THE Rotary Club of Hillcrest, now celebrating its 50th anniversary, was excited to welcome its new president for the 2020/21 year, Dennis Wesley.
Dennis joined the Hillcrest-based club 20 years ago in February and has previously served on the District PRO and membership committees.
This will be his third time serving as the club’s president and will also begin his third year as an assistant governor for the Highway Rotary Clubs.
His goals include strengthening the local club through growth in its membership as well as develop a closer working relationship with businesses in the area.
“I also want to enhance the club’s projects to further assist those in our community who are less fortunate than us. Expand on our various youth development programmes and leadership training as well as ensure good club fellowship by utilising the Highway area’s great facilities,” said a determined Dennis.
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With many of its projects involved in outreach, he reported that the lockdown has dramatically affected the club’s ability to engage in hands-on events to raise much-need funds.
“The club has received some funding from our overseas partners, but they have limited capacity due to their own economic slowdown. Project management has been adjusted to remote control type implementation and very limited physical activities. We have also been hosting our weekly meetings via Zoom,” he said.
The Rotary Club of Hillcrest’s headline project is water harvesting global grant application for the Lily of the Valley Children’s Home.
The R1.4 million project aims to provide a daily supply of clean water via the harvest of rain water.
This is backed up by a borehole supply.
“The home has 115 children and support staff who do not have an uninterrupted flow of potable water due to the aging infrastructure in their area. The project will also reduce the home’s running cost by having their own partial water supply,” said Dennis.
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Another project in development are the Survival Gardens, which will also be funded by the Global Grant system.
The funds required for the project are R400 000.
A Survival Garden kit includes the tools and seedlings to start small vegetable gardens and it is the most immediate and productive action we can take to help create food security and self-sufficiency during and after the pandemic.
Helping establish survival gardens has short and long-term benefits for local communities.
The club will partner with the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust for the roll out and management of the project.According to Dennis, fellowship, community and networking as his three words to sum up the Rotary Club of Hillcrest.
“If a fourth is permitted, family” he added. “Rotary isn’t just a club to join, but rather an invitation to endless opportunities.”
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