Club News

Latest News - March 2024

On Saturday 22nd February we entertained over 80 guests at our annual ‘Duck’ Race Night at the Gallow Sports Centre who all had a great time, with some actively taking part in all the races. We know because they said so. (See picture collage above highlighting the event.) Videos are also available to see on our Facebook page @fakenhamrotaryclub. 

As a result, we raised a little over £1700 towards our fundraising target for this Rotary year. This time have been able to fulfil our commitment to helping towards international projects through the Rotary Foundation (Rotary’s own charity), ShelterBox, AquaBox and Rotary’s ongoing humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine. We have also donated £500 towards the Fakenham Age Concern Bus operations within the town.

On Friday 22nd March, Rotary Volunteers are assisting in a town ‘litter pick’ organised by Fakenham Town Council and we shall be helping them with other projects during the year. Full details of this event can also be found on our Facebook page.

Volunteering to collaborate with the many community groups in the Fakenham area gives a great sense of personal pride in all that Rotary does within our district. If you would like to be part of our volunteer group, we’ll be pleased to hear from you as usual via email at fakenhamrotaryclub@gmail.com’

Donation Presentation - Fakenham Area Community First Responders - January 2024

At their meeting on 10^th January, and as result of their Christmas Joint Fundraising initiative, the Fakenham & District Rotary Club presented the sum of £3000.00 to the Fakenham Area Community First Responders. Club President, Richard Potts said,

“I am delighted to formally mark the presentation of this donation to the Fakenham Area Community First Responders. The amount raised has, quite frankly, exceeded expectation and reflects three elements of the appeal:

·        Firstly, it is testimony to the partnership between the Rotary Club and the First Responders.

·        Secondly, it is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of individuals and teams in fundraising during challenging times, when both businesses and families are struggling to make ends meet.

·        Thirdly, that the value of both organisations is widely recognised in the community, which has, so generously supported our appeal.

I would therefore like to mark the donation of £3000.00 to Fakenham First Responders by presenting this certificate and by thanking you for the vital work you do for the community.

David Wheeler is in charge of the Fakenham Area Community First Responders. In response to the donation to FACFR’s from Fakenham Rotary Club he made the following comments,

“I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone here for making this presentation possible.  It has been a fantastic team effort between the Rotary Club members and the First Responder group.

I know it has been a huge venture by Rotary in organising and executing this fund-raising effort. I have seen for myself the selfless way Rotary goes about raising funds, in the cold and pouring rain, through visiting our local businesses and by giving your time freely for others.  It is truly inspirational.

As a group, we have been fund-raising for new Mobile Communication Devices (that we have to fund) which will revolutionise our first responding.  These devices are being rolled out to all ambulance services across the UK starting with the first responders.

With our old phones we used to get a brief message describing the incident. With these devices we can access full details of the emergency and other things such as a key safe number. We used to have to use our own Sat Nav to locate the address of the emergency, now we have the same navigation system as the ambulance which takes us right to the front door.  This speeds up our response time.

The new communication devices are tracked by the ambulance control room, so they know exactly where we are at all times and can provide regular updates to the caller.  Previously our location was only evident when we had left home and then arrived on scene.

So what you might ask?  Well, as an example, I was dispatched to a cardiac arrest from home over the Christmas period. The tracking facility meant the dispatcher could see exactly where I was and could relay this to the patient’s family plus, if anything untoward had occurred en-route, this would flag up.  The device also has an emergency call button if we are in any danger.

This also means that as soon as I, or another responder, logs on from wherever we may be our location is immediately apparent in relation to any local incident. It may seem like a small thing these days, but it makes a huge difference to us!

So, thank you all for your incredible efforts in helping us to purchase new mobile communication devices.  These will help us to save lives now and in the future. THANK YOU”.

And a big, 'Thank you' to our supporters:

The following is a list of our supporters and prize sponsors for our Santa's Grotto' and 'Christmas Prize Draw' events. Thank you to them all.

