Speaker Meeting Report.

EAST SUSSEX WILDLIFE RESCUE.

The Club was treated to a fascinating presentation of wildlife rescue by Trevor Weeks MBE, Founder and Operations Director of East Sussex Wildlife Recuse & Ambulance Service (WRAS).

 Trevor first got involved with wildlife rescue and conservation work when he was just thirteen years old having spent a lot of time in the countryside growing up in Hailsham.  In 1996 East Sussex WRAS was born although he didn’t become a fully employed staff member until 2010.  Nowadays there are four other full time employees of the charity alongside Trevor with over 100 volunteers involved as well.

 With the aid of pictures and film, Trevor explained that WRAS is a front line service with over 4,000 animal rescues each year.  Although the charity started in a small way, it now has a fleet of ambulances with a casualty centre and an animal hospital, all with the objective of returning animals back to the wild as soon as is possible.  Trevor covered a number of cases to show WRAS in action including a badger being rescued the Uckfield Water Treatment Tank which was done with the help of the Fire Brigade, a roe deer on Eastbourne seafront, a duck on an island on the lake in Alexandra Park in Hastings, and he also mentioned that around 800 hedgehogs are rescued every year!

 At the end of the presentation, the President presented a cheque donation to Trevor for WRAS after Rotarian Brian Cope had given the vote of thanks on behalf of an enthusiastic audience.

FOOTBALLERS HELP BEXHILL ROTARY WITH AID FOR TURKEY

At this Meeting a cheque was presented to the club by The Old Bexhillians Walking Football Club to help with aid initiatives with the Turkey earthquake disaster.

The cheque was presented to President Perry by Mick Davis (pictured with cheque) representing the footballers who had been fundraising to cover the purchase of a ShelterBox to be sent to the disaster area.  Perry when receiving the cheque thanked Mick and his colleagues for their generosity and help with the disaster relief.

 Even though ShelterBox was originally conceived by a Cornish Rotary Club as a local project back in 2000, since 2102 ShelterBox and Rotary have been official Project Partners in disaster relief and has become internationally recognised for its important work.

 Typical contents of a ShelterBox are aid items including tents as temporary shelter or shelter kits to allow people to build or rebuild durable shelters.  Shelterbox also provides other aid items such as mosquito nets, water filters, water carriers, solar lights, cooking sets, blankets and mats.  To find out more about the charity’s work, do go to their website www.shelterbox.org.