When the Covid 19 Lockdown was announced, the Rotary Club of Chesham was very keen to help facilitate a wider volunteer Community of Chesham to help ensure immediate support to our more vulnerable neighbours on a town wide basis, with the ability to cater for differing numbers.
The group we are supporting is called Chesham Help for Coronavirus, and they provided all the volunteers. There were also volunteers who delivered prescriptions for local pharmacies and another team of volunteers who made well-being calls. Everyone doing an incredible job.
Rotary’s task was to ensure that immediate funds were made available to reimburse volunteer shoppers for individuals who were self-isolating and should not leave their homes.
There were early reports coming through of certain individuals exploiting the crisis for personal gain. Our President of The Rotary Club of Chesham was a leading member of a task force that came up with a process that ensured volunteer shoppers were reimbursed immediately for shopping - for individuals who could not leave their homes and shop for themselves.
Within days Rotary also organised the printing and delivery of a Help Leaflet to 9000 Chesham addresses to promote the Help for Coronavirus telephone help line. We did this twice so 18,000 leaflets were distributed.
This leaflet was paid for by Rotary Club of Chesham, Chiltern Chamber of Commerce and Buckinghamshire Council. A great example of organisations working collaboratively and being able to take urgent action within very tight legal constraints. Police permissions also had to be secured.
There are many people to thank who have put considerable effort in supporting Chesham through this ongoing Pandemic.
Rotary has an International reputation for supporting world causes like supporting the eradication of Polio and supporting Hospital Mercy Ships, to name just two.
Early on in this support for the vulnerable it was at the suggestion of the Police that Rotary high viz jackets were worn! Until we had more volunteers than clothing!
We were able to prevent scammers to the local householders as the Rotary Club paid for shopping and then reimbursed the volunteers. Other towns in Bucks were reporting problems with scammers and we thankfully avoided this in Chesham.
The Rotary Club of Chesham worked in conjunction with a number of other local organisations that we support and work with e.g. Citizens’ Advice, Foodbank etc. Rotary, as the world’s largest service organisation, created and managed a delivery schedule for the Food Bank from scratch, deploying 80 delivery slots. Latest figures show that the volunteers have done more than £15,000 worth of shopping for members of the Chesham community – and paid for by the householders.
The volunteers also made wellbeing calls, delivered pharmacy prescriptions, delivered foodbank boxes and staffed a phone line from 07.30 - 22.00 seven days a week.
Thank you to the individuals who have answered over 1200 calls for help. Thank you to the volunteer shoppers who to date have completed almost 400 individual shopping trips.
Not only has the Chesham Rotary provided the communications infrastructure for the volunteer group and also for four other groups, where social inclusion was a risk, but we have been supporting the Big Friday Community Takeaway with banking. As they now operate every day it has been re-titled The Big Community Takeaway.
From the start of the crisis until the end of the Rotary year (1st July 2020) our Club has supported many local groups giving assistance to help them use Zoom to avoid loneliness etc. We have supported 223 meetings on Zoom during this period attended by 1,748 people. In total the number of meeting minutes was 90,131.
Chesham Rotary has been around for 75 years. We are an organisation of practical action and we are proud of the Chesham community rising to the current challenge.
We hope you might join us and join in. Rotarians get together socially on a regular basis, although currently online, we have a great local network. Our annual Frog Racing event should not be missed!
We will be taking a regular feature in YourChesham to keep you informed of future activities.
Our sincere thanks go to everyone who has helped in these trying and unprecedented times.
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Chesham Rotary Club held the local round of the National Young Photographer competition, where local youngsters took photos based on a ‘Wild Nature‘ theme.