Tesco Fakenham, Fakenham Racecourse, Fakenham Town Council, Fakenham Events Committee, Fakenham Garden Centre, Bailey Bird and Warren, The Works in Miller's Walk, Gordon & Brenda Turner, Hilton Gott, Downham Market, Hughes Electrical, Vanessa Stocking, Julie Walsh Hair Specialists, Ernest Doe, Matthew Hawkes, Fakenham Garden Centre, Lawnwise & Leisure, David Hood, Trefor Jackson, SFS, Dee Jackson, Thurlow Nunn Standon, Papworth’s Butchers, Barry Hawkes, Isobel Bain, Norfolk Wood Crafts.

Santa's Grotto at Fakenham Garden Centre - December 2023

Our Santa's Grotto event took place on the evenings of 14th & 15th December with many, many children and their parents taking the chance to visit Santa. All the children received a gift and had their photo taken with Santa. Feedback from the event was very positive and many parents have allowed their pictures to be shared on our Facebook page. Take a look at the page to see the pictures.

Christmas Prize Draw 2024

Update: The prize draw took place on 16th December with 27 winning tickets drawn. All winners have been notified. Whilst the final figure is still being counted, we estimate that we have raised in the region of £2400.00 for the Fakenham Area Community Responders. The final amount will be published inJanuary 2024 and the funds donated to the FACFR's as promised. Winning ticket numbers (1st to last): 02699, 01249, 02597, 01719, 01566, 01725, 00102, 01482, 00016, 00425, 00767, 01905, 01762, 01928, 00530, 00830, 01027, 00499, 01319, 01437, 00669, 00207, 01848, 00161, 00839, 02650, 02251.

This year’s Christmas Prize Draw is dedicated to raising funds for our nominated charity of the year, the Fakenham Area Community First Responders. There are three main cash prizes. 1^stPrize of £200, 2^nd Prize of £100 and a 3^rd Prize of £50. There are also many other prizes kindly donated by our members and supporters. Tickets are available now at a cost of £1 each from any Club Rotarian and the Community First Responders. Tickets will also be available at Fakenham Garden Centre and other outlets on the run up to the draw date which will take place at 3pm on Saturday 16^th December 2023 at Fakenham Garden Centre. All prize winners will be notified on the same day.

Nominated Charity of the Year Announced

This year we are proud to announce our support for for the Fakenham Area Community First Responders (FACFR's) who have become a vital resource for the East of England Ambulance Service Trust. The FACFR's are all volunteers trained to attend certain types of emergency calls in the area where they live or work. Their aim is to reach a potential life-threatening emergency in the first vital minutes before the arrival of an ambulance crew. Volunteers use their own transport to attend calls and provide most of the equipment they use themselves and with the help of some charitable donations. This year particulary, the FACFR's are seeking help to fund 5 state-of-the-art radios which will provide all the communications and information from ambulance control they need whilst being dispatched to an incident and which will keep them safrer as they are all GPS enabled. Their ambitious target of £5000.00 to make this provision is one that the Rotary Club are keen to help them achieve. We are appealing for any local residents or businesses who would like to help us help  the FACFR's reach their target, to please contact us via our contact page of email at fakenhamrotayclub@gmail.com. Thank you.

Further information concerning the work that Community First Responders do can be found via the East of England Ambulance website at: www.eastamb.nhs.uk

WHY ROTARY?

Ask any Rotarian in our club, "Why Rotary?" and you'll probably hear one of those cringing cliche answers, which are true, nonetheless. They'll probably tell you it's because Rotary gives something back. They'll probably say that it's about connecting with other people, making friendships that last and doing good things for others. They'll tell you that Rotary's local and at the same time it's part of a global club that cares about where we live, wherever we live. They'll probably say that it's about getting together and having some fun arranging events, enjoying those events and raisningsome funds in the process. They could tell you that it's knowing we've recently helped one local child dealing with cancer to have a more comfortable home life; or that we help support our local charities with vital ongoing funding; or that we contribute to humanitarian disaster relief work around the the world. They'll probably tell that Rotary does some good somewhere, everywhere every day and they love it. They will say that everyone involved with Rotary takes some satisfaction from being able to say, "we did that".

Everyone can be part of Rotary. You can be part of Rotary.

Connect with us to find out how.