£20,000 to support local charities and services during Covid

Lockdown began, as we all know, on 23^rd March 2020. Nationally we were in the midst of a crisis, almost something from the realms of SciFi, and individually there were tragedies as the number of people dying began to grow inexorably. We had to get used to the fact that we had to wear masks and socially distance. But masks and indeed all PPE were in desperately short supply. Suddenly it became dangerous to do something as simple as going shopping. Everybody wanted a home delivery. Toilet rolls became the new currency as tissue stockpiles grew in homes around the country and people were shamed pushing trollies with enough paper to wipe the bottoms of an army. Everybody became a potential threat. Confronting someone round a corner meant leaping into the road or scuttling up the nearest drive. We were told to exercise locally and for an hour a day. Roads were deserted. The plague had arrived.

Now that we’ve become a bit more blasé about all this – we are after all emerging from Lockdown 3 and government messages have changed beyond all recognition – it’s hard to remember how new, how unreal and, yes, how frightening it all was. We all added the word Zoom (with a capital ‘Z’) to our vocabulary, began to locate the ‘Mute’ button (some are still learning that one) and got used to images on our screen in place of real people. Offices were deserted as people worked from home, buses and trains ran empty, pubs shut and Rotary Clubs met virtually.

But that wasn’t all. Mike Hammond got a group of us together which gradually grew in number. We were the ‘Covid Group’ and we tried to help where we could. We acquired some PPE, we helped older people, we helped Care Home workers, carers and those affected by the growing pandemic. We got going with various projects and raised money in ingenious ways. We met for the first time on 3^rd April 2020 so we’ve now been going for just over a year. In that time we’ve raised and spent over £20,000 on local good causes and around £2,000 internationally. We’ve contributed to 14 individual charities. As things get back to normal we’ll soon be out of a job, and glad to be because that means the Club and life generally will begin to assume a more familiar pattern – drinks at the bar, gourmet delicacies at the table and all face-to-face with real people.

The Covid group has worked wonders for a year and many thanks to Mike who has directed our efforts.