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• ProgrammeWeekly meeting details and other events we are organising or are associated with
• ProjectsThings we are involved in
  • Chess in schoolsEncouragingr primary school children to take up the game
  • Reading in SchoolsVoluntary work in primary schools
  • Forget me not Trust Russell House HospiceInformation about our visit in November 2011
  • RotaKidsA primary school project
  • Rotary Youth Leadership AwardAn international training scheme for young people
  • Technology tournamentA scheme for secondary school pupils
  • Macmillan Cancer SupportHow we help the local branch
  • Outward BoundSupport and involvement with this scheme
  • Christmas parcelsHampers for pensioners nominated by Age Concern
  • Haw Park WoodProject management for this award winning scheme
  • Wakefield HospiceHow we help this important community facility
  • Pinderfields Hospital paediatric unitProviding help to improve the lives of children receiving care
  • Emergency AidDetails of emergency donations
  • OTHER PROJECTS IN BRIEFA summary of more ways in which we try to help the community
• How to joinInformation for prospective members
• ReportsDetails of our activities and speakers
• Fundraising and SocialInformation about our social events and forthcoming fundraisers
• ScootathlonInformation about the Wakefield Scootathlon 2011
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• Contact UsFeedback welcome
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OTHER PROJECTS IN BRIEF

Dictionaries for Schools

Each year since 2008 the club has provided more than 300 illustrated dictionaries to ten primary and junior schools in the city.

The scheme is part of the Dictionary 4 Life project, which is backed nationally by Rotary clubs across the UK.
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The books each comprise more than a thousand illustrations, 10,000 entries and 20,000 definitions in full colour and are specially designed to help children explore the written word. This in turn helps develop literary understanding.

Community Service committee chairman Peter Clarke said: ‘Our committee selects the schools and then offers them to the literacy co-ordinator at each school free of charge. There's never been a refusal!'

Twenty per cent of adults in Britain have literacy levels below the average for 11-year-olds and these dictionaries are designed to encourage reading and understanding by children from the age of nine.

Peter added: ‘They are also very useful when the child has English as a second language.'

The club also supports the Right to Read programme and has a team of volunteers helping with literacy work in local primary schools.

Polio Plus / Thanks for Life

ROTARY CELEBRATES 2011 BEING THE FIRST POLIO FREE YEAR IN INDIA

The eradication of polio worldwide is the most important project of the family of Rotary International.

In Wakefield a street collection by members of the Rotary Clubs of Wakefield and Wakefield Chantry raised over £450 on Saturday 7th March 2009.

Further details

Short video

Mock Interviews

In order to prepare school leavers for those all important job interviews some Wakefield Rotarians give up their time to partake in mock interviews with them.

We know from the feed-back from schools that they and the students really appreciate the way in which our member's experience in these situations is put to such good use.

The schools taking part in the scheme are

City of Wakefield High School

Crofton High School

The Cathedral School

This is a Vocational Service project.

Please see REPORTS dated 18th February 2010 for further information and a photograph.

Pinderfields Hospital Chapel

Every Sunday morning for many years Rotarians from this club and the Rotary Club of Wakefield Chantry have attended Pinderfields Hospital to take patients by wheelchair to the service which were conducted in the chapel by the chaplain. At Easter 2011 the club was advised that there will be no regular services in the chapel in the new hospital building. This is because the financial arrangements for the management of the hospital do not allow for the payment of a clergy.

The club has been associated with the hospital chapel for many years and was instrumental in providing furniture for it. In addition the club's annual church service has been held there each summer in the past.

Annual Raffle

This vaulable activity raises in the region of £4,000 each year. The funds are earmarked in advance, in whote or in part, for charities which we support such as Macmillan Cancer Care or the Wakefield Hospice. Any balance is shared between smaller causes where we know the money will be well spent.

Each year members sell tickets to their family, friends and aquaintances. In addition we are very grateful to the management of the Wyevale Garden Centre at Carr Gate, Wakefield, for their help in allowing us to offer tickets for sale to their customers on several weekends.

This is a Ways & Means project

Yorkshire Air Ambulance

Supporting this service, which is dependent on donations from the public, was a major theme in the 2008 - 09 Rotary year and fundraising has continued into 2009 - 10.

A group of members visited the charity's base at Leeds Bradford airport on the 13th July 2009 and handed over a total of £2,000. A brief report can be seen on the page revealed via this hyperlink.

Further information

 

KSV Yorkshire School, Sri Lanka

Following the tsunami disaster in December 2004 Rotary District 1040 pledged to rebuild a secondary school in the affected area.

The Wakefield club assisted in financing this project and in 2009 donated dictionaries for use by the pupils at a cost of £384.

Clicking here takes you to a District 1040 website page with further information and photographs.