all communicate. The charity is now 180 years old and aims to remove the barriers of communication, increasing confidence and raising ambitions for those affected.

Kirkcaldy YMCA was represented by Bob Kilgour who was pleased to announce that the establishment was 130 years old and was working to support 125 youth throughout a full 9 hour day, today the group were on a visit to Holyrood. He noted that Rotarian Robert Main is the charity treasurer and that YMCA is involved in the Bavarian Beer festival organised for early September in conjunction with Kirkcaldy’s twin town Ingolstadt.

PP Ken Kelly accepted a cheque on behalf of age concern elaborating on how important it was for the elderly to have somewhere they could pop in for a chat and how modern society and globalisation has caused the elderly to be rather isolated and vulnerable. One of their volunteers says ‘she likes to help the old one’s’, she herself is 96!

PP Iain Gow represented The Kinghorn Singers stating that music makes people happy.

President Mark read out a list of other Charities which were not present but had also received cheques these included: 500 Miles, Cancer Research, Chest Herat and Stroke Scotland, Disability Sport Fife, Fife Young Carers, McMillan Nursing, Salvation Army Kirkcaldy and Sands.

Mark closed the meeting by thanking all the charities and saying what a better place the community was thanks to all their efforts and wishing them the best for the future.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 9^th August at the Dean Park Hotel.