Watch more of our videos on Shots!
and live on Freeview channel 276

The members of the Warwick Rotary Club are adapting how they meet and work.

Last May Warwick Rotary Club was getting ready to host it’s Thai Festival, schools midsummer concert, kids out trip to Drayton Manor and earning money parking cars down at Warwick racecourse.

2020 has seen all these activities cancelled and with it the prospect of raising funds for its work.

Warwick Rotary Club was due to hold its annual Thai Festival this month but it was cancelled. Photos by Warwick Rotary Club

Members have started to use Zoom, webinars and Teams to stay in touch, and learn to adapt to changed circumstances.

With the lockdown in place Rotary members immediately agreed to re-allocate funds to help people affected by coronavirus, making small donations aware that this was going to be a long haul.

Most members are restricted to staying at home, but some help delivering food parcels, or pay what they save on lunches directly to the Foodbank.

Donations so far have been made to:

~ Warwick and District Foodbank

~ St Pauls and St Michaels – food parcels for families on free school meals

~ Safeline – to enable counselling of children at risk to move onto telephones

~ NHS – SWFT – support to nurses

~ Warwickshire Scrubbers – purchase material for scrubs

~ Warwick Ambulance Association

~ Magic of Thailand – food parcels in Thailand,

~ Shelterbox for support overseas,

~ Kids Out – toys for kids in refuges.

~ Lord Leycester Hospital £90 for hanging baskets

A spokesperson from the Warwick Rotary Club said: "Club members have now learned to use Zoom and are meeting fortnightly.

"An upside is that for anyone interested in joining the club, it is easier to 'log-in' to a meeting, than to 'drop in' and makes visiting other clubs even easier.

"Speakers are being arranged and we hope to move to the new “normal” before long.

"Until the lockdown we had a busy programme with regular open evenings attracting new members, interesting speakers and events, and are still keen to recruit help from those who want to 'make a difference' .

"Warwick Rotary has been impressed by people organising to help each other during coronavirus, and invites anyone who wants to continue to support their community to check out our website warwickrotary.org.uk, or Facebook, and contact us at [email protected] for a chat.

"We also welcome any donations to help us continue to support local causes."

How the Warwick Rotary Club is adapting