The Rotaract Club of Auckland City got off to a great start in fundraising for an ambitious international project with their recent Cooking Class. On August 12th, the Rotaract sponsored cooking class that was held at Ellerslie War Memorial Hall, attracted over 50 attendees they all enjoyed learning new recipes from Masterchef Finalist, Vanessa Baxter. The crowd was filled with people from different walks of life including Rotarians from Downtown Auckland, St Johns, Auckland Harbourside and Auckland City. The guests were split into groups that competed to speedily make delicious courgette salad, kimchi pancakes and pork dumplings.Auckland City Rotaractors provided behind-the-scenes support with setting up for the cooking class and post event cleaning. The mastermind behind the event was the club’s Community Services Chair, Rumbie Muzawazi, who devised the idea to plan a cooking class when she met Vanessa at one of the Rotary meetings she attended a few months before. The cooking class was a big success with $1610 raised from ticket sales.
The club’s aim was to raise funds for their Rotary year project (Building a library for Saint Francis School in Fiji) and have the project supporters gain something out of it. Partnering with the Rotaract clubs of Nadi and Suva, the Rotaractors of Auckland city will be responsible for organising the logistics and materials required to build, fundraising, manpower provision and running book drives.
While no small goal, the clubs believe the library will be a meaningful step towards bringing the gift of literacy to the children of Fiji.