July 2016 Speaker - Grace Alsancak

Speaker - Grace Alsancak

'My name is Grace Alsancak and I am a past RYLA awardee from the district of 1040. I have recently moved to Cambridge for a job as a Diving Development Officer for the Cambridge Dive Team based at Parkside Pool.

I have a few links to Rotary mostly through my RYLA experience, being made a Paul Harris Fellow in 2014 and also through partaking in the first international exchange organised by the 1040 district between us and a district in Sweden back in 2011. However my most recent involvement was through a charity challenge I took part in back in 2014 'The Mississippi Challenge'. This involved myself and my friend, rotarian Ken Robertshaw setting out to kayak the entire length of the Mississippi River, all 2350 miles to raise funds for the Theodora Children's Charity. We had great support and sponsorship from Rotary throughout our journey and it is for this reason I am contacting you.

I have given a number of talks about our experience to not only rotary clubs, but schools, charity events, youth and church groups and if you would be interested I would love to come to your club and give a talk which includes pictures and videos from our incredible 58 day adventure.

Our website is no longer running but here is a link to an article that will give you a bit more information about what we did http://www.rotary-ribi.org/districts/page.php?PgID=460146&DistrictNo=1040, our current fundraising stands at £25,000 and I hope to soon release a book on the journey with all proceeds going to the charity.