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moreRotarians Mervyn Edwards and Chris Marsh give their report to members concerning the Christmas 2021 activities
moreChesham Rotary has been around for 75 years. We are an organisation of practical action and we are proud of the Chesham community rising to the current challenge.
moreA Technology Tournament was hosted by the Chiltern Hills Academy on Friday 24th February. This was organised by the Rotary Clubs of Chesham, Amersham, and Great Missenden.
moreThe Rotary Club of Chesham are supporting Chiltern Music Therapy and other local groups (who have or do support dementia suffers and carers). The walk in the beautiful Chiltern Hills took place on Sunday 4th September 2022.
moreIn Christmas 2017 Chesham Club pushed the technology barrier and used an Online Tracker System to pin point the actual location of Santa directly onto the club website as it was happening.
moreThe Rotary Club of Chesham once again organised the annual Stroke Awareness Day on Saturday 12th May 2018
moreChesham Rotary took children and carers to Whipsnade Zoo on 12th June.
See the letters of thanks from the children on this page
This was an incredible show of local talent by children and adults from Chesham and surrounding area. The versatility, inspiration and professionalism shown by the artistes was absolutely amazing.
moreA Technology Tournament was hosted by the Chiltern Hills Academy on Friday 1st March organised by the Rotary Clubs of Amersham, Chesham, and Great Missenden.
moreSanta's Visit Programme for 2021 has been finalised. He will be visiting streets in and around Chesham. Find the Santa Tracker here.
moreThousands of youngsters take part every year in our youth competitions which in most cases take the form of regional heats followed by a national final. The majority are categorised into junior, intermediate and advanced age groups.
moreOn the 19th August members of Chesham Club and guests attended President Kalpesh Patel's Barbecue.
moreOn Wednesday 17th June, President Jeremy Wyman arranged for a special event to mark the end of his Presidency. A VIRTUAL CREAM TEA !!!
moreThe Rotary Young Chef competition was held on Saturday 12th January 2019 at Piper's Corner School
moreOn Wednesday 17th July 2024 the Rotary Club of Chesham were invited to visit Heritage House as a thank you for the work undertaken by some of our members
moreIn May this year Chesham Rotary Club supported Mayor Emily Culverhouse in the Mayor’s Charity Water Slide Event held in Lowndes Park.
moreThe Rotary Clubs of Amersham, Chesham and Great Missenden extend their congratulations to all the winners.
morePlease use this link if you wish to donate to Chesham Rotary
moreCelebration of 25 years of the Chess Valley Male Voice Choir. Sponsored by The Rotary Club of Chesham 23rd March 2019
moreOn Friday the 25th October we held a highly successful Music and Magic evening at Chartridge Park Golf Club
moreAt the end of June, The Rotary Club of Chesham presented two local people with the most prestigious award from Rotary Foundation and International – THE PAUL HARRIS FELLOWSHIP.
moreChesham Rotary Club members were pleased to be involved in this year’s Chesham Schools Carnival, the main event being in Lowndes Park.
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moreChesham Rotary has one or two speakers or visitors each month during our meetings. Have a look at what has been happening recently.
moreLooking for something fun and entertaining to add the “WOW” factor to your event whilst also allowing you to raise additional funds for your cause!! Look no further than using the Rotary Club of Chesham Games.
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moreChesham Rotary Club would like to thank residents and visitors to Chesham who supported our Christmas Float over the Christmas period and made our collections for local charities such a success. You can donate here
moreOn Friday the 25th October we held a highly successful Music and Magic evening at Chartridge Park Golf Club
moreOn Tuesday 17th July 2018 the annual titanic struggle took place between opposing teams for the 'Texas Scramble’ golfing match. This was followed by the putting competition and supper organised and hosted by Inner Wheel.
moreLetters of thanks received by Chesham Rotary
moreSanta's Visit Programme for 2023 has been finalised. He will be visiting streets in and around Chesham.You can get to the Santa Tracker from this page.
moreSome of the photos that were taken during the christmas in Chesham celebrations held on the 24th November 2017
moreThe Technology Tournament for teams of Secondary Schoolchildren. The 2018 Technology Tournament took place on 23rd February at the Chiltern Hills Academy, Chesham.
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