Club news from around the world

Like other places in the Dominican Republic, Los Cocos de Jacagua faces shortages of suitable housing and sanitation infrastructure. For 15 years, the Rotary Club of Santiago Monumental has addressed community needs there in tandem with a Rotary Community Corps, creating a library, a community center, playgrounds, and a financial cooperative. They installed hundreds of latrines and provided medical care, among other contributions, many accomplished with the help of international partners in District 7710 (North Carolina).

 

The Santiago Monumental club has begun building homes for families, completing nine as of February at a cost of about $10,000 each, says club member David Crow. “Our international partners spend a week at a time with us, providing labor for the construction effort,” Crow says. “This alliance is a powerful way to promote peace and offer Rotarians the opportunity to live and work together with local Rotarians and the communities served.”

Reveling in a uniquely Australian art form, the Rotary Club of Gloucester stages readings of bush poetry, which celebrates life in the less populated hinterlands. “Bush poetry is principally stories from the bush,” the tales suitable for “shearing sheds, cattle yards, pubs, etc.,” says club member Grahame Stelzer. “Normally very funny, sometimes rude, and occasionally serious.”

 

In February, three poets and a country band headlined the Bush Poetry at the Saleyard event, held, fittingly, in a livestock arena. “The idea was born at a private dinner when one of the guests just happened to be a current Australian bush poet champion,” says Stelzer. “My club was looking for a fundraiser for a nursing home, so it all came together that night.” The festivities raised about $3,900 for local projects.

 

>This story originally appeared in the November 2022 issue of Rotary magazine where you can find more.