During 2018 our Club, in collaboration with Mudgee Sunrise and Rylstone/Kandos Rotary Clubs, was successful in obtaining a grant from the Channel 9 Drought Relief fund. The grant was used to help relieve the devastating impact of extreme drought conditions on farming communities across the Mid – Western Regional Local Government Area.
The three clubs worked closely with ‘We Care Mudgee Incorporated’, a registered, not for profit Association. ‘We Care’ is operated by a team of dedicated volunteers that regularly meet with their clients to provide guidance and support and most importantly, has a proven track record to identify those most in need. Assistance was given in the form of gift cards, vouchers, pre-paid cards etc so that money would go back into the local economy with the aim of supporting local businesses.
In addition to the Channel 9 funding our Club has facilitated additional grants from the Rotary Clubs of Wetherill Park and Turramurra in Sydney and from the Castle Hill Men’s Shed.
In December 2018, Rotary was advised that it was one of three organisations selected as Distributors of Commonwealth Government Drought Community Support Initiative Funding. In conjunction with ‘We Care’ a program was initiated to encourage qualifying farmers to apply for available funding. The first tranche of funding was made available in February 2019 with the second tranche due in April 2019,
We have continued this assistance in 2019, using $5,500of income from our Garden Spectacular to donate to We Care for provision of bulk water for families in need in the Mudgee area. More detail here
